2016 Momentum Research Award: Defeating Lung Cancer in Women

1. Eligibility:
   1. Applicants (MD/PhD/ MD, PhD) must be within 5 years of their first faculty appointment as of April 25, 2016. Applicants who have completed 2 years of their fellowship/post-doctoral training and are on track for faculty appointments are eligible to apply.
   2. At the time of application, candidates must be United States citizens or foreign nationals holding one of the following visa immigration statuses: permanent resident (Green Card), exchange visitor (J-1), temporary worker in a specialty occupation (H-1B), Canadian or Mexican citizen engaging in professional activities (TN), Australians in Specialty Occupation (E-3) or temporary worker with extraordinary abilities in the sciences (O-1). At the time of application and throughout the award, an applicant must be employed by a U.S. institution.
   3. Investigators representing non-profit academic research centers are eligible to apply. Investigators from for-profit companies are ineligible.
   4. Investigators should be working in an environment capable of conducting high quality, high impact lung cancer research.
   5. Investigators must be able to show clear evidence of a path towards an independent research program.
   6. Multiple applications will be accepted from a single institution, provided that each application has a different PI and represents a distinct hypothesis.
   7. An investigator may serve as a PI on only one proposal.
   8. Documentation of an equal in-kind level of support from the young investigator’s institution will be requested in the form of dedicated space, equipment, institutional overhead, core institutional resources, etc. The documentation required is a letter from the Cancer Center Director or Departmental Chairperson, which confirms institutional commitment to the career development of the investigator, for the entire duration of the award.
2. Key Criteria:
   1. Relevance to lung cancer patients: The proposed research must deliver a meaningful and measurable result examining the unique problem of lung cancer in women.
   2. Innovation, creativity, quality and originality of proposed transformative research: Novel approaches with strong scientific rationale to investigate why women seem to be disproportionately afflicted by lung cancer are encouraged.
   3. Scientific merit: Outstanding and rigorous proposals that present an appropriate, feasible and adequate experimental design/methodology and measurable outcomes as determined by peer review.
   4. Potential for rapid translation to clinical testing and patient benefit: Proposals that articulate a clear path to clinical application will be strongly favored.
   5. Research Environment and Investigator capability: Each applicant must be able to demonstrate the ability to undertake independent investigator-initiated clinical research, and must be working in an environment that provides adequate facilities and supports their research and growth.
   6. Structured Mentorship Plan:  Each applicant must submit a letter from a mentor at his or her institution that describes a structured plan for mentorship. The Mentor Support Letter must include: 1) Training and Mentorship Plan for the applicant that provides a detailed description of the intended structure of the mentor-investigator interaction for the duration of the award, 2) Confirmation that the applicant is within first five years of their first faculty appointment, 3) A critical review of the both the applicant and the proposed research, 4) The role(s) or anticipated role(s) the applicant holds (or will hold) at the institution, 5) The level of institutional commitment to the applicant’s career development as an independent researcher.
3. Application Form: To be completed online by the applicant at https://proposalcentral.altum.com/. The online application submission portal will go live on February 25, 2016, and accept application submissions till April 26, 2016.
4. Research Proposal: A complete application will include the documents below:
   1. Cover Page: Name, institution and contact information of the investigator and mentor(s).
   2. Statement of originality (1 page limit): This statement delineates why the work is first in field, original and will be of immediate impact. ALCF and ALA seek novel ideas, not derivatives of ongoing investigations or incremental research. Please specify how long you anticipate for the bench-to-bedside translation of the proposed research to impact lung cancer patient lives.
   3. Research Proposal (10 page limit): includes the narrative text, any preliminary data in support of the proposal, specific aims, project timeline, milestones and deliverables. Please describe the specific outcomes/deliverables of the proposed research plan in general, and for each specific aim. Please address potential problem areas and present alternative approaches and solutions.
   4. A list of references of research cited.
   5. NIH Biosketch: Please submit a 4-page NIH Biographical Sketch for each investigator, including a list of relevant publications, available for download at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/biosketchsample.pdf.
   6. Mentor’s Letter of Support
   7. Institutional Letter of Support
   8. Budget page(s): Please include budget justification and an annual budget for the proposal prepared using NIH Budget forms like PHS 398. ALCF and ALA will cover only direct costs. Up to 30% of the award may be allocated for PI and or other personnel. No indirect costs, overhead costs or other institutional levies will be covered by this award. The following information is required from all applicants (and any collaborators who will receive salary support from the grant): current support, pending support and institutional support (start-up funds etc.). All funding sources including intramural and extramural sources must be included- institutional awards, grants from for-profit, and not-for-profit agencies, government bodies etc. Please indicate if there is overlap between any funded/pending grant and the current proposed research.
   9. Certification of compliance with Human Subjects and Animal Care Assurance as applicable, are required by ALCF and ALA for consideration of submitted proposals for review. In cases where ethical/regulatory approval is required to perform the work, such approvals must be provided at the time of application submission. Failure to secure such approvals before application submission will result in the automatic rejection of the proposal.
5. Reporting results:
   1. Full term funding of the award will be contingent upon review of six-monthly Progress Reports (1 page lay/non-technical summary, 5 page scientific summary, 5 slide PowerPoint deck with scientific data), Financial Progress Reports, telephonic and in-person data presentation, and other oversight activities conducted by ALCF, ALA and the Scientific Review committee.
   2. All recipients are required to present detailed scientific progress to the Scientific Review Committee, either in person or via tele-conferencing.
   3. Multi-year support is not automatic for any ALCF-ALA award and is conditioned on meeting pre-determined milestones and deliverables, including submission of complete and accurate progress reports.
   4. A final Progress Report (2 page lay summary/ 10 page technical summary with data, PowerPoint presentation) must be filed within 60 days of the award’s end date.
   5. All ALCF-ALA award recipients must acknowledge ALCF-ALA support in all scientific publications, press releases, social media entries arising from this funding. Electronic copies of publications, presentations, abstracts that report research supported by ALCF-ALA funds must be submitted to Dr. Guneet Walia at (guneet@go2.org) at the time of publication. These articles will be a part of the recipient’s award file and will assist ALCF, ALA and their partners to educate patients, caregivers, donors and others about the progress of the proposed research and its impact on the field of lung cancer biology.

For questions about this award, funding mechanism and eligibility, please contact:
Guneet Walia, PhD at guneet@go2.org or grants@go2.org

For technical questions please contact proposalCENTRAL at pcsupport@altum.com or 1-800-875-2562.

The deadline for applications is
11:59 PM Pacific Time, Wednesday, May 25, 2016

IN FAIRNESS TO ALL APPLICANTS THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS DEADLINE