Continuing Services
Research Development Services office will continue to actively support the Mason community during the time of reduced campus operations. All staff will be working remotely but continue to provide support to faculty, students and staff in managing the Limited Submission Opportunities and internal application reviews as needed; creating training materials for proposal development; providing proposal management and support for large, complex, multidisciplinary proposals; and offering guidance on seeking funding opportunities through the Sponsored Programs Innovation Network (SPIN). All staff will be working remotely. Please feel free to contact Rebekah Hersch, Assistant Vice President, Research Development (rhersch@gmu.edu) if you have questions. For information about the Limited Submission Opportunities, please contact Sheila Davis (sdavis46@gmu.edu).
COVID-19 Datasets and Analytic Resources
- Academic Data Science Alliance is curating and updating a list of open datasets and analytic resources on their website. You can find more information on available datasets and resources here: www.academicdatascience.org/covid
- NLM released the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) of scholarly literature related to COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and the Coronavirus group. To make full of this dataset, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has issued a call for tech and AI experts to develop new text and data mining techniques that can be used to help the science community answer high-priority scientific questions related to COVID-19.
- The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) is currently hosting the COVID-19 database for the National Genomics Data Center of the Chinese People’s Republic. By providing ready access to this important dataset, they hope to enable researchers to better understand the COVID-19 virus. https://www.psc.edu/bridges-for-covid-19-research
- The scientific platform Galaxy at the Pennsylvania State University has developed an open source set of computer tools for helping scientists studying the COVID-19 virus obtain transparent and reproducible results. For more information see https://covid19.galaxyproject.org/
- NVIDIA is providing a software called Parabricks free for 90 days to organizations doing research on COVID19. The Argo cluster meets the minimum requirements. Please contact Jayshree Sarma (jsarma@gmu.edu) if you are interested in using the software. https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/03/19/coronavirus-research-parabricks/?ncid=em-news-57155#cid=ix01_em-news_en-us . Parabricks software (https://www.developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-parabricks) is used for genome sequencing and uses GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) for speeding up the analysis.
- Georgetown COVID-19 Open Research Dataset: https://pages.semanticscholar.org/coronavirus-research
- The COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium: Researchers interested in applying for COVID-19 research allocation on the XSEDE supercomputers can apply here: https://campuschampions.web.illinois.edu
- Facebook Enabling COVID-19 Research with New Data Sets. To support ongoing COVID-19 research and to help inform public health decisions, CMU and UMD made the aggregated data from these surveys publicly available. Learn more here: https://research.fb.com/blog/2020/05/expanding-support-for-covid-19-research-through-the-symptom-surveys/
- The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Virginia a $1.2 million expansion of a grant to develop a secure, high-performance computing system for research, with the new funds supporting nationwide use of the system for COVID-19 research. Learn more here: https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/uva-leads-nationwide-project-to-protect-health-data-for-covid-19-research/ (Additional funding is available to all COVID-19 research at Mason)
COVID-19 Funding Opportunities
The following table lists funding opportunities relating to the COVID-19 virus. We will continue to update this list as new opportunities become available. If you would like to add opportunities to this list please feel free to contact Sheila Davis at sdavis@gmu.edu.
| Program Title | Sponsor | Deadline | Funding Amount | Brief Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOT-HS-22-010: AHRQ Announces Interest in Health Services Research on Health System and Healthcare Professional Responsiveness to COVID-19 | Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality | None Posted | None posted | This Special Emphasis Notice (SEN) informs the research community that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is interested in receiving health services research grant applications to develop models of care that improve access, quality, and outcomes of care related to COVID-19 and post-acute sequalae from COVID-19 (PASC). |
| PAR-22-112: Urgent Award: COVID=19 Mental Health Research (R01 Clinical Trial Required) | National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Mental Health/DHHS | 25-Aug-22; 23-Dec-22 | $750,000 per year; 3 Years. | This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) aims to address urgent, time-sensitive mental health research questions related to COVID-19, including broader secondary impacts of the pandemic as well as research on the intersection of mental health, COVID-19, and HIV. Research supported will improve public health in the near term by informing responses to the current pandemic through rapid acceleration of research to address access, reach, delivery, effectiveness, scalability and sustainability of health assessments and interventions to respond to new and worsening mental illness and HIV-related outcomes among those who experience COVID-19 as well as the broader population impacted by the pandemic. All research is anticipated to focus on particularly vulnerable populations based on existing evidence of increased mental health symptoms and illness and preexisting health disparities. |
| PAR-22-113: Urgent Award: COVID-19 Mental Health Research (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) | National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Mental Health/DHHS | 25-Aug-22; 23-Dec-22 | $750,000 per year; 3 Years. | This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) aims to address urgent, time-sensitive mental health research questions related to COVID-19, including broader secondary impacts of the pandemic as well as research on the intersection of mental health, COVID-19, and HIV. Research supported will improve public health in the near term by informing responses to the current pandemic through 1) understanding mechanisms by which mental illness impacts SARS-CoV-2 morbidity and mortality, 2) exploring how COVID-19 contributes to incident mental illness or HIV-outcomes, 3) identifying modifiable targets uniquely or robustly implicated in the pandemic that are relevant to new and worsening mental illness, and 4) conducting mechanistic trials probing biological or behavioral processes of those targets that may be pursued in future mental health therapeutic development. Research is anticipated to be informed by and directed towards vulnerable populations based on evidence of preexisting and worsened health disparities. |
| Fast Grants | Emergent Ventures | None Posted | $500,000 | Emergent Ventures invites applications from scientists at academic institutions currently working on a COVID-19 related project and in need of funding. Fast Grants will range from $10,000 to $500,000. |
| Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements and Urgent Competitive Revisions on Coronavirus Disease 2019 within the Mission of NIAAA | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism/NIH/DHHS | None Posted | $100,000 | The NOSI invites administrative supplements and competitive revisions to existing grants and cooperative agreements that advance understanding of critical interactions between alcohol, SARS-CoV-2, and COVID-19. A principal area of focus is research that can improve public health in the near term by informing responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. |
| Emergency Competitive Revision to Existing NIG Awards (Emergency Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) | National Institutes of Health/DHHS | None Posted | None Posted | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hereby notify the applicant community that funds may be available for applications based on a presidentially declared disaster under the Stafford Act, a public health emergency declared by the Secretary, HHS, or other local, regional or national disaster. Applications in response to Emergency Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) will be routed directly to the NIH awarding component signed on to the Emergency NOSI. |
| Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health | Johnson (Robert Wood) Foundation | None Posted | Not Available | The Pioneer team seeks to anticipate the future, and support unconventional approaches and breakthrough ideas that can help lead the way to a future where everyone in the United States can live their healthiest life possible. The Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals (CFP) seeks applications from visionary thinkers across the nation who are doing cutting-edge work to advance health equity. |
| COVID-19 HPC Consortium | Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) | None Posted | Not Available | The COVID-19 HPC Consortium encompasses computing capabilities from some of the most powerful and advanced computers in the world. XSEDE hopes to empower researchers around the world to accelerate understanding of the COVID-19 virus and the development of treatments and vaccines to help address infections. Consortium members manage a range of computing capabilities that span from small clusters to some of the very largest supercomputers in the world. |
| COVID-19 Vaccines: Accelerating Vaccine Development and Global Manufacturing Capacity to Stop the Pandemic | Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) | None Posted | Not Available | The objective of this Call for Proposals is to support the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 with a goal of achieving licensure/emergency authorisation in 12-18 months or less and to ensure the availability of sufficient doses for wide-spread global deployment as soon as possible in 2021. |
| Emergency Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Awards (Emergency Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) | National Institutes for Health/DHHS | None Posted | Not Available | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hereby notify the applicant community that funds may be available for applications based on a presidentially declared disaster under the Stafford Act, a public health emergency declared by the Secretary, HHS, or other local, regional or national disaster. Applications in response to Emergency Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) will be routed directly to the NIH awarding component signed on to the Emergency NOSI. |
| Covid-19 Scientific Research | European Synchrotron Radiation Facility | None Posted | Not Available | The ESRF is ready to provide access to its facilities for Covid-19 related research projects. This exceptional access will be granted with the aim to contribute to the international scientific effort to overcome the covid-19 pandemic. |
| Urgent Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Urgent Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) | National Institutes of Health/DHSS | None Posted | Not Available | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hereby notify Principal Investigators holding specific types of NIH research grants, listed in the full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that funds may be available for competitive revisions to meet immediate needs to help address a specific public health crisis in a timely manner, but that were unforeseen when the new or renewal application or grant progress report for non-competing continuation support was submitted. Applications for Urgent Competitive Revisions will be routed directly to the NIH awarding component listed on the NoA of the most recent parent award. Only applications submitted in response to an Urgent Guide Notice published by an IC will be allowed to apply to this FOA. |
| Expedited, Rapid Access Call for COVID-19 Research | Argonne National Laboratory | None Posted | Not Available | Argonne National Laboratory |
| COVID-19 Research Support | Brookhaven National Laboratory | None Posted | Not Available | The Center for Biomolecular Structure team is supporting remote macromolecular crystallography experiments at Beamlines 17-ID-1 (AMX) and 17-ID-2 (FMX) for research projects related to COVID-19. |
| COVID-19 Vaccine Development Award | MMS Holdings Inc. | None Posted | $1,000,000 | The sponsor is offering a USD1M award toward the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. The award is being offered in the form of data and related services to qualified pharmaceutical and clinical research companies supporting the commercial development of a vaccine for approval in the United States and/or other global health authorities. |
| Notice of Information: Contributing to the Global COVD-19 Crisis response by Allowing Some NCI-supported Projects to be Redirected to COVID-19-related Research During the Crisis | National Institutes of Health/DHSS | None Posted | Not Available | The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis that has engaged the attention of researchers who want to be able to contribute their expertise and resources toward a better understanding of the impacts of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease on cancer patients’ disease progression, response to therapy, care delivery, or survivorship. NCI anticipates that in infrequent cases, NCI-funded investigators will have novel insights and research proposals of immediate relevance to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. In those cases, but only for the duration of the present crisis, NCI would consider requests from its funded grantees and cooperative agreement awardees to engage in limited COVID-19 related research using part of their existing NCI-funded resources. |
| Priority Access Call for Work on Combating COVID-19 | Scherre (Paul) Institute | None Posted | Not Available | The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) has opened a "PRIORITY COVID-19 Call” for short proposals and quick peer review to enable rapid access to beamtime. Research proposals shall have the potential to effectively contribute to the understanding of the COVID-19 virus and/or to improve the clinical or public health response and patient care. |
| Emergency Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Awards (Emergency Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) | National Institutes of Health (multiple ICs) | Varies by IC | Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hereby notify the applicant community that funds may be available for applications based on a presidentially declared disaster under the Stafford Act, a public health emergency declared by the Secretary, HHS, or other local, regional or national disaster. Applications in response to Emergency Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) will be routed directly to the NIH awarding component signed on to the Emergency NOSI. Only applications submitted in response to an Emergency NOSI published by an IC will be allowed to apply to this FOA. |
| Dear Colleague Letter--Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | Department of Energy | Continuous Submission | Not Specified | Through its user facilities, computational power, and enabling infrastructure, DOE has unique capabilities that the scientific community may leverage for the COVID-19 response and recovery. DOE does not provide medical and clinical work; instead, the Department's mission complements the efforts of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and other Federal partners by helping to understand the scientific phenomena contributing to COVID-19, from the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, to models that can mimic its spread. DOE supports significant biologically focused facilities and resources, including the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC), Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL), and DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase). These and other DOE resources may be used for many studies. The Department encourages submission of scientific questions that underpin COVID-19 response and that the research community may answer using DOE user facilities, computational resources, and enabling infrastructure. The Department is acting rapidly to leverage, and when appropriate provide prioritized access to, the full range of DOE user facilities and other facilities available at national laboratories to support the national and international effort to address COVID-19. |
| Urgent Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Urgent Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional) | National Institutes of Health/DHHS | Varies by IC | Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hereby notify Principal Investigators holding specific types of NIH research grants, listed in the full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that funds may be available for competitive revisions to meet immediate needs to help address a specific public health crisis in a timely manner, but that were unforeseen when the new or renewal application or grant progress report for non-competing continuation support was submitted. Applications for Urgent Competitive Revisions will be routed directly to the NIH awarding component listed on the NoA of the most recent parent award. Only applications submitted in response to an Urgent Guide Notice published by an IC will be allowed to apply to this FOA. Individual(s) must hold an active grant or cooperative agreement, and the research proposed in the supplement must be accomplished within the competitive segment of the active award. Individuals are encouraged to work with their organizations to develop applications for support |