Awards
Developmental Research Project and Mentored Project Awards
Applications for the ASAP AViDD Center Developmental Research Project Awards and Mentored Project Awards are currently under review with awards expected to be announced by April 2023.
Funds for these awards are provided by the National Institutes of Health under award number U19AI171399 through the NIAID Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) U19 Program.
Developmental Research Project Awards
Funding Opportunity Title
AI-driven Structure-enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) Discovery Consortium Developmental Project Award Program
Number of awards: 3-4
Funding Opportunity Purpose
This Request for Proposals solicits applications from individuals or scientific groups to contribute to the ASAP Discovery Consortium in advancing its mission to discover oral antivirals for coronaviruses, picornaviruses, and flaviviruses with the goal of global, equitable, and affordable access.
Key Dates
Posted Date: December 15, 2022
Application Due Date: January 13, 2023
Earliest Start Date: May 1, 2023
Applications are due by 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Applicants are encouraged to apply early. Please submit a single combined PDF file to ASAP.Award.Program@choderalab.org.
Award Budget
Application budgets are limited to $200,000/year direct costs and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
Award Project Period
The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum period is 2 years. All work must be complete by April 30, 2025. No possibility of extension.
Eligibility
Applicant organizations must be eligible to accept and manage US federal sponsored subcontracts.
Required Application Components
- Three page white paper proposal (minimum 0.5” margins and 11pt font) inclusive of figures
- Include clearly defined aims and a justification for why the proposed work addresses a major challenge and complements the ASAP Discovery Consortium objectives. Clearly specify the existing ASAP Project or Core the project will be associated with.
- Include a statement committing to the Open Science approach to drug discovery for proposed work.
- References
- NIH format biosketches for key personnel
- NIH Research & Related budget and justification
- Budget must follow NIH guidelines
- Project leader must commit a minimum of 1.2 cal person months effort per year
- Institutional F&A negotiated rate agreement
Background
Developmental awards must be closely aligned with the objectives of existing ASAP Discovery Consortium Projects and Cores as described in the parent application. Efforts are expected to focus on coronavirus, flavivirus, and/or picornavirus families.
Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.
Research Objectives and Scope
The ASAP Discovery Consortium is structured to be nimble and adapt to the integration of critical emerging technologies and external investigators and/or achieve greater understanding of target biology through the Developmental Project award program. Developmental Projects will be integrated into the projects or cores they are intended to accelerate or with which they will most closely interoperate.
ASAP Developmental Project proposals may consist of two types:
- Technology Integration Developmental Projects: Developmental Projects with the potential to accelerate, improve throughput, or increase the success rates of existing projects or cores to allow ASAP to be agile and exploit emerging technologies in AI/ML, computational chemistry, automation, chemistry, etc.
- Target Biology Developmental Projects: Developmental Projects target-enabling packages (TEPs) and chemical probes developed by ASAP to investigate complex target biology with the potential to enable ASAP to prosecute the target via novel resistance-robust modalities will be considered as independent, time-limited projects.
Examples of Scientific Topics of Interest
- Fragment screening with cryo-EM
- Development of SARS-CoV-2 replicons for reverse genetics and deep mutational scanning in the presence of inhibitors
- Optimization of iPSC-derived primary-like systems for medium-throughput drug discovery
- Translationally relevant in vivo efficacy models to understand viral reservoirs and rebound
- Accelerating compound purification by building ML models from patent corpus
- Data-efficient machine learning models capable of predicting compound potency to protein targets from many viral family members
- Data analysis methods capable of extracting more insight from Biochemical or Antiviral Core data
Proposal Review and Selection
Proposals will be reviewed and scored by the ASAP Discovery Consortium Scientific Advisory Board, Lead PIs, and relevant project and core leads. Selected applicants will participate in an interactive virtual pitch to further determine priority scoring. Investigators will be asked to describe plans for integrating with the existing structure and ongoing work. Final selection will be made by NIH NIAID program staff. Selected projects will be required to complete NIH PHS398 application forms prior to funding and are subject to NIH approval. Funded Developmental Projects will be integrated into existing project/core leadership.
Monitoring and Oversight
Relevant leadership will be responsible for Developmental Project progress oversight and assist with challenges and scientific direction. Expenditures will be monitored through subcontract invoicing.
NOTE: No clinical trials will be supported. Any involvement of human subjects must not entail more than minimal risk. If human subjects or vertebrate animals are involved, the appropriate sections described in the PHS 398 Instructions must be completed. Each application must also address plans for data sharing and, if applicable, biosafety concerns if selected to submit a formal application.
Mentored Project Awards
Funding Opportunity Title:
AI-driven Structure-enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) Discovery Consortium Mentored Project Award Program
Number of awards: 4-5
Funding Opportunity Purpose
This Request for Proposals solicits applications from post-doctoral fellows, early career investigators, or senior investigators new to the field and interested in pursuing research in the areas of antiviral discovery and development to contribute to the ASAP Discovery Consortium in advancing its mission to discover oral antivirals for coronaviruses, picornaviruses, and flaviviruses with the goal of global, equitable, and affordable access.
Key Dates
Posted Date: December 15, 2022
Application Due Date: January 13, 2023
Earliest Start Date: May 1, 2023
Applications are due by 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Applicants are encouraged to apply early. Please submit a single combined PDF file to ASAP.Award.Program@choderalab.org.
Award Budget
Application budgets are limited to a total of $200,000 direct costs and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
Award Project Period
The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum period is 2 years. All work must be complete by April 30, 2025. No possibility of extension.
Eligibility
Applicant organizations must be eligible to accept and manage US federal sponsored subcontracts.
Required Application Components
- Three page white paper proposal (minimum 0.5” margins and 11pt font) inclusive of figures
- Include clearly defined aims and a justification for why the proposed work addresses a major challenge and complements the ASAP Discovery Consortium objectives. Clearly specify the existing ASAP project or core the project will be associated with.
- Include a statement committing to the Open Science approach to drug discovery for proposed work.
- References
- NIH format biosketches for key personnel
- NIH Research & Related budget and justification
- Budget must follow NIH guidelines
- Applicants must devote a minimum of 9.6 calendar months effort per year
- Institutional F&A negotiated rate agreement
Background
Mentored awards must be closely aligned with the objectives of existing ASAP Discovery Consortium Projects and Cores as described in the parent application. Efforts are expected to focus on coronavirus, flavivirus, and/or picornavirus families.
Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.
Research Objectives and Scope
The ASAP Discovery Consortium is structured to be nimble and adapt to the integration of critical emerging technologies and external investigators. Mentored projects will bring new innovations into AI-driven structure-enabled antiviral discovery by attracting interdisciplinary researchers working at the interface of technologies applicable to antiviral discovery. Mentored projects will be integrated into the projects or cores they are intended to accelerate or with which they will most closely interoperate. Mentored awardees will be supervised by their corresponding Project or Core Lead, and will be assigned a professional development mentor from the ASAP Scientific Advisory Board.
Proposal Review and Selection
Proposals will be reviewed and scored by the ASAP Discovery Consortium Scientific Advisory Board, Lead PIs, and relevant project and core leads. Selected applicants will participate in an interactive virtual pitch to further determine priority scoring. Investigators will be asked to describe plans for integrating with the existing structure and ongoing work. Final selection will be made by NIH NIAID program staff. Selected projects will be required to complete NIH PHS398 application forms prior to funding and are subject to NIH approval. Funded Mentored Projects will be integrated into existing project/core leadership.
Monitoring and Oversight
Relevant leadership will be responsible for Mentored Project progress oversight and assist with challenges and scientific direction. Expenditures will be monitored through subcontract invoicing.
NOTE: No clinical trials will be supported. Any involvement of human subjects must not entail more than minimal risk. If human subjects or vertebrate animals are involved, the appropriate sections described in the PHS 398 Instructions must be completed. Each application must also address plans for data sharing and, if applicable, biosafety concerns if selected to submit a formal application.
Questions
Please contact ASAP.Award.Program@choderalab.org for questions.