Group items tagged

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage research grant applications to support research designed to elucidate the etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and optimal means of service delivery in relation to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage cooperative agreement applications to support early stage clinical trials of novel mechanism of action, investigational drugs or drug candidates for the treatment of psychiatric disorders in areas of unmet medical need. The FOA will support milestone-driven early stage trials in pediatric and adult populations. First in human (FIH) and Phase Ib studies of novel Agents must assess target engagement (brain exposure), pharmacological effects, safety, and tolerability to assess feasibility for Phase II/proof of concept (PoC) studies in psychiatric disorders. Phase II/PoC studies must evaluate the drug's impact on clinically relevant physiological systems (functional measures) and clinical indicators of effect. The FOA also supports FIH and early feasibility studies (EFS) of novel devices to evaluate target engagement, safety, tolerability, and efficacy. The overall objective is to facilitate rapid collection of data to "de-risk" novel mechanism of action investigational drugs, novel drugs for use in pediatric populations with psychiatric disorders, and devices or combination treatments in order to attract private funding for further clinical development as FDA-approved treatments.

NIMH seeks applications for pilot effectiveness projects to evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of therapeutic and service delivery interventions for the post-acute management of mental health conditions that are matched to the stage of illness in terms of both their focus (e.g., consolidating and maintaining gains from initial treatment, managing residual symptoms/impairment, preventing relapse, promoting adherence and appropriate service use) and intensity/burden. In this pilot phase of effectiveness research, the trial should be designed to evaluate the feasibility, tolerability, acceptability, safety, and potential effectiveness of the approach; to address whether the intervention engages the target(s)/mechanisms(s) that is/are presumed to underlie the intervention effects; and to obtain preliminary data needed as a pre-requisite to a larger-scale effectiveness trial (e.g., comparative effectiveness study, practical trial) designed to definitely test the effectiveness of interventions to improve post-acute outcomes.

This initiative supports research to test the effectiveness of combined strategies to both detect and intervene to reduce the risk of suicide behavior, suicide ideation, and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSI) by youth in contact with the juvenile justice system. Opportunities for detection and prevention start at early points of contact (e.g., police interaction, the intake interview) and continue through many juvenile justice settings (e.g., pre-trial detention, juvenile or family court activities, court disposition, placement and on-going care in either residential or multiple community settings.) This FOA invites intervention strategies that are designed to be delivered in typical service settings using typically available personnel and resources, to enhance the implementation of interventions that prove effective, enhance their future uptake in diverse settings, and thereby reduce risk of suicide and self-harm in this population.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to: identify new, information technology (IT)-enabled delivery models that support systematic screening and treatment of depression in cancer patients; test the feasibility of implementing these new delivery models in a variety of oncology practice settings, especially those serving under-served populations; and test the usability and potential effectiveness of the IT-specific components of these new delivery models. Also listed under R01

NCIPC is seeking research proposals focused on rigorously evaluating previously or currently implemented federal, state, local, tribal, or organizational policies for impacts on multiple forms of violence, including child abuse and neglect, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and/or suicide. The proposed research should evaluate the impact of a selected policy on reducing rates of at least two of these violence outcomes. Applicants are encouraged to assess the impact of the policy on as many violence outcomes that is feasible as well as risk and protective factors that are common to multiple forms of violence. The proposed research will add to the limited evidence base regarding the impact of policies on preventing and reducing multiple forms of violence by rigorously evaluating federal, state, local, tribal, or organizational policy approaches.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated research that will help expand and advance our understanding about what works to prevent violence by rigorously evaluating primary prevention strategies, programs, and policies to address specific gaps in the prevention of teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and youth violence. This initiative is intended to support the evaluation of primary prevention strategies, programs or policies that target universal or selected high-risk populations (i.e., populations that have one or more risk factors that place them at heightened risk for perpetration of violence). Funds are available to conduct such studies focused on preventing the perpetration of youth violence and/or teen dating/intimate partner/sexual violence as detailed elsewhere in this announcement

The Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) invites applications from neuroscience investigators seeking support to advance their small molecule drug discovery and development projects into the clinic. Participants in the BPN are responsible for conducting all studies that involve disease- or target-specific assays, models, and other research tools and receive funding for all activities to be conducted in their own laboratories. In addition, applicants will collaborate with NIH-funded consultants and can augment their project with NIH contract research organizations (CROs) that specialize in medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, formulations development, chemical synthesis including under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and Phase I clinical testing. Projects can enter either at the Discovery stage, to optimize promising hit compounds through medicinal chemistry, or at the Development stage, to advance a development candidate through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling toxicology studies and phase I clinical testing. Projects that enter at the Discovery stage and meet their milestones may continue on through Development. BPN awardee Institutions retain their assignment of IP rights and gain assignment of IP rights from the BPN contractors (and thereby control the patent prosecution and licensing negotiations) for drug candidates developed in this program.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) encourages exploratory /developmental research grant applications (R21) to investigate the fundamental science of mind and body approaches, including mind/brain-focused practices (e.g., meditation, hypnosis), body-based approaches (e.g., acupuncture, massage, spinal manipulation/mobilization), meditative exercise (e.g., yoga, tai chi, qi gong), art and music therapies, or integrative approaches combining several components. Studies of pharmacologic approaches exclusively are not included in the scope of this FOA.

The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience supports innovative research designed to bring science closer to the day when diseases of the brain can be accurately diagnosed, prevented, and treated. To that end, the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience invites Letters of Intent for its 2018 McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience awards. The program encourages and supports scientists working on the development of novel and creative approaches to the understanding of brain function. McKnight is interested in how a new technology may be used to monitor, manipulate, analyze, or model brain function at any level, from the molecular to the entire organism. Technology may take any form, from biochemical tools to instruments to software and mathematical approaches. Because the program seeks to advance and enlarge the range of technologies available to the neurosciences, research based primarily on existing techniques will not be considered. A goal of the Technological Innovations awards is to foster collaboration between the neurosciences and other disciplines; therefore, collaborative and cross-disciplinary applications are explicitly invited.

The Autism Science Foundation is inviting applications for its Pre- and Postdoctoral Training Awards from graduate students, medical students, and postdoctoral fellows interested in pursuing careers in basic and clinical research relevant to autism spectrum disorders. The proposed training must be scientifically linked to autism and may be broadened to include training in a closely related area of scientific research, including but not limited to human behavior across the lifespan (language, learning, behavior, communication, social function, motor skills & planning, epilepsy, sleep, repetitive disorders), neurobiology (anatomy, development, neuroimaging), pharmacology, neuropathology, genetics, epigenetics, genomics, epigenomics, immunology, molecular and cellular mechanisms, studies employing model organisms and systems, and studies of treatment and service delivery. Special consideration will be given to projects focused on gender issues in autism. This includes studies examining the female protective effect, neurobiological and neuroanatomical examination of the female autism brain, diagnostic differences and challenges in females, the female phenotype, and health and lifespan issues, including vocational services and employment. ASF also invites studies focused on unaffected siblings and recurrence risk in the offspring of unaffected siblings. ASF is also interested in supporting research on the neurobiology and molecular biology of autism using post-mortem brain tissue. The one-year awards include $25,000 for predoctoral and medical students and $35,000 for postdoctoral students.

The announcement seeks applications from public and private nonprofit entities to establish and operate voluntary family planning services projects, which shall provide family planning services to all persons desiring such services, with priority for services to persons from low-income families. The Title X statute specifies that local and regional public or private nonprofit entities may apply directly to the Secretary for a Title X family planning services grant under this announcement. Family planning services include clinical family planning and related preventive health services; information, education, and counseling related to family planning; and, referral services as indicated. Copies of the Title X statute, regulations, legislative mandates, Program Guidelines, and Program Policy Notices may be downloaded from the Office of Population Affairs web site at http://www.hhs.gov/opa/familyplanning.

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) has long had the mission to improve social and living conditions in the United States. It pursues this goal by supporting outstanding research in the social sciences that explores how social, economic, and political factors affect the lives of Americans and their children. Support of such research remains the Foundation's core focus. RSF also has a long history of encouraging new scientific advances to strengthen the methods, data, and theoretical core of the social sciences. Two recent intellectual developments have prompted RSF to launch a special research initiative that integrates knowledge from the biological and social sciences. First, there has been a paradigm shift in the life sciences, spurred by the realization that many biological processes, rather than being fixed, immutable mechanisms that consign people to particular life outcomes, are instead fluid, dynamic responses to features of the social and physical environments humans inhabit. Second, this shift led researchers to launch interdisciplinary studies that seek to integrate approaches from the social and biological sciences, recognizing the potential for a deeper understanding of how social inequalities are initiated, maintained, and transmitted from one generation to the next.

The purpose of this FOA is to support investigator-initiated R21 applications that will inform our understanding of the typical and atypical patterns of language and literacy development of dual language learners (DLLs) in the United States. Applicants are encouraged to take advantage of advances in the language sciences and related fields to identify and clarify specific cognitive, linguistic, neurobiological, and sociocultural factors associated with normal and impaired language and literacy acquisition in young DLL populations.

The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is offering semester-long sabbaticals for the study, research, and teaching of classical liberal ideas including private property, free speech, individual rights, open markets and other precepts. Sabbatical fellowships will be offered in the 2020-2021 academic years, and sabbaticals must be taken during the designated periods. Both tenured and tenure track may apply. IHS traditionally works with academics in the fields of economics, political science, philosophy, history, and law, however scholars in other disciplines are welcome to apply.  Fellowships will be given at two levels: $50,000 and $85,000. Awards are not limited to tenured faculty. Faculty at any stage of their career may apply. Academics looking to complete book projects or articles as part of a tenure application or promotion dossier are especially encouraged to apply.

Fellows spend one year working on the staff of a member of Congress or congressional committee. Activities may involve drafting legislation, conducting oversight work, assisting with congressional hearings and events, and preparing briefs and speeches. Fellows also attend a two-week orientation program on congressional and executive branch operations, which provides guidance for the congressional placement process, and participate in a yearlong seminar series on science and public policy issues. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) administers these professional development activities for the APA fellows and for fellows sponsored by over two dozen other professional societies. APA and APF will each sponsor up to two congressional fellows for a one-year appointment beginning Sept. 1, 2019.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to solicit research to develop, optimize and test mental health telehealth methods (i.e., without involving in-person interaction between a mental health clinician and the patient) to help evaluate and treat emergency department (ED) patients with suicide risk, compared to usual care of such patients in emergency departments without adequate on-site mental health specialty consultation. Primary research questions include if the use of telehealth methods affects the proportion of ED patients who are (1) considered at imminent risk for suicide, (2) boarded in the ED due to suicide risk, and (3) require hospitalization for suicide risk; (4) whether use of telehealth methods affects the rate of within-encounter provision of evidence-based suicide prevention interventions; and whether use of telehealth methods affects (5) the rates of suicide ideation, attempts and deaths, and (6) health care use and costs, in the year after an index ED visit in which a patient was identified with suicide risk. To inform future implementation of telehealth enabled suicide prevention practices in the ED, qualitative data on patient and provider views of telehealth provision of suicide prevention practices (feasibility and acceptability of clinical decision making; clinical workflows; ease of use of technology) are sought.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage applications to pursue invasive neural recording studies focused on mental health-relevant questions. Invasive neural recordings provide an unparalleled window into the human brain to explore the neural circuitry and neural dynamics underlying complex moods, emotions, cognitive functions, and behaviors with high spatial and temporal resolution. Additionally, the ability to stimulate, via the same electrodes, allows for direct causal tests by modulating network dynamics. This funding opportunity aims to target a gap in the scientific knowledge of neural circuit function related to mental health disorders. Researchers should target specific questions suited to invasive recording modalities that have high translational potential. Development of new technologies and therapies are outside the scope of this FOA.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage applications to pursue invasive neural recording studies focused on mental health-relevant questions. Invasive neural recordings provide an unparalleled window into the human brain to explore the neural circuitry and neural dynamics underlying complex moods, emotions, cognitive functions, and behaviors with high spatial and temporal resolution. Additionally, the ability to stimulate, via the same electrodes, allows for direct causal tests by modulating network dynamics. This funding opportunity aims to target a gap in the scientific knowledge of neural circuit function related to mental health disorders. Researchers should target specific questions suited to invasive recording modalities that have high translational potential. Development of new technologies and therapies are outside the scope of this FOA.

This Funding Oopportunity Aannouncement (FOA) invites pilot feasibility studies testing rapid-acting interventions to reduce severe suicide risk through clinical trials that are based in appropriate/specialized healthcare settings(e.g., emergency departments [ED], psychiatric inpatient units, other settings that meet Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy approaches).