Research Newsletter - Issue 58: Funding Opportunities

Please find details of recently opened funding calls below:

Breast Cancer Now Catalyst Programme

The Breast Cancer Now Catalyst Programme is now open.  This call is aimed at researchers who are interested in investigating Pfizer drugs alone or in combination with other agents that address problems in breast cancer.  

Breast Cancer Now are looking to fund innovative clinical research proposals but would also welcome proposals from groups working in preclinical research.

Grants are available in awards of up to £400,000, or up to £1.5 million for larger studies of exceptional potential.

Proposals will be accepted from teams based at a single site or multiple sites in the UK and the rest of Europe. They may address a range of questions around a common theme, or undertake research using several Pfizer drugs, or support multi-centre phase II clinical studies.

The deadline for applications is 5 February 2021.

Click here to find out more and apply.

RS contact: helen.burke@dcu.ie 

Movember First Responder Mental Health Program

Movember, the global men’s health charity, is seeking to fund the development and implementation of effective mental ill health prevention programs for the purposes of initial data collection or to strengthen existing evidence around effective prevention and early intervention programs.  See details of the opportunity below:

In partnership with the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR), Movember is proud to announce a new mental health grants funding program in support of First Responders, as well as their families, across a number of countries.

An initial investment of €3.92M is being earmarked over the next two years to support First Responder Initiatives in New Zealand, Ireland, the UK and the US, as well as Veteran and First Responder Initiatives in Australia and Canada.  This investment includes a funding allocation of €309,000 over two years for a First Responder program in Ireland.

A minimum of eight programs will be funded with a focus on those programs that have already shown promise in improving mental health and/or suicide prevention outcomes for these groups.  

For full details on the current funding opportunity and to download the Request for Proposals - click here. 

Key Dates are:

To apply, register online here. Set up a user profile and complete and submit a Letter of Intent by 23 November 2020, 5:00 pm EDT.  Late or emailed submissions will not be accepted.

Any queries can be emailed to: vfrgrants@movember.com

RS Contact: helen.burke@dcu.ie

IRC Ulysses 2020

The Irish Research Council are delighted to announce that the Ulysses 2020 call is now open. 

This year, selected research projects will also be supported by the following strategic partners:

• Electricity transmission system operator EirGrid will partner with French-based Réseau de Transport d’Électricité to support suitably aligned research projects in the area of renewable energies and smart grids.
• The Health Research Board will support research projects focusing on patient-oriented and clinical research, population health or health services research.
• The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and ADEME, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, will provide support to research projects exploring topics relating to energies.

A Ulysses award will involve researcher(s) based in Ireland travelling to France and researcher(s) based in France travelling to Ireland. Awards will be up to a maximum of €2,500 each to Irish- and French-based research partner(s) to cover travel and living expenses. For reasons relating to Covid-19 If one government maintains some form of travel ban: laureates will be allowed to spend 25% of their grant in 2021 on other expenses research expenses to help with the collaboration in place of travel.

These awards are simultaneously receivable and must be used by end of calendar year, 2022.

The applicant’s deadline is 4th February 2021 and the results will be announced in June 2021.

RS contact: sumona.mukherjee@dcu.ie 

Spencer Foundation Research Grants on Education: Large

The Spencer Foundation have released the call dates for their Large Research Grants on Education. The funder website, call documentation, and access to the online submission portal can be found here. 

The call is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. Applications must be education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education and be intellectually ambitious research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education.

Intent to apply must be submitted to the Spencer Foundation by the 15th January 2021 and the call will close on February 5th, 2021 at 6 pm (Irish time). The budget for the call is limited to $125,000 to $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years.

RS contact: adam.platt@dcu.ie

Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Special Research Grant

In honour of their 50th anniversary, the Spencer Foundation will be issuing a special grant opportunity titled: "Racial Equity Special Research Grants". The first cycle is currently open with an intent to apply deadline of the 15th of December 2020 (6pm Irish time) and a submission deadline of the 12th January 2021 (6pm Irish time). 

Grants will focus on supporting racial equality in education by funding research projects that work to reimagine educational opportunities in a multiplicity of education systems, levels, settings, and developmental ranges and that reach beyond documenting conditions and paradigms that contribute to persistent racial inequalities. Projects will need to be between one to five years with a budget of up to $75,000.

If you are interested in applying to the call, documents and information regarding submission can be found here. An additional cycle for this call will be announced in 2021. 

RS contact: adam.platt@dcu.ie

Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund

The Call for Proposals for the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund programme is now open. The call will close for applicants at 3pm on Friday 12^th February 2021.  

Applicants who are interested in applying to the Programme are encouraged to engage with DCU Invent as soon as possible. Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Specialists are also on hand to guide you through all stages of  application preparation and submission. Working together with an Invent officer and EI Commercialisation Specialist will help to align your application with the requirements of the Programme.

Full details on the Commercialisation Fund (CF) are available here. Submit your proposal on the Enterprise Ireland online application system.  Sample case studies can be found here.

RS contact: kieran.odwyer@dcu.ie.

2021 Female focus:

Enterprise Ireland will be running the February 2021 Call for Proposals with an additional focus on female applicants and female intending founders. In line with the objectives of the Enterprise Ireland Women in Business Strategy, Enterprise Ireland is seeking to identify, engage and support many more female researchers within the Irish research system who have an interest in commercialising their research and diversifying their career experience beyond the academic setting.

The recent five-year average (2015-2019) shows that the percentage of women-led applications to the Commercialisation Fund has been 26% for Life Science and Food, 16% for ICT and 13% for Manufacturing, Engineering and Energy. EI is committed to increasing these numbers substantially as we move into 2021 and beyond.

Over November, December and January, EI Commercialisation Specialist teams will be running a series of webinars and engagement events to support women researchers who are interested in starting this journey. Details of the first such webinar can be found in the Events section of this newsletter.

DCU Equipment Maintenance Call

The provision of resources to support the on-going service/ maintenance and/or repair costs of key items of research equipment is essential if DCU is to safeguard the capital investment of recent years and develop truly internationally competitive research infrastructure. Therefore, DCU has established a Research Equipment Maintenance fund, administered by Research and Innovation Support, and financed through Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland research overheads. Submissions will be accepted for costs associated with service/maintenance contracts and repair costs.

This funding programme is open to all researchers in the areas of biotechnology, ICT and sustainable energy, as well as the associated underlying fields of mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, materials science and engineering. Calls for proposals under this scheme will be issued on an annual basis.

The call closes at 5pm on the 27th November 2020 and details can be found on the RIS website here. 

RS contact: kieran.odwyer@dcu.ie.