Next Steps Program

MRA is excited to announce a new funding opportunity called Next Steps, a separate and distinct grant mechanism from the MRA’s annual RFP call for applications. The intent of this funding strategy is to help advance translation of discoveries into the clinic by supporting:

1. Needed preclinical resources and tools for the research community to identify and begin to develop new therapies; and
2. Infrastructural support to analyze and build large datasets and/or develop associated technologies for better detection, diagnosis, treatment, and management of melanoma.

Overall, the Next Steps program will secure data necessary to strengthen research proposals for future submission to MRA and other funding agencies.

Two Request for Proposals (RFPs) will be released in 2025:

• Characterization of Rare Melanoma Preclinical Models: Characterization of rare melanoma cell lines, PDX, and other preclinical models with different molecular assays, drug sensitivity or repurposing tests, and/or CRISPR analyses with the goal of making the models and corresponding data available to the research community to enable more preclinical research in rare melanomas.
• Advancing Drug Discovery to Identify New Therapies for Acral and Uveal Melanoma: Drug discovery efforts against validated targets to support new therapeutic entity identification, optimization and testing in preclinical models specifically for acral and/or uveal melanoma, with an emphasis on targets including adapter proteins, transcription factors, cell surface proteins, etc (ie: CRKL, TERT, GAB2, YAP, Gq/11, LZTR, B7H3).

Awards through the Next Steps Program will be granted as milestone-based payments. Therefore, submitted applications will require the research proposal and budget, and a clearly defined milestone plan and timeline. Funding levels range from $50,000- $250,000 (specified in each Next Step priority area announcement) with study duration of 1-2 years. Only researchers from academic medical centers and universities are eligible to apply including institutions in the U.S. and worldwide.

Announcements of this program will be made via email and on the MRA website. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Sara DiNapoli, MRA's Director, Scientific Programs at sdinapoli@curemelanoma.org.