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Pilot and Seed Grants

Many of the SOM’s centers and institutes sponsor pilot and seed grant programs. Each of these programs has different deadlines; and these vary from year to year. Contact the individuals listed below for current information:


 

Cardiovascular Institute (CVI)

Periodically, generally in preparation for multi-disciplinary awards (PO-1’s, SCCORs, Roadmap initiatives), the Penn CVI leadership will issue Request for Proposals (RFPs) in order to generate strategically targeted preliminary studies required prior to, or in preparation for, an institutional application or award.

Any Penn faculty member working in the strategically-targeted area, or a closely related area, is encouraged to apply for this funding. These funds are not restricted to investigators with a track record of cardiovascular investigation. Applications from research scientists who have not historically focused their studies in cardiovascular science are encouraged to apply for funding.

The amount of available funding will vary depending upon the RFP, but generally range from $25,000 per year to $200,000 per year. The application process has been streamlined to encourage faculty members to apply for funding.

For more information, please visit the Penn CVI Business Office at http://www.med.upenn.edu/cvi/fiscal_admin.shtml

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Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) Pilot Project Opportunities

Application Deadline: September 2, 2013

The CEET is now accepting new and revised applications (only one amended application is allowed) in the following areas:

I. General Environmental Health Science Pilot Projects: Awarded to any member of the Standing or Research Faculty who wishes to perform research in any area of environmental health sciences

II. Mentored Scientist Transition Awards: For senior postdoctoral researchers, research associates, or clinical fellows working in laboratories headed by CEET investigators who will conduct mentored research so that they will position themselves for a mentored transition award available from the NIEHS e.g. K99/00; or K03, K08 or other mechanism. The application must include a letter of support from the mentor and a time-line for the application for federal funds by the applicant. The mentor must also include a copy of their current and pending grant support and clearly state why the research proposed is independent of their main research projects.

III. Specialized Areas of Interest such as:

Awards of up to $25,000 will be made. The research being proposed cannot be funded by an external funding agency. If funded, a progress report is required at the end of the funding period and awardees must present their findings at a CEET Chalk Talk. The Center grant must be acknowledged on all publications resulting from the supported research. Use of the CEET Translational Biomarker Core (contact Ian A. Blair at ianblair@mail.med.upenn.edu), the Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (human subject study design, exposure biology, population based studies and biostatistics (contact Rey Panettieri at rap@mail.med.upenn.edu)), and the Bioinformatics Core (contact John Hogenesch at hogenesc@mail.med.upenn.edu) is strongly encouraged. Please note that priority will be given to applications that will likely result in NIEHS funding.

The following should be submitted for the internal review by Monday, September 2 to webster@upenn.edu:

1. State what competition you are applying for and provide the title of application;
2. Personnel information, name, position, title, and contact information;
3. 2-page NIH Biosketch;
4. List of Current and Pending grant support;
5. An abstract;
6. A statement to indicate how this project would lead to extramural funding;

Items 7 to 10 should not exceed 5 pages:
7. Specific aims;
8. Significance which must state relevance to environmental health;
9. Preliminary studies;
10. Methods;

11. References; and,
12. Budget - Items that can be requested include salary of support personnel, supplies and minor equipment. Investigators cannot claim salary support for themselves and requests for travel are not permitted.

All applications will be reviewed by a committee of senior faculty and external experts as necessary and successful applicants will be notified by October 1, 2013. Funding will have a start date of November 1, 2013.

For revised applications, applicants must address the critique of the previous submission. Only one amended application will be allowed.

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Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety (CHIPS)

CHIPS supports comparative effectiveness research and research designed to reduce human and system errors and thereby improve the outcomes for patients in hospital and ambulatory care settings.

In an effort to stimulate quality improvement and patient safety research within the Penn community, the Center offers grants of up to $10,000 to new investigators to conduct pilot studies in preparation for larger research projects. The awards provide new investigators with funds to obtain preliminary data regarding feasibility and methodology, effect sizes and findings relating to new research ideas relevant to healthcare quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness. Eligible pilot projects should be designed to collect sufficient preliminary data to enable the investigator to prepare a hypothesis-based proposal for future research funding.

To apply for pilot grant funding, please complete the CHIPS pilot grant application form and return it via email to crosset2@mail.med.upenn.edu.

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Patient Centered Outcomes Research Pilot Studies

Application deadline: September 15, 2013

The Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), augmented by funding from the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics’ Clinical and Translational Sciences Award, are partnering to fund pilot studies in patient centered outcomes research (PCOR). For purposes of this funding announcement, the working definition for PCOR is that which is provided by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) on its website (http://www.pcori.org/):

PCOR helps people and their caregivers communicate and make informed health care decisions, allowing their voices to be heard in assessing the value of health care options. This research answers patient-centered questions such as:

To answer these questions, PCOR:

The goal of this pilot grant program is to advance PCOR at Penn and assist Penn faculty in preparing applications for PCORI funding. Applications will be viewed most favorably that address PCORI’s national priorities and research agenda (http://www.pcori.org/research-we-support/priorities-agenda/) and respond to specific PCORI funding opportunities (http://www.pcori.org/funding-opportunities/).

Guidelines:

Grant Term: Up to one year beginning as early as October 1, 2013. Unexpended funds must be returned at the end of the funding period.

Budget: Applications for funds from $2000 to $50,000 in total direct costs per project will be considered to cover appropriate direct expenses. Salary support for faculty is not allowable. No indirect costs will be covered.

Eligibility: The principal investigator must be a full-time Penn faculty member or trainee, from any Penn school. If the principal investigator does not hold the rank of assistant professor or above at Penn, a full-time Penn faculty member at this rank must agree to serve as faculty mentor. PIs will be expected to acknowledge CTSA support and PSOM/CHOP support, as appropriate, in resultant presentations and publications.

Evaluation criteria:

Instructions:

Submission:

By design, not all available funding will be awarded in response to this initial Research Funding Proposal. Some funding will be reserved to support the preparation of PCORI applications later in the year. If needs arise following the submission deadline, please contact Dr. Strom, as above.

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Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders Program

PCMD Funds Available

We would like to introduce you to a new funding mechanism within our Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders. In short, if you have a recent summary statement from an NIH grant (eligible NIH mechanisms include all “R” grants such as R03, R21 and R01 and “P” grants such as P20, P50, P60 on their first submission – please inquire regarding eligibility of other proposal mechanisms) which requires you to run additional experiments, gather additional data, provide feasibility for an approach, or similar, we can provide small funds ($1,000-$15,000) with a very short turn-around time in order to allow you to complete these experiments and resubmit your proposal with the best chance of success. Requests for funding will be evaluated on a rolling basis and priority will be given to Assistant Professors with encouraging initial review priority scores better than ~30-35%. The format of the “Summary Statement Driven Funding Request”, which is limited to one page, is as follows.

In addition to the one page proposal, the PDF of the complete summary statement must be provided. Funding through this mechanism is available by submitting the one page proposal and summary statement to pcmd@mail.med.upenn.edu. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at pcmd@mail.med.upenn.edu.

 

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Penn Genome Frontiers Institute (PGFI)

The Penn Genome Frontiers Institute provides support to PENN researchers in several ways, including providing funding opportunities for faculty and graduate students.

PGFI has funded research in strategic areas of the genome sciences. These pilot grants provide the means to pursue innovative, and often risky, ideas to the point that the investigators are able to apply for conventional funding mechanisms. Typically grants are awarded for one to two years, for up to $120,000.

For more information, please visit the PGFI website.

 

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Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center (PMHARC) Developmental Award Program

Call for Applications

Application deadline: August 15, 2013

The Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center (PMHARC) seeks applications for its developmental awards program. This competitive program plans to select four pilot research projects with clear potential to lead to larger, funded projects of novel strategies for the treatment of mental illness among people living with HIV infection. All applications will be evaluated for scientific merit, programmatic relevance, utilization of center cores and feasibility. Although the PMHARC will support a broad range of research topics, priority will be given to applications that are responsive to the research priorities of the PMHARC (attached) and the NIMH AIDS research agenda (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/organization/dar/index.shtml). Special consideration will be given to applications that include both established investigators and investigators new to this field, and junior and senior investigators are encouraged to collaborate on each application. A wide range of study designs are encouraged, including small feasibility treatment trials.

Funding period: 1 year

Funding amount: up to $40,000. Funds may be used for personnel (including up to 10% of salary for senior investigator), supplies and/or equipment.

Application requirements: Applications must include the following sections: Cover page, Abstract, Specific Aims, Research Plan (including how the pilot study will provide information that can be used in the submission of an R-grant), and Human Subjects. Departmental approval and a budget in NIH format are also required. To ensure a timely start date, applicants are encouraged to submit to the IRB at the time of application.

Page limit: Five pages not including the literature cited, budget, budget justifications, and biosketch in NIH format.

Eligibility: All projects must be led by a member of the Penn Faculty, including Instructors, as well as Post Docs and Senior Fellows.

Application deadline: August 15, 2013

Approximate start date: October 1, 2013

Please include the attached cover page and budget page with each application, and submit as a single PDF file attachment to: Jamie Good at jagood@mail.med.upenn.edu.

For further information, please contact Dave Metzger, PhD, Director of Developmental Core at dsm@upenn.edu.

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Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Pilot Program

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania (RWJF H&SSP at Penn) has set aside a Competitive Research and Education Fund to promote interdisciplinary research and education in population health at Penn. These funds will be used to help Penn faculty develop pilot projects which will attract external support for larger-scale studies, as well as new and innovative didactic material.

Please visit www.upenn.edu/rwjhssp for more information and further details.

For additional information, please contact Melissa Kulynych, Program Coordinator by telephone at (215)746-7744, fax (215)746-0397 or email mkulynyc@wharton.upenn.edu

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