July 18, 2018

Call for Applications: Gund-Harrington Grant Award to Fight Blindness

Up to $900,000 in Funding and Personalized Drug Development Support Available

July 18, 2018, Cleveland, Ohio – The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio—part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development—and Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) have announced a call for applications for the 2019 Gund-Harrington Grant Award. This annual competition supports the translation of promising research in retinal degenerative diseases into new therapies to improve or restore vision.

Up to three Gund-Harrington Scholar awards will be made in 2019. Award recipients will receive:

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

Award criteria:

• The competition is open to scientists at accredited academic medical centers, research institutions and universities in the U.S. and Canada.
• Individual applicants must have a PhD or MD degree (or equivalent) and demonstrate exceptional promise.
• Multidisciplinary investigators outside the field of retinal disease developing a therapeutic strategy with a potential to benefit inherited retinal degenerative diseases are encouraged to apply.
• Of particular interest is the targeting of pathways and processes that might affect inherited retinal dystrophies and vision, with the ultimate goal of advancing the translation of research programs into therapies for the prevention and treatment of these diseases. In most cases, device development is not supported.

Important submission dates:

• Letter of Intent and CV are due no later than 11:59 PM ET on October 12, 2018.
• Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application. Final applications are due by 11:59 PM ET on January 18, 2019.
• Awards will be made in May 2019. News Release Department of Marketing and Communications 11100 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106

Foundation Fighting Blindness

Foundation Fighting Blindness is the world’s leading private research funding source for retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, Usher syndrome, and age-related macular degeneration. The nonprofit was co-founded by Gordon and Lulie Gund and Ben Berman in 1971 and has raised more than $725 million toward its mission. FFB has 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 (the CRI), a not-for-profit subsidiary, which can partner to provide substantial later-stage funding for high-potential projects. The Foundation is supporting several clinical trials, and many additional gene and stem cell-based human studies could begin in the next several years. For more information, please visit fightblindness.org.

Harrington Discovery Institute

The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – aims to advance medicine and society by enabling our nation’s most inventive scientists to turn their discoveries into medicines that improve human health. The institute was created in 2012 with a $50 million founding gift from the Harrington family and instantiates the commitment they share with University Hospitals to a Vision for a ‘Better World’. The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development (The Harrington Project), founded in late February 2012 by the Harrington Family and University Hospitals of Cleveland, is a $300 million national initiative built to bridge the translational valley of death. It includes the Harrington Discovery Institute and BioMotiv, a for-profit, mission-aligned drug development company that accelerates early discovery into pharma pipelines.

University Hospitals

Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of over 1 million patients per year 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, dermatology, 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 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.