Objective:
To provide a process in the School of Medicine for the expeditious intramural review of research proposals to foundations or agencies that will accept only one or a limited number from the University.

Background:
Often during the year a foundation or agency will solicit research proposals with the stipulation that only one (or a small number) may be submitted from the University.  Generally, the Sponsored Programs Officer will distribute the request to those units/departments/faculty members who might have an interest in responding.  The Sponsored Programs Officer will normally request those interested in submitting a research proposal to submit a Letter of Intent in the form of a PDF file which should include a short (1-2 page) description of the proposed research, an NIH-style biosketch of the PI, and the names and affiliations of any collaborating investigators.

The notice from the Sponsored Programs Officer will typically say to send the Letter of Intent in electronic form to the Dean's Office by a specified deadline.  For the School of Medicine, these are to be sent to the HSC Research Office Service Account at hscro@louisville.edu, not to the Dean.

Procedure:
The Research Office will collect the Letters of Intent until the deadline (normally eight weeks before the sponsor deadline).   If only one (or the permissible number) of proposals is received by the deadline, the PI(s) will be instructed to complete the full research proposal and send it to the Office of the Executive VP for Research (if more than one unit is involved) or directly to the Office of Grants Management (if only SOM is involved).

If more than one (or more than the permissible number) is received, all proposals will be reviewed by the Vice Dean for Research in consultation, if time and the situation permits, with the SOM Research Committee and members of the SOM Research Office.  There should be no more than a one-week turn-around for this process.  The Vice Dean for Research will inform the Dean of the recommendation and the Dean will make the final decision as to which of several proposal will go forward from the School of Medicine.  However, if the Dean takes no action within one week of being notified of the recommendation, the PI(s) of the recommended proposal(s) will be notified to complete the full research proposal and send it to the Office of the Executive VP for Research (if more than one unit is involved) or to the Office of Grants Management (if only SOM is involved).