COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE RFP

[Steve Hanson]

MCDONNELL-PEW PROGRAM IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

December 1989

Individual Grants-in-Aid for Research and Training

Supported jointly by the James S. McDonnell Foundation and
The Pew Charitable Trusts

INTRODUCTION
The McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience has been
created jointly by the James S. McDonnell Foundation and The
Pew Charitable Trusts to promote the development of
cognitive neuroscience.  The foundations have allocated $12
million over an initial three-year period for this program.

Cognitive neuroscience attempts to understand human mental
events by specifying how neural tissue carries out
computations.  Work in cognitive neuroscience is
interdisciplinary in character, drawing on developments in
clinical and basic neuroscience, computer science,
psychology, linguistics, and philosophy.  Cognitive
neuroscience excludes descriptions of psychological function
that do not address the underlying brain mechanisms and
neuroscientific descriptions that do not speak to
psychological function.

The program has three components.

(1) Institutional grants have been awarded for the
    purpose of creating centers where cognitive scientists and
    neuroscientists can work together.

(2) To encourage Ph.D. and M.D. investigators in
    cognitive neuroscience, small grants-in-aid will be
    awarded for individual research projects.

(3) To encourage Ph.D. and M.D. investigators to acquire
    skills for interdisciplinary research, small training
    grants will be awarded.

During the program's initial three-year period, approximately 
$4 million will be available for the latter two 
components -- individual grants-in-aid for research and
training -- which this announcement describes. 

RESEARCH GRANTS
The McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience will
issue a limited number of awards to support collaborative
work by cognitive neuroscientists.
Applications are sought for projects of exceptional merit
that are not currently fundable through
other channels, and from investigators who are not already
supported by institutional grants under this Program.

Preference will be given to support projects requiring
collaboration or interaction between at least two subfields of
cognitive neuroscience.  The goal is to encourage broad, national 
participation in the development of the field and to facilitate
the participation of investigators outside the major centers
of cognitive neuroscience.  

Submissions will be reviewed by the program's advisory board. 
Grant support under this component is limited to $30,000 per year
for two years, with indirect costs limited to 10 percent of direct
costs.  These grants are not renewable.

The program is looking for innovative proposals that would, for
example:

-- combine experimental data from cognitive psychology
   and neuroscience;

-- explore the implications of neurobiological methods for
   the study of the higher cognitive processes;

-- bring formal modeling techniques to bear on cognition;

-- use sensing or imaging techniques to observe the brain during
   conscious activity;

-- make imaginative use of patient populations to analyze cognition;

-- develop new theories of the human mind/brain system.

This list of examples is necessarily incomplete but
should suggest the general kind of proposals desired.  Ideally, a
small grant-in-aid for research should facilitate the initial
exploration of a novel or risky idea, with success leading
to more extensive funding from other sources.

TRAINING GRANTS
A limited number of grants will also be awarded 
to support training investigators in cognitive neuroscience.  Here again,
the objective is to support proposals of exceptional merit
that are underfunded or unlikely to be funded from other sources.

Some postdoctoral awards for exceptional young scientists 
will be available; postdoctoral stipends will be funded at prevailing
rates at the host institution, and will be renewable
annually for periods up to three years. 
Highest priority will be given to candidates seeking postdoctoral
training outside the field of their previous training.
Innovative programs for training young scientists,
or broadening the experience of senior scientists,
are also encouraged.  Some examples of appropriate proposals
follow.

-- Collaboration between a junior scientist in a relevant 
   discipline and a senior scientist in a different discipline 
   has been suggested as an effective method for developing the field.

-- Two senior scientists might wish to learn each other's
   discipline through a collaborative project.

-- An applicant might wish to visit several laboratories 
   in order to acquire new research techniques.

-- Senior researchers might wish to investigate new methods 
   or technologies in their own fields that are 
   unavailable at their home institutions.

Here again, examples can only suggest the kind of training
experience that might be considered appropriate.

APPLICATIONS

Applicants should submit five copies of a proposal
no longer than 10 pages (5,000 words).  

Proposals for research grants should include: 

-- a description of the work to be done and where it might
   lead;

-- an account of the investigator's professional qualifications
   to do the work.

Proposals for training grants should include:

-- a description of the training sought and its relationship to the
   applicant's work and previous training;

-- a statement from the mentor as well as the applicant concerning
   the acceptability of the training plan.

Proposals for both research grants and training grants should
include:

-- an account of any plans to collaborate with other cognitive
   neuroscientists;

-- a brief description of the available research facilities;

-- no appendices.

The proposal should be accompanied by the following
separate information:

-- a brief, itemized budget and budget justification for the
   proposed work, including direct costs, with indirect costs not
   to exceed 10 percent of direct costs;

-- curricula vitae of the participating investigators;

-- evidence that the sponsoring organization is a
   nonprofit, tax-exempt, public institution;

-- an authorized form indicating clearance for the use
   of human and animal subjects;

-- an endorsement letter from the officer of the sponsoring
   institution who will be responsible for administering the
   grant.

Applications received on or before March 1 will be acted on by
the following September 1; applications received on or before
September 1 will be acted on by the following March 1.

INFORMATION
For more information contact:

McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience
Green Hall 1-N-6
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1010
   Telephone: 609-258-5014
   Facsimile: 609-258-3031
   Email: cns at confidence.princeton.edu

ADVISORY BOARD

Emilio Bizzi, M.D.
Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior
Chairman, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Whitaker College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E25-526
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Sheila Blumstein, Ph.D.
Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences
Dean of the College
Brown University
University Hall, Room 218
Providence, Rhode Island 02912

Stephen J. Hanson, Ph.D.
Group Leader
Learning and Knowledge Acquisition Research Group
Siemens Research Center
755 College Road East
Princeton, New Jersey 08540

Jon Kaas, Ph.D.
Centennial Professor
Department of Psychology
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee 37240

George A. Miller, Ph.D.
James S. McDonnell Distinguished University
     Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey 08544

Mortimer Mishkin, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Neuropsychology
National Institute of Mental Health
9000 Rockville Pike
Building 9, Room 1N107
Bethesda, Maryland 20892

Marcus Raichle, M.D.
Professor of Neurology and Radiology
Department of Radiology
Washington University School of Medicine
Barnes Hospital
510 S. Kingshighway, Campus Box 8131
St. Louis, Missouri 63110

Endel Tulving, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1
Canada