CNS RFPs

[Steve Hanson]

McDonnell-Pew Program
in Cognitive Neuroscience

October 1990

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 brochure 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 at
institutions already funded by an institutional grant from
the cognitive neuroscience program.

     Preference will be given to projects requiring collaboration 
or interaction between at least two subfields of cognitive neuroscience.  
The goals are 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.  
Indirect costs are to be included in the $30,000 maximum and may not exceed
10 percent of salaries and fringe benefits.  Grants are not renewable
after two years.

     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.
Training grants to support Ph.D. thesis research of graduate students 
will not be funded.

     Some postdoctoral awards for exceptional young scientists will 
be available; postdoctoral stipends will be funded for up to three years
at prevailing rates at the host institution.  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
that does not exceed 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;

The proposal must be accompanied by the following
separate information:

     *	a brief, itemized budget and budget justification for the
	proposed work, including direct and indirect costs
	(indirect costs may not exceed 10 percent of salaries and
	fringe benefits);

     *	curriculum(a) vitae of the participating investigator(s);

     *	evidence that the sponsoring organization is a nonprofit, 
	tax-exempt 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.

     No other appended documents will be accepted for evaluation,
and any incomplete applications will be returned to the applicant.  

     The advisory board reviews proposals twice a year.  Applications 
must be postmarked by the deadlines of February 1 and August 1 to be 
considered for review.

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 08544-1010

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
Division of Radiation Sciences
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology
 at Washington University Medical Center
510 S. Kingshighway Blvd., Campus Box 8131
St. Louis, Missouri 63110

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