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The Thriving Cultures Program supports efforts that provide artists with business training and financial resources that enable them to be, and create, valuable economic assets for their communities. We seek to fund projects that: - Operate business and entrepreneurship training programs for artists and cultural organizations; - Provide financing to artists and artist-centered enterprises (such as financial institutions and resource providers); - Support arts and culture-based programs and services that directly engage and support the people who live and work in the area as a strategy for equitable economic development. These activities may include: 1) Cultural programming; 2) Business incentives that help build the local creative economy; 3) Cross-sector collaborations that yield opportunities for all residents to reap the cultural and economic benefits from neighborhood growth. - Document (both qualitatively and quantitatively) the growth of arts-based, creative industries in neighborhoods; - Identify and share best practices in order to strengthen the field of arts and economic development.

The Thriving Cultures program is based on a belief that communities with robust arts and culture are more cohesive and prosperous, and benefit from the diversity of their residents. We know that artists and cultural organizations can help us explore shared values and spark innovation, imagination and advancement for our communities. Too often, however, arts and culture is undervalued as a catalyst for creating just and sustainable communities, which is a key priority for the Surdna Foundation. The Thriving Cultures Program seeks to create just and sustainable communities in four ways: Teens' Artistic and Cultural Advancement We support artistic training programs that help teens explore their cultural identity and equip them with the life-enhancing skills they need to achieve their educational and career goals. Community Engaged Design We support efforts to involve artists, architects and designers in community-engaged problem solving and development efforts. Artists and Economic Development We support efforts that provide artists with business training and financial resources that enable them to be, and create, valuable economic assets for their communities. Artists Engaging in Social Change We support the potential of artists to be catalysts for social change and to promote the cultural traditions of their communities. We seek organizations that: -Embrace artistic and design excellence; -Find innovative ways to use arts and culture to make communities more just and sustainable; -Prioritize the needs of low-income communities and people of color in their work; -Maintain sound financial practices and management; and -Demonstrate a capacity and willingness to share best practices and knowledge with their colleagues and others in the field.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Fast Track grant applications that propose to test and/or validate novel, state-of-the-art candidate biomarker platforms for predicting the onset and progression of inflammatory diseases of interest to the NIAMS and for determining the pharmacodynamics, safety and/or efficacy of therapeutic agents targeting those diseases.