Grants & Funding

We have heard an outpouring of anger and fear from our members since the President’s budget proposal was released on March 16th. As GSA President Lynn Cooley and Vice-President Jeannie Lee argued last week, the proposed gutting of federal research budgets would be terrible for science—and worse for society. But this is just a proposal.…

We are proud to support three new symposia organized by student and postdoctoral members of the GSA! Read more below about the recipients of the fall 2016 round of funding from the GSA Trainee-Organized Symposia program. Proposed workshops were evaluated by the Society’s Mentoring and Professional Development Committee based on their relevance to the GSA mission, the need for and the uniqueness…

Last week at The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins provided an overview of model organism support from his agency. Collins used a new analysis performed by NIH staff to address concerns expressed by many of the model organism researchers gathered at TAGC, particularly a 2015 analysis by Michael…

American titans of industry are approaching the business of medical philanthropy just as they do their day jobs: in a big way. It’s not unusual to hear of gifts in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not the occasional one with close to yet another digit to the left. The inevitable institutes and research…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued a Dear Colleague Letter inviting those with current research support to request supplemental funding to enhance the training experience of graduate students.   Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) PIs supported by NSF’s Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) may request additional support for their PhD students in ways…

The White House National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) has developed a pair of portals to connect undergraduates and graduate students to Federally-sponsored opportunities. These resources compile programs across federal agencies, which may be searched or browsed by discipline, location, and more. STEMUndergrads.science.gov includes listings for undergraduate fellowships, scholarships, courses, internships,…

The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) has put two funding programs on hiatus, pending an evaluation of the “long term resource needs and research priorities” within the directorate. The suspended programs are both within BIO’s Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI).   Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) The Collections in Support of Biological…

This guest post from Sue Jinks-Robertson describes a personal experience with the NIGMS MIRA program. If you wish to share your perspective on MIRA or any other topic of interest to the GSA community, please consider authoring a guest post; send your ideas to blog@genetics-gsa.org.   Contributed by guest author Sue Jinks-Robertson I’ve been on…

GSA has been hearing from our community about their experience with the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program from NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Although there’s almost universal support for the goals of the program—providing a greater degree of flexibility and stability for investigators—and for the application and review process, there is significant disagreement…

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute—in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation—has launched the International Research Scholars Program, which will support up to 50 outstanding early career scientists around the world. The competition is open to scientists who have run their own labs for less than…

NIH Director Francis Collins, along with the leaders of NIH’s institutes, centers, and offices, have written a letter emphasizing their continuing commitment to basic science. Despite past assurances to this effect (e.g., Collins 2012), the NIH leadership is concerned that the community may feel that NIH has moved away from basic research. The letter, which was published…