Applications for Research Pilot Grants now being accepted

Applications for The Center for Restorative Medicine: An Interdisciplinary, Collaborative Program in Medical Research for Spinal Cord Injury Pilot Grants now being accepted

RFA:

  To foster innovative research in restorative medicine, University of Louisville investigators will participate in a competitive intramural grant program. Eligible researchers include full-time faculty members with primary appointments on either the Health Sciences or Belknap Campuses. Funding is available for Pilot Project Grants.

  Pilot Project Grants are designed for seeding of novel research to facilitate additional funding, foster new collaborative partnerships at the university, and/or support junior faculty for future extramural grant funding. We anticipate funding three pilot projects per year. The External and Internal Advisory Boards will review these proposals for innovation and scientific merit and the Faculty Leadership will review for consistency with the mission of the Helmsley Center for Restorative Medicine.

  Prioritization requirements include: 1) collaboration of at least two investigators from different disciplines (e.g., clinical and basic scientist, faculty from two different departments); 2) addressing an identifiable medical problem involving both animal and human projects; and 3) include trainees supporting clinical and basic science experience and/or collaboration.

  Spinal cord injury research will be the cornerstone of The Center for Restorative Medicine. We will take a comprehensive approach, combining the expertise of clinical and basic science faculty using parallel human and experimental animal studies to define the progression of metabolic and cardiac dysfunction and develop treatment strategies to reverse those problems. The focus of the pilot projects should fall within these broad research guidelines. Interested Principle Investigators are referred to the HRMC website (currently under construction) for a description of the extensive Core Facilities that are available for their use.

  Budgets of $50,000 (direct costs) for a total period of 12 months can be requested. Additional funding may be considered with pre-approval from the Faculty Leadership. No PI salary support is allowed. A budget is required for submission. An additional year of funding may also be considered by a competitive renewal mechanism (but would compete against all new proposals).  Previously funded applicants may apply for a second year of funding.

  Applications should use the PHS398 form including face page, project summary, and NIH biosketches for the PI and key personnel, specific aims, research strategy, references, and statements on the use of human subjects, biohazardous agents and/or animals. IACUC and/or IRB approvals must be in place prior to the commencement of any work on the proposed projects. Specific aims and research strategy (background and significance, experimental plan and innovation statement) are limited to 3 pages formatted according to the NIH-style standard. No appendices will be allowed.

   In addition, all junior faculty (Instructors and Assistant Professors) will be required to include an additional paragraph (that does not count in the 3 page limit) describing a mentoring plan which must identify a senior funded UofL faculty mentor with relevant expertise in the research area covered by the proposal and a schedule of meetings with that mentor. No senior faculty that serves as a mentor can be a Co-Investigator on that grant. The mentor must be willing to pre-review applicant’s manuscripts and grant proposals that will be generated using results from the pilot project. The mentor’s NIH biosketch should be also included in the application.

  Research support is available through the University of Louisville Research Office website: (http://louisville.edu/research/support).

  The proposals should be submitted electronically to RESMED@Louisville.edu with copy to Shannon.martin@louisville.edu.   Contact Shannon Martin (shannon.martin@louisville.edu) with questions. Grants will be evaluated by the members The Center for Restorative Medicine External Advisory Board using the NIH 1-9 scale.

     (i) A standard NIH-style progress report will be required following the end of project funding.

     (ii) Researchers funded by the program will be required to present an annual seminar during the KSCIRC seminar series. In addition, awardees are encouraged to present the results at the poster session during the annual Louisville Neuroscience Day.