Today the American Lung Association (ALA) and the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) announced the creation of the ALA/NSF Pickwick Fellowship Award. The ALA/NSF Pickwick Fellowship Award will provide a promising new investigator grant monies to conduct sleep research, specifically as it relates to breathing.

"The American Lung Association is very excited about the new Pickwick Fellowship Award," said Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, Chair of ALA Board of Directors. "It is crucial that the health care community devote research to the area of sleep and respiratory disorders. Respiratory conditions like sleep apnea are serious and have become quite prevalent due to compromised health and lifestyle practices. Ongoing research is critical because there are strong links between respiratory disorders and other serious diseases like high blood pressure, heart attack, congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia and stroke."

The ALA/NSF Pickwick Fellowship Award is modeled after NSF's prestigious NSF Pickwick Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Sleep. Since 1995, the Fellowship has awarded funds to enable young researchers to devote full-time professional effort to mentored research in sleep or sleep disorders. The funding amount for the new ALA/NSF award is for two years, with the second year of support dependent on satisfactory progress in the first year. Applicants must conduct research in a U.S. institution. Application materials are now available via proposalCENTRAL with the deadline for submission on September 4, 2007. Applications…