2024 AST Career Transition Research Grants

Eligibility

• The applicant (MD, PhD, PharmD, or equivalent) must be no more than 8 years from the time of initial faculty appointment as an instructor or Assistant Professor and must be functioning as an independent investigator.
• The applicant must be an active member of the AST or have submitted a completed membership application by June 15, 2023
• Faculty may only hold one new AST grant per year: as a PI of a Career Transition Research Grant, Faculty Development Grant, or AST Directed grant; or as mentor/sponsor of a Fellowship Research Grant. If more than one grant from a given faculty member (as PI or mentor) is submitted and deemed competitive for funding, the AST will determine which grant to fund.
• The AST Career Transition Research Grant project must be distinct from that of any concurrent award. Moreover, this work should not directly overlap with funded projects of other faculty members within the same Section or Department.
• Individuals are ineligible if they are a PI on a previous or current NIH grant to perform independent research (e.g., R01, R35, project PI on a P01 grant, R21, VA Merit award, or comparable non-mentored award)
• Candidates can apply for an AST grant at the same time as applying for an NIH R01, P01 or any similar research award but may not retain AST funding if the other grant is awarded may not retain AST funding if the other grant is awarded and the funding begins prior to the end of the AST Career Transition grant. In such cases, the AST sponsored grant will be rescinded at the time the NIH grant begins.
• Applicants with concurrent smaller awards and prizes must report these awards, and the application will be adjudicated by the reviewers.
• The proposed work is to be performed in a North American research setting.
• The applicant must be either: a) a U.S., Canadian, or Mexican citizen; b) a
• lawfully admitted permanent resident foreign national of the U.S., Canada, or Mexico with a valid visa during the awarded period; or c) a foreign national admitted lawfully for residence in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico during the awarded period. J1 and H1B visa holders are eligible to apply.
• Research must begin on January 1, 2024; the research start date cannot be deferred.

Summary

The American Society of Transplantation (AST) is dedicated to advancing the field of transplantation and improving patient care by promoting research, education, advocacy, and organ donation. The society is the largest transplant organization in North America and is recognized as the premier society for transplantation. AST members are sought out as transplant experts and advocates. Other transplant organizations, policy makers, regulatory agencies, payors, academic institutions, and the general public look to the AST for guidance, research, and resources related to transplantation.

The 2023 AST Career Transition Research Grants program aims to promote the careers of academic investigators whose independent research program is focused on the field of basic science, translational and clinical investigation in solid organ transplantation. The grants are intended to provide support for the investigator’s transition to an R-series or equivalent grant. The Career Transition Research Grant seeks to:

• Foster the transition of early to mid-career scientists who are contributing to our understanding of transplant science/immunobiology and/or treatment of transplant recipients and need funding to start or strengthen work that is not yet funded by larger grants.
• Foster research that is of high merit.
• Encourage the continued commitment of high-quality applicants to careers in academic transplantation.

Career Transition Research Grants are awarded in the amount of $125,000 for two years, with $75,000 disbursed in Year One and $50,000 disbursed in Year Two. Research must commence on January 1, 2024 and cannot be deferred. Only applications supporting research directly related to solid organ transplantation will be considered. Grant applications are submitted in one of three categories: basic, clinical, or translational science.

Research Categories

Applications are submitted in one of three categories: basic, clinical, or translational science. We accept applications on any research topic related to solid organ transplant. Visit www.myast.org/past-research for a list of prior funded projects.

Basic Science is defined as anything in discovery science from molecules to cells to animal models. Examples of basic science projects include but are not limited to:

• Develop and validate biomarkers of graft dysfunction and immune activation
• Validate animal modeling as relevant to current clinical challenges (graft injury, autoimmunuity, infectious disease, immunological memory) that validate specific mechanisms or therapies • Identify and study novel immune modifiers (i.e., cellular transplants including stem cells, regulatory cells, new drugs and biologics)
• Pursue systems biology approaches to study the impact of therapeutics on molecular pathways that reveal new mechanistic insights (note: purely descriptive profiling and mapping of molecular pathways by any set of technologies is not responsive to this area)
• Develop regenerative medicine approaches for generating transplantable tissues

Translational Science is defined as anything from animal models designed specifically to translate basic research to clinical application, to work with clinical human samples with clear translational impact. Examples of translational science projects include, but are not limited to:

• Studies to identify and validate surrogate markers for long-term outcomes including interventional studies designed to demonstrate the value of biomarkers in clinical transplantation
• Studies to determine the effects of cell therapies on protective immunity (e.g. does infusion of Tregs or MSC alter patient defense against microbial pathogens or cancer?)
• Studies to define predictors and/or mechanisms of disease after transplant (i.e. cardiovascular disease, recurrent GN, de novo HLA antibodies or chronic rejection)
• Identify specific molecules and/or molecular mechanisms that explain the roles of the microbiome in immunity and transplant outcomes (note: purely descriptive profiling of microbiomic changes is not responsive to this area)
• The role of epigenetics in determining transplant outcomes
• Develop new tools to study and/or visualize the human alloimmune response

Clinical Science is defined as research involving human patients, from data generation and mining to testing new protocols and therapies. Clinical science includes the following two types of research:

Clinical Trials: designed to answer specific question(s) about new therapies or new ways of using known treatments. Preference will be given to prospective studies.
Clinical Outcomes or Observational Studies: designed to better define the causes and/or consequences of pathological or biological processes in transplantation. Retrospective studies may be appropriate. However, proposals that analyze registry data (e.g., data collected by the United Network for Organ Sharing) are expected to test unique hypotheses or employ new data or methodologies.

Examples of clinical science projects include but are not limited to:

• Reducing post-transplant complications
• Optimizing organ utilization (appropriate allocation and improving organ viability by interventions in the pre-transplant period including ex vivo conditioning)
• Preventing or attenuating late graft failure – cellular and humoral chronic rejection, recurrent and de novo
• Improving the patient experience and addressing the challenges of therapy adherence
• Research on transplant outcomes that test the value of transplantation for patients, transplant centers, payers and/or health care policy and costs at the State and Federal levels
• Research on racial disparities in access to and outcomes of solid organ transplantation

Carefully review the 2024 career transition grant request for applications.

Overhead

N/A. The grant is intended to support the applicant’s salary and/or research costs (and matching post- doctoral salary support if option selected). The following expenses are not permitted: institution overhead, capital equipment, or travel costs.

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Resources

Grant Details and Guidelines