Newswise — The PhRMA Foundation has announced two new grant-funding opportunities that will provide substantial support for young researchers with innovative projects in Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery. Funding of up to $100,000 is available, with categories including pre/postdoctoral fellowships and research starter grants. Deadline for Letters of Intent for the new grants is May 15, 2020.
Predoctoral awards will provide $25,000 per year in funding for up to two years; postdoctoral awards will provide $50,000 per year in funding for up to two years; and research starter grants will provide $100,000 in funding for one year.
The new grant programs are part of the Foundation’s recently announced shift in its mission, intended to help shape a new era of multidisciplinary research and drug development. The Foundation’s new mission, strategic goals and funding priorities have restructured the Foundation’s focus to encompass a broader multidisciplinary scope across the drug development spectrum.
“Our new grant programs build on the PhRMA Foundation’s 55-year history of supporting the nation’s most promising research and most gifted young scientists,” said Eileen Cannon, PhRMA Foundation president. “They allow us to keep pace with an ever-changing research environment and support novel concepts to improve therapeutics and ultimately, health care for patients.”
As a part of its new funding structure, the Foundation will no longer offer grants in its previous categories of Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology/Toxicology and Informatics. The Foundation’s new categories have been structured in a way that realigns them more closely with the needs of a fast-changing drug-development environment and in support of innovative research efforts emerging across the pharmaceutical industry – shifting from a skill- and discipline-based emphasis to a broader, multidisciplinary approach.
In addition to grants in Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery, the Foundation will announce grants and fellowships in Translational Medicine and Health Outcomes Research in months to come. A new program in the use and application of Data and Technology in Health Care is under development and special funding for research in Value Assessment will also be available.
Eligibility Requirements and Application Process
All applicants for the Foundation’s new programs in Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery must have a firm commitment from an accredited U.S. university or research institution. Applicants do not have to be U.S. citizens or U.S. residents.
To apply for the new grants, applicants must submit a letter of intent, due May 15, 2020. Those whose submissions are selected will be notified by July 1, 2020 and asked to complete a full application. Application details are available at http://www.phrmafoundation.org/awards/.
About Drug Discovery
Drug Discovery is the process through which potential new medicines are identified. It involves integration of a range of scientific disciplines, including innovative and unique biology, chemistry and pharmacology. Modern Drug Discovery has extended beyond traditional small molecules to embrace a variety of novel therapeutic approaches, including peptides, oligonucleotides, antibodies, proteins, stem cells and CAR-T cells. The evolving process of Drug Discovery should include innovative culture-based and animal-based efforts that embrace new cutting-edge technology, including target-specific structural and computational drug-based design and the use of genomics.
About Drug Delivery
Drug Delivery strongly emphasizes the quantitative understanding and use of the principles underlying drug transport, route of administration, formulation composition, technology development and manufacturing/engineering aspects to improve drug product safety and efficacy, including patient compliance. Drug Delivery research falls into four broad categories—drugs, delivery vehicles and formulations, routes of delivery, and targeting strategies. Today’s “drugs” include small molecules, peptides, proteins, antibodies, vaccines, oligonucleotides (gene modification), modified live cells (stem cells, CAR-T cells), bacteria (microbiome related) and viruses as delivery vectors. Developing vehicles and novel technologies is important for delivering increasingly complex drugs by alternate routes of administration. Of equal importance is the quantitative impact of drug molecular properties and formulation composition on engineering factors and subsequent manufacturing processes.
Candidates whose research falls into the general parameters of Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery, as described above, should visit http://www.phrmafoundation.org/awards for more information -- including more detailed eligibility requirements and instructions for applying. Candidates may also download brochures about the Drug Discovery program or the Drug Delivery program.
For other questions, call 202-572-7756 or email [email protected].
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About the PhRMA Foundation
The mission of the PhRMA Foundation is to improve public heath by proactively investing in innovative research, education and value-driven health care. For more than 55 years, the Foundation has been helping advance scientific research and innovation to benefit patients. Since its founding in 1965, it has distributed more than $95 million to support these efforts. The PhRMA Foundation accomplishes its mission by investing in three key areas: core programming, value assessment initiative and a new program under development in the use and application of Data and Technology in Health Care. The PhRMA Foundation’s core programs of Drug Delivery, Drug Discovery, Health Outcomes Research and Translational Medicine encourage young scientists to pursue research as their career choice and assists in training the next generation of innovators. The PhRMA Foundation's emphasis on evidence-based research that determines the true value of medicines is supported by its Value Assessment Initiative. To learn more, please visit www.phrmafoundation.org.
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