A new grant opportunity from the American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF) is the Humanitarian Projects Award, which addresses sleep problems or sleep education needs in disadvantaged populations. The ASMF is particularly interested in projects that develop or promote novel approaches to address human suffering in under-served populations as it relates to inadequate or non-restorative sleep, or sleep disorders in disadvantaged groups.

Applicants should be physicians (MD or DO), allied health-care workers or social workers; or charitable organizations such as academic institutions, health-care providers, hospitals, schools or non-profit community or civic groups. Awards will be granted for one-year in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $17,000. The number of grants will depend on the number, quality, scope and breadth of the applications received and their expected outcomes. The ASMF encourages collaborative projects that integrate the efforts and resources of more than one organization as well as those that demonstrate successful models that can be replicated in other settings.

The application deadline is April 1, 2011. Recipients of the award will be announced at SLEEP 2011 in Minneapolis, Minn. Learn more at www.discoversleep.org. Questions can be directed to ASMF Coordinator Lisa Wallis at 630-737-9700 or lwallis@aasm.org.