OoR Funding

Funds Administered by the OoR

“FORWARD TOGETHER” INITIATIVE TO SUPPORT CLINICIAN SCIENTISTS

In an effort to bolster the engagement of clinician scientists in research, the School of Medicine Strategic Plan created and supports the SOM wide Physician Scientist Training Program.  The PSTP supports Physician-Scientists at two stages: the resident/fellowship level and early-stage faculty level. For both stages, the program partners with the trainees’ home departments and provide funding for two years to support their research efforts. In addition to receiving monetary support, trainees enter a career development program with peer-level physician scientists across multiple clinical disciplines.

Nominations of eligible applicants from UNC SOM clinical departments are requested annually in the spring for support to begin in July for the academic year. Each clinical department may nominate up to two eligible Physician-Scientist candidates for each award.

Please contact the PSTP Director Alex Duncan with any questions: [email protected].

“PROMOTING HEALTH EQUITY AND CLINICAL RESEARCH IN SOUTHEASTERN NC AWARDS”

The partnership between Novant Health, UNC Health, and the UNC School of Medicine was established to support medical education, research, and clinical services to Novant Health facilities as well as bring better health care solutions and care to rural areas. The Promoting Health Equity and Clinical Research in Southeastern NC Awards supports this partnership and is sponsored by the Research Advisory Council, and this research pilot award program supports research in two areas: clinical and health equity.

More information about the pilot awards, including the most recent RFAs, can be found here.

A list of awarded teams is linked here.

FACULTY COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH CHAT AWARDS

The Faculty Collaborative Research Chat Awards fund meetings to help departments and centers initiate new interdisciplinary collaborations. The intent of the award is to enable the exchange of ideas and expertise between faculty members that will lead to novel and innovative research endeavors. A secondary goal of this award is to encourage collaboration between basic and clinical scientists, as well as conversations between new and established faculty at UNC.

Recipients will be given $300 dollars which will cover expenses for at least 2-3 meetings (over 6-8 months) between the requesting unit, collaborators, and other key players from different areas necessary to initiate a new collaborative research project. The topic of the collaboration should not be limited to an existing project or mission of the department or center, but instead should expand the research areas and/or boundaries of the unit.

Only one proposal per department or center will be considered. For clinical departments with multiple divisions, one proposal per division will be reviewed.

To apply for the award, those interested in applying should develop a project title/meeting topic and a brief description (up to 1,000 characters) outlining the following:

1. The purpose of the meetings
2. How different groups will be involved, and
3. Include a list of names of the collaborators. Proposals should involve a combination of scientists from basic science and clinical departments as well as new and established faculty.

Applicants must also include a brief endorsement and sign off from the Department Chair or Center Director (to ensure submission of one proposal per unit). Please use the template of this endorsement that can be found here.

The awards will be offered bi-annually.

A list of awarded collaborations can be found here.

The deadline for applications is to be determined. To submit an application, please email the project title, brief description, and endorsement from the Department Chair or Center Director to Trisha Dant at [email protected].

If you do not receive an email confirmation within 24 hours, please call Trisha at 919-966-4287.

TRANSLATIONAL TEAM SCIENCE AWARDS

The School of Medicine’s Strategic Plan supports the annual Translational Team Science (TTS) Award, which is aimed at capitalizing on the “culture of collaboration” at UNC Chapel Hill to foster new synergistic interdisciplinary teams of basic science and clinical investigators. The award is not restricted to human subjects and tissues, and proposals may include research using cellular and animal model systems; however the project should translate across basic and clinical disciplines.

There are multiple stages of TTS applications and awards (see application process, below). After submission of an initial one page Concept paper, selected teams will be invited to submit a full Feasibility proposal for review. If awarded, TTS Phase I Feasibility grants will provide a 12-month period to begin to fully engage team members in the development of a competitive continuation proposal for TTS Phase II ( 12 months). Advancement to the next award stage is contingent on the merit of the proposed plan and progress in the prior period. The expectation is that these awards will provide the planning time and initial funds to support early stage denovo research teams that would otherwise not be possible. This would ultimately lead to submission of novel interdisciplinary program project grants and multiple PI R01s by UNC SOM investigators.

The inaugural TTSA RFA was issued in October 2013. A summary of the teams and projects awarded are listed here.

Please see the latest  TTSA RFP for a description of the program and guidelines for submission.  The FY24 deadline is January 15, 2025.

EMERGING CHALLENGES IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH (ECBR)

The UNC School of Medicine’s Office of Research (OoR) sponsors an annual pilot program, Emerging Challenges in Biomedical Research (ECBR), to provide support for innovative, early-stage research relevant to external strategic funding priorities.

The Fall 2022 round of funding is focused on recognizing the importance and impact of fundamental research by supporting interdisciplinary, technology-focused, basic science research that can lead to new discoveries or technologies.  Awards will provide seed funding for fundamental, technologically sophisticated, interdisciplinary, and discovery basic research projects that can be completed within 12 months and have strong potential to inform subsequent grant applications to the NIH or other external funding agencies.

Awards will provide up to $50,000 in funding for a 12-month project period.  This funding opportunity is open to faculty with primary appointments in the SOM or faculty whose grants are administered by the SOM

The latest RFP can be found here.

It is anticipated that future funding challenges will be aligned with high profile research objectives such as concept clearances from NIH institutes and the Common Fund. Click here for information on the previous award recipients and their projects.

COLLABORATIVE CROSS PILOT PROGRAM

The Collaborative Cross (CC) is a unique UNC resource consisting of a mouse multiparent population derived from eight inbred strains. High level and uniform distribution of genetic variants genome-wide and the presence of combinations of alleles derived from three different subspecies, found only in this population, make this resource uniquely suited to test and characterize the role of genetic diversity in the etiology of biomedical traits. This resource is maintained and distributed by the Systems Genetics Core Facility at UNC.

Successful pilot projects will have access to 96 CC mice at $32.50 per mouse (25% of the regular price). The CC strains allocated to each pilot project will be based on availability and researchers cannot select specific strains.

The RFP can be found here. Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed at the beginning of each month. 

Please contact Jennifer Brennan in the Office of Research with any questions. Proposals can be emailed directly to Jennifer at [email protected].

OTHER INTERNAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

A short description of the internal research funding opportunities available to faculty and their deadlines can be found here.

STARTUP/RETENTION FUNDS

The OoR can assist departments and centers with small contributions to startup and retention packages, but never funds the full package. Chairs and Center Directors should make requests for these funds as early in the process as possible. The OoR’s contribution will be disbursed to the department over 4-5 years. If you need to request startup or retention funds, contact the Vice Dean for Research ([email protected]).

BRIDGE FUNDING

Bridge funding applications are typically accepted 3 times during the academic year.  A memo is sent to Department Chairs to share with their faculty giving specific due dates. The due dates for Bridge Funding are January 17, 2025 and April 25, 2025.

The most recent memo can be found here.

Eligibility criteria:

• The grant has been reviewed and received a written critique
• The PI has no more than 2 active R01s or the equivalent level of funding
• The PI does not have more than $50k of additional sources of lab support, e.g. trust fund, startup, retention, royalties.
• If the grant’s NIH number identifies the grant as a ‘new’ grant, the PI must include a cover letter explaining how the new grant is a repackaged version of previously funded research
• The grant under consideration must be administered in an SOM unit
• The department/center agrees to match the funding from the Dean’s Office.

The application for bridge funding much include:

• cover letter
• letter of support
• current 3-4 page NIH biosketch
• publications
• research section of the original grant application
• the NIH review of that application
• a draft rebuttal for the revised application
• proposed budget for the bridge funds.

Please direct questions and email your applications to Jen Brennan at [email protected].

BOOST FUNDING

UNC School of Medicine (SOM) faculty are extremely successful in their efforts to obtain funding for their research, although the SOM recognizes that it often takes multiple submissions and additional experimental data to get a new project funded, particularly as a new investigator, or with a more complex, multi-PI project.

In support of these efforts, the SOM Office of Research is inviting applications from faculty for Boost awards, which are designed to boost the chances of funding for an NIH grant (or similar) that has been reviewed favorably but needs additional revisions and preliminary data in order to be funded on resubmission.  Please note that Boost awards are distinct from the OoR bridge funding program, which provides funds for bridging A1 renewal applications for ongoing, not new, projects.

Due dates for Boost Funding for this fiscal year will be October 11, 2024 and April 25, 2025.

The most recent memo can be found here.

Award Information:

Up to $25,000 will be provided to successful applicants for lab supplies, animal expenses, core services, and salary for research support personnel for up to a 12-month period during the preparation of a revised proposal.

Eligibility:

• Funding must be requested for a new NIH R01 or equivalent that has been reviewed previously within the last 12 months.
• The proposal must have been administratively routed through the SOM.
• Applicant/PI must have no more than 2 R01s (or equivalent) of funding.
• Applicant/PI must have no more than $50k of startup, retention, or other similar funding available to offset project costs.
• Although all eligible applicants are welcome, priority will be given to K to R01 transitions, early stage investigators, and multi-PI team projects.

Please direct questions and email your applications to Jen Brennan at [email protected].

CORE FACILITIES

The Core Facilities Advocacy Committee [CFAC] is responsible for disbursing emergency and equipment funds for Core Facilities. Emergency funds can be used for assistance with salaries and service contracts, purchase of small equipment needs [~$5-25K] and methodology development. Equipment funds can be used for the purchase of instruments ranging from $30-100K and for cost-share amounts in conjunction with instrumentation grants. The CFAC generally issues requests for funding applications (RFAs) twice a year. Emergency requests are considered throughout the year as funds allow.

Please contact Kara Clissold ([email protected]) for more information