The next Showcase of Medical Discoveries will be March 19 from 4-5:30 p.m., with a focus on Neuroscience. The wine and cheese event in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute 10th floor rotunda features UAMS investigators discussing their research and discoveries. View a flier about the event.

Til Sturmer, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., professor and director of the Center for Pharmacoepidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be featured at the next PCORI Methodologies Seminar on Feb. 14 at noon in the College of Public Health, G225.

Sturmer will present “Improving the Validity of Nonexperimental Research on Medical Interventions.”

The seminar series is sponsored by TRI’s Comparative Effectiveness Research component and the College of Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Division. The series’ purpose is to assist investigators with understanding the difficult PCORI methodologies that grant submissions are required to follow.

View the seminar series schedule.

Television and radio stations across Arkansas began airing public service announcements last week thanking Arkansans for their contributions to research at UAMS. The 30-second television and 1-minute radio ads were sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) and produced by the Creative Services division of the UAMS Office of Communications & Marketing. The idea for the ads was sparked by TRI’s Community Advisory Board.

TRI covered the minimal production costs, and Communications & Marketing is leveraging its annual contract with the Arkansas Broadcasters Association, whose member stations will deliver upwards of $250,000 worth of free air time for the radio and television spots.

The ads feature two TRI KL2 Scholars, Keneshia Bryant, Ph.D., R.N., F.N.P.-B.C., and Dennis Kuo, M.D., M.P.H., and two UAMS patients: Susan Pruitt of Fort Smith and Jeanette Perkins, R.N., of Little Rock. In addition to expressing gratitude for Arkansans’ participation in research, the ads help brand UAMS as a research institution and invite viewers interested in participating in research to visit www.ResearchMatch.org.

View the television public service announcement.

These new funding opportunities were compiled by TRI’s Comparative Effectiveness Research component. The linked document also includes a page listing grant requests for applications that remain open.

The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas is now accepting applications for large and small grants to organizations to implement health improvement programs in Arkansas.

Applications for $1,000 mini-grants will be accepted February 1 through April 30. Applicants will be notified of mini-grant awards within approximately 15 days. Regular grants of $5,000 to $150,000 have an application deadline of July 15 and will be awarded in November to fund health improvement programs during 2015.

Any public charity, public school, government agency, or non-profit hospital in Arkansas is eligible to apply. Grants are not made to individuals. Funds must be used in an effort that produces some positive health outcome for Arkansans. The grant may be used for general operational or specific program support, for an existing or new program.

Information about the grants and the online application submission process can be found at www.BlueAndYouFoundationArkansas.org.

More information, call: Patrick O’Sullivan, 501-378-2221.

The Fund to Cure Stroke, a new intramural research grant opportunity, will provide up to $30,000 for UAMS faculty to advance and develop research programs related to stroke. Support is focused on developing:

New stroke therapies and their translation into clinical care
Improved diagnosis, diagnostic imaging and stroke care
Improved methods of stroke prevention, treatment and rehabilitation
Clinical and pre-clinical stroke-related research
Grants for personnel will also be considered. More information.

Julie Moretz, UAMS associate vice chancellor for patient- and family-centered care, will kick off the “PCORI Methodologies Seminar Series” on Jan. 31. Moretz will present: “The Power of Partnerships: Engaging Patients and Families for Powerful Outcomes” at the College of Public Health, Room 3202, from 2–3 p.m.

The seminar series is sponsored by TRI’s Comparative Effectiveness Research component and the College of Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy Division. The series’ purpose is to assist investigators with understanding the difficult PCORI Methodologies that grant submissions are required to follow.

The seminar series schedule can be viewed HERE.

Seeds of Science research grants to UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute scientists will be announced at “The Doctor Is In,” a public event set for Jan. 30, 6-7:30 p.m., 10th floor, Cancer Institute.

Aime Franco, Ph.D., a 2013 Seeds of Science grant recipient, will discuss her thyroid cancer research program and how the grant impacted her work. Franco is an assistant professor in the UAMS Department of Physiology & Biophysics.

The research grants are funded by the institute’s annual RockStar Lounge event, which is sponsored by the Envoys, an advocacy group sponsored by the Cancer Institute Foundation. The event is free and open to the public. Register at www.giving.uams.edu/doctorisin or by calling (501) 526-2277.

“The Doctor Is In” is sponsored by CDI Contractors, LLC and hosted by the Envoys.

Funding opportunities compiled by TRI’s Comparative Effectiveness Research component for January can be viewed HERE.

From the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS):

Through a bipartisan budget deal enacted at the end of last year, Congress provided appropriators with an FY 2014 federal spending level of $1.012 trillion for discretionary programs. The FY 2014 allocation, advanced through the omnibus package, is a significant increase over the FY 2013 sequester-mandated spending cap of $987 billion. In addition to providing new funding, the FY 2014 omnibus appropriations package also cancels the FY 2014 sequester cut of 2.1 percent, originally scheduled to take place later this month.

Of particular interest to ACTS members, the FY 2014 omnibus appropriations package includes the following items:

$633.27 million for the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), an increase of $90 million over the FY 2013 post-sequestration level.
$474.74 million for the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program at NCATS, an increase of approximately $39 million over the FY 2013 post-sequestration level.
CSTA Program – The agreement provides a specific funding level for the core CTSA program within the NCATS statutory language. This change removes the funding flexibility provided during the establishment years of NCATS.
$2.36 billion for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), an increase of $136 million over the FY 2013 post-sequestration level.
$273.33 million for the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program at NIGMS, an increase of $12 million over the FY 2013 post-sequestration level.
You can read more in the advocacy section of the ACTS website

UAMS is in its fifth and final year of a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), which is funded through the NIH and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). TRI and UAMS research leaders are working on an application for a second CTSA.