M2M Membership Benefits
M2M Theme Member Benefits
IALS Translational Graduate Student Fellowship
IALS Research Centers (CBD, CPHM, M2M) have generously offered to provide one year of funding for graduate students who have completed their 2nd year or beyond to support relevant translational research projects.
Funding will be awarded as a one-year fellowship starting Spring 2024 at 20 hours per week, Applications should be received by the deadline of October 1st, and will be reviewed by the Center Steering Committee and Industry partners, and then ranked for final decision by Center & IALS Leadership. Learn more
Theme Activity/Research Funds
Each Research Theme is given a discretionary budget of $10,000 per year to support collaborative research that furthers the strategic goals of the Research Themes. Funds may be used towards seed funding, training opportunities, and/or other mechanisms to support collaborative theme research.
This may also include hosting visits with potential industry partners, co-hosting seminar speakers, or facilitating internal meetings and events of or across Research Themes.
To access theme funds, please contact your Theme Leader. More information on the M2M Research Themes can be found here: m2m/research-themes
BioRender Premium-Free Access for M2M Affliliated Labs
All Models to Medicine Center affiliated labs have free access to BioRender Premium, thanks to the support derived from IALS-tagged grants to the center and the support of the M2M Steering Committee. This is a great resource to help create graphics, enhance visual communications, stand out from others, and improve figures for grants/manuscripts.
For more information and to register:
For this pilot program, access is only for M2M faculty, the non-undergraduate members of their labs (post docs, grad students, permanent staff, etc.) and the Core Facilities directors, to assist in making helpful graphics for faculty. Please reach out to ialscenters@umass.edu if you have any questions. For IT support with BioRender, please email support@biorender.com.
To gain premium access at University of Massachusetts Amherst - Models to Medicine Center, please sign up or login (if you already have an account) through https://app.biorender.com/portal/umassa
Research Funding Opportunities for IALS Faculty
IALS Midigrants
The IALS midigrant is designed to be a flexible seed fund mechanism up to $50,000 to enable new translational research and explore new collaborations within IALS. All active faculty members of IALS may apply for funds. To apply, please visit: umass.edu/ials/funding-benefits
Manning/IALS Innovation Awards
The Manning/IALS Innovation Awards provide seed funding up to $100,000 per award. These awards are designed to help advance UMass Amherst translational and applied R&D through the development of startup companies or the out-licensing of UMass IP.
Significant funding for this program comes from a gift from the Manning Family Foundation, and from the IALS Seed fund program. Additional contributions come from the College of Natural Sciences, the Berthiaume Center, the Isenberg School of Management, and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations.
To apply, please visit: umass.edu/ials/funding-benefits
DNA-Encoded Library Screening-Funding Opportunity
The Models to Medicine Center is announcing funding for up to five pilot projects focused on DNA-encoded library screening.
The successful applicants will embark on projects aimed at discovering novel chemical compounds with therapeutic potential by leveraging DNA-encoded libraries at WuXi DELopen libraries.
To learn more and apply, please visit: umass.edu/m2m/dna-encoded-library-screening
Core Facilities Benefits
Core Facilities Funding Opportunities
IALS Research Centers (CBD, CPHM, M2M) have generously offered to contribute incentive funds to stimulate novel uses of the Core Facilities as well as subsidize training for student users.
All active faculty members of IALS and Core Facility Directors can initiate a request for funds.
- Small equipment (including new instruments or enhancements to existing instruments)
- Materials/operational costs for validation of new service lines, or expansion of existing service lines to users new to a technique
- Consultation fees (including engaging external partners)
To access student training funds, please consult with the Core Facility that would be providing training.
Core Directors and/or faculty can initiate a request for funds by filling out this form. bit.ly/coreFundingOpps
Additional Core Resources
M2M invests $50,000 in the Core Facilities per year towards supporting M2M faculty research through:
- Core Facilities Pilot Funding. Flexible funds are available for new projects, and pilot experiments using the Cores.
- M2M Core User Training Funds. M2M will subsidize the training rate at all 31 Core Facilities for Core users (faculty, students, and postdocs) that are members of an M2M faculty research lab.
- Core Equipment Maintenance and New Acquisitions. To ensure M2M research can remain on the cutting edge.
Funds are managed centrally by the UMass Core Facilities. To access these funds, please reach out to Andrew Vinard at avinard@umass.edu.
M2M Support for Student Training
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
To help support the IALS mission to contribute to biomedical workforce development in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, M2M is investing in applied STEM research opportunities for UMass undergraduates through sponsorship of ten undergraduate student research positions (10-week programs) in each of the following programs:
COE Materials-Focused REU Program (website link forthcoming)
Other Student Support
NIH PREP Program Summer Stipends. In 2021 and 2022, M2M has committed funding to provide summer salary support for students participating in the UMass NIH PREP Program.
