Ancestry Networks for the Human Cell Atlas

About this funding opportunity

This RFA closed on May 25, 2021

SCIENCE GRANT RESOURCES PAGE Ancestry Networks for the Human Cell Atlas

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invites applications for three-year collaborative projects for the generation of healthy, single-cell reference data from ancestrally diverse tissue samplesfor the Human Cell Atlas") (HCA). Learn about our grantees") and read our Medium post.

Download RFA Packet\\ \\ (Opens in a new window) RFA Contact

For administrative and programmatic inquiries, or other questions pertaining to this RFA, please contact sciencegrants@chanzuckerberg.com. Key Dates

March 9, 2021

Application portal opens

May 25, 2021

Applications due by 5 p.m. Pacific Time

September 14 - 24, 2021

Video call interviews of finalists

October 2021

Earliest notification of decisions (subject to change)

December 1, 2021

Earliest start date of award period (subject to change)

Award period and start date: Proposed projects should be three years in duration with a projected start date no earlier than December 1, 2021. Actual start date may vary.

Important Documents:

Application Instructions")

Institutional Approval Form") Opportunity

Overview

The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) (Opens in a new window)") is a global effort to create a reference map of all cell types in the healthy human body in order to generate a fundamental reference for biomedical research and improve our understanding of health and disease. Progress over the past several years has resulted in advancement toward first drafts of many organs systems and tissues. However, gaps have emerged in reference data for tissues from ancestrally diverse donors across all atlas building efforts, including the HCA. This has introduced significant biases and limited utility for finding treatments for large classes of disease for segments of the population.

This Request for Applications (RFA) is intended to bring together teams of experts to 1) ethically and appropriately generate data derived from tissues from people whose ancestral groups are historically understudied and thereby expand the ancestral diversity of single-cell data that is available via the HCA, and 2) utilize best practices and build up systems to enable long-term engagement of potential participants and donors from diverse communities to contribute to the current and future drafts of the HCA. This work will help provide insights into the contribution of genetic ancestry to disease now and in the future, resulting in an atlas that may be more generalizable and representative of the diversity") found in the global human population.

Project Specifications

This funding opportunity supports the continued growth of the HCA, with the aim of filling potential gaps in the first draft of the healthy reference atlas around ancestral groups that have been historically understudied in the biomedical sciences. While there are no specific quotas for this RFA, it is expected that all of the tissue will be from understudied populations. This RFA seeks to attract a new set of grantees primed to answer questions related to commonalities and potential differences in ancestry at the cellular level, as well as grantees with experience in community engagement and building diverse cohorts, and/or access to ancestrally diverse donors and tissue.

This Ancestry Network should collectively generate new tools, open source analysis methods, and openly available data from ancestrally diverse donors across multiple tissue types that provide valuable contributions to the HCA community. Applications should focus on healthy human tissues that will contribute to the reference atlas. Community resources arising from the teams funded by this RFA must be accessible for rapid and open sharing via repositories such as protocols.io, Addgene, GitHub, bioRxiv, or other open repositories. Samples must be collected in an ethical, equitable, and respectful manner in keeping with the customs, norms, and expectations of the donor communities. Raw…

Topic areas: Life Sciences and Health.

Funding amount

This grant provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no single fixed deadline.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Not specified by the program.

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

Ancestry Networks for the Human Cell Atlas is administered by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), listed via Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.