CCTS Pilot Grant Program Initiative

Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences

2008 GUIDELINES

 

DATE:  June 20, 2008; Revised July 24, 2008 (clarifications in bold and italic)

TO:         UIC Clinical, Research, and Tenure Track Faculty

FROM: Theodore Mazzone, MD, Director, CCTS

RE:         2008 CCTS Pilot Grant Program

 

The Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) announces its 2008 Pilot Grant Program. The program is supported by the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and the Health Science Colleges. This program focuses on clinical and translational research, and as such, all applications must involve human subjects, facilitate human subject investigations, establish infrastructure related to human subject investigation, or concern disease mechanisms with clear, near term implications for therapeutics or prevention. Pilot funding aims to support several aspects of successful, extramurally funded research programs, including: proof of principle studies for new methodologies; feasibility studies for patient recruitment; measurement validation studies; pilot intervention studies to inform sample size and power estimation; establishment of collaborative community partnerships; development of new technologies to address a clinical research problem; improvements in biomedical informatics architecture and/or delivery of services, new methods for structuring or analyzing data sets; and stimulating pediatric clinical research. 

 

The pilot grant program funds both Planning and Preliminary Study grants. Planning grants of $25,000 will be one year in duration and focus on preparatory work for interdisciplinary collaborations. Preliminary Study pilot grants can be up to 2 years in duration ($50,000 each year, with second year funding contingent upon progress made during year 01) and focus specifically on activities needed to prepare competitive NIH grant proposals. 

 

Deadlines for the 2008 pilot grant program:

· Letters of intent (click on hyperlink below) due August 1, 2008

· Complete pilot grant application due October 15, 2008 Revised deadline

 

 

Pilot Grant Guidelines

 

Eligibility

 

a)    P.I. Eligibility: Principal Investigators must be clinical, research, or tenure track UIC faculty or must be affiliated with other CCTS partners. Although adjunct faculty and academic professionals cannot serve as PIs, they may serve as named investigators, collaborators, or key personnel. Post-doctoral fellows who have dual mentorship from a clinical translational discipline and a basic, physical, or engineering discipline may also serve as key personnel.  All applications from CCTS partners must have a UIC co-PI. 

 

b)    Project Eligibility:  Preference will be given to studies from investigators who wish to move their work into new, clinically relevant areas, to studies that involve new interdisciplinary collaborations, and to studies that show involvement of CCTS core resources (e.g., clinical/patient interfaces). Existing projects or collaborations will only be considered provided they demonstrate how the Pilot funding will lead to new avenues of research that otherwise would not have occurred. Examples could include early stage collaborations that are required to develop relevant preliminary data, multidisciplinary groups with the potential to develop new interdisciplinary science, or those needing support to develop the capacity to work as a group.

 

Award Types and Amounts 

 

a)    Planning grants: Planning grants are one year in duration in amounts up to $25,000. The primary focus of planning grants is on preparatory work for interdisciplinary collaborations.  Examples of planning grant funding uses include:  secondary analysis of existing data from an interdisciplinary perspective to generate study hypotheses; preparation of joint publications from a newly formed interdisciplinary team to strengthen their competitiveness for NIH funding; or support for the logistics of preparing a center grant or program project application, including convening a pre-proposal advisory board.  Planning grants may lead directly to submission of extramural funding applications or they could lead to subsequent pilot studies.

 

b)    Preliminary Study grants: Preliminary study grants are up to 2 years in duration ($50,000 each year, with second year funding contingent upon progress made during year 01) and focus specifically on activities such as conducting preliminary research to inform study design, demonstrate feasibility of research protocols, pilot test novel methodologies, or initiate and establish new interdisciplinary research.

 

Submission Process 

 

Letters of Intent (click on hyperlink) are to be submitted on the applicable form and sent electronically to: Irene Ziaya (iziaya1@uic.edu) with “CCTS Pilot Grant Letter of Intent” as the subject line.  Letters of intent should include the names and affiliations of all investigators, type of grant (planning or preliminary study), a 200 word description of the research, and a statement of how the pilot grant would facilitate a future external grant proposal.

 

Proposals are to be submitted in two forms:

 

One PDF file of complete proposal to iziaya1@uic.edu. This should be one file and not a series of attachments.

 

One original and five double-sided paper copies to the attention of: Ms. Irene Ziaya, CCTS, 914 S Wood Street, MC 595, Rm 217 MCA, Chicago, IL 60612. 

 

Application Content

 

Planning grants.  Planning grant submissions should include the following:

 

A.  Cover Page (click on hyperlink)

B.  Narrative Summary – up to 10 pages (exclusive of references) that includes the following information:

a) Abstract (100 words) This should provide a narrative summary of the proposed planning grant activities in language appropriate for a multidisciplinary review panel.

b) Specific Aims (1/2 page) that describes the purpose of the planning grant

c) Background and Significance (2 pages) that describes the significance of the proposed are of research and how the planning grant activities will create the potential for new directions and innovation in the proposed area

d) Qualifications of the study team (2 pages) that describes the expertise and background of the proposed collaborative team.  This section should make it clear to the reviewers how the research team will accomplish translational and clinical research goals together that would not be possible working independently.

e) Planning grant activities (up to 5 pages) that describe in detail the proposed planning grant activities.  This section should include a description of the anticipated next steps from the planning grant and specific, measurable criteria for evaluating the planning grant’s success.

f) Detailed budget Each application requires an appropriate budget with full justification of personnel, materials, supplies, equipment, animal and patient care costs, costs associated with human subjects, and other expenses necessary for the proposed project period. An excel spreadsheet or table is acceptable.

· Budget cannot include salary support for any investigator but should specify their time commitment.

· Post Doc support and student stipends/fringes are eligible expenses.

· Tuition remission is not an eligible expense.  This will be covered by campus.

· Indirect costs are prohibited.

· Limited travel for purpose of professional meetings or essential collaboration may be approved.

g) NIH biosketches: NIH biosketches including current and pending support for past five years for all key personnel noting areas of potential funding overlap with this proposal.

h) Letters of support from the Department Heads of all key personnel for the development of the proposed collaboration. 

 

 

Preliminary Study pilot grants.  Preliminary Study pilot grant submissions should include the following:

 

A. Cover Page (click on hyperlink)

B. Narrative Summary - up to 10 pages (exclusive of references) that may include the following, as appropriate:

a) Abstract: This should present a concise statement of what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, and why, in language suitable for a multidisciplinary clinical review panel.  This summary might:

i. Identify what issues or questions will be explored and the possible long-term societal impact and benefits.

ii. Describe how the proposed work could be supported at a later date by an external agency, if appropriate.

iii. Provide a summary time-line for the scholarship by major aims, goals, or milestones.

iv. Define any terms that are unique to the field

v. Highlight critical administrative plans and agreements that will be prerequisites for interdisciplinary collaboration.

b) Specific Aims: The questions or problems to be addressed. This might describe current efforts in this area and why the why pursuit of these questions will benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

c) Background and Significance: Should be consistent with the goals and objectives of the NIH Roadmap CTSA initiative (http://tigger.uic.edu/depts/ovcr/research/funding/NIH-Clinical.shtml).

d) Preliminary Data: Include only the preliminary data that are highly pertinent to the proposal.

e) Experimental Design/ Methods: Applicants may wish to outline the strategies proposed to accomplish the specific aims of the project and discuss the innovative aspects of the approach. Any new methodology and its advantage over existing methodologies should be described.

f) Resources: A description of the resources and working arrangements required to implement each project should be described. A distinction must be made between those resources that already are in place (including staff) and those resources that must be added to advance the project. Each PI’s expected contributions and responsibilities should be outlined. You may wish to discuss any long-term management plans.

g) Plans for extramural funding: Detailed plan for submission of competitive applications to external funding agencies (priority will be given to applications planned for NIH funding).  Program announcements and other pertinent NIH initiatives should be included.  If known, applicants should specify the institute and program officer for the planned submission. 

h) Budget:   Each application requires an appropriate budget with full justification of personnel, materials, supplies, equipment, animal and patient care costs, costs associated with human subjects, and other expenses necessary for the proposed project period. An excel spreadsheet or table is acceptable.

i. Highlight critical administrative plans and agreements that will be prerequisites Budget cannot include salary support for any investigator but should specify their time commitment.

ii. Post Doc support and student stipends/fringes are eligible expenses.

iii. Tuition remission is not an eligible expense.  This will be covered by campus.

iv. Indirect costs are prohibited

v. Limited travel for purpose of professional meetings or essential collaboration may be approved

i) NIH biosketches: NIH biosketches including current and pending support for past five years for all key personnel noting areas of potential funding overlap with this proposal.

j) Letters of support; Include letters from the relevant Department/Unit head(s) affirming their agreement to the needed protected time, space, and other resources necessary for all study investigators to conduct the research.

k) Appendices: Should be limited to measurement instruments, surveys, and letters describing pledged resources.

 

Application Format for both planning and preliminary study pilot grants:

· Single-spaced

· 12-point font minimum

· Margins no less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) all around.

 

Review process

 

Members of the CCTS Translational Research Academy will serve as reviewers, with membership on the review panel augmented to assure knowledgeable reviewers for all submitted proposals. The review committee will score the proposals and forward their recommendations to the CCTS Steering Committee. The CCTS Steering Committee will serve as the council making final funding recommendations. 

 

Selection criteria   Selection of proposals for funding will consider the following:

 

a) Intrinsic Merit. The overall quality, relevance and innovation of the work to the CCTS goals; the likelihood that the work will (a) lead to fundamental advances, to new clinical discoveries, or to new technological developments, and/or (b) improve the quality of life in Chicago and the broader community; (c) representation of pilot funding across the continuum of translational and clinical sciences; (d) the likelihood that the application will lead to successful funding in extramural competition will be factors in review.

 

b) Appropriateness. The need for and suitability of the initiative to the CCTS goals and mission; whether the proposed approach will add significantly to what could be accomplished through existing methodologies. In addition, the integration of component projects is important and should be described explicitly.

 

c) PI Qualifications. The qualifications and credentials of the PIs, and their past productivity will be considered.

 

d) Institutional Commitment. The nature and level of resources available from the colleges/departments and from other sponsoring units will be considered.

 

e) Appropriateness of Management Plans and Arrangements. The adequacy of the organizational and administrative plans; the appropriateness of the budget; and the mechanism to evaluate project progress will be considered.

 

Funding and Compliance Requirements Funded projects are required to submit brief semi-annual progress reports as well as a final report.  Investigators must acknowledge CCTS funding in all publications and presentations.  Investigators will also be invited to participate in further activities with the CCTS as appropriate (e.g., seminar presentations, training course lectures, and review of future applications).  No pilot funds will be released without complete IRB approval or exemption from UIC’s Internal Review Board. 

 

Deadlines

Letters of Intent are due August 1, 2008.

Complete pilot grant applications are due October 15, 2008.

 

Award Decisions

Awards will be announced late fall, 2008. Funding for the selected studies will not begin until there is an IRB-approved research protocol.

 

Progress and Post Award Reporting

A semi-annual progress report must be submitted to the CCTS Steering Committee at the end of the funding cycle.  

 

Grant Conditions:

Grantees will be expected to participate in the CCTS interdisciplinary seminar series, including a presentation of their findings. They may also be asked to serve as peer reviewers in subsequent intramural grant competitions.

 

Questions

Faculty with questions should contact Irene Ziaya, Investigator Interface Coordinator, at 312-413-7316 or iziaya1@uic.edu.