Pilot and Feasibility Full Application

Full Application Guidelines

An informational webinar will be held to describe the application process and provide mentoring to those applicants who are invited to submit a full application. The webinar will describe the major components of the application and their importance in the review process. The webinar will be interactive and will allow opportunities for questions from the participants and mentors.

For those who are invited to submit a full application based on their Letter of Intent, submit the application as ONE DOCUMENT electronically (PDF format in color) at the following website: https://launchedfunding.pbrc.edu/.

The application packet must include the following (applicants are required to use the NIH 398 forms):
- Documentation of submission to the IRB or IACUC is required by the due date of the P&F grant application.
  IRB/IACUC approval is required prior to awards and funds being issued. IRB/IACUC approval should occur within two months of the notice of award. The applicant/Principal Investigator will be responsible for the IRB and IACUC submissions.
- List the Principal Investigator’s (PI) name on the top right-hand corner of every page of the application
- NIH Face Page
- NIH Budget page + 1 page budget justification
  Note: Clinical protocols must be budgeted through the standard procedures. Contact your Sponsored Projects Office for details. When completing the budget page, please refer to the list of expenditures allowed and not allowed, which is detailed below.
- NIH Biographical Sketch including “Other support” if currently independently funded.
- NIH Biographical Sketch from the Primary and Secondary Mentors.
- Research plan (4-page maximum, including references, Arial 11 point font, single-spaced, 0.5 inch margins).
Specific Aims: State concisely the hypothesis to be tested and the specific aim(s) to be achieved during the grant period. The aims must be reasonable to achieve during the one-year period of the grant.
Background and Significance: State the relevance of the proposed project to the mission of NIDDK and its focus on diabetes, obesity, nutrition, and health disparities research.
Preliminary Data: Discuss pertinent research findings that help establish the feasibility and likelihood of success of the project.
Research Design and Methods and Scientific Rigor: Concisely present your experimental design and the methods to accomplish your specific aims. Also indicate how the results will be interpreted and how they will lead to future investigations. Well-known methods and standard procedures may be described very briefly or referenced, but novel experimental approaches should be outlined in more detail. This section should represent the bulk of the application.
Role of the mentor in the design and execution of the proposed research.
Description of how the results of this study will lead to future investigations/grant applications.
References.
- A list of co-investigators, mentors, and other people who have a conflict of interest with the application. These individuals will be disqualified from serving as reviewer of the application.

Appendix:

Letters of support. If the project involves a sponsor, a consultant, or a mentor, this individual must write a Letter of Support for the application and clarify any potential overlap between their support and the subject of the proposal.

Allowed and not allowed expenditures

Expenditures Allowed

Limited technical staff salary support (do not request more than 25% salary for a research associate)
Research supplies and animal maintenance
Equipment costing less than $5,000
Special fees (pathology, photography, etc.)
Supplies
Publication costs
Although facilities and administrative costs are allowed, they are strongly discouraged. It is hoped that, for an award of this type, your institution will forego the facilities and administrative costs and consider these costs as matching funds to your project. This provision should be addressed in your Letter of Support or in a separate Letter of Support from your grants’ office to this effect.

Expenditures NOT Allowed

Salary support for Co-Investigators and Mentors is not allowed. Under some circumstances, partial salary support may be available for the Principal Investigator to acquire protected research time from their institution.
Secretarial/administrative personnel salary support
Office equipment and supplies
Computers
Tuition
Domestic or Foreign Travel
Dues and membership fees in scientific societies
Purchasing and binding of periodicals and books
Honoraria and travel expenses for visiting lecturers
Rental of office or laboratory space
Construction or building maintenance
Recruiting and relocation expense

Scoring Metric

Applications are scored using the NIH criterion for Significance (including the scientific premise), Innovation, Approach (including scientific rigor, reproducibility, and biological variables), and Investigator(s). Other score driving factors include the likelihood of successful execution within the funding constraints (cost and time), the potential for future funding, available mentoring, and other faculty/institutional support. The NIH 9-point scoring criteria will be utilized (1 = exceptional and 9 = poor).

Additional Information

The P&F Program is Directed by Corby Martin, PhD (Corby.Martin@pbrc.edu; 225-763-2585). If you have questions about the P&F application process, please contact launched@pbrc.edu and cc Dr. Martin. To learn more about becoming a LAUNCHED cohort scholar, visit www.launchedprogram.org