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This announcement solicits applications for two (2) separate competitions, HRSA-17-013 Autism Field-Initiated Innovative Research Studies and HRSA-17-014 Autism Longitudinal Data Project.  The purpose of the Autism Field-Initiated Innovative Research Studies and the Autism Longitudinal Data Project competitions are to support the conduct of empirical research that advances the evidence base on interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), with a special focus on addressing the needs of underserved populations.  These competitions will address the critical need that exists for research on the barriers to screening, diagnosis, and receipt of evidence-based interventions.

This FOA will provide support for assays (and associated data analysis) of repository-held samples for studies focused on an NIDDK relevant disease.  The review of applications to this FOA will consider both access to repository-held samples and funding for assays using the samples.  These studies are expected to generate scientific discoveries on disease mechanisms, disease pathogenic processes, disease progression, or clinical responses.  Projects that make good use of the associated data from the clinical trials and studies, the original intent of the clinical study and/or trial are highly encouraged.  Exploratory studies and discovery research are encouraged especially when samples are not severely limited, the work is justified, and the goal is consistent with the original intent of the clinical research.

Miami faculty should notify Associate Provost Jim Oris of their interest in the following RFP. ---------- CGS invites doctoral-granting member institutions to apply to participate in Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement, a multi-institution effort to collect and use data on PhD career pathways, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF #1661272). This is an important opportunity to deepen your institution's understanding of the career goals and outcomes of its PhDs; communicate your support for the career diversity of PhDs; make evidence-based interventions that support the success of PhDs and the recruitment of future students; and access anonymized benchmarking data compiled from other project partners.   Awards: Option 1: Humanities Only. Provides awards of $30,000 each to support implementation of surveys of humanities PhD students and alumni over a period of twenty-four months. Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; 15 awards available. Please indicate in your proposal why a humanities-only project aligns with your institutional mission.   Option 2: STEM Only. Provides awards of $50,000 to each to support implementation of surveys of STEM PhD students and alumni over a period of thirty-six months. Supported by the National Science Foundation; 15 awards available. Please indicate in your proposal why a STEM-only project aligns with your institutional mission.   Option 3: Combined Proposal. If an institution meets the eligibility requirements for both the Humanities and STEM awards, CGS strongly encourages the submission of a combined proposal. Institutions selected to participate in this category will receive a total award amount of $80,000.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications for Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Cooperative Agreement (U01) Research Projects for research on the identification of small molecule or biologic lead compounds that are excellent candidates for therapeutic development. The mission of the CounterACT program is to foster and support research and development of new and improved therapeutics for chemical threats. Chemical threats are toxic chemicals that could be used in a terrorist attack or accidentally released from industrial production, storage or shipping. They include traditional chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, pharmaceutical-based agents, and pesticides. The scope of research supported by this FOA includes confirmation of molecular targets for therapeutic development, demonstration of in vitro activity of candidate therapeutics, preliminary in vivo proof-of-concept efficacy data, preliminary adsorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADME/Tox) evaluations and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) data. These studies should result in the identification of at least one lead compound ready for optimization. Lead compounds are biologically active and synthetically feasible compounds where specificity, affinity, potency, target selectivity, efficacy, and safety have been established. Lead compounds should be ready for more advanced development under possible support from other programs such as the one described in the companion FOA "CounterACT Optimization of Therapeutic Lead Compound (U01)" (PAR-18-NNN). The scope of this FOA encompasses Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 1-3 - see TRLs. Each project must include annual milestones that create discrete go or no-go decision points in a progressive translational study plan.

CHE supports a large and vibrant research community engaged in fundamental discovery, invention, and innovation in the chemical sciences. The projects supported by CHE explore the frontiers of chemical science, develop the foundations for future technologies and industries that meet changing societal needs, and prepare the next generation of chemical researchers. Some of the areas supported by CHE include: designing, synthesizing and characterizing new molecules, catalysts, surfaces, and nanostructures - especially those with a focus on sustainability; increasing our fundamental understanding of chemical species and their chemical transformations, kinetics, and thermodynamics; developing new tools and novel instrumentation for chemical discovery, including those in sensing, communication, and data discovery science where increasing volumes and varieties of data are harnessed to advance innovation; determining structure-function relationships in biological systems and contributing to our understanding of the fundamental rules of life; observing, manipulating, and controlling the behavior of matter and energy in nanometer dimensions such as the quantum regime; understanding chemical processes in the environment; and solving complex chemical problems by the development of new theories, computations, models, and tools, including the synergistic combination of multiple types of instruments.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite exploratory/developmental research grant (R21) applications for the development of innovative methods and algorithms in biomedical computing, informatics, and data science addressing priority needs across the cancer research continuum, including cancer biology, cancer treatment and diagnosis, cancer prevention, cancer control and epidemiology, and/or cancer health disparities. As a component of the NCI's Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) Initiative, this FOA encourages applications focused on the development of novel computational, mathematical, and statistical algorithms and methods that can considerably improve acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of relevant data and/or knowledge. The central mission of ITCR is to promote research-driven informatics technology across the development lifecycle to address priority needs in cancer research. In order to be successful, the proposed informatics method or algorithm must have a clear rationale on why it is novel and how it will benefit the cancer research field.

The USAFA is seeking unclassified research white papers and proposals that do not contain proprietary information. If proprietary information is submitted it is the offerors' responsibility to mark the relevant portions of their proposal as specified in USAFA-BAA-2015. CAStLE performs a range of structural integrity research tasks in support of multiple Government, academic and commercial sponsors. Among these pursuits, CAStLE engages in a wide range of corrosion engineering and material science research efforts, with more emphasis on applied research, and that part of development not related to a specific system or hardware procurement. Current CAStLE research strengths include: high temperature materials development; advanced barrier coatings; static strength, static stability design, corrosion modeling, prevention and control; validation testing, analysis and methods development; computational structural and fracture mechanics; failure analysis, flight data acquisition system development, installation, maintenance and data analysis; structural risk analysis, and support of the USAF Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP). The interaction between corrosion and cracking damage mechanisms and their effect on the structural integrity has been a long-standing interest of CAStLE. There is Department of Defense (DoD) level interest in material degradation in structures-to include corrosion, cracking and other service-related damage mechanisms. The DoD level material degradation interest is the subject of this CALL, while also serving a dual public purpose.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications from institutions and organizations to conduct research focused on elucidating mechanisms of Fc-dependent, antibody-mediated killing of infected or aberrant cells, or antibody-mediated therapeutic ablation of cells implicated in immune pathologies, including autoimmune and allergic diseases. Studies supported by this FOA are expected to define variables that affect efficiencies of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and/or antibody-dependent cell-mediated phagocytosis (ADCP), both in vitro and in vivo. U01 awardees will be expected to attend annual Program Progress/Steering Committee meetings and present progress to fellow awardees and to NIAID program staff. The goal of the meetings is to facilitate collaborations between funded investigators and to accelerate development of mechanistic models that incorporate the collective findings of this program. Advances in our understanding of these Fc-dependent killing mechanisms will inform more efficient design and optimization of ablative antibody therapeutics and may also inform design of vaccines that preferentially elicit ADCC- or ADCP-efficient antibody responses. This FOA uses the U01 grant mechanism, while the companion FOA, PA-19-xxx, uses the R21 mechanism. High risk/high reward projects with limited preliminary data or utilize existing data may be most appropriate for the R21 mechanism.

The Therapeutic Idea Award is designed to promote new ideas aimed at drug or treatment discovery that are still in the early stages of development. Projects that focus primarily on investigating the pathophysiology of ALS are not within the scope of this Funding Opportunity. Development and/or modification of preclinical model systems or the application of high- throughput screens to define or assess lead compounds for ALS treatment are of interest. Development of methods to adequately measure target binding and proximal downstream effects (target engagement) and the potential for undesirable activities at related but unintended targets (selectivity) are also encouraged. While the inclusion of preliminary data is not prohibited, the strength of the application should not rely on preliminary data, but on the innovative approach. All proposed research projects should include a well-formulated, testable hypothesis based on strong scientific rationale that holds translational potential to improve ALS treatment and/or advance a novel treatment modality. Innovation and impact are important aspects of the Therapeutic Idea Award. Research deemed innovative may introduce a new paradigm, challenge current paradigms, introduce novel concepts or technologies, or exhibit other uniquely creative qualities that may lead to potential therapeutics for ALS. Impact may be near-term or long-term, but must be significant and move beyond an incremental advancement.

The overall goals of the Bioinformatics Center are to provide a database and associated tools for storage and integration of clinical physiological and metabolic data along with multiple types of chemical analysis data derived through metabolomics, proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, or similar technologies. 

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage Research Project Grant (R01) applications to pursue clinical observational (CO) studies to obtain data necessary for designing clinical studies for musculoskeletal, rheumatic, or skin diseases or conditions. A future clinical study may include a clinical trial or an observational study. Research data from observational studies supported by this FOA can enhance clinical study design by providing essential information about disease symptoms, stages and timing of disease progression, comorbid conditions, availability of potential research participants, and outcomes that are important to patients. They also can facilitate efforts to develop and/or validate objective biomarkers or subjective outcome measures for use in a future clinical study. Applicants to this FOA are encouraged to propose studies that address significant obstacles or questions in the design of a clinical project, such as determining the appropriate primary or secondary outcome measures, or identifying the stages of disease during which patients are most likely to respond to an intervention. Only observational studies will be supported through this FOA.

The U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) in partnership with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) seeks research and development of technology and techniques for energy-efficient, high data rate transmission of digital signals between computing systems operating at room and cryogenic temperatures. The focus in the SuperCables program is research and demonstration of components to convert from low level electrical signals in circuits operating at a temperature of approximately 4 kelvins to conventional optical signals at room temperature and to move the information therein from one environment to the other. Pending results of this program, IARPA may support a follow-on program to develop the complete system for bidirectional data transmission between room temperature and 4 kelvins.

This NOFO will support achievement of national targets for 2018 antiretroviral therapy (ART) scale-up towards the UNAIDS Fast Track Targets in Ukraine. The recipient will implement innovative and effective recruitment and case management models for persons who inject drugs (PWID) and men who have sex with men (MSM) at the community level. These innovative changes will increase uptake of HIV community based testing and increase ART initiation for these populations. The recipient will pilot risk network-based testing using point-of-care recency assays to link recently infected PWID to care. The project will focus on the six regions with the highest HIV burden (Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, government controlled areas (GCA) of Donetsk, Kyiv City, and Kherson) and continue to work in six additional medium burden oblasts (Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kirovohrad, and Kyiv). The recipient will also increase the capacity of the Government of Ukraine’s Center for Public Health (CPH) and regional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) centers specialists to conduct data analysis using statistical software and build institutional capacity to conduct economic evaluations of HIV interventions. Illustrative strategic information (SI) activities include development of trainings to support the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the newly established CPH in using statistical software, routine analysis of surveillance data, study design, and research protocol development.

The overarching goals of this program are to (i) prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) that enables potentially transformative fundamental science and engineering research and contributes to the Nation's overall economic competiveness and security; (ii) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the fundamental science and engineering research community to enable new modes of discovery; and (iii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data science and engineering into the Nation's educational curriculum/instructional material fabric spanning undergraduate and graduate courses. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, and services for advanced computation, data handling, networking, and security that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental research.

The Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant supports an innovative project that represents a change in research direction for an early stage investigator (ESI) and for which no preliminary data exist. Applications submitted to this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) must not include preliminary data. Applications must include a separate attachment describing the change in research direction.

This FOA solicits development of innovative adaptations of existing technologies to enable their use for readily identifying, manipulating, or analyzing glycans and their biological binding partners. This may encompass the adaptation of commonly used laboratory-based or computational tools to enable their facile application to glycoscience for the first time, as well as the adaptation of tools presently used by specialists in glycoscience to make them significantly more straightforward and accessible for non-specialists. It is possible that a project might simplify a current specialized approach by migrating it to a more commonly used platform, developing automation for data acquisition and interpretation, or redesigning the present tool to make it easier to use. This announcement differs from the related FOA RFA- RM-16-022 which solicits new or more effective tools or technologies, thus representing an expansion of existing technologies.

This FOA solicits development of innovative adaptations of existing technologies to enable their use for readily identifying, manipulating, or analyzing glycans and their biological binding partners. This may encompass the adaptation of commonly used laboratory-based or computational tools to enable their facile application to glycoscience for the first time, as well as the adaptation of tools presently used by specialists in glycoscience to make them significantly more straightforward and accessible for non-specialists. It is possible that a project might simplify a current specialized approach by migrating it to a more commonly used platform, developing automation for data acquisition and interpretation, or redesigning the present tool to make it easier to use. This announcement differs from the related FOA RFA- RM-16-022 which solicits new or more effective tools or technologies, thus representing an expansion of existing technologies.

The Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program supports research focusing on chemically-relevant measurement science and chemical imaging, targeting both improved understanding of new and existing methods and development of innovative approaches and instruments.  Research areas include but are not limited to sampling and separation science; electroanalytical chemistry; spectrometry; and frequency- and time-domain spectroscopy.  Development of new chemical imaging and measurement tools probing chemical properties and processes are supported.  Innovations enabling the monitoring and imaging of chemical and electronic processes across a wide range of time and length scales are also relevant.  New approaches to data analysis and interpretation (including chemometrics) are encouraged.  Proposals addressing established techniques must seek improved understanding and/or innovative approaches to substantially broaden applicability.  Sensor-related proposals should address new approaches to chemical sensing, with prospects for broad utility and significant enhancement of current capabilities.

The Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program supports research focusing on chemically-relevant measurement science and chemical imaging, targeting both improved understanding of new and existing methods and development of innovative approaches and instruments.  Research areas include but are not limited to sampling and separation science; electroanalytical chemistry; spectrometry; and frequency- and time-domain spectroscopy.  Development of new chemical imaging and measurement tools probing chemical properties and processes are supported.  Innovations enabling the monitoring and imaging of chemical and electronic processes across a wide range of time and length scales are also relevant.  New approaches to data analysis and interpretation (including chemometrics) are encouraged.  Proposals addressing established techniques must seek improved understanding and/or innovative approaches to substantially broaden applicability.  Sensor-related proposals should address new approaches to chemical sensing, with prospects for broad utility and significant enhancement of current capabilities.

The Office of Naval Research is interested in receiving white papers and full proposals for both Applied Research and Advanced Technology Development that will accelerate exploitation of all relevant data for mission planning and execution in the conduct of Expeditionary Warfare (EXW) missions.

Heeyoung Tai (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) will host a workshop presented by Dr. Bradley Goodner. Dr. Goodner uses microbial genome annotation (MGAN)/ data mining as a teaching tool in his class, and is supported by NSF to educate others to integrate basic bioinformatics skills to classroom teaching. The workshop will be held October 10 and 11 on Miami's Oxford campus.

The International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program supports high-performance network connectivity required by international science and engineering research and education collaborations involving the NSF research community. NSF expects to make 1-2 awards to link U.S. research networks with peer networks in Europe and Africa and leverage existing international network connectivity. High-performance network connections funded by this program are intended to support science and engineering research and education applications, and preference will be given to solutions that provide the best economy of scale and demonstrate the ability to support the largest communities of interest with the broadest services. Funded projects will assist the U.S. research and education community by enabling state-of-the-art international network services and access to increased collaboration and data services. Through extended international network connections, additional research and production network services will be enabled, complementing those currently offered or planned by domestic research networks.

The International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program supports high-performance network connectivity required by international science and engineering research and education collaborations involving the NSF research community. NSF expects to make 1-2 awards to link U.S. research networks with peer networks in Europe and Africa and leverage existing international network connectivity. High-performance network connections funded by this program are intended to support science and engineering research and education applications, and preference will be given to solutions that provide the best economy of scale and demonstrate the ability to support the largest communities of interest with the broadest services. Funded projects will assist the U.S. research and education community by enabling state-of-the-art international network services and access to increased collaboration and data services. Through extended international network connections, additional research and production network services will be enabled, complementing those currently offered or planned by domestic research networks.