Seed Award Funding

MPower Initiative Nervous System Injury and Neuroscience Seed Grant

Funding Available: $50,000.00

Funding Agency: MPower

UMD Officiating Office: Elizabeth Quinlan, UMCP; Alan Faden, UMB

ROLLING SUBMISSION –Submit any time after 1/15/17

Submission Process: Submit application packet as one PDF to NSINatCole@gmail.com

Request Proposal

Overview

The MPower Initiative on Nervous System Injury and related Neuroscience (NSIN) is a primary research component of the Center for Sports Medicine Health and Human Performance. This MPower funded mission is to facilitate collaborations between UMCP and UMB, in order to promote synergistic and complementary translational investigations in NSIN.

The purpose of these seed grants is to promote bi-campus collaborations and enable generation of pilot data to support major federal grant submissions that pursue innovative collaborative work, as well as publication of peer-reviewed papers. Proposals must align with one of our three targets for the study of nervous system injury and neuroscience: 1) “omic” approaches to elucidate mechanisms and modulation 2) development of new models, novel brain imaging and monitoring techniques, and biomarkers and 3) multi-modal performance enhancement.

Guidelines for Proposal:

Elgibility: All proposals must be include at least two Principal Investigators (PI), one from UMCP and one from UMB, both of whom are tenured, tenure-track, or research faculty. Individual investigators may submit multiple proposals but can participate as a PI on only one awarded proposal. Outside collaborations (e.g., NIH, etc.) are allowed, but no money will be awarded to support non-UMD investigators.

Submission Process and Deadlines

All documents submitted must be Arial, 11pt; single-spaced; ½” margins.

Proposals should not exceed 4 pages and must include:

• Description of the project. Include specific subsections for Significance, Innovation and Approach( no more than 2 pages). Narrative should make the impact of the proposed work clear to individuals both within and outside of your discipline.

In addition, proposals must contain at least one paragraph on each of the following (no more than 2 pages for items 2-4):

• Detail specifically how the work fits one of the central themes of the MPower initiative on Nervous System Injury and Neuroscience: Proposals must align with one of the three targets areas detailed above.
• Describe the necessity of the collaboration to achieve your goals, what each individual brings to the collaborative effort, and the history of collaboration between the PIs (if any).
• Delineate the specific target (funding mechanism and submission date) for a forthcoming proposal to an external funding agency. The proposal must describe how the seed grant will enable the submission of your externally funded proposal.

Additional Required Materials

• Biosketch (4 page max in any format) for each Principal Investigator.

• An itemized budget and written budget justification.

  1. Budgets cannot exceed $50,000 per year for 2 years. Budgets must be well justified, and conservative budgeting is strongly encouraged. Receipt of second year funding will depend upon an extramural grant submission.
  2. Allowable Expenses: For example: Research supplies; purchase or rental of equipment for new research; salary support for a temporary position (1 year or less) for technicians, research associates (post-docs) and/or graduate students, and service charges for campus facilities.
  3. Unallowable Expenses: Salaries for PIs, conference travel, administrative support, general telephone services and postage, alterations or renovations of laboratory space, purchase of laboratory or office furniture, purchase of periodicals and books, and dues and memberships in scientific societies.

Merge all documents into a single .pdf titled Last Name_MPowerSeed_2017.pdf.

Submit this document via email as an attachment to NSINatCole@gmail.com

Proposal Submission Date: Submissions may occur any time after January 15, 2017

Selection Notification Date: Within 2 months of submission

Contacts for Questions: Elizabeth Quinlan, UMCP (equinlan@umd.edu); Alan Faden, UMB (afaden@som.umaryland.edu)

Selection Criteria

Seed Grants will be reviewed by the NSIN Scientific Advisory Committee and awarded on a competitive basis. The selection of finalists will be made based on the relevance and potential impact of the research on the related NSIN themes, the necessity of the collaboration toachieve the goals of the proposal, and the likelihood of funding from external sources. Proof of IRB or IACUC approval of proposed work will be required to release awards to successful grantees.

Conditions of the Award

Awards duration is up to 2 years andare cost reimbursable. Funding for the second year depends on first year progress and evidence of an imminent application for external funding. The final scientific and financial report must include accounting that demonstrates how the seed funds enabled the research. No-cost extensions will not be considered.

The success of the NSIN depends on the success of the awarded seed grants; therefore, awardees will:

• Provide a scientific progress report and final financial report to NSIN Scientific Advisory board upon completion of the first 12-month funding period.
• Present results of the seed funding at an annual NSIN meeting, May 2018. Results presentations must include plans for obtaining extramural support.
• Provide information on the outcomes of the seed funding (e.g., grant funds, publications, conferences) annually and/or as requested by the NSIN Scientific Advisory Committee.

Eligibility for the next round of seed funding is contingent upon successful completion of the conditions above, including submission of a proposal for external funding.