WEBINAR Understanding COVID-19 Research and Development Funding Opportunities

Description

The recent and rapid spread of COVID-19 clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the threat infectious diseases pose to our domestic and global community. As you all know, there is a critical need for novel solutions to treat, prevent, and contain COVID-19 as well as future emerging threats.
 
The Conafay Group works closely with industry, academia, and others to advance their medical research efforts with the federal government. We have observed that many groups have important solutions to offer, but struggle to know what opportunities are out there, which agencies are seeking what kinds of solutions, in what timeframe, and how to engage those agencies.  
 
To that end, The Conafay Group will be offering a free webinar to help interested participants better understand the landscape of COVID-19 R&D funding opportunities in the federal government. 

Presenters include:

• Jessica Kenyon has 19 years of experience with the development of advanced medical technology, with special expertise in federal research and acquisition.  For the Conafay Group, she leads efforts with academic and other multi-investigator organizations, providing expertise in federal R&D programs as well as in partnerships across government, academia, and industry.  For five years, Jessica served as Vice President for Health and Life Science Programs at American Defense International, Inc., where she advised numerous corporate, academic, and non-profit clients, both domestic and international, on their federal engagement strategy, particularly with the Department of Defense (DoD).  Jessica came to the private sector with more than 10 years of experience in the oversight, planning, and management of DoD medical research and development (R&D) programs in multiple technical domains.  From 2001 to 2011, she served in several capacities at the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), where she played a central role in developing a portfolio of medical research to deliver critical medical technologies to the warfighter.  Jessica served as the Director of TATRC’s West Coast Satellite Office in Marina del Rey, California, where she worked to build strategic partnerships to foster successful military medical R&D.  Born and raised in Frederick, Maryland, Jessica graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University, and earned her Master of Arts from Bryn Mawr College.
• ​Dr. Rosemarie Hunziker retired from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2019. At NIH, she as Director of the Tissue Engineering/Regenerative Medicine Program at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) for 12 years, as well as Director of Dental Materials and the Small Business Program at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) for 2.5 years.  In those capacities she had programmatic oversight of discovery and applied research grants.  She brings a diverse background to this broad sphere, with experience in a range of technical areas. Rosemarie uses her broad and deep knowledge of the cutting-edge of biomedical research to help hone grant applications to their exciting essentials.  She combines her 20-years’ experience as a Program Director (NIH and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST) and programmatic and grant application review for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and several parts of the Department of Defense (DoD), with previous experience as an independent consultant who understands the needs of academic and industry investigators.