The Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) has posted a revised 2012-2013 Granting Programs Request for Proposals (RFP) at http://www.lsdfa.org/documents/pdfs/LSDF_2012-2013_Granting_Programs_RFP.pdf that includes the following important changes:
- Opportunity grant principal investigators must confer with LSDF programs staff before pre-proposal submission.
- For Opportunity grants, only co-investments that are made contemporaneously with LSDF funding are counted as leverage. LSDF does not consider past funding (i.e., monies previously committed, received, or expended) or future predictions of funding as leverage.
- Opportunity grant pre-proposals may undergo review by LSDF-convened external expert panels prior to evaluation by the LSDF Board of Trustees.
- Regulatory consultation expenses are allowable if they inform the conduct of the proposed research and development activities.
- Principal investigators are encouraged to bring up to two additional individuals to the pre-proposal and full proposal interviews.
- For-profit applicant organizations will be required to provide a certificate of existence, certificate of incorporation, or a business license with their proposals.
- Board of Trustees award decision meeting dates have been updated.
- If a full proposal is submitted under this RFP but not funded, the principal investigator may resubmit the full proposal without having to submit a new pre-proposal, provided that the principal investigator, applicant organization, and scope of work are the same in the resubmitted proposal as in the original proposal (as determined solely by LSDF).
- All invitations to submit a full proposal under this RFP expire on July 23, 2013.