Funding Opportunities

Healthy Eating Research has a limited amount of rapid-response research funds available to commission: 1) issue briefs/commentaries or papers/research reviews and; 2) small studies to explore the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on nutrition and diet quality, food security, and related health consequences for children and families.

This funding opportunity is focused on USDA Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs serving children and families. The goal is to inform decision-making regarding innovative policies and/or programs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Please download the full funding announcement for a brief description of topics of interest, as well as study parameters.

Can you build a health technology tool to support the needs of individuals affected by a large-scale health crisis (pandemic, natural disaster, or other public health emergency)?

Penn State Office of Foundation Relations Contact Person: Holly Lowe hal5220@psu.edu

Rapid response grant support for projects that aim to strengthen access to evidence-based OUD recovery services during the COVID-19 national emergency. Targets projects which can provide recovery support services in the context of social distancing and infection control, including promotion of remote, digital, and virtual forms of recovery support to reach vulnerable populations.

The Disability Foundation, a supporting organization of The Dayton Foundation, is pleased to offer a focused Request for Proposal for FY 2020 seeking competitive grants for organizations that provide direct services to, to people living with disabilities. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) organizations, governmental non-profit agencies, and academic institutions. 

Due to the pandemic in our country, we recognize many nonprofits serving individuals living with disabilities have been significantly negatively impacted while continuing to provide vital services. As a result, grants for 2020 will focus on the needs of those agencies.

Grants will be awarded to vetted community-based nonprofits and 501(c)(3) charitable organizations serving individuals living with disabilities that are focused on:

• Direct services to individual living with disabilities
  • Operating expenditure needs created directly by COVID-19 impact
  • Other needs directly related to services

An organization may only submit one grant request. The value of grant(s) awarded to the same organization may not exceed $10,000 in a grant-cycle year.

While Pfizer recognizes many institutions and healthcare professionals around the globe are prioritizing challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, they are cognizant that the healthcare and patient community will continue to benefit from ongoing support for research, improvement science, and education in spite of this crisis. It is in this spirit that Pfizer will continue their grants program by publishing RFPs that have been planned for 2020.

Ferring is interested in funding exploratory, basic, and clinical research grants to collect data and expand knowledge about the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on reproduction, pregnancy, and foetal/neonatal health.

The NIH Director's Early Independence Award (a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program of the NIH Common Fund) supports exceptional junior investigators who wish to pursue independent research soon after completion of their terminal doctoral degree or post-graduate clinical training, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career. For the program to support the best possible researchers and research, applications are sought which reflect the full diversity of the research workforce. Individuals from diverse backgrounds and from the full spectrum of eligible institutions in all geographic locations are strongly encouraged to apply to this Funding Opportunity Announcement.

In order to rapidly improve our understanding and available control measures for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, NIAID is encouraging the submission of applications to address the following research areas of interest:

• Studies to understand critical aspects of viral infection, replication, pathogenesis, and transmission;
• Studies on the evolution and emergence of SARS-CoV-2 viruses including the identification of factors that affect viral host-range and virulence;
• Development of sensitive, specific, and rapid clinical diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2;
• Development of SARS-COV-2 therapeutic candidates, especially broad-spectrum therapeutics against multiple coronavirus strains;
• Identification and evaluation of the innate, cellular and humoral immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, including, but not limited to: cross-reactive antibodies from individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses; viral epitopes critical for T cell activation or antibody binding and neutralization; immune-mediated pathology or host factors that might predispose to severe infection; and studies to examine duration of protection or the potential for reinfection; and
• Development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates, including approaches for pan-coronavirus protection, that include emerging antigen design strategies, novel platforms or delivery approaches, adjuvants, or assessing cross-neutralization potential of SARS-CoV vaccine candidates.

The Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) is excited to post this announcement for a Request for Project Proposals (RPP) that aims to help develop a research prototype for the ability to tele-monitor and capture research data for the following research areas: COVID-19 wards, emergency rooms/trauma rooms (ERs/TRs), and neurological patients. This capability will help develop the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) interoperable Medical Automated Systems (iMAS) program. The program believes partnering with a hospital center shall provide the following:

Penn State Office of Foundation Relations Contact Person:  Sophie Penney (swp2@psu.edu)

The Foundation’s major fields of interest are:

• Education: Educational programs and/or institutions — primarily schools and colleges. (With emphasis on, but not limited to, educational programs providing assistance to the needy or disabled.)
• Religion: Religion-based programs and/or institutions. (With an emphasis on, but not limited to, providing assistance to the needy or disabled… or to benefit a local church in a capital program.)
• Historic Preservation: Historic Preservation programs and/or institutions (including “societies“).
• Medical Programs and/or Scientific Research: Medical and/or Scientific programs and/or their affiliated institutions.

Penn State Office of Foundation Relations Contact Person:  Holly Lowe (hal5220@psu.edu)

It’s in the nature of innovation that each idea is different. But we are looking for creative approaches to problems or opportunities that share certain characteristics. The Catalyst Fund provides early-stage funding to new or existing organizations aiming to test or launch something new or seeking to creatively adapt an existing program, process or organizational model. Whatever the idea, it should be new, different, better and significant. Ideas and initiatives should have the potential to spur change beyond an individual project or organization.

The Office of the Senior Vice President for Research & The Office of Foundation Relations will hold a workshop for an overview of the funding opportunity and process on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Contact limitedsubs@psu.edu for connection information.
Deadline Penn State Internal Submission: June 24, 2020
Contact:  Alan Gibson, Assistant Director, Foundation Relations (ajg6181@psu.edu or 973-202-1935)

The Keck Foundation supports basic research projects that are high-risk and have the potential for transformative impact in two program areas: Science & Engineering Research and Medical Research. Recent awards have supported pioneering research, with a particular focus on the development of promising new technologies, instrumentation, or methodologies. Historically, grants range from $500,00 to $5 million and are typically $2 million or less; however, the target budget must be $1 million from Keck over 3 years.

CETF is raising $20M to test the most promising existing drugs in outpatient trials and helping those studies recruit patients. We are the only organization in the world that is exclusively focused on supporting outpatient trials that are testing treatments immediately after infection. A scientist can apply for funding and get up to a $1M commitment in less than a week. Funding multiple shots on goal quickly is the fastest way to end the pandemic: all you need is one shot to hit the target.

This Notice is associated with the COVID-19 Supplemental funding through the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (P.L. 116-139) which directs the National Cancer Institute of the NIH “to develop, validate, improve, and implement serological testing and associated technologies.” The National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) as a Request for Applications (RFAs) to solicit applications to establish Serological Sciences Centers of Excellence of collaborating investigators and an RFA for research projects. Specifically, both the Centers and the projects will identify and advance research opportunities to characterize the immune responses elicited by SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, especially as it relates to cancer patients.

The Serological Sciences Centers of Excellence and research projects will be components of the Serological Sciences Network which will be coordinated through the Frederick National Lab for Cancer Research (FNL). Other components of the Network will include the FNL Serology Lab and Serological Capacity Building Centers. It may also include SBIR grants and other grants and contracts related to serology associated with SARS-CoV-2.

In light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the artist community, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts is creating a temporary fund to meet the needs of experimental artists who have been impacted by the economic fallout from postponed or canceled performances and exhibitions. For as long as our Board of Directors determines it is necessary and prudent to do so, the Foundation will disburse one-time $1,500 grants to artists who have had performances or exhibitions canceled or postponed because of the pandemic.

The purpose of this thematic call is to give excellent researchers the possibility, in a collaborative effort, to perform in-depth research addressing the interdisciplinary theme “Societal Responses to and Preparedness for Emerging Viral Infections”.

This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not required to focus on a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. We hope that scholars and their partners will identify the most compelling and needed areas of immediate research. For instance, scholars might focus on: K-12 Instructional challenges, responses, and innovations; racial and geographic disparities in the impacts of COVID and COVID related responses; supporting and engaging children and families; assessment challenges and opportunities; social-emotional learning and well-being; educator leadership and development; systems change and policy making.

This call is not confined to any particular subject area and invites applications from life, natural and engineering sciences as well as social sciences and the humanities. It includes two funding opportunities...

The Ciresi Walburn Foundation for Children seeks proposals from Twin Cities-based schools, community-serving organizations, and other education-focused nonprofits for funding for new, innovative, and/or highly-impactful programs and plans to provide academic instruction to historically underserved students in order to mitigate the impact of and help students catch up from learning loss due to the coronavirus crisis.