MRA Dermatology Career Development Award

Funding to support early career faculty and clinical research fellows in dermatology conducting research projects aimed at improving the prevention, detection or diagnosis of melanoma.

The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) is a US-based non-profit research charity that supports research to accelerate discoveries to advance the prevention and cure of melanoma, to end suffering and death due to melanoma.

The MRA research funding programme focuses on research that addresses the gap in translational science (ie turning scientific discoveries into tools and/or treatments for high-risk individuals and patients with melanoma). Successful proposals have the potential of applying important basic and preclinical discoveries to the near-term development of clinical trials and studies impacting melanoma detection, prevention, diagnosis, staging, and/or treatment. MRA welcomes proposals in the following areas:

• Prevention: elucidation of environmental, epidemiological, and biological factors in melanomagenesis that lead to improved strategies for melanoma prevention.
• Detection and Diagnosis: development of innovative detection and diagnostic methodologies; identification and validation of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.
• Treatment: for projects emphasising the translation of scientific findings to new treatments for patients with melanoma. Examples include, but are not limited to, studies of melanoma immunotherapy, therapeutic applications based on molecular mechanisms involved in melanoma formation and/or progression, treatments that target the tumour microenvironment or microbiome, combination therapies, and development of novel biomarkers of response to therapy.

Special emphasis areas may be formulated for each grant cycle, which typically focus on current unmet clinical needs in melanoma. The special emphasis areas will receive special consideration, and can include pre-clinical, translational, clinical, and/or correlative studies.

The MRA Dermatology Career Development Award is a special funding opportunity running for the 2023/24 grant cycle to support the career development of early career faculty and clinical research fellows who are working within the dermatology field and have ideas for innovative research to improve the prevention, detection and diagnosis of melanoma.

This award will support research projects (including epidemiological data gaps and population health and education programmes), practice changing demonstration projects, and/or immersive studies aimed at improving melanoma prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and/or staging. MRA welcomes proposals with immediate real-world implications for public health, prevention, and/or clinical practice. Projects involving the application of artificial intelligence (AI) across any of these areas, especially to reduce variable biopsy-referral and/or diagnostic standards, are also of interest to MRA.