In this edition:

(Scroll down for more info and click on the links for additional details)

Funding Opportunities

• NEW MGB Gene and Cell Therapy Institute Spark Grant 2024
• Andrew L. Warshaw, M.D, Institute for Pancreatic Cancer Research 
• Interim Support Funding 24-2
• Pew Scholars Program
• MGH Screening Technologies in Primary Care Innovation Fund
• Limited Submission Funding
• Foundation Funding Opportunities

Announcements:

• NVivo portal license 
• Anonymous MGH Compliance Help Line Being Retired
• Information Sessions on the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing
• Summer Digital Internships available
• Joint MIT/MGB AI Cures Conference

Events:

• Fun Friday: Doodling
• Speed Mentoring Hour
• CBRC Seminar Series 
• Research Manuscript Preparation
• Faculty Transition Webinar Series
• Research manuscript preparation
• 2024 Anne Klibanski Visiting Lecture Series 04
• K Grant Writing Workshop
• NEW Research Tech Talk
• NEW Speed Mentoring Hour
• Chester Pierce Research Society Speaker Series
• Two Meditation Sessions available every week

NEW MGB Gene and Cell Therapy Institute (GCTI) Spark Grant 2024

The GCTI Spark grant 2024 is now open! The Spark grants fund projects that can demonstrate tangible advancements towards clinical applications as well as commercialization outcomes including licensing, commercial partnerships, or new spinoff companies.

Deadline -  Friday, April 19, 2024

Andrew L. Warshaw, M.D, Institute for Pancreatic Cancer Research 

The Andrew L. Warshaw, M.D., Institute for Pancreatic Cancer Research invites applications for pilot grant funding from MGH investigators. Applications are welcome from new investigators, established investigators in the field of pancreatic cancer, as well as senior investigators who have not previously worked in this area.

Up to three pilot grants will be funded for one year at $60,000 plus the applicable indirect cost rate.

Deadline - Friday, May 3, 2024, at 5:00PM

Interim Support Funding 24-2

The Interim Support Funding (ISF) Program is open to Principal Investigators during a lapse or delay in their research funding from the NIH or another Federal agency (e.g., the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense). Investigators must have applied for independent, long-term support (R01, R21, U01 and P01). The intent of the program is to rescue strong scientific programs that are in need of bridge funding in order to sustain their research. Applications will be accepted regardless of percentile or score, including applications that were not discussed.

Deadline - Monday, April 1, 2024 - 5:00 PM

Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences Awards

The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals who are in their first few years of their appointment at the Assistant Professor level.

MGH is eligible to nominate one candidate. 

MGH internal preliminary applications: Wednesday, March 20, 2024– 5:00 PM

MGH Screening Technologies in Primary Care Innovation Fund



There is great promise for the development of new technologies to detect disease or disease risk factors at an earlier stage in the primary care setting. However, innovative screening technologies are frequently difficult to get off the ground due to challenges conducting research in the primary care setting and difficulties translating and commercializing technologies that need to be implemented in a cost-effective manner and on a large scale.

Award: One pilot grant will be funded for one year at $50,000 (direct costs) + 20% (indirect).

Due date for proposals: April 30, 2024

Limited Submission Funding Opportunities

We ask that all MGH Investigators interested in applying for any limited submission award submit a Letter of Intent (see detailed instructions below) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) by the deadline indicated for each award to be considered to receive an institutional nomination. 

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES:

See full details for all awards on our website.

Assessment of Climate at Institutions (Act) Award (RC2 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

MGH LOI Deadline: 4/01/24

Learn more

Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) (T32) – NEW!

MGH LOI Deadline: 4/08/24

Learn more

Collaborative Program Grant for Multidisciplinary Teams (RM1 – Clinical Trial Optional) – NEW!

MGH LOI Deadline: 4/11/24

Learn more

Foundation Funding Opportunities

Please contact Corporate & Foundation Relations in the Office of Development at devcfr@mgh.harvard.edu if you wish to submit a proposal in response to any of these opportunities. Note that proposals are still routed through the standard InfoEd/Research Management process.

For all open foundation funding announcements, see the MGB Innovation External Funding Database



CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES:

See this week’s full foundation funding announcements (including eligibility, RM deadlines, and IDC) on our website.

1. NEW! Triple Negative Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR NextGen Grant for Transformative Cancer Research, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). $450,000 (No IDC). LOI Deadline: May 16
2. NEW! Independent Medical Education (IME): Stroke and Rare Blood Disease, Genentech/Roche. $500,000 (Unspecified IDC). Application Deadline: March 29
3. NEW! Preclinical Discovery and Development of Repurposed Drug Candidates for MND, LifeArc. £750,000 (≈$962,000) (Unspecified IDC). LOI Deadline: May 10
4. Fracture-Related Infection Research Grants, Osteosynthesis and Trauma Care Foundation (OTC Foundation). $50,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: April 15
5. NEW! PERF-CNS Bridge Grant Program, Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation (PERF). $50,000 plus required institutional match (No IDC). Application Deadline: April 15
6. Cancer Cure Research Grant, The Cure Starts Now. $200,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: June 1
7. Programmatic and Research Grants (multiple opps), Working for Inclusive and Transformative Healthcare (WITH) Foundation. $250,000 (28% IDC). LOI Deadline: April 12

Do you want to learn more about identifying external funding opportunities? Please click here to request a research consultation with Amy Robb or see ECOR’s website for information on the Pivot database.

NEW Publicly available AI tools: Assess before putting protected health and private info at risk

Publicly available artificial intelligence (AI) notetaking tools, such as Read.AI, pose a significant privacy and security risks. For this reason, only Mass General Brigham-approved AI tools are permitted for work purposes.

Simply signing up for an account can allow these tools to connect to your, and others’ calendars, autodial into meetings, record audio or video of meetings and collect and store Mass General Brigham data. These are useful features, but pose a risk when protected health information (PHI) and other confidential information are discussed during meetings.

If one of these tools joins a meeting you are attending, immediately remove it as an attendee and prevent it from recording (e.g.: click to remove the attendee from the participant list, deny it access to the meeting, type “opt out” in the chat). If you receive an email from one of these tools, offering you a report of the meeting from your colleague, do not sign up for an account. Do not enter your work email or information. If you already have an account, please contact your local Privacy officer.

Each of us has a responsibility to protect our patients’ PHI as well as other sensitive and proprietary business information. Learn more about Mass General Brigham-approved technologies available to you, like Microsoft Teams transcription feature.

All online tools (including Chat GPT) pose a risk to our patients and our organization if they do not meet our privacy and security standards. If you have any questions or concerns about maintaining confidentiality, please refer to the Mass General Brigham Artificial Intelligence page on Vitals or reach out to your designated privacy officer.

NVivo portal license 

Annual NVivo licenses expire each year on February 28th. Your license will automatically cancel, and you will need to order again at rcservices.partners.org (MGB login required). NVivo licenses are $350/year per User and new licenses can be ordered and accessed today.

NVivo is software that can be used for qualitative analysis of textual and audiovisual data sources. NVivo portal licenses require no installation and you may log into your account on any computer, to access the NVivo portal. For more information on NVivo go to the Research Computing Core's software page or order now at rcservices.partners.org (MGB login required). All questions may be directed to rcc@partners.org.

Anonymous MGH Compliance Help Line Being Retired

For nearly 20 years, the MGH has maintained the internal Anonymous Compliance Help Line. Effective Monday, April 1, the MGH-specific line will be retired and replaced with the Mass General Brigham Compliance HelpLine. All staff have a duty to report inappropriate decisions or actions to help maintain a safe environment for all patients, staff and visitors. Confidential and anonymous reporting is available online here or via phone at 1-800-856-1983. Reports can be made at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from any location. 

Summer Digital Internships available

Do you have a college age student interested in a paid Summer Internship? Several Digital internships are available, including within the Research Computing Core/Research Applications group under Digital Research Operations. Internships can be found on the MGB career site, by searching with Keyword: Intern. The 10-week Internship Programs begins Monday, June 3rd and runs through Friday, August 9th.  

Joint MIT/MGB AI Cures Conference



Mass General Brigham (MGB) will be again co-hosting the AI Cures Conference with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Monday, April 1st, 2024.  

Poster Submissions Deadline - March 8, 2024

We encourage researchers with potential collaborators at MIT to register and submit an abstract for the poster session (deadline March 8).  

See these events and more on the calendar of events

Fun Friday: Doodling

Friday, March 8, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 pm,



Fun Fridays offer a refreshing mid-day break from work to indulge in physical, mental, or creative activity.

Instructor: Deb Putnoi, a visual artist, educator and researcher. Putnoi has an M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a 5th Year Graduate Degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and a B.A./B.F.A. from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (joint degree program).

Speed Mentoring Hour

Friday, March 8, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 pm



Every month, two mentor leaders from different departments will answer your questions about any aspect of being a mentee or mentor. You do not need to be in the same department as the leaders—this event is open to faculty across MGH, but registration is required. Come ready with your questions and be ready to learn not only from the senior mentoring leaders but also from fellow attendees.

This session is scheduled for March 8, 12 – 1 pm, with Steven Greenberg, MD, PhD, Vice-Chair, Faculty Development and Promotions, MGH Department of Neurology; and Erin Tracy Bradley, MD, Associate Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.

CBRC Seminar Series 

Monday, March 11, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

CNY, CBRC Large Tea Room – Room #3.230

Title: Evolution of T Cell Fitness in the Tumor Microenvironment.

Speaker: 

Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD.

Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

Engage and Retain Research Subjects, and Publish Results Faster

Thursday, March 14, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Summary:

The presentation will show how to engage and retain clinical research subjects using a web-based portal with incentives, secure messaging, and personalized information. It will also demonstrate a more efficient way to analyze data and generate manuscripts for publication.

The presentation is designed for clinical researchers, statisticians, and study coordinators who are involved in clinical trials, observational studies, surveys, or patient registries. By attending, they will gain insights into the features of Studytrax, a data capture system, and explore case examples to better understand its functionality.

Faculty Transition Webinar Series

“Health of Your Wealth: Retiring against a backdrop of change”

Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 4:00 – 5:00 pm



Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to:

 Provide a financial check-up for physicians in their 50’s and 60’s to help ensure you are on track for a successful retirement transition

Discuss advanced strategies to help maximize your future social security monthly benefit as well as key points about Medicare

 Review recent changes in tax and estate law changes in MA

Share considerations when investing in the context of an election, war, deglobalization, and changing interest rates

Facilitator: Nora Yousif, CFP, CDFA, MBA, Financial Advisor and Senior Vice President of the Empower Wealth Group at RBC Wealth Management

Research Manuscript Preparation

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 1:00 – 2:00 pm

Speaker: Scott Lapinski, MS, ALM, Associate Director, Publishing & Data Services, Harvard Countway Library

Sponsored by the DCR’s Research Ethics Consultation Unit and the Harvard Countway Library.

This interactive course will discuss best practices in manuscript preparation, citation management, and plagiarism tools. The focus will be on plagiarism examples, counter-examples, and plagiarism tools for both text and images. This course offers 1 hour of Responsible Conduct of Research credit. 

2024 Anne Klibanski Visiting Lecture Series 04

Tuesday, March 26, 2024, 12:00-1:00 pm



The Anne Klibanski Visiting Lecture Series was created to support and advance the careers of women. These lectures bring together faculty from institutions that have hosted Anne Klibanski Scholars with MGH scholars, on topics that overlap both research areas.

Dr. Mitchell will present on “The future of vaginal microbiome interventions.”

Dr. Sykes will present on “Targeting The Immune Response At The Cervicovaginal Interface To Prevent Preterm Birth.”

Are you writing a K? Get practical advice

Thursday, March 28, 12:00 - 4:00 pm

Joseph B. Martin Conference Center 



This workshop is appropriate for clinical and basic science researchers from all fields.

Featuring special guest appearance by: Robin Huebner, PhD, NIH Program Officer

• Hosted by Ingrid Bassett MD, MPH; Kenneth Freedberg MD, MSc; Jodi Kurtz MS, CRA; Athe Tsibris MD

NEW Research Tech Talk

Thursday, March 28, 12:00 - 1:00 pm



Speaker: David Bates, Chief, General Internal Medicine and Primary Care (BWH) will give us an overview, mission, and current activities of the MGB Center of AI and Biomedical Informatics for the Learning Healthcare System (CAIBILS). 

Chester Pierce Research Society Speaker Series

April 2, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Zoom



Title of Presentation:

Single Cell Imaging of the Beating Heart

Speaker: 

Aaron Aguirre, MD, PhD

Cardiologist and Critical Care Physician, Mass General Hospital

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

NEW Speed Mentoring Hour

April 2, 2024, 2:00 – 3:00 pm, Zoom



This session is scheduled for April 2, 2:00–3:00 pm, with Helen A. Shih, MD, Medical Director of Proton Therapy Center & Professor of Radiation Oncology; and Louisa G. Sylvia, PhD, Director of the Office for Women's Careers & Associate Director at Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation.

Mentor leaders will meet with up to 8 faculty members, each given 7-8 minutes to ask questions on any aspect of mentoring or being mentored and receive input from the mentor leaders.

Two Meditation Sessions available every week 



SESSION 1: Meditation Mondays with Dr. Darshan Mehta 

Every Monday, 8:00 – 8:30 am, Zoom next session, Monday, March 4!

Co-sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development’s Office for Well-Being and the MGPO Frigoletto Committee

Join Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH, Director, Office for Well-Being, for a guided meditation session on the Monday morning. 

Register and add to calendar

SESSION 2: Midweek Meditation with Guest Leader 

Every Wednesday, 8:00 – 8:30 am, Zoom next session, Wednesday, March 6!

Sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development’s Office for Well-Being

Join guest leader, Jennifer Kurz, MD, Mass General Brigham, for next Wednesday’s guided meditation session.

Register and add to calendar

See these events and more on the calendar of events

Research Institute website

Bench Press Blog

MGH Research Intranet