The Lupus Foundation of America has started accepting applications to provide critical funding for lupus scientific research, at a time when government funds for lupus research can’t keep pace with the accelerating growth of lupus scientific opportunities. The new LIFELINE Grant Programme will provide research funds to help mitigate the potential loss in scientific momentum and loss of current and future lupus investigators due to disappearing federal research funds, just as lupus research is on the brink of breakthroughs.

The Foundation has issued a ‘Request for Applications’ (RFA) for the LIFELINE Grant Programme along with two other multi-career stage, research grant programmes: the Gina M Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship Programme and the Career Development Award.

“Lupus research has arrived at a pivotal moment. Scientific findings and prospects have placed us at the brink of breakthrough in several key areas, yet funds to conduct research on lupus are not sufficient to meet demand and sustain the momentum which has been building in recent years,” said Graciela S Alarcón, MD, MPH, chair MSAC Research Committee, Lupus Foundation of America. “The vision behind the Lupus Foundation of America’s new LIFELINE Grant Programme is to provide temporary support for seasoned lupus investigators who experience a gap in external funding for a specific, previously funded research project. This grant will provide a funding lifeline to continue important studies in lupus that are at a critical point where any interruption would significantly affect their forward progress.”

The Gina M Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship Programme seeks to foster interest among medical, graduate and undergraduate students to pursue a career in research areas that are relevant to lupus. The Career Development Award supports the professional development of rheumatology, nephrology, and dermatology fellows, in the United States and Canada who are interested in lupus research as a career.

Lupus investigators who are interested in these grant opportunities may obtain more information and links to the online applications at http://www.lupus.org/RFA. Letters of intent for the LIFELINE Grant Program are due by February 21, 2014; the full application is due by March 21. Applications for the Gina M Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship Programme and the Career Development Award are due by March 28.

The Lupus Foundation of America is dedicated to addressing scientific issues that have obstructed basic, clinical, epidemiological, behavioral, and translational lupus research for decades. Our research grant program focuses its support in areas of research where significant gaps in scientific knowledge about lupus exist, and where other public and private organizations are not focusing their efforts.

Lupus is an unpredictable and misunderstood autoimmune disease that ravages different parts of the body.

The Lupus Foundation of America is the only national force devoted to solving the mystery of lupus, one of the world’s cruelest, most unpredictable and devastating diseases, while givingcaring support to those who suffer from its brutal impact.