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Drexelmed Tobacco Grants: An Intramural Program for Translational Biomedical Research
Drexelmed Translation Foundation Grants
Drexelmed Interdisciplinary Program Initiatives
A Distribution of Funds from the Tobacco Settlement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: “CURE Formula Funds”
Submission deadline: October 17, 2008 by noon.
Purpose and Overall Plan
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be providing monies from the Formula Funds under the Tobacco Settlement for research support for FY 2009. The Commonwealth determines the distribution of funds to all institutions based on their awards received from NIH. We cannot wait longer for the formal announcement from the Commonwealth of the amounts or timelines for the program for this year. Thus, this RFP (Request for Proposals) is being issued with the understanding that the number or amounts of awards may be adjusted in the near future based on the funds that are actually received. Changes this uear in the program funded by the College of Medicine, as noted below, reflect the consensus reached at a discussion by the standing Research Committee of the Faculty, held on September 12, 2008.
These funds will be used to promote research projects conducted by full-time faculty of the Drexel University College of Medicine that will lead to high quality scholarship (i.e., publications), submissions for extramural support and ultimately awards from the NIH, Department of Defense, NSF and other governmental agencies and foundations. The RFP invites two types of applications, which are described in more detail below. One type of application will accept proposals by individual laboratories for the intramural equivalent of a small grant (R0-3-type) from NIH. Multiple laboratories can apply for these grants. The other type of application requires collaboration of multiple investigators and must address a global theme on the order of a Program Project Grant as usually defined by the NIH. Proposals judged meritorious by scientific review (see later) will be given priority if they involve a clinical faculty member who will play a substantial role in the project, whether as Principal Investigator or as a co-investigator. This priority applies to both types of funding instruments. DUCOM faculty are also encouraged to collaborate with faculty from other academic units of the university, although a DUCOM faculty member must be the Principal Investigator on each application.
Eligibility to apply for funds
Principal investigators for the Drexelmed Tobacco Grants must hold a full-time, primary faculty appointment (instructor or above) in a basic science or clinical department of DUCOM. Faculty from other schools or colleges of the university can serve as co-investigators. Such collaborations are strongly encouraged because they increase the diversity of research and improve the opportunities for developing novel translational approaches. As noted earlier, collaborations between basic and clinical scientists within DUCOM are also especially desirable.
The goal of these awards is to provide the maximum impact upon research at DUCOM and, by extension, at Drexel University overall. The mechanisms will be harmonious with the design and constraints of the Commonwealth program itself. This impact will generally be in the form of larger scale outside funding in biomedical research in the near future, in the development of clinical implementation of the fruits of that research and in securing rights for and revenue from intellectual property. Again, Drexelmed Tobacco Grants may entail the funding of an established investigator or a new investigator; they may support an individual or a group.
Faculty may be eligible for funding on an extension of a currently funded project, with new money awarded. This new policy is directed at increasing the likelihood of successful applications by teams for extramural funding. The policy was supported by the Research Committee and prompted by comments of the Commonwealth’s reviewers, who evaluated previous projects. Details are provided later in this announcement. Drexelmed Tobacco Grants are not meant to duplicate existing funding from extramural sources or from DUCOM. Decisions about budgetary duplication and eligibility will be made programmatically, after consultation with the applicant, by the Vice Dean for Research. Also, the Vice Dean will adjust overall budgets to optimize the number of projects awarded and the amounts awarded for each successful proposal.
Specifics of the Application
(1) Only one faculty member can serve as Principal Investigator. Other scientists should be listed as co-investigators, unless they are students (e.g., graduate students, medical fellows).
(2) To ensure that person-hours are not wasted by preparing and reviewing overly long or unsuitable documents, applications will be strictly limited to three single-spaced pages for the description of the goals, background and work to be performed. Figures and equations are included in the limit; appendices are not permitted. References should be included within the body of the application by number, to conserve space (e.g, [12]). In lieu of appendices, digital photographs and other graphical material already published by the P.I. and other scientists on the project team can be identified within the body of the application by the reference and either the Unique Identifier/PMID number (e.g., [12]155765) or the DOI reference. This will facilitate access of the reviewers to the information. However, reviewers are under no obligation to consider material other than that provided within the body of the document. A reference list should be provided on a separate page or pages which are not included in the 3-page limit. NIH biosketches (Form PHS398) and a formal NIH (first-year detailed) budget page are also not included in the above 3-page limit.
(3) A detailed budget page is required (in the format stated above). Ordinarily, travel will be supported for one person (faculty, graduate student, postdoctoral research fellow, medical student, medical resident or medical fellow) to make a formal presentation of research conducted under the project. The presenter must be an active member of the funded project. Principal Investigators must obtain written approval from the Vice Dean for Research before making actual arrangements for the travel. Evidence will be required that an oral presentation or poster has been accepted for the conference. Travel will also be permitted for students to visit other laboratories for the purpose of learning a new technique or for establishing or maintaining a scientific collaboration between the laboratories. Grants are permitted to support both travel to present data at a conference and travel for scientific collaboration. All travel must be justified in a separate page for budget justifications.
Requests for equipment must be justified. Significant items such as computers, large software packages (>$1,000), and instruments costing more than $1,000 and less than $5,000 must be justified. Include reasons why existing resources are inadequate for the purpose stated. Capital expenses (equipment costing more than $5,000) must be justified. For the Drexelmed Translation Foundation Grants (see below), the total amount of funding for faculty salary will be limited to 10% of the P.I.’s salary. For the Interdisciplinary Program Initiatives (below), funding will be limited to 5% of the salary for each faculty member from the collaborating laboratories.
(4) The applicant must state explicitly on a separate page (not part of the 3-page narrative) the anticipated outcome of the funding of the applicant’s project. Provide a target date for your submission of an external grant based on the preliminary data and progress that result directly from the Drexelmed Tobacco Grant funds. Applicants are urged to be cautious and accurate because whether or not they meet this promise will be taken into account in future applications.
(5) For those who have previously received funds from the intramural programs conducted by either DUCOM or Drexel University based upon the Tobacco Settlement, the applicant will be required to describe explicitly the outcome predicted in the previous project and to document the actual achievement. If this is a new application, one paragraph will suffice. If this is an application for an extension of a project with new funding, a more complete progress report is required (see below).
(6) Each applicant must state the translational nature of the project. If it is a basic science proposal, the P.I. must state how the new knowledge gained could be used next in an applied fashion, ultimately leading to novel diagnostic or therapeutic approaches in research with human subjects or in actual clinical care.
Summary of required documents
(1) A completed, signed transmittal form in PDF format (http://www.research.drexel.edu/administration/Proposal_Submission/Submission_Packet/Default.aspx)
(2) Face page: Applicants must use the PHS398 face page, which can be obtained at the NIH website (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html).
(3) NIH Biosketch (PHS398) of P.I. and other investigators who are key scientific personnel (including, but not restricted to co-investigators and all those with doctorates).
(4) Budget and budget justification (PHS398).
(5) Project narrative: The three-page body of the grant application as described above.
(6) References
(7) Statement of projected submissions for extramural support of the project and of previous awards from the Commonwealth Tobacco Settlement. The latter must include a statement of the extent to which achievement under the previous award met the predictions of that proposal.
(8) A statement of translational aspect of the proposed research.
(9) For requests for extensions of funding, a Progress Report that details the dissemination of data from the initial funding period as demonstrated by: (a) conference presentations; (b) archival abstracts; (c) manuscripts submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal; (d) manuscripts accepted for publication or already published; (e) reviews or chapters containing data from the project; (f) applications submitted for extramural funding based upon data from the project (indicate outcome of the review, if already known); (g) revisions submitted based upon “f;” and (h) funding obtained from extramural sources. This report does not count in the page limit for the narrative body of the scientific proposal.
(10) For requests for extensions of funding, a Justification for Extension with New Funding is required. This justification must state how the second year of new money will advance the project and increase the chance for multiple individual grants or for a multi-investigator application to be funded. This justification does not count in the page limit for the narrative body of the scientific proposal.
Submission
Applications must be submitted no later than October 17, 2008 at noon. The applications should be sent as PDF files to Research@Drexelmed.edu, with a cc: Research@Drexel.edu. The subject line of the e-mail must say “Drexelmed Tobacco Grant” and the name of the PI. Transmittal packets should be submitted as a PDF file separate from the body of the grant.
Programs
The work involved must be in keeping with one or more of the goals of the Commonwealth in the distribution of these funds, which are summarized as follows:
Research priorities shall include the identification of critical research areas, disparities in health status among various Commonwealth populations, expected research outcomes and benefits and disease prevention and treatment methodologies.
The research priorities are clinical, health services, and/or biomedical research as defined in Act 2001-77. The ultimate goal of the research should be to improve health status and access [and] ... should encourage, through the application process and accountability requirements, research that:
- emphasizes collaboration
- promotes business and community involvement
- increases infrastructure and research capacity
- increases the number of new investigators, new grants, new discoveries and new products
- leverages new and existing research funds, and leads to population-based applications that address disparities in health status among various Commonwealth populations.
I. Drexelmed Translation Foundation Grants
These proposals will provide a maximum of $75,000 each in direct costs. These grants are intended to promote research that provides foundation data to apply for translationally-based extramural research funding in the future. These projects can address any areas of investigation that satisfies the goals of the Commonwealth (see above).
II. Drexelmed Interdisciplinary Program Initiatives (IPI)
These grants have budgets of a maximum of $125,000 in direct costs. The purpose of these programs is to foster collaboration among multiple laboratories leading to applications for NIH Program Projects (where they are still entertained) and for other large-scale programs. For these applications, include a statement justifying how this funding will foster an existing group, or establish a new group, that will generate interdisciplinary research data for a competitive application for extramural support. This statement should come at the end of the body of the grant and is not included in the space limitation. Note that these projects must address specific hypotheses and generate data directed towards publications and grant submissions. Support for administrators or for organizational activities will not meet the requirements of the Commonwealth.
*Note: Applications are permitted by teams of investigators who construct programmatic themes based upon the data obtained from previous or current Drexelmed Translation Foundation Grants. Note that these applications will be scrutinized carefully to ensure that the new proposal is truly programmatic and involves the interaction of multiple faculty, especially including significant contributions from clinical faculty.
III. Extensions of Current IPI’s, with new (additional) funding awarded
Project teams with existing IPI’s are permitted to request a second year of new funding. They must submit a full application, which must contain the Progress Report and Justification for Extension with New Funding that is described above.
Review process and award notification
The applications will be reviewed by the process used by standard NIH-type study sections. The panel will include basic and clinical scientists from DUCOM and from other academic units of the university, as determined by the scientific expertise required to conduct a fair and thorough review. Decisions for funding will be based upon scientific merit, as evaluated by the review panel, and programmatic need. Requests for extensions of IPI’s, with new funding, will be reviewed for: scientific merit of the studies; progress during the initial year; and likelihood that the additional funding will lead to successful applications for extramural support. Budgets on all projects (new and extensions) will be adjusted after the review for merit in order to optimize the distribution of funds. All applicants will be notified individually of the decision about their proposal as soon as those decisions are final.
- Written By: nroberts
- Date Posted: 9/15/2008
- Number of Views: 68
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