In this edition:

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

Funding Opportunities

• NEW The Smith Family Awards for Excellence in Biomedical Research
• Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research
• Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award
• Support for Early Career Investigators
• Limited Submission Funding
• Foundation Funding Opportunities

Announcements:

• NEW Expanded Role for Allison Moriarty
• NEW Call for Abstract Reviewers and Final Presentation Panelists
• NEW Software Offering - ChemDraw
• MGB Postdoctoral Salary Update
• Participate in the 2024 Research Risk Assessment

Events:

• REDCap Getting Started 
• Introduction to R training
• Research Council
• Introduction to Bioinformatics
• 2024 HDDC Spring Symposium
• 2024 Anne Klibanski Visiting Lecture Series 07
• Helen Gurley Brown Presidential Summit on Women and Science
• Annual NORCH Symposium
• Cognitive Interviewing
• Speed Mentoring Hour
• RCR Program: Managing Conflicts of Interest
• NEW CRN Collaborative Journal Club
• MGH Ode to Joy: A celebration of the arts
• NEW Research Town Hall
• Faculty Transition Webinar Series Session 5
• NEW Brief Mental Health Interventions for Suicide Risk
• Fourth Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry
• 10th Annual World Medical Innovation Forum
• Cambridge Science Festival
• 4th Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry
• Two Meditation Sessions available every week

NEW The Smith Family Awards for Excellence in Biomedical Research

The mission of the Awards Program is to launch the careers of newly independent biomedical researchers with the ultimate goal of achieving medical breakthroughs. The three‐year Award supports newly independent faculty engaged in basic or translational biomedical research. Investigators in the physical sciences (physics, chemistry and engineering) whose projects focus on biomedical science are also encouraged to apply. While basic research projects involving human subjects, data, and samples are eligible, clinical trials research is beyond the scope of this program.

This opportunity is open to full-time faculty at MGH who received or will receive their Assistant Professor appointment on or between 10/1/22 and 4/1/25. The award is $400,000 over three years, inclusive of 5% institutional overhead. 

The foundation now has a two-stage application process, and there are no limits on the number of applications from an institution. An internal selection process is no longer required. All eligible faculty at MGH should apply directly to the sponsor.

Please contact Foundation Relations in the Office of Development at devcfr@mgh.harvard.edu if you wish to submit a proposal in response to this opportunity. They will be able to advise you on the application process.

Preliminary proposal deadline: Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 12:00 Noon (Those applicants who make it to the second stage will be invited to submit a full proposal in early October).

Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research

What are they?

"For nearly three decades, Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation has provided significant financial support to some incredibly promising physician scientists, who are applying novel and state-of-the-art techniques to address fundamental problems in the genesis and treatment of blood related cancers. Since 1996, the Foundation has committed more than $43 million in grants to over 330 junior faculty members at the nation’s leading institutions. These grants continue to be a sign of excellence and represent support for many of the most exciting new scientific ideas in blood cancer research.”

MGH is eligible to nominate a maximum of two candidates - one in the mainstream/conventional medical research category and one in the integrative medical research category.

How much is the award?

The award will be for three-year period at $75,000.00 per year (including 10% IDC), contingent on the submission of acceptable annual progress reports.

Deadline

MGH internal pre-proposal: Monday, June 10, 2024 at 5:00pm

Full application to sponsor: Friday, August 16, 2024

Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award

Harrington Discovery Institute (HDI) invites you to submit an LOI for the 2024 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award. The award offers successful applicants multiple opportunities for funding in addition to expertise from pharma-experienced leaders with a track record of bringing drugs to market. Intellectual property rights are retained by the award recipient or their institution.

Up to 12 Scholar-Innovators will be selected to receive:

• $100,000 guaranteed grant award;
• Drug and business development support from Harrington’s Therapeutics Development Center advisors; 
• Opportunity to compete for acceleration funds up to $300,000;
• Opportunity to qualify for investment funds typically up to $2MM; 

Letters of Intent (LOI) Due: June 5, 2024

Support for Early Career Investigators at the Translational and Clinical Research Center

The TCRC at Massachusetts General Hospital will support two early career investigators each year to perform their pilot and feasibility studies or studies related to their early career awards on the TCRC.

Awardees will not be charged for nursing, nutrition, or sample processing time, the TCRC annual fee or the TCRC per visit fee for research conducted on the TCRC (for up to $10,000 per year for two years). Coordinator support will not be available through this program.

Awardees will be supported via consultation with the TCRC Medical Resource Officer in protocol development, building of budgets, grant writing, filing of INDs/IDEs, and study implementation. They will receive guidance regarding participant recruitment and retention in the study, and other support as necessary for successful completion of the proposed project. Awardees will be encouraged to participate in Catalyst supported resources such as the C/T Academy and the GRASP program.

Deadline for Submission: July 1st

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.

EPSCoR Collaborations for Optimizing Research Ecosystems Research Infrastructure Improvement Program – NEW!

MGH LOI Deadline: 6/05/24

Learn more

St. Baldrick’s Fellows (St. Baldrick’s Foundation) – NEW!

MGH LOI Deadline: 6/10/24

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. ACG/ASGE Epidemiologic Research Award in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). $50,000 (No IDC). Letter of Support Deadline: November 4
2. Clinical Research and Pilot Project Awards, American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). $50,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: December 2
3. Established Investigator Bridge Funding Award, American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). $300,000 (No IDC). Pre-Application Deadline: November 4
4. Junior Faculty Development Grants, American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). $450,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: December 2
5. Leonidas Berry Health Equity Research Award, American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). $75,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: December 2
6. R. Robert & Sally Funderburg Research Award in Gastric Cancer, American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Research Foundation. $100,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: September 12
7. Making a Difference in Real-World Bioethics Dilemmas, Greenwall Foundation. Unspecified Amount (10% IDC). LOI Deadline: June 17
8. Building Evidence for Effective Strategies to Increase Therapeutic Cancer Clinical Trial Accrual: Promoting Access for Patients from Underrepresented Groups, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). $2.5 million (11.1% IDC). LOI Deadline: September 12
9. Mend a Heart Foundation Award, Mend a Heart Foundation. $200,000 (No IDC). LOI Deadline: June 5
10. NEW! Addressing Childhood Obesity and Health Inequities, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). >$1 million (15% IDC). Concept Paper Deadline: June 27
11. Steven A. Rosenberg Scholars Award (fellows and early career investigators), Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). $150,000 (Unspecified IDC). Nomination Deadline: July 15

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 Expanded Role for Allison Moriarty

Allison P. Moriarty, SVP of Research Operations at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has expanded her role to take on research operations responsibilities across Mass General Brigham. Allison will continue her Brigham-specific SVP role, reporting to the BWH CAO and COO. For her Mass General Brigham responsibilities, she will report to me in my role as the Chief Academic Officer at Mass General Brigham.

Learn more

NEW Summer Research Trainee Program (SRTP) Call for Abstract Reviewers and Final Presentation Panelists

Are you a research faculty member interested in getting involved in SRTP? We are seeking clinical, fundamental, and population health faculty researchers to serve as SRTP student Abstract Reviewers or Final Presentation Panelist. Please click here to see details and to provide your availability. 

Learn more

NEW Software Offering - ChemDraw

Time to renew your ChemDraw license through the Digital Research Computing Core. Annual ChemDraw licenses expire each year on May 25th. Your license will automatically cancel, and you will need to order again at rcservices.partners.org (MGB login required). ChemDraw licenses are $102/year per User and new licenses can be ordered and accessed today.

ChemDraw is a powerful, yet easy-to use, tool for producing chemical and biological drawings. You can create your own drawings or use those provided in the library of available templates. For more information on ChemDraw go to the Digital Research Computing Core's software page. All questions may be directed to rcc@partners.org.

Learn more

MGB Postdoctoral Salary Update

The NIH recently posted their 2024 NRSA salary scale for postdoctoral fellows. While the NIH has traditionally increased their scale by about 3% every year, this year they increased the scale by 8% in recognition of the their stated goal of trying to get to starting salary of $70,000 within 5 years. The $70,000 goal is based on the recent “NIH ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE DIRECTOR WORKING GROUP ON RE-ENVISIONING NIH-SUPPORTED POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING”.

Last year, MGB mandated a new postdoc salary floor, effective October 1, 2024. The language of the announcement read: “MGB will require that postdocs be paid at market rate, which is assumed now to be 20% over the NIH/NRSA scale.” Most PIs have actively been planning for that transition, assuming that the FY25 salary floor would be based on normal escalation of the 2023 NRSA scale + 20%. Fair to say that no one planned for the NIH to increase the scale to the extent they did.  

Learn more

Participate in the 2024 Research Risk Assessment

The Research Compliance Office at MGH is inviting members of the research community to complete the 2024 Research Risk Assessment Survey to help us identify areas of risk within the MGH research infrastructure. Your feedback is pivotal in developing future initiatives and work plans items centered around better utilizing our resources. Input from previous risk assessments has been incredibly valuable and has led to initiatives like the Transfer Out Process, BioLift, the Onboarding Checklists, and more.

The Research Risk Assessment Survey is available now in RedCap and will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. The survey is available to all, and we encourage you to use your own experiences to inform your responses. At the start of the survey, you will be presented with 8 categories and asked to identify 5 areas within our infrastructure that you believe pose the most risk to the institution or the quality of your work. You will then be asked to score those categories on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 as the greatest risk. After scoring, you will be asked to identify specific activities within those categories that pose a risk. You also have an opportunity to describe why you chose that activity and add additional feedback regarding anything that was not included in the survey. All responses are completely anonymous.

The Research Risk Assessment will be available June 10th, 2024. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns by contacting MGH Research Compliance at researchcompliance@mgh.harvard.edu. 

See these events and more on the calendar of events

REDCap Getting Started 

Friday, May 31, 2024 10:00 – 11:00 am

In collaboration with the Harvard Catalyst, REDCap is a free, secure, web-based application hosted by Partners Research Computing and designed to support electronic data capture for research studies. 

This course will provide a high-level overview of the REDCap tool. Learn about study start-up, project life cycles, data management, and how to program data fields and branching logic. There will be time devoted to user’s Q&A and design questions.

Introduction to R training

Friday, May 31, 2024, 9:30 - 4:30 pm

Digital Research Scientific Computing is offering an Introduction to R training. It is in person at Assembly Row in the 2W31 training room – Friday, 5/31 from 9:30am - 4:30pm.

Research Council

Monday, June 3rd, 2024 12:00-1:00pm 

There is a lot of resources for researchers at MGH. At this meeting we show you were to find and how to utilize these resources. Some of the things we will discuss are below,

• The Research Intranet
• Isuggest
• Research Communication

Come to research council to take advantage of the tools that are at your disposal at MGH.

Introduction to Bioinformatics

Monday, June 3rd | 3:30-5:00pm 

Tuesday, June 18th | 3:30-5:00pm 

Speaker: Ruslan Sadreyev, Director of Bioinformatics

This introductory mini-course is intended for experimental and clinical researchers who would like to get oriented in basic Bioinformatics concepts and tools. It is intended as a primer that would allow you to better understand general ideas, approaches, and available methods, and to start asking the right questions about your experimental data in the context of major next-generation sequencing applications: RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, metagenomics, pathway analyses etc. 

If you want to drill very deeply into a specific question or to get hands-on experience, this probably isn't a course for you. However, we are open to organizing more in-depth courses and workshops in the future.

2024 HDDC Spring Symposium

Tuesday June 4, Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Boston Children's Hospital, Folkman Auditorium



Join us in person for the 2024 Harvard Digestive Diseases Center Spring Symposium. we will have great speakers and discussion at this event. Find more information below.

2024 Anne Klibanski Visiting Lecture Series 07

Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 12:00 - 1:00



"Big Data, Causal Methods and Clinical Conundrums: Using Observational Data to Emulate Target Trials and Answer Difficult Questions in Obstetric Practice"

Presenter:

Anthea Lindquist, MBBS, DPhil, Obstetrician/gynaecologist and perinatal epidemiologist, Mercy Hospital for Women, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Helen Gurley Brown Presidential Summit on Women and Science

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, Conference Center, 3rd Floor, Room 306

450 Brookline Avenue, Boston



Join us in person or virtually via zoom to hear from prominent leaders in the science community, celebrate and support women in research and medicine, and engage in a dynamic Q&A session. The Summit will be followed by a networking reception for those able to join in-person.

Annual NORCH Symposium

Wednesday, June 5th, 2023; 8:30am - 4:00pm



The 25th Annual Harvard Nutrition and Obesity Symposium will explore the latest research on a wide range of topics regarding new strategies for the medical management of obesity. We hope to address this topic from molecular mechanisms to health equity. We have an excellent line up of speakers including Dr. Caroline Apovian giving the George L. Blackburn Keynote Lecture, “State of the Art Summary of Current Pharmacological Strategies for Obesity Management.”

Cognitive Interviewing

Thursday, June 6, 2024, 11:00 - 12:00 pm



This one session course will guide clinical researchers on how to utilize cognitive interviewing for instrument development. We’ll address how to use this technique to collect data to enhance the validity of an assessment instrument (survey) and assess participants’ understanding of an item and responses to an item. The course will be most beneficial for individuals who have an interest or experience in survey development. *Please note this course is only offered to MGH faculty and staff.

Speed Mentoring Hour

Thursday, June 6, 2024, 3:00 - 4:00 pm



This session is with John T. Mullen, MD, Director, General Surgery Residency Program; and Jessica B. McCannon, MD, Physician, Pulmonary & Critical Care Unit.

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.

RCR Program: Managing Conflicts of Interest

Thursday, June 6, 2024, 4:00 - 5:00 pm



In this interactive seminar, participants will learn how to define conflicts of interest in research and resources regarding disclosure. The course will review rules to prevent conflicts of interest and the disclosure system and process. Students will learn how to initiate reports to mitigate potential personal interest conflicts. 

NEW CRN Collaborative Journal Club

Monday, June 10th, 2024, 12:00 - 1:00 pm



This journal club will discuss the value and the core concepts of the CRN across clinical and research

settings. We will discuss the CRN's focus on balancing research and clinical care while working with

research participants.

Learning Objective(s):

At the end of this activity, the CRN will be able to explain the complementary relationship between the CRN

and clinical nurse (CN).

MGH Ode to Joy: A celebration of the arts

Monday, June 10th, 2024, 4:00 - 5:00 pm



The Center for Faculty Development announces the first MGH Ode to Joy—an in-person celebration to recognize the incredible talent that exists outside of and beyond the talent performed in MGH labs, clinics, and OR, and revel together in the transformative power of artistic expression.Food will be provided.

NEW Research Town Hall

Tuesday, June 11th, 2024, 9:00 - 10:00 am



Join us for a Research Town Hall with Dr. David Brown and Dr. Robert Kingston. At this meeting they will discuss research at MGH and what they are doing to advocate for you during this time of change. They will reinforce their commitment to scientific discovery, innovation, and research infused care during the ongoing process of integration.

This is an excellent opportunity to voice your questions and feedback to Dr. Brown and Dr. Kingston. Don't miss this chance to be part of the conversation shaping the future of our research community at MGH.

Faculty Transition Webinar Series Session 5

Thursday, June 20th, 2024, 12:00 - 1:00 pm

The Faculty Transition Webinar Series sponsored by the Office for Senior Faculty Affairs addresses the many elements that come into play as faculty move toward retirement.

This is an entirely new webinar focused on a topic of increasing interest: The mechanics of *partial* retirement while still maintaining an MGH and HMS connection. Topics will include maintaining an HMS appointment and the requirements for maintaining benefits and other MGH privileges.

Panelists:

Bethany Westlund, PhD, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, HMS

Mindy Dellert, Academic Appointments Manager, HMS

Jeffrey L. Ecker, MD, Chief, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, MGH

Virginia C. Rosales, CEBS, HR Benefits Manager, MGH MGPO Professional Staff Benefits

NEW Brief Mental Health Interventions for Suicide Risk

Friday, June 21st, 2024, 10:00 - 11:00 am

Featured speakers include:

Dr. Jessica Schleider – Director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health at Northwestern University

“Making the Moment Matter: Digital Single-Session Interventions for Suicide Risk and Crisis Response”

Dr. John Torous – Director of the Digital Psychiatry Division at Harvard Medical School

“Clinical Considerations for Digital Resources in Care for Patients With Suicidal Ideation”

Dr. Michael Zimmer – Director of the Center for Data, Ethics and Society at Marquette University

“Data Ethics and Digital Mental Health Interventions: Opportunities & Gaps”

10th Annual World Medical Innovation Forum

September 23-25, 2024

Presented by Mass General Brigham and Bank of America, the 2024 World Medical Innovation Forum will focus on three major investment and scientific growth areas—oncology, rare disease, and immunology and inflammation. At the Forum, you’ll have direct access to speakers and peers including dozens of leading CEOs, senior investors, entrepreneurs, government officials, and prominent Harvard clinicians and scientists.

We look forward to welcoming you to Boston—the hub of biotech—and the state-of-the-art meeting center at the top-rated Encore Boston Harbor September 23–25.

4th Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry

September 26-27, 2024

The Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry, hosted by the MGH Center for Precision Psychiatry, is becoming a leading venue for showcasing advances in the application of precision medicine approaches to psychiatric research and clinical practice. The Conference will be held virtually over the course of two days: Thursday, September 26th and Friday, September 27th, 2024. 

Earn 7 continued education credits for participating this year!

Cambridge Science Festival

Sunday September 29, 2024, 12:00 - 4:00 PM

The Mass General Research Institute will once again be participating in the Cambridge Science Festival's Science Carnival and Robot Zoo this September. We're on the lookout for enthusiastic scientists from Mass General (like you!) to join forces and create engaging experiments and activities aimed at sparking curiosity amount kids about how the human body works.

Think along the lines of emonstarting lung function using ballons or extra cting DNA from straberries - the sky's the limit!

Please sumbit your proposal by June 7th at 12:00 am.

Two Meditation Sessions available every week 



SESSION 1: Meditation Monday with Dr. Darshan Mehta 

Every Monday, 8:00 – 8:30 am, Zoom à next session, Monday, June 3!

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 à next session, Wednesday, June 5!

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

Join guest leader, Douglas Greve, PhD, Department of Radiology, 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