June 15 – 21

The Research Project Information Form (RPIF) has recently been updated, with changes to the budget section around indirect costs. Accurate completion of this section will help with the allocation of indirect costs to the various units across the university. Please ensure that you are using the latest version of the RPIF by going to the RPIF website instead of saving one to your computer.

The application instructions for the UBC pre-selection process for 2015 NSERC RTI applications are now available (please see the attached PDF file). Please disseminate this message as widely as possible to any UBC researchers who are considering applying for NSERC RTI funding.

As was done last year, all researchers considering applying for NSERC RTI funding in the 2015 competition must first submit an application package to the UBC peer review committee for this pre-selection process. Note that UBC is required by NSERC to pre-select a quota of 46 applications which are then allowed to be submitted to the national NSERC RTI competition.

Please Note: An important change to both the RTI pre-selection and final submission process is that the Canadian Common CV is now required as part of the application package (see attached file for details).

All RTI pre-selection application packages are to be forwarded to David Woods in the SPARC Office by the following deadline:

Ranking of all potential UBC RTI applications will be completed by the peer review committee and results will be made available to applicants by October 2, 2015.

The attached requirements and instructions document, for the NSERC RTI application pre-selection process, is also available via the following SPARC webpage:

Please forward any questions or concerns regarding this RTI pre-selection process to: David Woods (david.woods@ubc.ca).

The Mitacs Globalink Research Internships program is now in its seventh year and accepting applications for summer 2016. The submission deadline for faculty projects is June 18, 2015.

Mitacs Globalink Research Internships invite undergraduate students from around the world to experience Canada as a leading destination for research & innovation. This competitive initiative pairs top-ranked students and faculty at Canadian universities for a 12-week research project of mutual interest in the period of May to September. Faculty members benefit from students’ international perspectives and experience, and can evaluate potential graduate students while demonstrating the breadth of Canadian research opportunities.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s goal is to progressively reduce the impact of type 1 diabetes on people’s lives. To that end, JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners and is the only organization with the scientific resources, policy influence, and a working plan to develop better treatments for, prevent, and eventually cure T1D.

Through JDRF’s Innovative Grant Program, grants of up to $10,000 over twelve months will be awarded for research that addresses key outstanding questions and has the potential to lead to a change in the current paradigm or conventional wisdom and/or lead to a groundbreaking discovery in the treatment, prevention, or cure of T1D. The program does not support proposals aimed at incrementally advancing existing hypotheses, ongoing areas of research, or proposals with the sole goal of generating novel reagents or resources.

Proposals may be submitted by domestic and foreign nonprofit organizations; public and private universities, colleges, hospitals, or laboratories; units of state or local governments; and eligible agencies of the federal government. Innovative (but not pilot or research tool) proposals from for-profit organizations also will  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.

For complete program guidelines and proposal submission procedures, visit the JDRF website.

Founded in 1978, the San Francisco-based Glaucoma Research Foundation was created to encourage innovative research aimed at finding better ways to care for people with glaucoma,  the leading cause of preventable blindness.

Through its Shaffer Grants program, the foundation will award one-year grants of $40,000 in support of high-impact clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory research projects aimed at finding better ways to care for people with glaucoma. The grants do not support equipment exceeding $12,000, salaries for principal investigators and co-investigators, projects with overt commercial applications, lab supplies, or indirect costs.

Preliminary proposals must be received no later than July 31, 2015. Upon review, selected applicants will receive an email with instructions for completing and submitting a full online grant application, which will be due September 30, 2015.

To be eligible, applicants must have a graduate degree. Interdisciplinary teams and collaborations that may lead to new glaucoma treatments are encouraged.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, please visit the Glaucoma Research Foundation website.

The Migraine Research Foundation is committed to furthering the understanding of the causes and mechanisms of migraine, helping to develop improvements in treatment, and finding a cure.

MRF provides one-year seed grants of up to $50,000 in support of important, achievable, and innovative research projects that ultimately lead to better treatment and quality of life for migraine sufferers. While the foundation welcomes all proposals relevant to basic or clinical migraine research, priority will be given to translational projects and those related to migraine variants, childhood migraine, and chronic migraine.  All grants must be used exclusively for research and research equipment (not capital expenditures, administrative costs, publication costs, or travel costs).

See the MRF website for further details.

The Vasculitis Foundation is the international organization for patients with vasculitis and their family members and friends. VF empowers patients through disease education, raises awareness of vasculitis in the general public and medical community, and funds research to determine the cause, develop more effective treatments, and discover the cure for all types of vasculitis.

To that end, the foundation is inviting proposals for grants to support pilot studies related to treatment and/or finding a cure for vasculitis. The foundation hopes that the results of the research will lead to, and provide the basis for, much larger multiyear studies that would be funded by larger agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.

Grants of up to $100,000 for up to two years will be awarded for research related to etiology/pathogenesis (could include a broad range of studies of immunity, inflammation, or vascular biology); epidemiology, including genetics; diagnosis, including identification of disease subtypes; and treatment/management, including therapeutics to treat vasculitis or prevent complications, biomarkers, and psychosocial outcomes.

Preference will be given to applications with total budgets of $50,000 or less to ensure that the foundation can support as many investigators and as many approaches to research in vasculitis as possible.

For complete program guidelines, information about past grant recipients, and application instructions, please visit the Vasculitis Foundation website.

In recognition of the need to establish an effective bridge between students and the wide knowledge base of medical research professionals and faculty both within UBC and abroad, the Faculty of Medicine has limited funds available for the support of Point Grey discussion groups and seminar series.

Only one application per UBC Faculty of Medicine department/centre will be accepted. Up to $1500 per group will be awarded.

Please visit the Discussion Groups website for more details.

The World Federation of Hemophilia is accepting Letters of Intent for international clinical research projects that address inherited bleeding disorders.

Through its Clinical Research Grant Program, WFH will award grants of up to $50,000 to support investigations designed to create better evidence for the clinical management of hemophilia A and B, von Willebrand disease, rare factor deficiencies, and inherited platelet disorders.

The program is open to applicants from all countries who are affiliated with a recognized medical, scientific, or academic institution; hemophilia or inherited bleeding disorder treatment center; or organizations with WFH member status. Ph.D. students are not eligible to apply, and the principal investigator must hold a faculty position at a recognized medical, scientific, or academic institution.

There is a two-step application process. LOIs must be received by August 31, 2015. Selected applicants will be notified and invited to submit a full proposal by December 1, 2015.

Please visit the WFH website for complete program guidelines and LOI submission instructions.

The Weston Brain Institute is launching the Early Phase Clinical Trials 2015 program to help outstanding Canadian researchers accelerate the development of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.

Goal: To provide funding for Phase I and II clinical trials to accelerate the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of aging

Funding: Up to $1,500,000 for up to 4 years

Eligibility: The Principal applicant must be a researcher(s) with a full-time staff or faculty appointment (at or above the level of Assistant Professor or equivalent) at institutions that are registered CRA qualified donees in Canada. Projects must focus on the development of therapeutics for the symptomatic relief, disease modification, or prevention of neurodegenerative diseases of aging as we define them (AD, PD, ALS, DLB, FTD, PSP, MSA, and MCI as prodromal to one of these diseases).

All approaches below qualify for this funding opportunity:

To apply, submit a Letter of Intent through the Institute’s online grant management system.

The online program information session is intended to provide you with comprehensive information on the application process and an opportunity to ask any questions.

To sign-up for the information session and submit any questions in advance of the session, please register here.

The Institute welcomes inquiries about our funding programs at neuro@weston.ca or 416-935-4056.

The Progeria Research Foundation has brought progeria to the forefront of research efforts, engaging large, reputable institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and Children’s Hospital Boston to invest their resources in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.

The foundation currently is accepting applications for awards in three categories: Innovator Awards, Established Investigator Awards, and Specialty Awards.

Innovator Awards: Two-year grants of up to $150,000 will be awarded to an investigator to embark on new lines of investigation and produce enough preliminary data to be competitive for longer-term funding from NIH and/or other agencies.

Established Investigator Awards: Grants of up to $300,000 over three years will be awarded to senior investigators established either in the field of progeria or a field that can be directly applied to progeria.

Specialty Awards: Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to support smaller, more technology-driven projects, including sequencing, screening potential drugs, obtaining cell lines (including IPSCs,) and preparation of antibodies. Funding amounts and lengths are flexible.

To be eligible, principal investigators must hold postdoctoral positions or beyond. In addition, grants will be awarded only to applicants affiliated with institutions with 501(c)(3) status, or the equivalent for foreign institutions.

Please visit the Progeria Research Foundation website for complete program guidelines, information about previous grant recipients, and application instructions.

The goals of the AUR Research and Education Foundation, the charitable arm of the Associaton of University Radiologists are to encourage excellence in radiological laboratory and clinical investigation, teaching and clinical practice; to stimulate an interest in academic radiology as a medical career; to advance radiology as a medical science; and to represent academic radiology at a national level.

The foundation is currently accepting applications its Ethics and Professionalism in Radiology Project Grants, which are designed to improve patient care and safety, and to promote social responsibility in medical care and practice by providing funding opportunities for the study and teaching of ethics and professionalism in radiology.

Projects that address any aspect of ethics and professionalism in radiology will be considered. Examples of types of projects include, but are not limited to, research of ethical dilemmas faced by academic radiologists or radiology physicians-in-training and the methods by which the dilemmas are addressed and educational programs to teach ethics and professionalism to practicing radiologists, to radiology physicians-in-training, or to allied members of the academic radiology community.

Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded in a single year. The awards may be used for salary support and/or other project costs. Through this grant program, the AUR Research & Education Foundation does not pay institutional indirect costs or overhead costs, or tuition.

Any member of AUR is eligible to apply as principal investigator. However, it is not necessary for all members of the research or development team to be AUR members.  Eligibility of the principal investigator must be maintained throughout the grant period.

See the AUR website for complete program guidelines and application instructions.

We invite nominations for the 2016 Canada Gairdner Wightman Award (deadline October 1, 2015), am annual award of $100,000 CDN given to an established scientist who has demonstrated outstanding national leadership in medicine and medical science in Canada. Normally, the scientist should have a high level sustained research career in a biomedical discipline. The award is given for:

The evaluation of the contributions of the Nominee(s) depends heavily on the quality of information supplied. Therefore, nominations should be accurate, detailed, current, complete, and with independent supporting letters from several institutions reflecting the Nominee’s accomplishments.

The recipient will be formally announced on March 23, 2016 and presented at the awards dinner on October 27, 2016 in Toronto.

Please visit the Gairnder website for further details about the nomination process.

Fluidigm Single Cell Science: Latest Developments and Technology Update

Seminar by:

We will provide an update on the recent additions to Fluidigm’s single cell portfolio including Polaris™ -­‐ a single cell selection and environmental control system and Callisto™ – an automated combinatorial cell culture system.

Hosted by Dr. Kelly McNagny Kelly@brc.ubc.ca

Seminar by:

Endothelium, a thin monolayer of highly specialized “epithelium‐like” cells lining lumen of blood vessels is the key regulatory interface between blood and tissues. Endothelial cells control vital functions and their abnormalities are implicated in many disease conditions. Biotherapeutics replenishing endothelial protective functions may improve management of these conditions, and targeting to molecules expressed on the endothelial luminal surface optimizes delivery and effects of drugs. Endothelial anchoring epitopes must be accessible to carriers, targeting must be safe and provide desirable addressing of drugs. Endowing drugs with an affinity to specific endothelial epitopes enables an unprecedented level of precision of control of drug

delivery: binding to selected endothelial cell phenotypes, cellular addressing and duration of activity, providing effects unattainable by non‐targeted counterparts. Factors of local microenvironment operating at cellular, sub‐cellular and sub‐molecular scales modulate endothelial targeting and effects of the biotherapeutics, often in unpredictable and sometimes fortuitously beneficial fashion. Understanding of these factors guides reiterative molecular engineering of targeted therapeutics, honing their utility as investigational tools and boosting their chances for translational success and medical use.

Please contact Dr. Ed Conway (ed.conway@ubc.ca) to network with the guest speaker.

SPARC is hosting an information session for UBC researchers who are interested in applying to the NSERC Discovery Grants (DG) Program. Join us as we review the Notification of Intent, create an NSERC Canadian Common CV, and discuss the Review Criteria and Evaluation Groups for the program. Information about SPARC’s DG support and services will also be presented.

The information session is scheduled for Monday, June 29, 2015, from 1:00-3:00pm

Registration for this workshop is required. Please visit the SPARC announcement webpage to register.

Please note that the Notification of Intent (NOI) for the DG competition is mandatory. NSERC’s NOI deadline is Monday, August 3. The full DG application is November 1st.

If you have any questions about this workshop or the 2015 Discovery Grant competition, please contact Alexander Unterberger at alexander.unterberger@ubc.ca.

Target audience: Family Medicine, Gynecologists, Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, Residents & Medical Students

Up to 2.0 Mainpro-C credits

We are currently checking how many are interested until the end of June. We will go ahead with the course if we have 12 or more registered (max 24). If not, the course will be cancelled.

Now that copper and levonorgestrel IUDs are recommended for a much wider variety of women – for teens, for emergency contraception and for treating dysfunctional uterine bleeding in the peri-menopause – we can expect more challenges in inserting IUDs, especially into tight nulliparous uteri. There are a number of new IUDs with which you may not be familiar.

This hands-on workshop will take advantage of plastic models, slides and discussion and is most suitable for clinicians who have already been inserting IUDs. Participants are encouraged to bring clinical scenarios that have been challenging. The facilitators are family doctors who run IUD clinics and will share their experience with a range of clinical equipment and techniques to simplify the challenging IUD insertion. All 13 IUDs currently available in Canada will be at the workshop.

Please contact UBC CPD at cpd.info@ubc.ca if you have any further questions or would like to register. You may also register online.

Register here

I wanted to bring to your attention a new course that will be offered next year as part of the renewed MD Undergraduate curriculum that will offer a number of new teaching and mentoring opportunities for the faculty in your Department.  In the Fall of 2015, we will be launching a course called FLEX; FLEXible and Enhanced Learning. FLEX is an innovative new course that provides both time and space for medical students to participate in a variety of different learning activities, including research projects. The course will promote scholarly inquiry by introducing students to the basics of research and scholarship, and then provide them with time and support to pursue, design and participate in projects in their area of interest.

FLEX will span the first three years of the MD Undergraduate curriculum and will make use of one afternoon per week and dedicated blocks of time which are devoted solely to FLEX activity. As such, the framework for the course will support student engagement in larger, longitudinal projects, including research projects that may span more than one year.

We are currently collecting the names of faculty who are interested in working with a medical student. Attached to this email is our “FLEX Call For Proposals”. The package contains a pdf that provides background information about the course (goals of the course, information about course scheduling and how to get involved) and instructions for filling in the FLEX proposal form. The remaining two word files are the proposal forms themselves (.docx and .doc versions).

FLEX will serve to connect students with specific projects, and connect students with potential supervisors. If you have faculty within your Department that would like to work with a medical student but do not have not have a specific project in mind, we invite them to submit a proposal form that simply outlines their area of interest and/or a few potential ideas.  We will begin populating the FLEX database in August 2015. If you would like to work with a student in the upcoming academic year (2015/2016) and you would like have your activity posted to the database ford students to review this fall, please submit your proposal forms by July 30.

Please feel free to distribute this package to the faculty in your Department or to other individuals you feel would be interested. If you have any questions, do let me know. I am happy to meet with you personally, present to your group and/or meet with any individuals who are interested in getting involved. I should also note that faculty will receive evaluations and letters for their teaching dossiers and the assessment requirements of the faculty are both streamlined and minimal.

For more information please contact the course co-directors; Dr(s). Dawn Cooper (d.cooper@ubc.ca) and Richard Lazenby (Richard.lazenby@unbc.ca).