October 2017
News
Trial Innovation Network Proposals are being Accepted
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Do you have an idea for a multi-center, patient-oriented outcomes clinical trial? The CTSC is accepting ideas for submission to the national Trial Innovation Network. Billed as our nation’s clinical trials ‘superhighway’, the Trial Innovation Network (TIN) is a new NIH entity, designed to assist and facilitate multi-center clinical trials with investigators in other CTSA hubs. Any full-time faculty at a Cleveland CTSC affiliated institution can propose a project. Project ideas can be already funded or in developmental stage.   

To submit your idea for a multi-center clinical trial to the national Trial Innovation Network, first contact the CTSC Hub Liaison Team by completing the online intake form which can also be found on the TIN page of the CTSC website. The Hub Liaison Team will then contact you to discuss your proposed project.  
For additional questions about the Trial Innovation Network or the submission process, please contact the CTSC TIN Hub Liaison team by emailing:  TIN_Team@case.edu or call 216-778-3130.
KL2 Scholar Grad Leads $10.6M Project to Compare Treatment Options for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
A Cleveland Clinic research team has attained a $10.6 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to compare the effectiveness of treatment options for multiple sclerosis (MS).

Led by Daniel Ontaneda, M.D., CTSC KL2 Scholar graduate and neurologist in Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis, the  project  will be the first to compare two treatment options for patients recently diagnosed with the relapsing remitting form of the disease. MS is a leading cause of disability among young adults in North America and Europe, affecting over 2.5 million people worldwide.

TriNetX: The Global Health Research Network for Healthcare Organizations, BioPharma, and CROs
TriNetX is the global health research network enabling healthcare organizations, biopharma and contract research organizations (CROs) to collaborate, enhance trial design, accelerate recruitment and bring new therapies to market faster. Each member of the TriNetX community shares in the consolidated value of their global, federated health research network that connects clinical researchers in real-time to the patient populations which they are attempting to study.
 
Through TriNetX healthcare organizations can attract clinical trials, collaborate with peers, enhance local research.
 
  • Local Research
Principal investigators at healthcare organizations can research their own patient populations.

  • Collaborative Research
Principal investigators at healthcare organizations can form collaborative networks with peer institutions and research the patient population of all collaborators.

  • Industry Research
Investigators can research all sites on the health research network.
 
Participate in multi-site research with other healthcare organizations, without having to expend precious resources to normalize your data to an external standard.
 
For additional information, please contact our hub’s TriNetX liaison, Jeno Mozes .
News from the PRCHN
PRCHN Monthly Seminar Series
Mark your calendars for these upcoming PRCHN seminars:

October 11, 2017 at 12:00pm
Community Ambassador Model for Promoting Access to Farmers' Markets
FreshLink Team panel presentation

Mark your calendars for the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 12:00-1:15 pm
 

CPCRN's First Data Brief Summarizes Results of Tobacco Cessation and Lung Cancer Screening National Survey
The CWRU Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN), headed by PRCHN Associate Director Sue Flocke, PhD, has just released its first data brief, which summarizes the results of a national survey of federally qualified health centers to better understand their tobacco cessation and lung cancer screening practices. The CWRU CPCRN's research is funded through a  Special Interest Project (SIP) grant , which is available only to faculty affiliated with a Prevention Research Center in the CDC's national network. 

News from the Urban Health Intiative
Urban Health Happenings
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This past month has seen the publication of a number of reports with immense, albeit indirect implications for health. First, the good news. Think of how effective counseling is in generating smoking cessation and weight loss: Abysmal. Now consider the impact of just 30 hours of training to use the internet, and low cost connectivity...
 
A report just released,  Adoption Persistence: A Longitudinal Study of the Digital Inclusion Impact of the Connect Your Community Project , r eported on from a random sample survey of 429 individuals from among a cohort of 5,463 Cleveland residents who received 30+ hours of basic computer training, and who obtained a computer and home internet connection between 2010 and 2012. The population served was highly vulnerable and 89% were over age 45 years. Over one-third were disabled and 49% received some sort of social services. Five+ years later, 76% have continued their home subscriptions to the internet with cost cited as the primary barrier, by 65% of those who did not continue their internet subscriptions. Lack of a home computer or internet-connected device was second (18%); only 10% reported lack of interest or need for home internet. Only 47% of unconnected survey respondents had smartphones, considerably below the 64% of low income adults nationwide who have smartphones. Half of internet adopters had capped data plans, below 20 GB/month for 8% of respondents. This means that low income families are at a serious disadvantage, having to budget data use across the household including children needing access for homework, parents applying for jobs or enrolled in educational programs, doing online banking, visiting local government websites, or seeking health information online—the most common use of the internet reported by 63% of participant when they were surveyed in 2012. 
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But the finding I note as most remarkable is that 43% of participants surveyed reported actively managing their health through patient portals to their electronic health record.    This exceeds the national average by 7%, and is more than one-third higher than the use rate reported for all of MetroHealth patients in a  recent study  by Adam Perzynski, Mary Joan Roach, Doug Gunzler, Randy Cebul, David Kaelber, Daryl Thorton and Doug Einstadter and other of our colleagues—despite years of active encouragement.   This observation makes sense given the findings that   I recently reported , with others, that lack of training and digital skills are significant barriers to adoption of patient portals.
 
Now to this finding, we add those from a report just released by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance:  Informing Strategic Investment in Digital Equity: Cleveland and Cuyahoga County . This report found that fast commercial broadband internet (10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream) is generally available from at least two providers throughout the county. However, for large parts of Cleveland and East Cleveland, residents have high-speed access to only one service provider; the other provider has limited service to 6 Mbps, 3MBPS or even slower speeds not sufficient to surf the web, much less access educational content. Without competition,  the cost of fast internet in these communities is simply unaffordable.   Thus, at 62%, home broadband adoption in Cleveland is well below the 75% of households in Pittsburgh, our sister rustbelt city. A major factor in the difference is that greater competition in Pittsburgh is associated with lower costs.
Our local community partners, Connect Your Community, have launched the Cleveland Digital Justice Campaign,  asking Mayoral and City Council candidates to declare their positions  on options for improving access to internet in Cleveland. 
 
Does this really matter? And does it matter for health? Recall from recent columns that smartphones are not a substitution for home broadband, due to the high cost of data and limited functionality of small touchscreens. Also, the third report I call to your attention,  Digital Denied: The Impact of Systemic Racial Discrimination on Home-Internet Adoption , explains why it matters so much. Internet adoption rates vary dramatically by income (49% for households <$20K income versus 90% for those with $100K+ income). These gaps are not simply a function of income or education. At all levels of income and education, internet adoption for Blacks and Hispanics trail that for Whites and Asians. Because we do not see these gaps for smartphone adoption, the report authors conclude that structural factors, such as “ the typical ISP requirement that prospective wired home-internet customers pass a credit check or make a cash deposit …disproportionately harms broadband adoption in communities of color.”   Furthermore, the authors noted that  “People of color have fewer choices for broadband providers at every speed; they are more likely to live in an unserved or monopoly area, and they are less likely to have access to the latest-generation broadband technologies.” 
 
So what’s the connection to health?
 
The $28 billion federal investment in health IT is pushing providers to move health care online. And clinical research is increasing recruiting patients and capturing data through electronic means. So the direct connections are obvious. But less apparent: we know that about 70% of health outcomes are explained by the social determinants of health including education, income and neighborhood factors. Without internet, how could someone possibly climb out of poverty? Apply for a job? Complete an educational program? Find a better place to live? 
 
Interested in what you can do to ensure that patients have access to low cost, high speed internet? Contact me for some ideas.

Amy R. Sheon , Ph.D., M.P.H.
Executive Director, Urban Health Initiative
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
216-368-0915
@CLEhealthCUY
News from our Colleagues
Read about a promising new gene therapy for a rare condition, CTSA Program-supported brain cancer drug testing, NIH’s latest awards for Tissue Chip research, and more.
Available now! Online Reliance System: Request, track, and document reliance arrangements.
New NIH "FORMS-E" Instructions Available
NIH Extramural Nexus
NCATS Announces Call for Proposals for Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) Program
Pfizer’s CTI  program pairs NIH researchers with Pfizer resources to pursue scientific and medical advances through joint therapeutic development. The CTI model is the first NIH-wide biologics initiative with a pharmaceutical partner that NCATS coordinates on behalf of all NIH intramural researchers. Goals include identifying biologic compounds with activity in a pathway or target of interest to both an NIH intramural researcher and to Pfizer, and moving the compounds into the clinic to test them.
 
Pre-proposals are due to the investigator’s NIH Institute or Center’s technology transfer office by  Oct. 13, 2017 . Technology transfer staff must submit the pre-proposals by  Oct. 20, 2017  via the Pfizer CTI  submission portal .
Changing Policies Impact NIH-funded Studies Involving Human Subjects
If you are conducting NIH-funded research that involves human subjects, or are considering applying to NIH for support of such research, we want to call your attention to important changes that may affect how you:
  • select the right NIH funding opportunity announcement
  • write the research strategy and human subjects sections of your application
  • comply with appropriate policies and regulations

1. Familiarize yourself with the new PHS Human Subject and Clinical Trial Information form

2. Take a moment to answer these four questions about your current or proposed research:
  1. Does the study involve human participants?
  2. Are the participants prospectively assigned to an intervention?
  3. Is the study designed to evaluate the effect of the intervention on the participants?
  4. Is the effect that will be evaluated a health-related biomedical or behavioral outcome?
  5. If the answer to all four questions is yes, then your proposed research meets the NIH definition of a clinical trial.

3. F amiliarize yourself with NIH policy changes related to enhancing stewardship of clinical trials:
  • the requirement to apply to an FOA that specifically allows for the submission of clinical trial applications for due dates beginning January 25, 2018.
  • Good Clinical Practice training expectations for NIH staff, grantees, and contractors that went into effect January 2017.
  • updated peer review criteria that will be included in FOAs for clinical trial applications and solicitations for due dates on/after January 25, 2018.
  • new Human Subject Information form requirements for clinical trials that will be included in updated application forms (FORMS-E) for due dates on/after January 25, 2018, and contract solicitations published as of January 25, 2018.
  • use of a single IRB for non-exempt, multi-site clinical trials for application due dates on/after January 25, 2018.
  • expanded ClinicalTrials.gov registration and reporting to include all NIH supported clinical trials.

The NIH has developed a new  Clinical Trial Requirements for NIH Grantees and Contractors web page  to bring together all the information you need to know.
Research Highlights
CTSC Pilot Awardee Issued Patent
Parameswaran Ramakrishnan, MS, PhD, assistant professor of pathology at Case Western Reserve University, and David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology, were recently issued a patent titled “Targeting c-Rel O-GlcNAcylation and Uses Thereof.”

Type 1 diabetes is an incurable autoimmune disease, where a type of white blood cells, T cells, become self-reactive and attack insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. This leads to hyperglycemia and several associated secondary complications. Dr. Ramakrishnan received both Annual and Core Utilization Pilot Awards from the CTSC in 2014 for his research on autoimmune diabetes.
 
Task Force Develops New Guidelines to More Effectively Address Youth Hypertension
David Kaelber, co-lead of CTSC Informatics , professor in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, and chief medical informatics officer of The MetroHealth System, co-chaired a task force that published the American Academy of Pediatrics report.

This is the first new national guidelines since 2004 on identifying and treating high blood pressure in children and adolescents (aged 3-18 years old). The report offers a series of evidence-based recommendations for pediatricians derived from a comprehensive review of nearly 15,000 medical studies published since 2004.


New Predictive Tool Will Improve Counseling of Patients Considering Epilepsy Surgery
Specialized surgery is a promising option for many people  experiencing epilepsy  who continue to have seizures despite medical treatment. Epilepsy surgery has significantly improved the lives of many thousands of adults and children worldwide, and experts now routinely consider this option whenever medications have proven ineffective. But how can patients accurately gauge the potential risks and benefits of the procedure, before they decide whether to proceed?

A five-year project was recently launched to fill this gap. In June 2017, the National Institutes of Health awarded a $3.4 million grant to Cleveland Clinic to develop a tool to predict individual outcomes in epilepsy surgery. The study, led by Dr. Lara Jehi, supports the creation of a comprehensive epilepsy surgery nomogram using diagnostic technology and predictive modeling. Dr. Jehi is a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic and co-medical director of the CTSC Trial Innovation Network Hub Liaison Team .

Noteworthy News
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Events
National Health IT Week
October 2-6, 2017
National Health IT Week is October 2nd - 6th, 2017. The goal is to promote the benefits healthcare information technology can bring to U.S. healthcare. CR Forum will use the opportunity to highlight the benefits health IT brings to clinical research. 

The Clinical Research Forum's annual IT Roundtable brings together academic health center leaders and IT companies to share common experiences and address key issues such as the interface of clinical services and clinical research data, warehousing, data security, electronic medical records, and governance. The IT Roundtable is November 2-3, 2017, in Washington, D.C. 

2017 Graft vs. Host Disease National Symposium
October 13, 2017
Grand Event Center, Columbus, OH
This conference is intended to raise awareness about the signs and symptoms of GvHD, review cutting edge approaches to prevention and treatment, and highlight and promote research to further our understanding of its cause. The symposium has  two tracks: a scientifically rigorous one for physicians and practitioners, and a survivor track that will focus on challenges faced by BMT recipients and their families. The survivor track is intended to provide both education and the opportunity for individuals to interact with national leaders in the GvHD field. The afternoon "Meet the Expert" panel provides a unique opportunity for both physicians and survivors and their families to interact during the program.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
James Ferrara, MD
Professor, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, The Mount Sinai Hospital
Biomarkers in Graft versus Host Disease: Acute and Chronic

ACCREDITATION:
Physicians
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Meredith A. Cowden Foundation. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of  5.75 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nurses 
The Ohio Board of Nursing will accept at face value the number of contact hours awarded for an educational activity that has been approved for CE by a nationally accredited system of CE approval.

3rd Annual Cleveland Medical Hackathon
October 21-22, 2017
Global Health Innovation Center - Cleveland, OH
The Cleveland Medical Hackathon (#clemedhack) will bring together doctors, nurses, researchers, public health workers along with IT professionals over an intense 24-hour period at the Global Center for Health Innovation. Hackathon teams will identify challenges, propose solutions, and work on technological solutions that are poised to transform healthcare. Teams will then present their solutions for cash prizes and an opportunity to discuss their findings during the 15th Annual Medical Innovation Summit immediately following the Hackathon.

2017 Medical Innovation Summit: Genomics & Precision Medicine
October 23-25, 2017
Huntington Convention Center - Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Clinic Innovations hosts the Medical Innovation Summit each fall as a way to bring together all stakeholders in healthcare to build the relationships and ignite the technologies that will advance patient care. The Summit is part of Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to drive healthcare innovation and quality. Now more than ever, Cleveland Clinic believes it is essential that innovation remain at the core in the delivery of medical care. 

Now in its 15th year, the Summit is renowned for thought-provoking panels, lively 1-on-1 discussions with influential CEOs, and the discovery of the latest market-ready technologies poised to shake up the status quo. Regardless of your field, Genomics and Precision Medicine is on the brink of revolutionizing the way we care for patients and the way we conduct business. Join us as we highlight the technologies, discuss the opportunities, and navigate the future challenges of this exciting new market.

Meeting of the Minds 2017 Annual Summit
October 23-25, 2017
Global Health Innovation Center - Cleveland, OH
The Meeting of the Minds Summit is a forward-looking conference for sharing strategies with scalable solutions in urban neighborhoods.The summit will include speakers and sessions that aim to share innovative sustainability and technology solutions between people from around the globe.

Microbiology for the CTSA 2017
October 25-26, 2017
Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research - Ann Arbor, MI
The NIH’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program has always emphasized the need for data standards to promote sharing and comparison of data across the CTSA Consortium and beyond. Yet creation and adoption of such standards is still painfully slow. Urgent action remains necessary. History shows the high value of standard terms, definitions, and symbols (i.e. ontology) to science. Translational science requires a consistent set of standard ontologies spanning all scales, from molecule to organism to population. In this year’s meeting we focus on ontology resources for describing data at the scale of micro-organisms.

A $2000 travel fund has been offered, owing to Dr. Bob Dysko (the director of the Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine in the University of Michigan Medical School), to support four slots of junior scholars to attend the workshop. If you are interested, please submit a short vita with a rationale for attendance to Dr. Oliver He at  yongqunh@med.umich.edu.
Appalachian and Translational Research Network Summit
October 30-31, 2017
Penn State Clinical and Translational Institute - Hershey, PA
The Appalachian Translational Research Network (ATRN) is committed to addressing the significant health challenges and disparities specific to Appalachia by enhancing research collaborations to speed the translation of scientific discoveries to health improvements for this region.
SAVE THE DATE: 2nd Annual Cancer Disparities Symposium
March 23, 2018
Wolstein Research Building - CWRU Campus
Funding Opportunities
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute - Notice of Upcoming PCORI Funding Announcement
PCORI  seeks to fund pragmatic clinical trials, large simple trials, or large-scale observational studies that compare two or more alternatives for addressing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or management of a disease or symptom; improving healthcare system-level approaches to managing care; communicating or disseminating research results to patients, caregivers, or clinicians; or eliminating health or healthcare disparities.

Proposed studies must address critical healthcare choices faced by patients, their caregivers, clinicians, or delivery systems. They must involve broadly representative patient populations and be large enough to provide precise estimates of hypothesized effectiveness differences and to support evaluation of potential differences in treatment effectiveness in patient subgroups.

PCORI’s multi-stakeholder panels have identified 16 high-priority topics and research questions. PCORI will give first consideration to applications that directly address one or more of the 16 PCORI-identified topics. Note that PCORI is open to receiving and reviewing LOIs for studies on investigator-initiated CER questions as well.

Please note that this funding program does not support applications to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses, systematic reviews (with or without meta-analyses), the development of clinical practice guidelines, or developing or evaluating shared decision making or decision-support tools. In general, PCORI will not cover costs for interventions that are being compared in the proposed study.

This PFA pre-announcement is provided to allow potential applicants additional time to identify collaborators, obtain stakeholder input on the research question, and develop responsive, high-quality proposals.  Further details will be available in the full announcement when released on October 3, 2017.

For more information visit the  PCORI website .
NIH: Cellular and Molecular Biology of Complex Brain Disorders (R01)
Application Deadline: October 5, 2017
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages research grant applications directed toward the discovery of the impact of alterations associated with complex brain disorders on the fundamental cellular and molecular substrates of neuronal function. 

For more information visit the  Grants.Gov website .
RFI: Bioethics Issues in Cancer Research and Care
Comments Due: October 6, 2017
National Cancer Institute (NCI) is seeking input from community members, patients, cancer researchers, physicians and other health practitioners, bioethicists, advocates, and others to help identify bioethics areas clearly relevant to cancer that could benefit from further research. Input is also sought on approaches for enhancing bioethics and cancer collaborations, and timely issues for bioethics and cancer outreach.
 
The RFI can be found at  NOT-CA-17-079 .
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International - Beta Cell Replacement Innovative Grants
Application Deadline: October 31, 2017
JDRF provides seed funding for highly innovative research with significant potential to accelerate the mission of JDRF. Proposals should address key outstanding questions and have the potential to lead to a change in the current paradigm or conventional wisdom and/or lead to a groundbreaking discovery. Preliminary data is not required in the proposal but the underlying premise, goal, or hypothesis must be plausible and testable and the proposal must be focused with a well-defined goal that is achievable within the timeframe of the award.

The Innovative Grant is not intended to support proposals aiming to incrementally advance existing hypotheses, ongoing areas of research or proposals with the sole goal of generating novel reagents or resources.

Specific Information regarding JDRF’s Beta Cell Replacement research priority area can be found here:   http://grantcenter.jdrf.org/information-for-applicants/research-priority-areas/#Beta-Replacement  

Proposals may be submitted by domestic and foreign non-profit organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. Innovative (but not pilot and research tool) proposals from for-profit organizations will also be considered. Applicants must hold an M.D., D.M.D., D.V.M., Ph.D., or equivalent and have a faculty position or equivalent at a college, university, medical school, or other research facility. There are no citizenship requirements for this program. To assure continued excellence and diversity among applicants and awardees, JDRF welcomes proposals from all qualified individuals and encourages proposals from persons with disabilities, women, and members of minority groups underrepresented in the sciences.

Innovative grants provide one year of support for a maximum of USD 100,000 in direct costs and indirect costs of 10%, for a total of USD 110,000. These grants are not renewable.
2018 Culture of Health Prize
Application Deadline: November 3, 2017
The  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation  has issued a Call for Applications for its 2018 Culture of Health Prize, an annual program that honors outstanding community efforts and partnerships that are helping people live healthier lives.

Up to ten communities will be awarded a $25,000 cash prize and have their accomplishments celebrated and shared broadly, with the goal of raising awareness and inspiring locally driven change across the country. Community partners can decide together how to use the funds to benefit the community. 

The RWJF Culture of Health Prize is a place-based prize that honors entire communities; applications representing the work of a single organization or initiative will not be considered. 

For the sake of the program, a community is defined as a town, city, county, tribe or tribal community, or region. Each community, should it win, will be required to designate a local U.S. governmental or tax-exempt public charity operating in its community to accept the $25,000 prize on the community's behalf. 

For more informaiton, visit the  RWJF webpage .
Cancer Research Institute
Letter of Intent Deadline: November 1, 2017
The  Cancer Research Institute  is requesting letters of intent for its Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program (CLIP). CRI offers CLIP grants to qualified scientists who are working to explore clinically relevant questions aimed at improving the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies. The development of new and effective cancer treatment requires the translation of basic laboratory discoveries into novel therapies that can be tested in patients. This area of translational research—where laboratory findings move into clinical testing, and where questions from clinical studies are brought back into the lab—is critical to bringing new and better immunotherapies to patients.

The grant will support basic, pre-clinical, and translational research that will provide information that can be directly applied to optimizing cancer immunotherapy in the clinic.

Applicants must hold a faculty appointment as a tenure-track assistant professor (or higher rank) at the time of award activation. 

Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full research proposal with a submission deadline of  February 1, 2018.

Funding:  $200,000 over two years

For more information visit the  Cancer Research Institute website .
BrightFocus Foundation
Application Deadline: November 7, 2017
The  BrightFocus Foundation  provides research funds for U.S. and international researchers pursuing high-risk studies that illuminate areas for which there currently is little understanding, helping to bring to light crucial knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. The organization's mission is to save mind and sight by funding innovative research worldwide and by promoting better health through education.

To that end, the foundation is accepting applications for its Alzheimer's Disease Research and National Glaucoma Research programs. 

1) Alzheimer's Disease Research: Grants of up to $300,000 over three years will be awarded to researchers for innovative investigator-initiated research projects. The program is designed to give scientists the opportunity to develop the preliminary data necessary to be considered competitive for larger government or corporate types of sponsorship. Applications must be received no later than October 18, 2017. 

2) National Glaucoma Program: Grants of up to $150,000 over two years will be awarded to researchers for innovative investigator-initiated glaucoma-related research projects. The program is designed to give scientists the opportunity to develop the preliminary data necessary to be considered competitive for larger government or corporate types of sponsorship. 

Typically these awards are made to junior investigators, or to more established investigators who are proposing particularly innovative research.

For more informaiton, visit the  BrightFocus webpage .
NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Common Fund Program
Application Deadline: December 5, 2017
The Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Common Fund Program advances a mechanisms-focused, experimental medicine approach to behavior change research. Currently, awardees in the SOBC Research Network are developing, adapting, and testing experimental manipulations meant to engage specific health-behavior-related targets, developing assays intended to verify target engagement, showing that these putative targets can be influenced by a manipulation, and that thus changing target activity leads to behavior change. To encourage the adaptation, validation, and translation of these assays in a broader range of ongoing studies and populations, the NIH is now inviting applications to four available Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) that involve using one or more of the SOBC Research Network assays.

 
Available measures, assays, and experimental manipulations can be found in the SOBC Measures Repository at  www.scienceofbehaviorchange.org/measures  and via the  SOBC Program page on the Open Science Framework .
 
The revision application funding opportunities are open to those conducting active NIH-supported clinical trials awarded as an R01, U01, or R34. Applicants need to propose to use at least one SOBC Research Network assay to measure engagement of a putative target identified to be relevant to the parent clinical trial. The R21 funding opportunity is designed to support new awards using at least one SOBC assay to measure engagement of a relevant health behavior target or mechanism of action.  
 
Pre-application technical assistance webinars will be held on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017 at 1 p.m. ET and Monday, Oct. 30, 2017 at 12 p.m. ET. The same information will be covered at both webinars. Visit  https://commonfund.nih.gov/behaviorchange  under “Announcements” for more information and a link to register.
Mixed Methods Research Training Program
Application Deadline: December 15, 2017
The Mixed Methods Research Training Program for the Health Sciences is funded by the National Institutes of Health through the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR), and is the only program of its kind in the United States.
 
The program fulfills a national need for training in mixed methods and is a natural next step following the publication of the OBSSR "Best Practices for Mixed Methods Research in the Health Sciences." Selected scholars have access to webinars, resources, come to an in-person retreat to discuss their research project, and are matched with mixed methods expert consultants. Our program has reported results in 3 peer-reviewed publications.
 
Mixed methods research is defined as the collection, analysis, and integration of both quantitative (e.g., RCT outcome) data and qualitative (e.g., observations, interviews) data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a research problem than might be obtained through quantitative or qualitative research alone. Typical applications of mixed methods in the health sciences involve adding qualitative interviews to follow up on the outcomes of intervention trials, gathering both quantitative and qualitative data to assess patient reactions to a program implemented in a community health setting, or using qualitative data to explain the mechanism of a study correlating behavioral and social factors to specific health outcomes.
 
The mixed methods retreat is planned for June, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. Applications for the 2018 scholar cohort are due  December 15, 2017. 
 
For more information visit their  website .
RFP: Barrett's Esophagus Translational Research Network (BETRNet)
Application Deadline: January 31, 2018 at 11:59 PM
All faculty members at participating institutions are invited to submit applications for Individual or Cross-BETRNet pilot projects of up to $40,000 to be funded by NIH/NCI U54CA163060: Genetic Determinants of Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma. Deadline for submission is January 31, 2018 at 11:59 PM, with funding expected to begin May 1, 2018.

Note: A BETRNet Project must be directed toward translational research related to Barrett’s Esophagus. At least one specific aim should involve either direct patient contact or the study of patient derived tissue samples.


Questions: BETRNetAdmin@case.edu or 216-368-1674

Special Funding Opportunities & Notices
Multiple Deadlines
Centers Without Walls for Collaborative Research in the Epilepsies: Functional Evaluation of Human Genetic Variants (U54)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Notice of Funding Opportunity Publication for Biomedical Data Translator: Technical Feasibility Assessment of Reasoning Tool 
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Next Generation Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (NGM) (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institute of Mental Health

Repurposing Target-Based Pharmaceutical Libraries for Discovery of Therapeutics against Eukaryotic Pathogens (R21/R33)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Human Studies of Target Identification, Biomarkers and Disease Mechanisms Specific to CNS Small Blood and Lymphatic Vessels (R01)
Department of Defense
Multiple Deadlines