The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Broad Institute) and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) invites applications for the 2018 cycle of the Sperling Family Fellowship. The purpose of this funding program is to provide resources for innovative projects with the goal of leveraging the strengths of two world-renowned institutions— the superb clinical care, expert bioinformatics, and rich data sources of BWH, and the basic science, computational, and genomics sophistication of the Broad Institute – to advance a translational research project with the potential to transform how we care for patients.
Fellows will work under the auspices of both BWH and the Broad Institute on a translational research project that will help answer urgent clinical questions, eventually bringing findings to bear on care for individual patients and populations and advancing the field of precision medicine. It is anticipated that the fellows will pursue the fundamental scientific aspects of his/her project at the Broad Institute while utilizing resources at BWH for clinical facets of the work. The fellow will have a mentor at both sites.
The Sperling Family Fellowship may fund one grant at a maximum of $100K (including 15% indirect costs) for one year. 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 PI.
It is understood that any tool or reagent generated as part of the Sperling Family Fellowship grant will be shared with the wider BWH and Broad Institute community.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The Sperling Family Fellowship is targeted to senior postdoctoral fellows or faculty in their first two years of appointment. Applicants must have their primary appointment at BWH but intend to have meaningful scientific collaboration with colleagues at the Broad.
Eligible applicants may apply for one year of funding with the ability to apply for a second year. Applicants are expected to develop a proposal that addresses a clinically relevant problem that is best addressed with the data, methods and technologies at the Broad Institute. The successful recipient will be afforded appropriate space and support at the Broad Institute and BWH during the fellowship.
APPLICATION PROCESS
All applications must contain the following:
1. Project Title
2. PI and Home Institution
3. Abstract (max. 1/3 page)
- Brief, lay statement summarizing the key points of the proposal
4. Research Proposal (max. 3 pages, including references)
- Background and Rationale
- Specific Aims
- Milestones
- Key risks and plans to mitigate
- References
5. 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)
6. Budget Justification/Narrative (max. 1 page)
- Justify proposed costs at the line item level of detail
- Funding is supposed to support mostly lab Some salary support may be included but not a full salary
- Include effort committed by all personnel, even if salary is not requested
- Include supplies and other expenses
7. NIH-formatted Biographical Sketch of Applicant (max. 2 pages)
- Include up to 5 recent/relevant publications
8. Other Support (NIH format, current and pending, no page limit)
- Highlight support relevant to the proposed project
- No page limit
9. 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, March 19, 2018.
Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
REVIEW CRITERIA
A key goal of the Sperling Family Fellowship is to improve human health by supporting research in precision healthcare. Factors for reviewers’ consideration include: scientific quality, relevance to the Sperling Family Fellowship mission, and the ability to leverage BWH and Broad Institute strengths to advance 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, and the potential to promote future collaborative research, particularly between institutions.
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: March 19, 2018
Review outcome notification: April 30, 2018
Award start date: July 1, 2018