Purpose:The purpose of the School of Medicine Basic Grant Program is to provide initial support to junior faculty to establish a research program or to established faculty who would like to pursue new areas of investigation. Funds are limited and priority will be given to junior faculty. This program is open to all eligible full-time faculty regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age.

Eligibility: Any full-time faculty member of the School of Medicine is eligible to apply. Faculty who have received an SOM Research Committee Basic Grant within the last three years or who have failed to provide a Final Report on any previously funded grants are not eligible. Faculty Career Status I applicants may submit one competitive renewal application for an additional one year of support.  For competitive renewal applications, the Final Report detailing progress towards achieving the specific aims during the initial funding period must be provided, in addition to the new research plan.

*Faculty are permitted to hold 1 SOM Research Committee Grant at a time. This includes the Basic, Bridge, and Collaborative mechanisms.

Amount and period of support:

The maximum award is $25,000 and the period of support is one year. Timing:

Applications (either original or resubmission) are accepted four times per year, and only one application per cycle per applicant may be submitted.  The review process and decision on funding will be completed within two months of receipt of the application, according to the following schedule:

Submission Dates: August 1st, December 1st, and April 1st.

Funding Dates: October 1st, February 1st, and June 1st.

Review Criteria and Process:

The Research Committee will make every effort to assure expeditious review. The Chair will assign each application to two Research Committee members for review.  Other members of the Executive Faculty of the School of Medicine may be recruited to review proposals on an “as needed” basis. Each reviewer will provide the Research Committee with a written review and will remain anonymous to the applicant.

After consideration by the Research Committee, the Committee will decide by majority vote whether to approve or disapprove the proposal.  The principal criteria for this determination will be:  (a) scientific merit, (b) the likelihood that the support will lead to extramural funding, and (c) career status of the applicant (see Career Status definitions).  Highest priority will be given to individuals at Career Status I followed by Career Status II.

The Chair of the Research Committee will provide the applicant with a written response along with copies of the reviewers' critiques. If a proposal is approved with a budget reduction, the applicant has the option to accept the budget reduction or to revise and resubmit the application for the next available cycle.  A maximum of two resubmissions of the same application is permitted.

Temporal extension:

If, for unforeseeable reasons, the project cannot be completed by the end of the project period, the Research Committee may extend this period upon request. The Principal Investigator must request an extension in writing and must provide a detailed justification for the extension to the Chair of the Research Committee no less than two months before the grant end date.

Final report:

The Final Report should be submitted to the Research Office within 60 days of the end of the grant period, and must contain the following:

1.  A summary (two pages maximum) describing the studies performed, the outcomes and their relationship to the Specific Aims.

AND

2. Evidence (e.g., copy of the application cover page and abstract or summary sheet of review) that the Principle Investigator has made an attempt to secure extramural funding based on the grant awarded by the Research Committee.  If no attempt has been made to seek extramural funding, the PI must provide a written explanation of why this has not been possible.

Acknowledgment:

Unless otherwise instructed by the Office of the Dean, any publication (e.g., manuscript, abstract, etc) resulting from research supported by a School of Medicine Research Committee Award should contain the following statement in the acknowledgments: “This work was supported in part by a grant from the University of Louisville School of Medicine.” A copy of such a paper or abstract should be sent to the Research Committee office.

Submission:

Grants must be submitted as PDF files sent as email attachments to the HSC Research Office. Except for the cover pages, the grant application must be in a directly-generated (not scanned) PDF file. To submit:

• Download the Cover Page and Basic Grant application DOC files from this website.
• All Career Status I and II applicants must provide a Letter of Support from a faculty member who has agreed to serve as a Mentor for the applicant's proposed project. Submit letter with grant application, and letter must include the following statement and mentor's signature:  " I certify that I have read and approved the application of (insert mentee's name)."
• Complete all sections by filling in the requested information and/or pasting in text as necessary.
• Except for the Cover Page, generate a PDF file directly from the DOC file using Adobe Acrobat. This should be available in the department or   division office. Do not print and scan the grant as this may not produce illegible copies of data or graphs.
• For the cover page, print and sign the form. You may scan this signed cover page to produce the PDF of the signed document. (Alternatively you may insert a scanned copy of your signature into the DOC file and then directly generate the PDF file as indicated above.)
• Attach these PDF files to an email and send to the HSC Research Office at hscro@louisville.edu