Call for Research Proposals in Cancer Bioinformatics and AI

Call for Research Proposals in Cancer Bioinformatics and AI PDF >>

For more details, you can Contact Dr. Shiri Stempler - shiristemp@tauex.tau.ac.il 

The Cancer Biology Research Center (CBRC), Djerassi Oncology Center, Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics and Tel Aviv University Center for AI and Data Science (TAD) are initiating several one-year research grants in the field of cancer bioinformatics and AI. Grants to be awarded for a total amount of 900,000 NIS, with each grant awarded up to 200,000 NIS.

A fraction of the total budget is provided by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ("Teva"). The research grants will support integration of big data analysis, bioinformatics tools and artificial intelligence with translational research of the causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer. The grants will support collaborative efforts between clinicians and basic research scientists with the relevant expertise. Please note that completely clinical applications, such as intervention studies, clinical trials or health care delivery research as well as substantially clinical applications will not be considered. Similarly, basic research with no clinical horizon e.g. clear translational aspects within 5 years from grant completion will not be considered as well.

The grants are for one year, and the awarded sum will be divided equally between the clinician and the basic research scientist.

We encourage the submission of proposals for high-risk/high-reward research that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will drive the field of oncology research forward. The proposed research should include a testable hypothesis based on strong scientific rationale and serve as a catalyst to expand or modify current thinking and/or approaches in cancer research.

Eligibility: The submitting principal investigators (PIs) must be faculty members at the Tel Aviv University. Collaborating investigators (CIs) may be from other institutions in Israel or abroad. The research must be conducted in Israel. Each proposal can only include two PIs. An investigator may submit only one application as a PI. Accepted proposals that require ethics approvals and/or signing a data transfer agreement must present these documents before grant activation.

Review process: Each application will be reviewed by a Scientific Review Panel assisted by external peer reviewers. The application will be evaluated for its (1) Scientific content, rationale and relevance to oncology; (2) A strong Bioinformatics/AI component in the proposal. (3) Qualifications, experience and productivity of the applicants; (4) The nature of the collaboration (which must be clearly defined in the application). (5) The translational potential of the application. Teva involvement: Applicants can provide consent for Teva experts to read their proposal, and to be considered for sponsorship and mentorship by Teva during the project. Teva will not be involved in determining the winning applications and their budget.

The proposal should be constructed as follows: Required fonts are Arial 11 or Times New Roman 12. The text should be typed on A4 format, with 1.15-line spacing leaving 2.5 cm margins on all sides.

The first page should include:

• Project Title (up to a maximum of 100 characters, not including spaces)
• Principal Investigators (name, academic position and affiliation); CIs (if exist) (name, academic position and affiliation).
• Abstract (not exceeding 300 words).
• 4-6 Keywords

The proposal narrative (maximum 3 pages) should include:

• Scientific Background.

• Specific aims. Please describe a discrete, hypothesis-driven project, achievable within the duration of the grant and with the support requested.

• Experimental design (outline).

• Significance (not exceeding 300 words).

• Preliminary results.

• Qualification of the team to achieve the proposed goals.     

• Requested budget abbreviated in a single text line:
  Personnel NIS XXX, Consumables NIS XXX, Total requested budget NIS XXX.

In additional pages, the applicants should provide:

• References, up to 25.
• A short CV and a list of publications during the past 5 years (up to 5 pages for each PI) of all the investigators named in the application (NIH format).
• Other sources of support (existing or pending). Please include details of all current funding and also grants awarded but not yet started and pending applications that overlap with the submitted project. If there is an overlap, please explain what percentage of the research is non-overlapping with the other project and in the current application.
• Available infrastructure. Lab space and availability of infrastructure required to carry out the proposed research.
• (optional) A statement that the applicants agrees that Teva will read the proposal and offer sponsorship and mentorship to the project.

Including/Excluding Reviewers and additional information: At the time of submission of the application, an applicant should include in a cover letter (separate from the submission file), five experts in the field as suggested reviewers. Suggested reviewers should not have co-authored a paper with the PI during the last five years, and should not have other common grants or ongoing research collaborations. In addition, an applicant can exclude up to three potential reviewers. Acceptable reasons include main competitors, commercial sensitivity, etc.

Only proposals submitted on time in the requested format will be accepted for review.

Deadline for proposal submission: 07/06/2022 at midnight. Proposals will undergo external peer review. Funding of selected projects will begin: 1/10/2022.

Proposals and other required documents should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to (except for suggested and excluded reviewers): Dr. Judith Ben-Porath, CBRC, at judithbp@tauex.tau.ac.il. Upon submission, an electronic confirmation of receipt will be sent.