The Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) announced that the 2010 grant competitions will offer four different types of grant mechanisms—one of which is new for 2010. The awards will consist of a Project Competition for up to $4 million in total awards, a Program Competition of up to $13 million in total awards, and a Commercialization Competition of up to $750,000 in total awards. LSDF is also adding a new Opportunity Grant Mechanism for the first time in 2010.
The LSDF 2010 awards will support:
• Project Grants to support research to center on effective dissemination and implementation of best practices for advancing healthcare as well as outcomes research. Proposals are due July 28, 2010
• Program Grants funding to launch new collaborative research initiatives to address major problems within a field of study and position organizations for future competitiveness and leadership. Proposals are due July 14, 2010
• A single competition for Commercialization Grants to support small-scale, targeted studies to move promising technologies along the commercialization pathway. Proposals are due April 14, 2010
For the first time, the new 2010 Opportunity grant mechanism with $1.5 million allocated will allow LSDF to look at compelling time sensitive proposals from the state of Washington’s public and non-profit life sciences research community. The RFP for the new Opportunity Grants will be released in early May 2010 and be available for open submission after this date.
To be considered compelling, a proposal must be urgent and cannot be aligned with LSDF’s annual competition cycles, must indicate a high probability that the investment will attract future financial resources and lead to commercialization of research results, improve the quality and cost effectiveness of healthcare, and demonstrate a clear statewide benefit.
Funding for the Project, Program, and Opportunity Grant competitions comes from the state’s allocation of payments under the Master Tobacco Settlement. Funding for the Commercialization Grant competition comes from a portion of the tobacco settlement payments and donor funds provided by Amgen, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Group Health Cooperative, Microsoft Corporation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Regence BlueShield, and Safeco Insurance Foundation.
For more information, go to www.lsdfa.org/grants/overview.html.
