NEW YORK STATE NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION OR A GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION IN NEW YORK STATE

The New York State Department of Health and the Health Research Science Board (HRSB) invite eligible applicants to submit proposals for preliminary testing of novel, exploratory or developmental hypotheses related to breast cancer.

Applications in response to this Request for Applications (RFA) may address any topic or issue related to breast cancer biology, causation, prevention, detection or screening, treatment (including treatment of its effects), survivorship or cure. Any investigative approach appropriate to the application topic may be pursued, including, but not limited to, basic, translational, clinical, demographic, epidemiological, environmental, behavioral or psychosocial research.

A successful application will present a self-contained, hypothesis-driven research project that is either (1) new and exploratory, such as one that opens a new area of investigation or satisfactorily tests a novel or innovative hypothesis, and/or (2) new and developmental, with a goal of producing viable data for preparation of a full-scale research application to another organization. Although collaborations are not required, they are strongly encouraged.

The HRSB prefers to fund applications that are high risk/high reward and those that propose to study underexplored or unexplored areas of significance. Thus, responsive applications include those that (1) are considered highly speculative, (2) apply or develop state-of-the-art technologies, tools or resources for breast cancer research and/or (3) focus on exceptionally promising topics derived from some pilot data, but are not yet sufficiently mature to compete successfully for funding as full-scale studies.

Rowley awards are not intended to fund smaller components of larger R01-type projects, data collection, incremental or correlative research aims, or the compression of a larger project into a smaller timeframe.

Awards will be supported by the Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund. Approximately $3.6 million is available to support these awards. The amount of funds awarded will be contingent upon the quality of applications submitted.

Each grant contract will be funded for up to two years. Funding may not exceed $150,000 in direct costs for any one year period, and funding for any Facilities and Administrative costs are capped at 20 percent of modified total direct costs.

ELIGIBILITY:

The applicant must be a New York State not-for-profit organization or a governmental organization in New York State. Organizations awarded funds will be expected to monitor funds, maintain individual accounts and fulfill other fiscal management criteria. Subcontracting and collaborating organizations may include public, not-for-profit and for-profit entities. Such entities may be located in or outside of New York State.

The Principal Investigator (PI) will be employed by the applicant institution and have the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed Workplan. The HRSB encourages applications from early-stage as well as established researchers from all related fields, including those disciplines that historically have not focused on breast cancer, provided the hypothesis relates directly to breast cancer. Postdoctoral fellows and other dependent research staff are not eligible to apply. Collaborations between experienced and less experienced researchers, and between New York State and non-New York State researchers are encouraged.

APPLICATION:

Applications will be accepted through December 16, 2011 by 4:00 p.m. The projected contract start date is January 1, 2013.

This RFA, including application forms, has been posted on the Department of Health's public website at http://www.health.ny.gov/funding/1003251030.

For more information, contact: Lani Rafferty, Department of Health, at the above address or call (518) 474-7002, e-mail: [email protected]