Description

The clinical strategic planning process for the Health System identified increased clinical research as a mechanism to strengthen and distinguish the clinical programs of the Health System.  The purpose of this research funding program is to support innovative clinical research efforts by Health System investigators that have the potential to differentiate the UVA Health System from other health systems and academic medical centers in the Commonwealth and nationally.  The strategic plan will focus new resources primarily on three Clinical Centers of Excellence in Cancer, Cardiovascular Medicine and Neurosciences.  The Clinical Research Support grants are intended to foster clinical investigation particularly, but not exclusively, in these areas of excellence.

This program will fund a wide variety of clinical research proposals from low-cost, rapid turnaround projects to longer term more expensive studies.  Funding decisions will take into account the need for studies in the program with both short-term (less than one year) and longer (up to 3 years) times to completion.  Proposals that can leverage existing internal or external resources are welcomed.  Quality improvement or patient care proposals that are UVa-specific are outside the scope of this program and will not be funded.  Animal studies are also outside the scope of the program.

Eligible Principal Investigators

Any individual with a primary faculty appointment in the UVA School of Medicine or School of Nursing at the rank of Assistant Professor or above is eligible to apply for funding under this program.  Professional staff employed by the Medical Center may submit proposals that have been approved by the appropriate Chief.  Multiple PI proposals will be accepted.

Award Information

• Funding available: Up to $5 million/year over 5 years
• Maximum award: Proposals requesting more than $ 500,000 may not be submitted without permission.
• Project Period:  Up to 3 years
• Faculty Salary:  Up to 25% per individual faculty member/year with a maximum of 0.5 FTE aggregate faculty salary/year is permitted.  Faculty salary requests are subject to the NIH cap.
• Subcontracts: No more than 20% of the total award may be spent outside the Health System without specific program approval
• Indirect Costs:   Not provided

Application Submission

Preliminary application:  Interested applicants should submit a preliminary application that includes:

1. Specific aims and brief description of the research plan (2 page maximum, 11 pt Ariel, 1” margins)
2. The key personnel who will participate in the project
3. A preliminary budget
4. A description of how the project, if successful, would translate into clinical practice and differentiate the UVA Health System (250 word maximum)

Final application: Applicants with competitive proposals will be invited to submit final applications for review.  The final applications will consist of:

1. Lay abstract
2. Specific aims and research plan (maximum 6 pages, 11 pt Ariel, 1” margins)
3. Description of the protection of human subjects following the SF424 guidelines, section 4.1 (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/SF424_RR_Guide_General_Adobe_VerB.pdf )
4. Detailed budget with justification
5. Biosketch and Other Support pages
6. Proposed milestones/metrics for assessment of progress

Submission Instructions

The submission deadline for preliminary applications is 5PM on April 15.  Proposals should be submitted as PDF files to Ronald Turner, MD (rbt2n@virginia.edu).  Each preliminary application should be submitted as a single pdf file with the Principal Investigator’s last name as the first word in the filename.

Review Criteria

Proposals will be reviewed for responsiveness to the stated goals of this program.  Proposals seeking less than $150,000 are welcomed.  These smaller proposals will be reviewed and funded separately from larger proposals to assure that some funding is awarded to smaller proposals. Specific review criteria for all proposals is as follows:

1. Significance/Impact:  Does the study address an important question with clear clinical relevance?   Will the results of the study have applicability to patient care?  Will application of the study results provide the Health System with a unique position in the care of patients?  Are the results of the study likely to lead to further research funding from external sources?
2. Approach:  Is the study design appropriate to accomplish the goals of the project?  Is the research team appropriate?
3. Feasibility:  Can the study be completed in the time available?  Have appropriate patient/subject populations been identified?
4. Alignment with the clinical strategy:  Proposals that are aligned with at least one of the Centers of Excellence will be given priority.
5. Cost/Benefit assessment:  Does the anticipated benefit of the study in relation to the program objectives justify the requested budget?  Have existing resources been leveraged to maximize the value of the proposed study.

Monitoring and Management of Funding:

Applicants whose proposals are funded will, in collaboration with the program oversight committee, refine and establish appropriate performance milestones for the study.  Funding will be made available for specified performance periods and continued funding will be contingent on satisfactory achievement the performance milestones.

Program Contact

Ronald Turner, MD

Download

Download a PDF Version of this information here.