The Florida Department of Health has released the call for grant applications for the 2019-2020 James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program. The purpose of this program is to support research initiatives that address the health care problems of Floridians in the areas of tobacco-related cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and pulmonary disease.
All applications submitted in response to this funding opportunity must be responsive to one of the following eight research priorities. Also, efforts to foster collaborations among institutions, researchers, and community practitioners should be included, when possible . Researchers conducting behavioral health research involving tobacco cessation and control are required to coordinate with the Department of Health’s Tobacco – Free Florida Program to obtain a letter of support. Priority will be given to applications that address at least one of the following: lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, melanoma , or other tobacco – related diseases
- Prevention and Treatment
- Health Disparities
- Screening
- Tobacco Use
- Obesity
- Treatment-Related Morbidities
- Technology Transfer Feasibility (TTF)
- Investigational New Drug (IND) or Investigational Device Exemption (IDE)
All applicants must clearly demonstrate how the proposed project is relevant to tobacco-related cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and pulmonary disease.
There are the mechanisms of support available within this Call to pursue the above eight research priorities:
- Discovery Science: Discovery science means fundamental theoretical or experimental investigative research to advance knowledge without a specifically envisaged or immediately practical application. Directed to understanding the events related to the development or prevention of tobacco-related diseases at the molecular, cellular, and organismic levels, as well as the discovery and development of new drugs or therapies for tobacco-related diseases. Maximum Amount (including direct and indirect costs) $900,000 maximum duration 3 years.
- Research Infrastructure: Eligible organizations may submit an infrastructure application in one of the following six areas: tissue banking, bioinformatics, genomics, diagnostic imaging, health disparities, or quality indicator systems. The FL DOH, Department is particularly interested in research involving quality indicator systems, when this is linked with other priorities, such as increasing the number of Florida research networks, external funding for research infrastructure and large scale projects, including but not limited to National Cancer Institute grants. Organizations will only be permitted to be the lead on one application but may be collaborators on applications submitted by other organizations. Maximum Amount (including direct and indirect costs) $1,500,000 maximum duration 3 years.
- Clinical Research: Clinical research means research that gathers evidence of the benefits and harms of various treatment options for tobacco-related diseases, directly involves a particular person or group of people, or uses materials from humans, such as their behavior or samples of their tissue. Clinical research can involve observational trials, behavioral health interventions, healthcare delivery comparisons or trials of new medications or medication combinations. Maximum Amount (including direct and indirect costs) $1,500,000 maximum duration 5 years.
- Bridge: The intent of this grant mechanism is to provide interim support for promising investigator-initiated research projects that have been highly rated by national panels of peer reviewers in recent federal competitions but were not funded due to budgetary constraints. To be eligible, applicants must have submitted a multi-year, investigator-initiated research application to a federal agency (such as an NIH R type). For purposes of this competition, “high scientific merit” is a percentile ranking within five percentile points of the respective federal funding stream’s payline or a score of 2 or better for federal funding streams that do not provide a percentile rank with peer review results. Maximum Amount (including direct and indirect costs) $100,000 maximum duration 6 months.
Applications for high – risk, high – reward, Discovery Science will also be considered for funding at Maximum Amount (including direct and indirect costs) $300,000 maximum duration 3 years, and for high – risk, high – reward Clinical Research Maximum Amount (including direct and indirect costs) $750,000 maximum duration 5 years..
The other three funding mechanisms (Discovery Science, Clinical Research and Bridge) are not limited in the number of applications UF may submit and there will be no internal coordination. Applicants must follow listed Duplicate Applications and Overlap Limits in the FOA.
UF may submit only one Research Infrastructure proposal for the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program with UF as the lead institution. Applicants interested in applying for the Infrastructure Proposal must submit an internal Letter of Intent (LOI; click here for guidelines) including a list of all key personnel to the Research Administration Cancer Center (ResearchAdmin@cancer.ufl.edu) with a copy to UF Office of Research (limitedprograms@research.ufl.edu) by 5pm, Wednesday, July 17, 2019 for internal coordination.