Grants for Small Businesses

The National Cancer Institute intends to promote a new initiative by publishing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications forresearch on the confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma in HIV-positive individuals diagnosed with cancer. This NOFO will utilize the R01 grant mechanism (clinical trial optional). Up to six (6) R01 awards are expected to be funded as part of the initiative. Research projects search project will advance the current understanding of the confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma among people with HIV (PWH) diagnosed with cancer; assess the impact of these two converging stigmas on cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; leverage stigma reduction interventions at multiple levels to intervene on modifiable mechanisms of stigma that contribute to negative cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; and promote research in diverse domestic and international contexts, focusing on regions in which the HIV-cancer burden is elevated. The NOFO is expected to be published in late Summer 2024 with an expected application due date in late Fall 2024. Details of a pre-application webinar will be announced after the publication of the NOFO. This Notice is being provided to allow sufficient time for potential applicants with relevant expertise and insights to consider applying for this NOFO. Potential applicants are encouraged to view the presentation of this initiative to the Joint Virtual Meeting of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and the National Cancer Advisory Board available at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=54859 beginning at 3 hour, 39 minutes. Presentation slides are downloadable at: https://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/joint/0624/Vanderpool.pdf.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to issue a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the Research Specialist Award (R50) specifically for clinician scientists supporting NCI-funded clinical trials research. The Research Specialists Award is designed to encourage the development of stable research career opportunities for exceptional clinician scientists who want to continue to participate in the NCI clinical trials networks through leadership in the 1) development of clinical trials, 2) implementation of NCI clinical trials in their institutions, and 3) national service to the NCI clinical trials networks through participation in the scientific review committees, monitoring committees and other activities, but not serve as principal investigator of research project grants. This Notice of Intent to Publish is being provided to allow sufficient time for applicants to develop strong applications. Applications are limited to four per institution per receipt date including new (A0) and resubmissions (A1). NCI-designated cancer center consortia are considered one institution. NCI seeks a broad representation of institutions for this award mechanism and may take this into account when making funding decisions. The NOFO is expected to be published in late summer 2024 with only one expected application due date of November 5, 2024.

The "Notice of Intent to Publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity for Centers on the Demography and Economics of Aging, Including Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) (D Centers) (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)" grant aims to fund the development or renewal of research centers focused on advancing aging research in demography, economics, and related social sciences, with a particular emphasis on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, while promoting innovative research, addressing health disparities, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

The "Notice of Intent to Publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity for Centers on the Demography and Economics of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias Coordinating Center" grant is intended to fund the development or renewal of a coordinating center that will serve as a hub for various research centers, enhancing their scientific impact, fostering synergies, promoting inclusivity, and raising the profile of aging and Alzheimer's disease research.

This grant provides funding to nonprofit organizations and local government entities in Herington, Kansas, to support community development projects that improve the quality of life for residents.

The National Cancer Institute intends to promote a new initiative by publishing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for pilot/exploratory research on the confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma in HIV-positive individuals diagnosed with cancer. This NOFO will utilize the R21 grant mechanism (clinical trial optional), which is intended to encourage exploratory/developmental research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of project development. Up to three (3) R21 awards are expected to be funded as part of the initiative. Research projects will advance the current understanding of the confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma in people with HIV (PWH) diagnosed with cancer; investigate the resultant impact of these dual stigmas on cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; and promote research in diverse domestic and international contexts, focusing on regions in which the HIV-cancer burden is elevated. Pilot interventional research, which addresses modifiable mechanisms of stigma that contribute to negative cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer, is also suitable for this funding mechanism. The NOFO is expected to be published in late Summer 2024 with an expected application due date in late Fall 2024. Details of a pre-application webinar will be announced after the publication of the NOFO. This Notice is being provided to allow sufficient time for potential applicants with relevant expertise and insights to consider applying for this NOFO. Potential applicants are encouraged to view the presentation of this initiative to the Joint Virtual Meeting of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and the National Cancer Advisory Board available at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=54859 beginning at 3 hour, 39 minutes. Presentation slides are downloadable at: https://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/joint/0624/Vanderpool.pdf.

This funding opportunity is designed to strengthen health informatics capabilities in PEPFAR-supported countries by developing a skilled workforce and enhancing digital health systems to combat HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis effectively.

The City of Frederick's Department of Economic Development has launched a new grant opportunity called “ACCESS GRANTED.” This initiative is designed to support small minority and women-owned businesses, both start-up and established, by providing access to capital for specific projects aimed at scaling their operations. The program aligns with the city's mission to foster a supportive and inclusive business environment, enabling entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential. The primary beneficiaries of the "ACCESS GRANTED" program are small minority and women-owned businesses within The City of Frederick limits. The impact goal is to empower these businesses by providing financial assistance that will facilitate their growth and development. This initiative aims to address the challenges these businesses face in accessing capital, thereby contributing to a more equitable and robust local economy. The program prioritizes small minority and/or women-owned businesses that are physically located within The City of Frederick limits. Eligibility criteria include being a registered for-profit business, being in good standing in the state of Maryland, and having no more than 25 full-time equivalent employees. These criteria ensure that the funding reaches businesses that are genuinely in need of support and are poised for growth within the city. The City of Frederick has earmarked $400,000 for this program, with individual grant sizes ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. The expected outcome is a tangible increase in the capacity and scalability of participating businesses, leading to job creation, economic growth, and enhanced community vibrancy. While specific measurable results are not explicitly detailed beyond the financial allocation, the program's success will likely be evaluated by the number of businesses supported, the scale of projects undertaken, and the overall economic impact on the community.

This funding opportunity provides financial support to organizations working in Namibia to improve health information systems and enhance public health programs related to HIV, tuberculosis, and other health threats.

The Main Street Micro Business Startup Grant Program, funded by Main Street Oakland County and Genisys Credit Union, offers grants between $1000 to $10,000 to support the creation, relocation, or expansion of small businesses in specific Main Street Districts, covering costs such as location renovations, rent assistance, equipment purchases, and other relevant expenses.

This funding opportunity provides financial support to organizations working to improve laboratory diagnostics and monitoring for HIV/AIDS care and treatment in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, enhancing public health outcomes in the Caribbean.

This grant provides funding to strengthen HIV and TB healthcare services in high-burden areas of Namibia, supporting the Ministry of Health in improving service delivery, monitoring, and health system capacity.

This grant provides funding to local organizations in Eswatini to improve and integrate HIV and TB prevention and treatment services, enhancing the capacity of health institutions and ensuring community involvement in the process.

This funding opportunity provides financial support to organizations working with the Eswatini government to strengthen public health systems for monitoring and responding to HIV, TB, and related health threats.

This grant provides funding to civil society organizations in Uganda to strengthen their capacity and coordination in delivering comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment services to key and priority populations at high risk of HIV infection.

This funding opportunity provides financial support to organizations working with Eswatini's Ministry of Health to strengthen its capacity in managing and responding to HIV, TB, and related public health challenges.

This grant provides funding to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Health in Eswatini to effectively respond to HIV, TB, and related public health challenges through technical assistance and the development of sustainable health strategies.

This grant provides funding for innovative medical research aimed at improving the health and readiness of military personnel, veterans, and their families by accelerating the development of life-saving healthcare products and technologies for use in combat and austere environments.

This grant provides funding to organizations in India to enhance and sustain efforts in preventing and treating HIV and tuberculosis, particularly among high-risk populations.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. To apply to this FOA, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through ARPA-E eXCHANGE (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Registration.aspx). For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx). ARPA-E will not review or consider concept papers submitted through other means. For problems with ARPA-E eXCHANGE, email [email protected] (with FOA name and number in the subject line). Questions about this FOA? Check the Frequently Asked Questions available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/faq. For questions that have not already been answered, email [email protected]. Agency Overview: The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E), an organization within the Department of Energy (DOE), is chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-69), as amended by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), as further amended by the Energy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-260): (A) to enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that (i) reduce imports of energy from foreign sources; (ii) reduce energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; (iii) improve the energy efficiency of all economic sectors; (iv) provide transformative solutions to improve the management, clean-up, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel; and (v) improve the resilience, reliability, and security of infrastructure to produce, deliver, and store energy; and (B) to ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. ARPA-E issues this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under its authorizing statute codified at 42 U.S.C. 16538. The FOA and any cooperative agreements or grants made under this FOA are subject to 2 C.F.R. Part 200 as supplemented by 2 C.F.R. Part 910. ARPA-E funds research on, and the development of, transformative science and technology solutions to address the energy and environmental missions of the Department. The agency focuses on technologies that can be meaningfully advanced with a modest investment over a defined period of time in order to catalyze the translation from scientific discovery to early-stage technology. For the latest news and information about ARPA-E, its programs and the research projects currently supported, see: http://arpa-e.energy.gov/. ARPA-E funds transformational research. Existing energy technologies generally progress on established learning curves where refinements to a technology and the economies of scale that accrue as manufacturing and distribution develop drive improvements to the cost/performance metric in a gradual fashion. This continual improvement of a technology is important to its increased commercial deployment and is appropriately the focus of the private sector or the applied technology offices within DOE. In contrast, ARPA-E supports transformative research that has the potential to create fundamentally new learning curves. ARPA-E technology projects typically start with cost/performance estimates well above the level of an incumbent technology. Given the high risk inherent in these projects, many will fail to progress, but some may succeed in generating a new learning curve with a projected cost/performance metric that is significantly better than that of the incumbent technology. ARPA-E funds technology with the potential to be disruptive in the marketplace. The mere creation of a new learning curve does not ensure market penetration. Rather, the ultimate value of a technology is determined by the marketplace, and impactful technologies ultimately become disruptive that is, they are widely adopted and displace existing technologies from the marketplace or create entirely new markets. ARPA-E understands that definitive proof of market disruption takes time, particularly for energy technologies. Therefore, ARPA-E funds the development of technologies that, if technically successful, have clear disruptive potential, e.g., by demonstrating capability for manufacturing at competitive cost and deployment at scale. ARPA-E funds applied research and development. The Office of Management and Budget defines applied research as an original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledgedirected primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective and defines experimental development as creative and systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience, which is directed at producing new products or processes or improving existing products or processes. Applicants interested in receiving financial assistance for basic research (defined by the Office of Management and Budget as experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts)1 should contact the DOEs Office of Science (http://science.energy.gov/). Office of Science national scientific user facilities (http://science.energy.gov/user-facilities/) are open to all researchers, including ARPA-E Applicants and awardees. These facilities provide advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. Projects focused on early-stage R for the improvement of technology along defined roadmaps may be more appropriate for support through the DOE applied energy offices including: the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/), the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (https://www.energy.gov/fecm/office-fossil-energy-and-carbon-management), the Office of Nuclear Energy (http://www.energy.gov/ne/office-nuclear-energy), and the Office of Electricity (https://www.energy.gov/oe/office-electricity). Program Overview: The Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program will support the research and development of technologies that enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel (UNF) to alleviate the impact of storage in permanent disposal facilities. This program seeks to fund the development of novel technologies that increase the overall capacity factor, power output, and efficiency of particle generation systems (including but not limited to proton, neutron, and/or photon), by reducing beam trip magnitude and duration (referred to as loss of beam). Additional technologies will focus on increasing the throughput of transmutation by developing target materials that maximize transmutation rates and are easily processible to remove the transmuted material. The United States does not currently have an active facility for the permanent disposal of used nuclear fuel derived from the civilian nuclear sector. Used nuclear fuel comprises several classes of isotopes that could be processed in different ways due to their economic value. Firstly, uranium (U), which comprises greater than 95% of the mass of UNF, can be reprocessed and converted back into fuel for light-water reactors through the addition of small amounts of uranium-235 (U-235). Secondly, plutonium (Pu) and minor actinides (MAs), such as neptunium (Np), americium (Am), and curium (Cm), which together comprise roughly 1.5% of UNF by mass, are produced from nuclear fission. Many of these isotopes are fissionable and could be incorporated into fuels designed for advanced reactor concepts. Intermediate-lived fission products (ILFPs) including strontium-90 (Sr-90) and caesium-137 (Cs-137) have relatively short half-lives of roughly 30 years and have applications in radioisotope thermoelectric generators for space applications. However, ILFPs are largely destined for permanent disposal in a deep geological repository. The major long-lived fission products (LLFPs) have half-lives exceeding 200,000 years and have few commercial applications. LLFPS include selenium-79 (Se-79), technetium-99 (Tc-99), tin-126 (Sn-126), iodine-129 (I-129), and caesium-135 (Cs-135). The last class of isotopes are the stable isotopes produced from nuclear fission and resulting decay. These isotopes could be extracted from UNF, but no commercial processing of these have been undertaken. A deep geological disposal facility for the disposition of UNF in the U.S. has been estimated to cost $96.18 billion over the 150-year lifetime, after which the facility would cease to accept new waste. This facility would be able to store 70,000 metric tons (MT) of unprocessed UNF, which is insufficient for the existing volume of civilian waste. Densification of the waste can be accomplished through removal of the plutonium, minor actinides, and ILFP components of the UNF. Removal of 99.9% of these components would allow a densification factor of 225, based on current disposal requirements, thus allowing a single repository to store upwards of approximately 16 million MT of UNF. The LLFPs are responsible for many of the engineered barriers that are required to be built in the repository due to their long half-lives and environmental mobility. Removal of these LLFPs could decrease the capital expenditure of a permanent geological repository while also improving safety. To view the FOA in its entirety, please visit https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov.