The Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Precision Medicine Program aims to harness big data in healthcare to maintain and restore health. The Program funds research which leverages “omics” data to gain a fuller picture of populations and individual patient’s health, disease and potential response to therapies.
The Precision Medicine Program invites applications for the 2018 Development Grants. The purpose of this funding program is to provide resources for innovative biomedical research projects using multiple data types (radiology and pathology image data, patient’s phenotyping, genomic, proteomic data etc.) to bring tangible advancements in patient care. The Program strongly encourages computational biology projects focused on achieving short term, measurable improvements in clinical care delivery, clinical workflow and best practice standards. However, proposals at all stages of development are welcome.
The Precision Medicine Program intends to award up to five grants in response to this request for proposals, contingent upon the number and quality of the proposals received, as well as the availability of funds. Any development grants awarded during this cycle will be funded at up to $100,000 (including 15% indirect costs). A second year of funding is possible, contingent on review of progress and available resources.
These grants can be submitted either by an individual BWH investigator or as collaborative project between two or more BWH investigators. If a collaborative project is submitted, one investigator must be identified as the Principal Investigator (PI) and preference will be given to junior PIs with strong collaborative projects.
The number of grants awarded will depend on the number and quality of proposals submitted. The Precision Medicine Program reserves the right not to fund any development grant in the 2018 cycle.
Decisions regarding the appropriate level of funding for any proposed project will be made by the review committee, and will be based on the availability of other funding sources.
It is understood that any tool or reagent generated as part of the Development Grants will be shared with the wider BWH community.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Development Grants are targeted to individuals at all level but preference will be given to PIs in their first two years of appointment at BWH. To be awarded a development grant, an investigator must
- Be eligible to hold a grant at BWH as the PI.
- Have departmental support, for time and effort required by the grant, to start the project on July 1, 2018.
An applicant may be the PI on only one Development Grant application. If you have multiple proposals in mind, please submit only the strongest one.
Proposals for projects with collaborating investigators (co-PIs) are permitted. If a proposal has co-PIs, both PIs must meet all of the eligibility criteria listed above.
APPLICATION PROCESS
All applications must contain the following components:
- Project Title
- PI and Home Institution
- Abstract (1/3 page max.)
- Brief, lay statement summarizing the key points of the proposal
- Research Proposal (3 pages max., including references)
- Background and Rationale
- Specific Aims
- Milestones
- Key risks and plans to mitigate
- References
- Budget
- Total project costs may not exceed $100K (including 15% indirect costs)
- NIH budget template strongly encouraged (template available from BWH Precision Medicine upon request)
- Budget Justification/Narrative (1 page max.)
- Justify proposed costs at the line item level of detail
- Include effort committed by all personnel, even if salary is not requested (PI must commit a minimum of 5-10% effort)
- Include supplies and other expenses
- NIH-formatted Biographical Sketch of Applicant (2 pages max.)
- Include up to 5 recent/relevant publications
- Other Support (NIH format, current and pending, no page limit)
- Highlight support relevant to the proposed project
- Department Letter of Support (a second letter of support is optional)
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Please send your application via email to crizzini@bwh.harvard.edu no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, April 2, 2018.
Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
REVIEW CRITERIA
A key goal of the Precision Medicine Program funding is to improve human health by supporting research in precision healthcare. Factors for reviewers’ consideration include: scientific quality, relevance to the aim of the RFP, the ability to leverage BWH strengths and to bring significant and measurable improvements in patient care. Members of the BWH scientific community and/or external researchers will independently evaluate the proposals, giving primary consideration to excellence regarding the factors mentioned above. They will also consider the availability of alternative funding sources.
INQUIRIES
Programmatic questions regarding the Sperling Family Fellowship may be addressed to Claudia Rizzini at crizzini@bwh.harvard.edu
Administrative questions regarding this call for proposals may be addressed to Lizabeth Potts at lpotts@bwh.harvard.edu
APPLICATION TIMELINE
Application due date: April 2, 2018
Review outcome notification: May 31, 2018
Award start date: July 1, 2018