(CLOSED) NYAS Innovators in Science Award

Sponsor Name: 
New York Academy of Sciences and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd.
Amount: 
$200,000.00
Description of the Award: 

The Innovators in Science Award, proudly sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and administered by the New York Academy of Sciences, was established on November 10, 2016. The Award recognizes a promising Early-Career Scientist's and an outstanding Senior Scientist’s contributions to science in the therapeutic areas of Neuroscience, Gastroenterology, Regenerative Medicine, and Oncology, and is intended to support their commitment to innovative research.

Two prizes of US$200,000 are awarded each Award cycle, in a specific therapeutic area, one to an Early-Career Scientist and the other to a well-established Senior Scientist from across the globe. The winning scientists have distinguished themselves for the creativity and impact of their research.

Eligibility

Early-Career Scientist

The nominee must:

  • Have been engaged in active research for a length of time of 10 years or less since gaining their doctorate degree or equivalent.

  • Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).

  • Currently hold a junior level Post-doctoral or Faculty position at an invited academic, government, or non-profit institution or equivalent.

  • Have made impactful research contributions and show exceptional promise for significant future achievement in the Award field.

In the event that an Early-Career Scientist nominee has taken a maternity, paternity, adoptive, family care, military, or extended sick leave (in line with their current institution’s policies) during the 10 years since gaining their doctoral degree or equivalent, they can qualify for an extension of the eligibility timeframe. Instructions regarding how to request an extension are provided at the end of the Guidelines section.

Senior Scientist

The nominee must:

  • Have been engaged in active research for a length of time of more than 10 years since gaining their doctorate degree or equivalent.

  • Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).

  • Currently hold a senior level Faculty position at an invited academic, government, or non-profit institution or equivalent.

  • Have made multiple, extensive, and impactful research contributions to advance the Award field.

Research Support from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, and its affiliates

Individuals in receipt of current or prior research support from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, or its affiliates, are not eligible for nomination. This conflict of interest (COI) encompasses direct Takeda support/engagement with the nomination candidate, as well as direct Takeda support/engagement of a specific project or research that the nomination candidate is involved in.

General support from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, or its affiliates, for a nominee’s institution/organization or laboratory (including donation or general funding) does not constitute a COI.

For a comprehensive listing of affiliates, please visit:

There are no residency or citizenship requirements to be nominated for the Innovators in Science Award.

The New York Academy of Sciences welcomes nominees from underrepresented groups in science and medicine.

Evaluation Criteria

Nominees and their work as independent investigators will be evaluated according to the following criteria:


Early-Career Scientist

  • Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.

  • Impact: The extent to which the work represents a significant contribution in basic, translational, or clinical research that has impacted, or has strong potential to impact, human health through the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease.

  • Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, employs innovative new methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.

  • Promise: The extent to which the nominee has made innovative research contributions and shows exceptional promise for significant future achievement in the Award field.

Senior Scientist

  • Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.

  • Impact: The extent to which the work represents a significant contribution in basic, translational, or clinical research that has impacted, or has strong potential to impact, human health through the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease.

  • Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, employs new innovative methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.

  • Promise: The extent to which the nominee has made impactful research contributions and future prospects for further significant contributions in the Award field.

Nomination Process

Candidates for the 2019 Innovators in Science Award must be nominated by their institutions. Each institution may submit up to two (2) nominations each year, one (1) in each category of Early-Career Scientist and Senior Scientist.

The 2019 Award will recognize researchers in the field of Regenerative Medicine. The nomination period is April 16-June 25, 2018.

Institutional nominations must be submitted online by the President (or equivalent), Provost, or the official designee of the nominee’s host institution. Institutions must send a brief statement to TakedaInnovators@nyas.org naming the official designees as nominators before submitting nominations. At that time, the Academy will provide login credentials for the online nominations portal, and nominators will be invited to create a nominator account on behalf of their institution.

Letters of Support

Letters of support should:

  • Be a maximum of two (2) pages, single-spaced, and uploaded as PDF files.

  • Describe the nominee’s most significant research contributions according to the Quality, Impact, Novelty, and Promise criteria, and explain their importance for the nominee’s research area

  • Assess the nominee’s accomplishments in comparison with those of his or her peers at the same career stage.

  • Focus on the nominee’s scientific accomplishments during his/her independent career.

Rationale for Nomination

The Rationale for Nomination is a 200-word statement that explains why the nominee has been selected as the institutional nominee based on his/her strong record of significant independent scientific contributions, career success, and promise of sustained or accelerated progress in the future.

The Rationale should address the nominee’s research according to the Quality, Impact, Novelty, and Promise evaluation criteria described above.

Self-Nominations

Self-nominations are not permitted. Nominees do not submit their own nomination materials and should direct all questions to their institution’s official nominator.

 

The 2019 Innovators in Science Award therapeutic area of focus is Regenerative Medicine. At the time of nomination, nominators will be required to select, from the list below, one (1) primary sub-discipline (from the list of 22) within the field of Regenerative Medicine that best represents the focus area of a nominee’s research.

2019 Award Sub-Disciplines in Regenerative Medicine

• Adipose, Musculoskeletal, and Connective Tissue
• Cancers
• Cardiac Tissue
• Chromatin and Epigenetics
• Clinical Trials and Regenerative Medicine Interventions
• Endothelial Cells and Hemangioblasts
• Epithelial Tissues
• Eye and Retina
• Germline, Early Embryo and Totipotency
• Hematopoiesis and Immunology
• Neural Development and Regeneration
• Neural Disease and Degeneration
• Organoids
• Pancreas, Liver, Kidney, Gut
• Pluripotency
• Pluripotent Stem Cell Differentiation
• Pluripotent Stem Cell: Disease Modeling
• Reprogramming
• Stem Cell Niches
• Technologies for Stem Cell Research
• Tissue Engineering
• Other

For general questions about the rules and eligibility requirements, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions.

Limit (Number of applicants permitted per institution): 
2
Sponsor Final Deadline: 
Jun 25, 2018
OSVPR Application or NOI Instructions: 

Interested applicants should send the following documents in sequence in one PDF no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:

  • Principal Investigator (PI) name, title, and departmental affiliation

     

  • Names and titles of the two letter writers who will provide Letters of Support

  • Name and title of the writer who will provide the Rationale for Nomination statement

  • Curriculum Vitae (4-page maximum)

  • Research Summary (1,000-word maximum)

Formatting Guidelines and Page Limit:

  • Font/size: Times New Roman (12 pt.)

  • Document margins: 1.0” (top, bottom, left and right)

  • Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)

Questions concerning the limited submissions process may be submitted to limitedsubs@psu.edu.

To be considered as a Penn State institutional nominee, please submit a notice of intent by the date provided directly below.
This limited submission is in downselect: 
Penn State may only submit a specific number of proposals to this funding opportunity. The number of NOIs received require that an internal competition take place, thus, a downselect process has commenced. No Penn State researchers may apply to this opportunity outside of this downselect process. To apply for this limited submission, please use this link:
OSVPR Downselect Deadline: 
Monday, April 2, 2018 - 4:00pm