Funding Opportunities
The Corporate and Foundations Relations Office is able to work with faculty applying for corporate and foundation opportunities below. Please contact them by email or by phone at 919.962.2867. For all applications, please be sure to work with your Department of Pediatrics division grants administrator. Headlines are linked for more information.
Angelman Syndrome Foundation Research Grants
The Angelman Syndrome Foundation (ASF) is accepting proposals to fund pilot projects to test new ideas about pathogenesis and therapeutics of Angelman syndrome, translational research and clinical research studies. Deadlines – October 15 and April 15.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Grand Challenges – Innovations for Exceptionally Low-Cost Monoclonal Antibody (mAb) Manufacturing
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is accepting applications to support innovative and novel approaches to reduce costs, enhance production efficiency and ultimately expand access to life-saving monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatments. The goal is to support projects that provide clear pathways to achieve the $10 per gram target. There are two funding options for this Grand Challenge round:
- Option A: Proof-of-Concept: In partnership with LifeArc, a self-funded medical research charity in the UK, this funding program seeks proposals for proof-of-concept for manufacturing platforms that produce mAb treatments at a final drug substance cost-of-goods at $10 per gram. The goal is to catalyze and accelerate multiple, diverse, innovative bioprocessing approaches that hold the promise of low cost-of-goods mAbs. Proposals would work with MAM01 malaria antibodies requiring high doses
- Option B: Operationalization and Economic Viability: This funding program is intended for organizations that may already have proof-of-concept data and would like to partner for further development funding. Proposals would work with malaria, RSV or HIV antibodies requiring high doses.
For objectives for both goals are to advance innovative and bold ideas; push boundaries of current technology and, rethink existing methods of working. More information can be found here. To apply, contact the FRIE Associate Vice Chancellor.
The BRAIN Foundation’s primary focus is catalyzing basic and interdisciplinary translational research that leads to the development of effective therapeutics to improve the functioning of individuals with Neuro-Developmental Disorders (NDD) including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Applications will be accepted for pre-clinical drug studies, Phase I/II clinical treatment trials or human treatment studies, animal or organoid studies, to evaluate efficacy of new compounds and repurposed drugs for treatment of disabling symptoms of autism with higher priority will be given to human studies. Applications are due January 20, 2025 at 11:59PM. For more information, visit the BRAIN Foundation website.
Children’s Research Institute Research Grant Initiative
As part of the mission of the Children’s Research Institute (CRI) to coordinate and support pediatric research, we are thrilled to support 3 research funding opportunities: 1) Carolina for the Kids (CFTK) Research Grant Awards; 2) UNC Children’s Development Early Career Investigator Grants; and 3) IQVIA Pediatric Clinical Scholars Award. Please look for information on next year’s cycle in fall 2024.
The Commonwealth Fund’s Advancing Health Equity program, established in 2021, aims to advance equity in U.S. health care. Its goal is to eliminate unequal treatment, experience, and outcomes in health and health care for people of color by reducing systemic racism in health care policy and practice through three focus areas: promoting antiracism in health care delivery systems, promoting antiracism in health care policy, and changing the mindset of health care leaders and professionals. This is an open RFA with no deadline.
COVID-19 Funding Opportunities
Information about funding opportunities related to COVID-19 will be added to the UNC Office of Research website as they become available. These include opportunities from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Hearst Foundation: Funding Priorities in Health
The Hearst Foundations assist leading regional hospitals, medical centers and specialized medical institutions providing access to healthcare for high-need populations. In response to the shortage of healthcare professionals necessary to meet the country’s evolving healthcare demands, the Foundations also fund programs designed to enhance skills and increase the number of practitioners and educators across roles in healthcare. The Foundations also support medical research and the development of young investigators to help create a broad and enduring impact on the nation’s health. Priorities include professional development, programs improving access to low-income populations, rural populations, and/or veterans, developing or providing specialized care for complex needs of elderly populations, providing intensive behavioral healthcare, and research. This is an open RFA with no deadline.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced the selection of the newest Hanna Gray Fellows, a cohort of 25 outstanding early career scientists who have demonstrated a commitment to making foundational discoveries while building an inclusive culture in academic science. The Institute will invest up to $1.5 million in support for each fellow over the course of up to eight years, spanning postdoctoral training through transition to starting their independent lab as a faculty member. This support allows each fellow the freedom to pursue challenging scientific questions at the forefront of their fields. This is open to researchers and physician-scientists in the biological and biomedical sciences in many scientific disciplines, at hundreds of institutions. Following HHMI’s “people, not projects” philosophy, the Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program gives fellows freedom to change their research focus and follow their curiosity for the duration of the award. The program also provides many opportunities for career development, including participation in the vibrant community of Hanna Gray Fellows and the wider HHMI scientific community. Those interested in joining the 2025 Hanna Gray Fellows cohort must apply by February 26, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET. For more information, please visit their website.
NC Biotech Call for Proposals: Translational Research Grant
The Translational Research Grant (TRG) program funds research projects that explore commercial applications or initiate the early commercial development of university-held life sciences inventions. The goals of the TRG program include:
- Advancing research discoveries toward product-focused translational research development
- Generating data that addresses important product development or regulatory milestones, addresses the concerns of potential licensees or investors, or de-risks the technology for a specific commercial application
- Enabling strategic “go/no-go” decision-making regarding further technology development or the pursuit of intellectual property protection
- Enabling technology licensing efforts by the university
- Establishing goal-oriented partnerships between university scientists, product development professionals and key stakeholders
Applicants must be researchers employed by North Carolina-based universities or nonprofit research institutes. Technical projects may be conducted at awardee institutions or outsourced to contract research organizations. Pre-submission consultations with NCBiotech staff are strongly recommended. Deadline for proposals is January 29, 2025. For more information, please visit the NC Biotech page.
The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NCTraCS) provides a variety of pilot funding opportunities to facilitate the transfer of research findings to clinical practice in order to improve the health of the people of North Carolina. Multiple grant mechanisms are available.
This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) encourages innovative research to develop, improve, characterize, and preserve animal models as well as animal model related biological materials, technologies, and new approach methodologies (NAMs) for studies relevant to human health and disease. This NOFO also seeks projects aimed at improving the diagnosis and control of diseases that could confound or interfere with animal use in biomedical research. The proposed project must have broad applicability to multiple NIH Institutes or Centers (ICs) to align with the NIH-wide mission of the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP). The proposed studies must include animal models and explore multiple body systems or multiple categories of diseases. Applications that develop models focused on a specific disease or area of research, or only propose studies primarily relevant to a single NIH IC, will be considered not acceptable to this NOFO and will be withdrawn. For more information, please see the NOFO linked here.
NIH Human Brain Single-cell Genomics Explorer (U24 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
The NIH Blueprint for neuroscience is soliciting applications to pilot the establishment of an integrated resource for users to explore, analyze and download processed deidentified human brain single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics data that is harmonized across reference and disease datasets. The resource will generate a unified cell type taxonomy, provide users with a draft annotatable cell-type nomenclature, and the ability to map community generated single cell omics data to the taxonomy. This pilot will lay the groundwork for an expanded and sustained effort to increase utility and accessibility of human cell-type classification data across multiple NIH consortia. Letters of intent due January 14, 2025 and applications due February 14, 2025. For more information, please see the RFA.
NIH Research Opportunities for New and “At-Risk” Investigators to Promote Workforce Diversity
This notice is soliciting R01 grant applications that would support independent research projects within the scientific mission areas of the participating NIH Institutes or Centers from a diverse cohort of New Investigators and At-Risk Investigators. The first deadline is February 5, 2025. For more information, please see the NIH website.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Evidence for Action—Innovative Research to Advance Racial Equity
Evidence for Action prioritizes research to evaluate specific interventions (e.g., policies, programs, practices) that have the potential to counteract the harms of structural and systemic racism and improve health, well-being, and equity outcomes. This funding is focused on studies about upstream causes of health inequities, such as the systems, structures, laws, policies, norms, and practices that determine the distribution of resources and opportunities, which in turn influence individuals’ options and behaviors. Research should center on the needs and experiences of communities exhibiting the greatest health burdens and be motivated by real-world priorities. It should be able to inform a specific course of action and/or establish beneficial practices, not stop at characterizing or documenting the extent of a problem. This is an open RFA with no deadline.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Pioneering Ideas—Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health
Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health seeks proposals that are primed to influence health equity in the future. We are interested in ideas that address any of these four areas of focus: Future of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of Work. Additionally, we welcome ideas that might fall outside of these four focus areas, but which offer unique approaches to advancing health equity and our progress toward a Culture of Health. This is an open RFA with no deadline.
Thrasher Research Fund – Early Career Awards
The Thrasher Research Fund is accepting concept papers to support young investigators in pediatric research. The program’s aim is to encourage the development of medical research in child health by awarding small grants to new researchers. The grant cycle is an ongoing process throughout the year.
UNC Global Affairs: Global Partnership Awards
The Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs offers Global Partnership Awards to create and sustain meaningful relationships with international partner institutions (typically a college or university). The awards support faculty who engage in collaborative activities such as: visiting the partner institution for networking and exploratory discussions; developing collaborative research; establishing joint academic programs, courses or opportunities for students; organizing joint workshops to engage partner faculty and graduate students; presenting lectures or seminars; and serving on graduate student committees. Global Partnership Awards are offered at two levels: Exploration Grants and Expansion Grants. Faculty are encouraged to contact the OVPGA partnerships team for advice on writing a strong application or to ask questions about which grant, partner, or project may be most appropriate. For more information on the grants available, please visit the UNC Global Affairs website. Application deadlines for 2024-2025 are October 31, 2024 and March 30, 2025.
UNC Office of Research Development: Idea Seed Grant Program
The program provides pilot funding between $5,000 – $20,000 and/or pre-proposal support for UNC scholars and researchers to approach novel ideas addressing important problems or roadblocks in a current line of inquiry. This unique program provides “right place, right kind” resources by coupling seed funding and person time to support competitive teams of UNC researchers. In addition to funding for preliminary data collection, travel, and team-building activities, awardees will receive expert guidance in planning and preparing grant applications for extramural funding opportunities. This competition is now accepting applications anytime and will receive initial review upon receipt. It is planned that awards will be made promptly after internal review by OVCR leadership and offered on a deliverables oriented schedule. Up-to date instructions will always be kept on the ORD website.
UNC School of Medicine: Boost Funding
UNC School of Medicine (SOM) faculty are extremely successful in their efforts to obtain funding for their research, even though the funding climate has become increasingly competitive. The SOM recognizes that it often takes multiple submissions and additional experimental data to get a new project funded, particularly as a new investigator, or with a more complex, multi-PI project. In support of these efforts, the SOM Office of Research is inviting applications from faculty for Boost awards, which are designed to boost the chances of funding for an NIH grant (or similar) that has been reviewed favorably but needs additional revisions and preliminary data in order to be funded on resubmission. For more information, please visit the OoR Funding site.
UNC School of Medicine: Bridge Funding
The School of Medicine is opening the first round of applications for Bridge Funding for this fiscal year. Bridge Funding provides continued support for successful research projects that suffer a lapse in funding. Investigators eligible for funding in this round should have had a competing renewal application for an R01 or equivalent grant reviewed in the most recent review cycle. Bridge funding is a critical resource for SOM faculty, and a high proportion of bridge funding recipients have been successful in renewing their NIH support. Thus, a competitive bridge funding application must demonstrate a high likelihood of receiving NIH funding upon resubmission. Please visit the OoR Funding site for more information.
UNC School of Medicine: Physician Scientist Training Program
The School of Medicine is soliciting a new round of applications for the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP)- a training initiative to support career development of Physician Scientist trainees near their transition to faculty positions. This program, supported by the SOM Strategic Plan, supports physician scientists at two stages: resident/fellowship level and early stage faculty level. The program partners with trainees’ home departments and provides funding to support research efforts of the trainees (Resident/Fellow Award – $35,000/year and Faculty Award -$ 55,000/year salary support + $25,000/year project support). Additionally, trainees enter a career development training program with peer level physician scientists across multiple clinical disciplines. Each awarded trainee will receive two years of support from the program. The program is seeking nomination of eligible applicants from the UNC Clinical Departments for awards with support to begin for the 2025-2026 academic year (July 1, 2025). Each department may nominate up to two candidates for each award. Visit the PSTP website for more details.
UNC School of Medicine: Translational Team Science Awards
The School of Medicine’s Strategic Plan includes an annual award aimed at capitalizing on the “culture of collaboration” at UNC Chapel Hill to foster new synergistic interdisciplinary teams of basic science and clinical investigators. “Translational” is defined broadly and is not restricted to human subjects and tissues. Proposals may include research using cellular and animal model systems; however, the project should clearly translate across basic and clinical disciplines. Selected TTSA teams will receive a 12-month Phase I award (up to $50,000) to begin to fully engage team members in the project. For larger projects, an application for Phase II funding (12 months, up to $75,000) can be submitted for competitive review upon completion of Phase I. Phase II will consist of additional distinct aims that are necessary to get the project to the point where it is competitive for external funding. Funding for Phase II is contingent on the merit of the proposed plan and progress in the prior period relative to the stated milestones. TTSA Phase I and Phase II applications are due by 5pm on January 15, 2025. Please submit applications to the NCTraCS online portal. Locate the TTSA Opportunity in the list of funding opportunities or use the quick search box. For more information, please see the attached SOM TTSA.