Pilot Projects in Human Systems Immunology

The following RFP is considered an internal Stanford funding opportunity.  Therefore, you do not need to submit your proposals through your RPM/RMG or CGO/OSR for institutional approval.
The Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection (ITI)
Center for Human Systems Immunology (CHSI) with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is pleased to solicit applications for pilot projects to advance global health.

We are calling for proposals in following priority category: Human Systems Immunology

(1) Innovative technologies, (2) Innovative analytical tools, (3) Novel immunology

The Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection (ITI) Center for Human Systems Immunology (CHSI) (with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)  Pilot Projects in Human Systems Immunology
Amount of funding: Successful applicants will receive $50 - $100K (total direct) for one year with a possible second year of funding contingent upon scientific progress.

Eligibility: Stanford faculty with PI eligibility and CE faculty, Instructors, Clinical Instructors, Academic staff-research (for example: senior research associates), and postdoctoral fellows.  If the proposal is submitted by a non-faculty PI, it is required that a PI-eligible faculty mentor is named.  This is an internal Stanford funding opportunity so a PI waiver is not needed.

Purpose: Our overall aim is to advance the systems immunology tool box to address global health questions using innovative technologies, novel analytical tools and by learning novel basic immunology. A special emphasis of this RFP will be on novel imaging technologies/ analytics and application of advanced computational tools (“AI”).  Moreover, we want to encouragecross-disciplinary collaboration and special consideration will be given to proposals with partnerships between technologists and clinical collaborators and/or immunologists.

There are three general categories for this funding:

1. Innovative technologies – including major improvements on existing methods that are, or can be, applied to understanding the immune response to a major infectious disease of global health relevance. This may apply to the direct analysis of subjects with active disease or vaccine candidates, or both, as well as to the development of disease models optimized to most closely mimic natural human infections, the better to understand and develop interventions for particular infectious diseases. 
2. Novel analytical tools and algorithms – to serve as visualization, analytic and data sharing resources for global health studies involving the generation of high dimensional immune and related biological data or the use of already existing data sets. This includes novel approaches designed to increase the power of data mining and predictive modeling that can be readily applied to natural history or vaccine efficacy studies.
3. Novel Immunology – Studies of established cohorts that apply technologies and methods to both new and ongoing studies, or to the analysis of banked samples. Proposals should be designed with the intent to expand the network of investigators working on global health problems, and/or enhance the power of current studies and future areas of need. (Funds cannot be used to start or maintain a clinical or cohort study.)

Timeline:

Internal Letter of Intent deadline:  July 5, 2019

Presentation of project outline (by invitation only): August 26-27, 2019

Please see the Letter of intent guidelines below for both RFPs.

LETTER OF INTENT GUIDELINES

By Friday, July 5, 2019, please upload one PDF file containing the following on our submission website.

• Institutional representative: not applicable. You do not need to submit your proposal to your RPM/RMG or your CGO/OSR for their approval.
• File name: Last name_ITI_MNCH_2019.pdf
• One-page proposal (Letter of intent):
  • Institute of Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Center for Human Systems Immunology Pilot Projects
  • Project Title
  • Project category – please select:
    • Systems Immunology: Innovative Technologies, Novel Analytical Tools, Novel Immunology
  • PI and Co-PI name, title/rank, department, address, phone number, email address
  • Briefly describe the proposal and the participants not to exceed one page. Preliminary results not required.
  • Format: Arial font size 11, single spaced, 1/2-inch margin
  • No budget proposal necessary with letter of intent.

Selection Process
The investigators of the most promising proposals will be notified in early August 2019 to present their project on Aug 26-27 to members of the advisory board, steering committee and BMGF representatives during the annual meeting of the Center for Human Systems Immunology at Stanford. Final projects will be chosen shortly after this meeting and investigators asked to submit a more detailed proposal of 3-4 pages, not including references, along with NIH Biosketch (for all faculty, senior postdoctoral and clinical fellows, and key personnel) and a NIH format budget and budget justification for 2 years. Funding will be released in October 2019.

For inquiries, please contact Gerlinde Obermoser, Project Director, Center for Human Systems Immunology: gerlinde.obermoser@stanford.edu or 

Bach-Hong Tran, ITI Pre-Award Research Grant Manager  bhtran@stanford.edu