Grants>Physiology

Travel Grants for the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision Symposium

50th ISCEV Symposium in Valencia (Spain) June 5th to 8th, 2012

14th February 2012. Travel GRANT Application Deadline.

28th February 2012. ABSTRACT Submission DEADLINE.

Two themes have been adopted for this 50th ISCEV meeting.

· Experimental and animal models in visual electrophysiology.

· Electrophysiology and correlation with diseases.

The purpose of the ISCEV Grant program is to assist young colleagues who would otherwise be unable to attend ISCEV meetings. There are currently a minimum of six travel grants, at least three to applicants from the ISCEV region of the symposium and at least three overseas grants. Additional grants may be awarded based on the quality of applications when sufficient budget is available. Travel grants have a value of €500 or €1000 (Euro) for regional and overseas travel respectively. The grants programme does not expect to provide full support but hopefully will provide sufficient assistance that grant-recipients will be able to find local funds for the remainder of the symposium costs. Recipients also receive a free membership to ISCEV for the current year and a reduced registration fee offered by the local organizers. Applicants who are not awarded grants retain the privilege of registering without a late fee, if the early registration deadline has passed.

Applications are made directly to the Secretary-General and will be considered by the ISCEV Awards Committee, which comprises the Secretary General and the three regional ISCEV Vice-Presidents. Applications must contain:

• An abstract for presentation at the symposium. This should be submitted online to the symposium organisers AND sent separately by email to the Secretary-General.

• A statement of circumstances from the applicant describing his/her experience in clinical electrophysiology of vision and the reason for requesting financial assistance. If the applicant is a student or junior member, an additional letter of support from the supervisor is required.

There are no absolute criteria for travel grants; the awards committee will consider scientific merit, the relevance of the submitted abstract to the symposium topics and the benefits to the applicant of participation in the symposium. Repeat applications from previously-successful applicants, multiple applications from the same laboratory, and applications from investigators with more than 5 years of experience in clinical electrophysiology are discouraged.

Deadline for submitting an application is February 28th 2012, and the awardees will be notified by March 21th, 2012.

Call for Applications: Caltech's Amgen Scholars Program

Application, Recommendations, and Proposal Deadline: February 15, 2012

Caltech's Amgen Scholars program provides students the opportunity to conduct research in biology, chemistry, and bio-technical related fields under the guidance of seasoned research mentors. The program offers students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. a great opportunity to experience the research process.

Amgen Scholarships may be offered in the following fields: biochemistry • bioengineering • bioinformatics • chemical and biomolecular engineering • biopsychology • biotechnology • chemistry • immunology • medical pharmacology • microbiology • molecular genetics • molecular medicine • molecular pharmacology • molecular, cell, and developmental biology • neurobiology • neuroscience • pathology • physiological psychology • physiological science • statistics • toxicology

The Amgen Scholars program is modeled on the grant-seeking process:

Students collaborate with potential mentors to define and develop a project
Applicants write research proposals for their projects
A faculty committee reviews the proposals and recommends awards
Students carry out the work over a 10-week period in the summer, mid-June to late August
At the conclusion of the program, they submit a technical paper and give an oral presentation at Seminar Day, a symposium modeled on a professional technical meeting

Eligibility Statement
Amgen Scholars must

Be sophomores (with at least 4 quarters or 3 semesters of college course work), juniors, or non-graduating seniors attending 4-year colleges or universities in the U.S., Puerto Rico, or other U.S. territories
Have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.2
Not be under any disciplinary sanction
Be U.S. citizens or permanent residents
Have an interest in pursuing a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.

Students who have been an Amgen Scholar, at any U.S. site, are not eligible. Please consider applying through the Caltech SURF program.

Requirements
Upon receiving an Amgen Scholarship, students sign an agreement to fulfill the following requirements:

To conduct their research from June 18 - August 24, 2012
To devote full effort to conducting the Amgen Scholars project (Scholars are strongly discouraged from taking courses or holding a job)
To submit two progress reports signed by their mentors
To attend the mid-summer Amgen Scholars conference
To submit an abstract of their project
To submit a written technical report approved by the mentor
To give an oral presentation on one of the scheduled seminar day symposia
To attend weekly Amgen Scholar meetings
To fully participate in Amgen Scholar assessment efforts
To abide by Caltech's Honor Code

Compensation
Students receive a $5,500 stipend for the ten-week period. For information on payroll tax issues, please contact sfp@caltech.edu and we will forward your question to the Amgen Scholars payroll coordinator.

Stipend payments will be distributed in equal installments near the first business day in July and August.

Students will also receive a $1500 room and $1200 board allowance, and non-Caltech students will receive reimbursements for their travel to and from Pasadena.

Funding
Amgen Scholar stipends are funded from a generous grant from the Amgen Foundation. Mentors pay all research-related costs and provide space.

Amgen Scholar Summer Activities
To enrich the research experience, Amgen Scholars may participate in the following activities:

Amgen Scholars weekly lunch meetings to bring participants together for discussions, special programs, and to meet faculty
Weekly seminars by Caltech faculty—lunch is provided
A professional development series on developing a research career, graduate school admissions, and other topics of interest to future researchers
Social and cultural activities
Weekly small student-faculty dinners
Special field trips

Housing
Non-Caltech Amgen Scholars will live in Caltech housing during the ten-week summer period, and they can move into rooms on the first day of the summer program.

General Inquiries
amgenscholars@caltech.edu
626.395.2885

2012 Senior Scholar in Aging Award

The Ellison Medical Foundation was established and is supported by Lawrence J. Ellison to support biomedical research (including basic biology, basic biomedicine and epidemiology) on aging. The Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar program is designed to support established investigators, working at institutions in the U.S., to conduct research in the basic biological and basic biomedical sciences relevant to understanding lifespan development processes and age-related diseases and disabilities. The award is intended to provide significant support to established investigators in order to allow the development of new, creative research programs by investigators who may not currently be conducting aging research or who may wish to develop new research programs in aging. The Foundation particularly wishes to stimulate new research, which has rigorous scientific foundations, but which may not be currently funded adequately, because of its perceived novelty, its high risk, or because it is from an area where traditional research interests absorb most funding.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to

Structural biology
Molecular genetics
Studies with model systems ranging from lower eukaryotes to humans
Inquiries testing the relevance of simpler models to human aging
Genetic epidemiology of aging; candidate longevity genes
Aging in the immune system
Host defense molecules in aging systems
Mechanisms of free radical induced cell aging
Mechanisms of aging in various differentiated cell populations
Gene/environment and gene/gene interactions
Integrative physiology
New approaches to age-modulated disease mechanisms

Eligibility

Any interested researcher may submit a Letter of Intent for the 2012 Senior Scholar in Aging award competition; however, current or past Senior Scholar Awardees are not eligible. Applicants for the Senior Scholar Award are expected to furnish evidence of substantial prior scientific creativity and productivity not necessarily targeted to aging heretofore. Evaluation by the Aging Review Group and the Scientific Advisory Board will be based upon the applicant's submission re: scientific contributions to date, the quality of publications, and the importance to aging of the proposed new research. The Aging Review Group and the Scientific Advisory Board will pay close attention to arguments as to why the work does not or would not qualify for support from established sources such as the NIA. Except for compelling circumstances, the awards are not intended to supplement ongoing, already funded programs but, instead, to inspire new directions, which may entail substantial risk. There is no limit on the number of Senior Scholar letters of intent from any one institution. Up to 25 Senior Scholar awards will be made in 2012.

Letter of Intent for Submitting an Application

Instructions and a link to submit a Letter of Intent online for the 2012 application cycle appear on the Applications and Receipt Dates page.

Letters of Intent are due by March 8, 2012 (online submissions must be completed by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time).

Terms of the Award

The Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Awards in Aging will be made in early October 2012. Each award will be made for up to $150,000 per year direct cost, plus indirect costs, for up to four years. Funding for years two, three and four is contingent upon submission of an acceptable progress report.

Acceptable uses for award funds include project-related: salaries, other personnel costs, equipment, supplies, resource acquisition and travel. Carry-overs in excess of $25,000 must be approved by the Ellison Medical Foundation Scholars Program Office. Full indirect costs at the NIH Facilities and Administration (F & A) negotiated rate will be provided. The Ellison Medical Foundation does not permit indirect costs on equipment, even for purchases less than $5,000, for initial awardee years of 2005 and later.

For all (new and non-competing renewal) awards supporting research involving human subjects, animal subjects, research collaborations with foreign institutions, biosafety issues, or embryonic stem cells the Foundation will require the following documentation before an award can be made:

Human subjects:

Copies of the protocol submitted to the Institutional Review Board(s)for this project* and the notification of protocol approval from all relevant IRBs (for funded awards an annual update will be required at the time of the progress report).
Documentation from the applicant institution that the principal investigator has completed training on the protection of human research participants.

Animal subjects:

A copy of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval for this project* (an annual update will be required at the time of each progress report).

Foreign component:

A letter of support from the collaborating in-country institution.

Biosafety:Research supported by the Ellison Medical Foundation is expected to conform to the relevant NIH Guidelines for biosafety, including those for handling of hazardous reagents and those for research involving recombinant DNA and gene transfer http://oba.od.nih.gov/rdna/nih_guidelines_oba.html .
A copy of Institutional Biosafety Committee approval for this project* .

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Committee approval of the protocol for this project* if it involves human embryonic stem cells.

* Approval for this project means the EMF funded project, not a similar protocol funded by some other entity.

For further information, contact:

Richard L. Sprott, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Ellison Medical Foundation
4710 Bethesda Avenue
Suite 204
Bethesda, MD 20814-5226
(301) 657-1830 (Phone)
(301) 657-1828 (Fax)
rsprott@ellisonfoundation.org