The next internal panel to consider applications to be submitted to the ESRC New Investigator Grant scheme will meet in April 2018.

New Investigator Grants form one element of ESRC’s support for early career researchers and the scheme is specifically aimed at supporting those looking to make the transition to an independent researcher through managing their first major research project. These grants replace their Future Research Leaders scheme. Full details are here: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/funding-opportunities/new-investigator-grants/.

The call is open to high-quality candidates from anywhere in the world who have a maximum of four years’ postdoctoral experience and the support of an eligible UK research organisation. Grants ranging from £100,000 to £300,000 full Economic Cost (fEC) can be awarded, with grants between 3 and 5 years.

The call is open to applicants both with and without a permanent academic post, but they must have strong support from a host UK institution. This includes a mentor, and provision of career development support which includes a programme of activities tailored to the needs of the applicant covering project management, methods development, KE activities and impact training, and international networking.

Proposals are welcomed across the full disciplinary range of the social sciences and at the interface with the wider sciences, however the social sciences must represent at least 50 per cent of the research focus and effort.

Following the previously agreed protocol (see the attached paper), all applications to be submitted to this scheme will go through an internal selection panel. Candidates are required to submit a 6 page case for support (following ESRC guidance), a 2 page CV and a 2 page mentor CV. Applications must have full support of the Research Director and Head of School to be put forward to the internal panel. There will be representatives from all 3 Faculties on the panel, which will be chaired by the Dean of Research and Innovation in HaSS.

All documents for the panel should be submitted to Wendy Davison (wendy.davison@ncl.ac.uk). The deadline for submission of documents for the internal panel is 12pm on Monday 16^th April 2018. Applications submitted after this deadline will be required to submit to the following panel.

Below is the current most up to date guidance, any questions please contact Gwen Averley or Darren Airey.

Newcastle University – ESRC New Investigator Grants

ESRC NIG Jes

ESRC NIG FAQ

ESRC NIG Call Spec

The annual call for applications to the Catherine Cookson Foundation is now live on the Staff and Student Homepages.

The Trustees of the Foundation are anxious to publicise the availability of funds as widely as possible in order to encourage applications and if you are able to further disseminate the information that would be very helpful.

To be clear, these are internal funds which become available as interest builds up on an endowment fund, and therefore applicants do not need to go through the normal research application process.

The link to our Executive Office page about the Foundation can be found here:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/executive/office/responsibilities/CatherineCooksonFoundation.htm

Small grants, normally in a range between £500 and £5000, are made on a one-off, non-recurrent basis to projects where the Trustees consider their intervention will make a significant difference between success and failure, and where there are no other obvious routes to obtain significant support. See list of previous award winners to get a flavour of the type of projects that have been supported already. Unfortunately the Trustees are not able to consider applications for PhD study or applications which are of a standard research grant format, the latter should be directed to the relevant research council.

The criteria used in selecting projects for support are, that they:

• should be of modest size;
• should be the type of activity in which Dame Catherine Cookson herself might have had an interest;
• should have no obvious alternative source of support, or be the sort of project where support from the Foundation could be pump-priming for other financial help;
• should have local interest;
• should be of benefit to students.

It is a condition of any grant that a final report on the project is submitted to the Trustees. This should take the form of an A4 document, two pages in length, listing original objectives and saying to what extent they have been met together with a statement of how much was received from the Foundation and how it was spent.  If a final report is not forthcoming within a reasonable time, the Trustees reserve the right to request the return of the funds.

The annual call for applications is now underway with a closing date of 5 pm on Friday 18 May 2018. An application form is available here and should be made in the form of a single pdf document (combining application form, supporting statement and cv if appropriate) and submitted to Alison.Pickard@ncl.ac.uk

PP_GIP_GBR_2956ASPIRE2018_Final V2.0_11Jan18 – GBR

18875 FWIS 2018 200×200 flyer

Pfizer Opens a Unique Call for Important Clinical Research – Patients First Inflammation ASPIRE 2018

https://www.aspireresearch.org/

The Inflammation ASPIRE research grant programme has been proudly supported by Pfizer for five years, giving investigators an opportunity to further advance their research.

Open to investigators throughout wider Europe, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

• The effect of inhibition of the JAK–STAT pathway by targeting JAK on specific clinical effects, looking at efficacy and/or safety outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ulcerative colitis (UC) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA)
• The role of the JAK–STAT pathway in inflammation in PsA

The ASPIRE programme places patients at the forefront of clinical investigations. The translational potential of research into clinical practice within a short timeframe has always been considered paramount. It is for this reason Pfizer has encouraged investigators to apply for the programme over the years and will continue to support this vision.

The Pfizer Inflammation ASPIRE programme is designed to advance clinical and scientific research and generate data that will help inform clinical practice and treatment decisions in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

We are proud to announce that ASPIRE 2018 will be a special programme with increased funding available for all three therapy areas. This opportunity will allow investigators to conduct clinically relevant investigations, providing an enhanced understanding of the disease area with potential benefits translated into clinical management.

Advances in science and medicine should translate into tangible clinical benefit in the short and long term. With this in mind, proposals should aim to describe the clinical value, the proposed research and its outcomes will add to patients’ lives. Innovative patient approaches in research design and/or research leading to tangible positive outcomes for patients will be prioritised.

Rheumatology

1. Treatment Optimisation in Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Treatment strategies in RA patients in sustained remission whilst on JAK inhibitor treatment
• Optimisation of management of RA patients, treated with JAK inhibitors, such as, but not limited
• to, monotherapy, concomitant treatment tapering or withdrawal (glucocorticoids, csDMARDs)
• Management of JAK inhibitor treatment in patients with co-morbidities, such as (but not limited
• to) infections (herpes zoster [HZ], other), interstitial lung disease
• HZ immunisation prior to JAK inhibitor treatment
• Impact of JAK inhibitor treatment on pain (CNS/peripheral)
• Assessment of adherence and compliance in patients treated with JAK inhibitors

2. Role of JAK pathway in Psoriatic Arthritis & Impact of JAK Inhibition on a Broad Range of Clinical

Outcomes

• The role of the JAK pathway in the pathophysiology and immunology of PsA
• The role of JAK–STAT inhibition with respect to pain and fatigue
• Effect of JAK–STAT inhibition on dactylitis and/or enthesitis
• Mechanistic understanding of JAK-STAT signalling on structural progression
• PP-XEL-EUR-0964 2
• Effect of JAK-STAT inhibition as monotherapy

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Enhancing the Understanding of the Clinical Profile of JAK Inhibitors in the Treatment of UC Patients*

• Management of the risk of HZ with vaccination in UC patients treated with JAK inhibitors
• Evaluation of lipid elevations with JAK inhibitors in UC patients, including the MOA of such

• • potential effects
  • Effect of JAK inhibitors on extra-intestinal manifestations in UC patients
  • Effects of JAK inhibitors on hospitalisation and surgery rate, their respective causes and postsurgery
  • complications
  • Evaluation of risk for adenoma/dysplasia/colon cancer rate of patients treated with JAK
  • inhibitors

• *Strong preference will be given to studies that utilise the ECCO UR-CARE platform for capturing IBD patients’ records.

Awards will be made by an independent committee according to the scientific value of each proposal.

Funding in RA will vary depending on the research question.

However, the programme will include awards of up to 1,500,000 – 2,000,000 Euros for multicentre, multi-national clinical studies for exceptional proposals (1-2 proposals). Smaller grants are also available for investigators wishing to pursue smaller scale projects.

Funding in PsA and UC will also depend on the research question, with maximum awards of up to 200,000 Euros for clinical proposals and up to 80,000 Euros for translational research in PsA.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 23rd 2018

Pfizer looks forward to the Inflammation ASPIRE 2018 Research Awards becoming even more successful in 2018 with this unique call.

Due to a new RCUK directive, applications involving animal research must contain a written declaration stating compliance with the ethics guidance provided below. This must be submitted to your existing application as a signed letter of support.

Since this is new guidance, we have received several applications for 18RM1 where this letter of support is absent, and we apologise that this information has not been effectively communicated to you. However, we will require this documentation in order to continue processing your application to send out for peer review. Applications without a completed animal usage form will be considered incomplete and will not be eligible for funding.

What is required:

You will need to write and sign a letter of support stating that your research involving animals will abide by this guidance. If you are using a protected species not considered to be an NC3R you are still required to submit a letter of support stating that you will comply with all statements below. 

Below is guidance which can also be found on the BBSRC website.

If your project involves the use of animals, please read our guidance and submit a signed statement (uploaded as a Letter of Support to the Je-S application) from both UK and overseas PIs that:

1. They will adhere to all relevant national and local regulatory systems in the UK and overseas.

2. They will follow the guidelines laid out in the www.nc3rs.org.uk/responsibility-use-animals-bioscience-research document and ensure that work is carried out to UK standards.

3. Before initiation of the proposed research work, appropriate approvals from institutional and/or central animal ethics committees will be obtained for experimental protocols to be adopted in their projects. [Successful proposals may be expected to provide copies of these permissions before funding is released.]

4. Details where the animal research will take place (UK or overseas) and through which funder the resources are being sought.  

If the research involves the use of rodents overseas rather than in the UK, please also complete the “Additional questions on the use of rodents overseas” form, and attach as a letter of support in Je-S.

This can be found by following the link below.

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/overseasrodentuse-pdf/

Dear colleagues

On behalf of the SAgE PG Dean, Selina Stead, please find details of the NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)2 Call that may be of interest through the following link NERC DTP2 Call Summary. A link to the full NERC DTP2 call information can be found here.

Newcastle University is currently a partner of the IAPETUS DTP, which is led by Durham University. Newcastle are planning to resubmit as a partner to IAPETUS 2 as part of this DTP2 call but there is also an opportunity for Newcastle to submit a DTP proposal as lead PI.

Please note that Newcastle can only submit one DTP proposal as lead institution so a coordinated approach is required.

Therefore can we please ask that you provide information on any potential DTP ideas using the table below and return this via email by the 12^th February:

The external deadlines for the call are:

Closing date (Notification of Intent): 16:00 on Wednesday 7 March 2018

Closing date (Proposals): 16:00 on Wednesday 16 May 2018

Further information will be circulated once the expressions of interest are received, and further discussions can be arranged.

All queries and responses should be directed to: sagepgdean@ncl.ac.uk

Click here for larger version: Foulkes Foundation Fellowship

Academy of Medical Sciences,

Global Challenges Research Funding Networking Grants (round2)

https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/grant-schemes/gcrf-networking-grants

Deadline: 21/03/18

Amount: £25k (up to £5k for consumables / pilot data)

Duration: 1 year (to start between 1 July 2018 and 30 September 2018)

Eligibility: Must have a salary (permanent or fixed-term) for the duration of the award

This scheme is targeted at experienced researchers who are looking to form new international collaborations.

The maximum amount available is £25,000 of which £5,000 can be used for consumables for obtaining pilot data, archival research or fieldwork.

The remainder can be used to contribute towards travel and subsistence costs, costs associated with networking events, administrative support and access to technical support.

Grants cannot be used to pay for salary costs or to employ research assistants, PhD students or postdoctoral staff.

Please ensure to read the full call guidance documents available through the link above.

The 11 awards made in round 1 can be viewed at the bottom of the page in the link above.

Please could you advertise this opportunity to MRC funded researchers in your institutes. Please note the very specific remit / eligibility.

2018 MRC-NIH Neurodegeneration Partnering Awards

https://www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/browse/2018-mrc-nih-npa/2018-mrc-nih-neurodegeneration-partnering-awards/

Opens 1^st March 2018

Deadline: 5^th April 2018

Amount: £15k (total budget £135k)

Eligibility: Early career researchers (ECRs) employed on a currently active MRC grant and PIs who are NOT established independent researchers (e.g. NIRGs, CDA/CSF/SDF fellows).

The overarching aim of this scheme is to provide resources to MRC-funded early career researchers working in the area of neurodegenerative disease to allow them to forge long-term collaborations with National Institutes of Health (NIH)-based researchers.

This scheme will forge long-term collaborations and form the basis for future competitive awards.

The aim(s) of the visit(s) will be specific to each application. For illustrative purposes only, these can include:

• promote access to facilities, including training in new methodologies or use of new instruments
• analyse and compare samples
• data analysis
• pilot work

Please ensure to read the call guidance notes, assessment criteria and call details available through the link above.

Please contact Gwen Averley or Darren Airey if you have any queries.

BRC Clinical Fellowships_Application Guidance Notes_Jan 2018 BRC Clinical Fellowship_Application Form_Jan 2018

The NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is seeking a number of exceptional individuals to undertake three year Clinical PhD Fellowships that will make significant contributions to the translational aims of our NIHR Newcastle BRC in ageing and long-term conditions.

Applications are invited from UK-registered Clinicians (including Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, and other Allied Health Professionals) with fellowship proposals that address our overarching aim in Ageing and Long-Term Conditions. We particularly welcome applications from Nurses and Allied Health Professionals working with older people. The award offers 3 years full-time funding to undertake a PhD and is aimed at individuals, of outstanding potential, early in their research careers.

Key Dates

• Call Opens: 30 January 2018
• Submission Deadline: 27 March 2018, 5pm
• Interviews: June 2018
• Project Start Date: October 2018 

NIHR Newcastle BRC

The overarching aim of the NIHR Newcastle BRC is improving lives through world class research in ageing and long-term conditions. This will be achieved through building on our excellence in experimental medicine in dementia, liver disease, musculoskeletal disease, neuromuscular disease, and skin & oral disease, and apply advances in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these individual long-term conditions to ageing syndromes such as sarcopenia, frailty and multi-morbidity.

BRCs are funded by NIHR to drive innovation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease and translate advances in research into patient benefit by bridging the first translational gap with a requirement that research benefits patients within 5 years. Any projects we fund must have clear potential clinical implications and identifiable outcomes that will move scientific research closer to patient benefit, this may also include the early development of medical or healthcare technology. Projects should aim to attract follow-on funding.

Funding

The award will cover:

• Salary costs: corresponding to your stage of training, up to but not including NHS consultant level.
• Up to £15,000 per year; to cover tuition fees, consumables, conference travel and other research running costs.

How to Apply

Application forms and guidance notes are attached and also available via the NIHR Newcastle BRC website.  Forms should be completed and submitted via email to eleanor.lockhart@ncl.ac.uk by the 5pm on 27 March 2018.

https://www.thebraintumourcharity.org/our-research/for-researchers/funding-opportunities/expanding-theories/

Deadline: 19^th March 2018           

Amount:  Up to £60,000

Duration: Up to 2 years

This funding opportunity is designed to promote innovative approaches that could fundamentally change the understanding, diagnosis, and/or management of brain tumours.

The goal of this award is to develop novel concepts that may eventually lead to significant improvements in clinical outcomes, including quality of life, for people with brain tumours.

The awards are designed to allow exploration of theories with the potential to open new avenues of investigation.

Projects funded through this scheme should be pilot awards.

It is intended that the scheme will allow the generation of sufficient data to support applications for larger scale projects to national/ international funding organisations.

Assessment criteria

Relevance to brain tumours

Novelty of approach

Expertise of applicants

Feasibility of project

Potential impact on the field

Please ensure to read the full call guidance document available through the link above and also the funder research strategy ‘A cure can’t wait’.