Call for Scholars: Gund-Harrington National Initiative for Fighting Blindness

CLEVELAND, Sept. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Center for Excellence in Fighting Blindness, a Gund-Harrington Initiative, has opened its third annual Gund-Harrington Scholar Award competition to support innovative research efforts that seek to prevent, treat or cure blindness. 

The Gund-Harrington Initiative is a collaboration between Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) and the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. 

Applicants Receive:

• Funding totaling up to $900,000 over three years based on progress made toward milestones
• Committed drug development and project management support through Harrington Discovery Institute's Innovation Support Center for the duration of the three-year term

Research Without Walls:   
"This is a remarkable grant and drug discovery opportunity for physician-scientists and PhD researchers in the U.S. and Canada," said Jonathan Stamler, MD, President, Harrington Discovery Institute and the Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Innovation at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "The Gund-Harrington Initiative for Fighting Blindness is a perfect illustration of how the Harrington Discovery Institute promotes research without walls in our quest to advance discoveries to the benefit of patients."

"The collaboration with Harrington Discovery Institute provides FFB-funded researchers invaluable knowledge and guidance to advance potential therapies into clinical trials," said Dr. Stephen Rose, FFB's Chief Research Officer. "Ultimately, this accelerates the development of cutting-edge therapies, and improves the chances of getting sight-saving treatments out to the people who need them. What makes the Gund-Harrington Initiative unique is its broad reach across research disciplines while also maintaining a focus on retinal degenerative diseases."

Multidisciplinary discovery with potential application to the eye is being sought, as are investigators studying fundamental processes with multidisciplinary applications.

Please note the following dates:

• Letters of Intent are accepted through October 14, 2016.
• Full applications (for those invited) are due January 13, 2017.
• Awards will be announced in April 2017.

For more information or to apply, please visit HarringtonDiscovery.org/Gund.

Foundation Fighting Blindness
Foundation Fighting Blindness is a non-profit with a broad network and deep domain expertise in inherited retinal diseases, a set of programs for funding discoveries and advancing them toward clinical studies, and a robust pipeline of funded projects that represent new therapeutic opportunities. The foundation is funding startup companies and for-profit initiatives through its establishment of the Clinical Research Institute (CRI), a subsidiary, which partners to provide substantial later-stage funding for high-potential projects. The Foundation Fighting Blindness is supporting clinical trials of promising therapies, and several more pharmaceutical, gene and stem-cell-based human studies could begin in the near future. For more information, please visit fightblindness.org

Harrington Discovery Institute
The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – aims to advance medicine and society by enabling our nation's most inventive physician-scientists to turn their discoveries into medicines that improve human health. 

The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development
The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development (The Harrington Project), announced in late February 2012, is a first-of-its-kind $250 million national initiative, powered by a $50 million gift from the Harrington family. It includes Harrington Discovery Institute and BioMotiv, a for-profit, mission-aligned development company that oversees a portfolio of early-stage programs, which are built to be licensed to pharmaceutical companies.

For more information about The Harrington Project and the Harrington Discovery Institute, visit: HarringtonDiscovery.org.

University Hospitals / Cleveland, Ohio
Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 40 outpatient health centers and 200 physician offices in 15 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system's flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, located on a 35-acre campus in Cleveland's University Circle, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The main campus also includes University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; University Hospitals MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and urology. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including "America's Best Hospitals" from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH is the second largest employer in northern Ohio with 26,000 employees. For more information, go to UHhospitals.org.

SOURCE The Harrington Project

Related Links

http://uhharringtondiscoveryinstitute.org