The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation provides funding opportunities for basic and clinical research and a wide range of education, patient care, and community service activities.
For Investigators who currently have funds assigned and/or designated for their use.
August 29, 2008
Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation
Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences
Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program
RFA Issue Date: September 15, 2008
Letters of Intent Due: October 15, 2008
Applications Due: November 17, 2008
Proposal Peer Review: January, 2009
Award Start Date: June 1, 2009
This announcement is to provide notice of an impending joint RFA from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation (BJHF) and the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS). By combining the application processes from our two institutions, we expect to create new opportunities and eliminate potential duplicated effort for both applicants and reviewers.
The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation has historically funded up to $1 million annually for first year Clinical and Translational Research projects. In this past year the Foundation has funded 18 investigators with first year awards. Within the overall focus of the combined BJHF/ICTS Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program, the Foundation will continue to fund projects which support its mission to improve the quality of patient care, enhance patient safety, and improve patient outcomes.
The Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) is currently in its second year of funding under the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards program and will fund a broad range of clinical and translational studies as described in the Proposal Focus below. The ICTS program awarded over $900,000 to 15 investigators in its first year. The ICTS partner institutions in the St. Louis area include: Washington University (WU); Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH), St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH), Goldfarb School of Nursing; Saint Louis University School of Public Health; Doisy College of Health Sciences and Center for Health Care Ethics; the University of Missouri at St. Louis College of Nursing; Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville School of Nursing; St. Louis College of Pharmacy and key industrial and community partners.
In creating a combined Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program, we anticipate that up to $1,700,000 will be allocated to new projects on an annual basis to fund this program. Awards will be issued through either BJHF or the ICTS in accordance with the mission and priorities of each institution.
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants must be a registered member of the ICTS. Member eligibility and registration is available at www.icts.wustl.edu. For assistance with registration, please contact the ICTS office through email (http://icts@im.wustl.edu) or by calling 314-362-9829.
Applicants from WU or its partner academic institutions must hold a faculty level appointment. Fellows in the final year of training with a commitment by their department for a faculty position effective by the time of award are also eligible.
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Employees of BJH, Goldfarb School of Nursing or SLCH (MD, PhD, nurse, or allied healthcare professional) may apply with the permission of their department director.
Community organizations are encouraged to work with the ICTS Center for Community-Based Research and apply in conjunction with an investigator from one of the ICTS partner institutions.
Applicants may be the Principal Investigator on only one Letter of Intent and one proposal.
There is no specific citizenship requirement for the applicant.
Award Categories
Awards will be made in two categories:
Planning Grants: Provide up to $25,000 direct costs for 1 year to facilitate the planning of a new clinical or translational research project. Planning grants are typically used to fund developmental or early stage work, including pilot data, and should describe a concrete plan for further steps beyond the planning grant.
Research Grants: Provide up to $100,000 direct costs per year for 1-2 years to support a clinical or translational research project.
In all cases the second year of funding is contingent upon a successful progress report due near the end of the first year.
Investigator Categories
These investigator categories will be taken into consideration at the time of review. The program especially encourages applications including new investigators, new directions, new groups or with a community focus. Collaborations between investigators from different ICTS partner institutions and/or different disciplines within an institution are encouraged, and in most cases will strengthen the application.
New investigators in either clinical or translational research who do not yet have their own peer-reviewed research support
Established investigators who are working in other fields, but are interested in exploring new directions in clinical and/or translational research
Established investigators already active in the field of clinical or translational research, but whose proposed project is different from their previous work
Investigators developing inter- or multidisciplinary groups working on novel methodologies or research teams working on a clinical problem of interest and importance
Investigators collaborating with community organizations
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Proposal Focus
The intent of the program is to advance medical knowledge that can improve human health. This program is designed to support a broad range of clinical and translational studies including, but not limited to, the following:
Improving the Quality of Patient Care: Quality of patient care involves increasing the likelihood of achieving outcomes valued by patients and their families, including exceptional disease-specific survival rates, minimum hospital readmission rates for chronic diseases, superior patient satisfaction with care, improved patient functional status, best possible quality of life consistent with patient needs, and patient/family understanding of, and involvement in, their medical care.
Enhancing Patient Safety: Patient care safety involves exploring reliable care processes to prevent all errors that result in preventable mortality, health care acquired infections, adverse drug events, falls with injury, pressure ulcers, venous thromboembolism, wrong site/wrong person procedures, or other preventable surgical and procedural complications.
Improving Patient Outcomes: Improving patient outcomes involves research where the results from hypothesis testing will potentially impact on desirable health outcomes. For example: more accurate or earlier diagnosis, reduced disability, increased survival, decreased morbidity, identification of risk factors, and design of reliable and effective care delivery processes.
New Methodologies and Technologies: Funds may be requested to develop new technologies with strong promise for being introduced into humans in the short term (< 5 years). Funds may also be used to develop methods that could be applied in humans, e.g. methods to improve the phenotyping of human subjects (mass spectrometry in biomarker development, novel imaging approaches, stable isotope turnover methods). Methodologies that are not technologically based are also eligible for funding (e.g. new methodological approaches to problems in biostatistics and clinical trial design, novel approaches to implementing community based research and outcomes studies).
First-in-Human Studies: These funds are specifically intended to support unique costs related to bringing new technologies (diagnostic or therapeutic) into humans for the first time.
Preliminary Data: This represents a more general category for support of new projects. Funds can be used for generating sufficient preliminary data to justify a grant application for sustained funding from an external source (NIH, national foundation, etc.).
Process Improvement: Funds may be requested for pilot programs aimed at demonstrating the value of new processes to facilitate clinical research or for research related to process improvement. Research intended to develop improvements in study design, statistical analytic approaches, research ethics, or harmonization of regulatory processes would all come under this category.
Community-Based Projects: Projects are sought that are performed in an outpatient setting or that are performed in community-based settings rather than health care settings. Community-based projects should seek to better define risk factors for health and disease, or to perform interventions aimed at reducing health risks, improving health behaviors, or producing measurable changes in health status.
Development of Clinical Research Cores: Consideration will be given to underwriting a portion of the start-up costs for new cores that will materially improve the conduct of clinical research.
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Considerations
In developing applications to this RFA:
Applicants are encouraged to include use of ICTS Cores & services. Information about available Cores & services can be found on the ICTS website (www.icts.wustl.edu), through email (icts@im.wustl.edu) or by calling 314-362-9829.
Applicants will be strongly encouraged to consult the Research Design and Biostatistics Group (http://icts.wustl.edu/cores/rdbg.aspx) during the development of their proposal.
Hospital employees and community organizations without prior experience in applying for research funds should partner with an experienced university or hospital based researcher in order to create a more competitive application.
There must be a CLEAR LINK to human health or disease for proposals that deal with animal models.
Submission Process
Specific forms and detailed instructions regarding the Letter of Intent and proposal submission will be posted on the ICTS website (http://icts.wustl.edu/funding) no later than September 15, 2008. Full submission will be similar to previous application processes for BJHF and ICTS with all submissions being processed through the ICTS. Information regarding application submission and the link to the ICTS website will also be posted on the BJH/Office of Research Affairs website.
Letter of Intent (due October 15, 2008): A specific form will be provided for the Letter of Intent that will include an administrative checklist requiring names and affiliations of all co-investigators or collaborators and a research description not to exceed 2 pages.
Full Proposal Submission (due November 17, 2008): Specific forms will be provided for the proposal, but in general, the research plan will be limited to 5 single spaced pages, a letter of support will be required from the department or division head for faculty applicants and a detailed direct costs budget will be required following NIH similar guidelines. Applications from ICTS partner institutions (outside of Washington University) must include approval from an authorized institutional official. (Note: Indirect costs should not be incorporated in the budget and are expected to be a contribution to the program by institutions outside of Washington University. Any exceptions to indirect cost funding will be identified on the Notice of Grant Award.)