Life Sciences Moment Fund

Introduction

The University of Massachusetts Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) is pleased to announce a funding call for the UMass Life Sciences Moment Fund (LSMF) 2012.  The UMass LSMF supports projects that are inter-campus in orientation and directed towards life sciences projects related to clinical and translational research.

Purpose

The UMass Life Sciences Moment Fund (LSMF) serves as a dedicated pool of funding to spur inter-campus collaboration and strengthen the University’s research portfolio in clinical and translational research.  To support this mission, project must include at least one investigator from the UMass Worcester campus and a collaborator from at least one of the other UMass campuses.  By providing seed funding to outstanding faculty members, this fund facilitates the development of faculty-to-faculty networks within the University system, thereby leveraging the considerable expertise and resources that exist on the individual campuses.

Current and future projects supported by this fund are envisioned to develop into larger initiatives that attract substantial funding from extramural sources, including the Federal Government, the Commonwealth, industry, foundations and others.

Eligibility

As the UMass LSMF is a pilot program of the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS), all faculty members interested in applying to the fund must first become members of the UMCCTS.

Membership is free, easy, and entails visiting the UMCCTS website and completing the on-line membership form.

Allowable Use of Funds

Individual project awards (up to $100,000 for 1 year; up to $150,000 for two years) will be made on a competitive basis to enable investigators to accelerate the translation of innovative, cutting edge research into:

• New understanding and/or diagnosis of a disease process;
• New devices, therapeutics, and vaccines for the treatment and/or prevention of disease;
• Support for junior investigators;
• New standards of care in the practice of community medicine;
• New approaches to community-based research demonstrating true bidirectionality between community and academia;
• New methodologies to leverage institutional strengths and new initiatives; and/or
• The pursuit of high-risk, high reward studies

The intent of the funding is to speed up the rate of progress to move a research project, clinical finding or other discovery into a broader network of activities, while maximizing the breadth of interdisciplinary skills applied to the research question.  We are particularly interesed in proposals, which feature a clinical scientist working with a basic scientist.

For a list of current and prior LSMF awardees, click here.

Oversight

The UMass LSMF is overseen by the Steering Committee of the University of Massachusetts Center for Clinical and Translational Science (http://www.umassmed.edu/CCTS/steeringcommittee.aspx).  The Steering Committee makes funding decisions based upon the scientific merits and potential impact of the proposals.

Criteria for Awards

The following criteria that are used to review proposals include the following:

• Intellectual Merit: Projects that include all efforts to enhance the impact of scholarly endeavors on benefiting the human condition, which for the purposes of this fund will include enabling technologies, will be considered for funding.
• Inter-Campus Collaboration: Projects that are multi-campus in orientation and involve at least one collaborator from the Medical School will be considered for funding.
• Growth Opportunity: Projects that demonstrate the opportunity to be leveraged to attract and secure outside funding from federal, state, industry, foundation and other sources will be considered for funding.
• Use of UMCCTS Resources: Applicants will receive added consideration from the reviewers if they plan to use one or more of the research resources available through the UMCCTS http://www.umassmed.edu/ccts

Application and Review Process

Letters of Intent - Due date March 9, 2012

Describe in two (2) pages or less the work that has motivated you to apply for this particular fund; the collaborating PI(s) and the role of each in the project; and the importance of the collaboration.  The LOI review process seeks to make two determinations:

1. That the project meets one or more of the definitions of clinical and translational research.
2. That the availability of Life Sciences Moment funding would accelerate the translation of innovative, cutting edge clinical research into:

• New understanding and/or diagnosis of a disease process;
• New devices, therapeutics, and vaccines for the treatment and/or prevention of disease;
• Support for junior investigators;
• New standards of care in the practice of community medicine;
• New approaches to community-based research demonstrating true bidirectionality between community and academia;
• New methodologies to leverage institutional strengths and new initiatives; and/or
• The persuit of high-risk, high-reward studies.

Letters of Intent (LOI) will be reviewed by the UMCCTS Steering Committee to determine which projects are inter-campus in orientation and significantly linked to the criteria listed above.  Based on this review, the most promising projects will be selected for full proposal submission.  Full proposals will be subject to a standard NIH-type study section assessment.

Please email your Letter of Intent (2 pages or less) as an attachment (Word or PDF) to:

Wanda DePasquale, wanda.depasquale@umassmed.edu by 5:00 PM (EST) on or before Friday, March 9, 2012

Investigators will be notified of the selection of LOI finalists by Friday, March 20, 2012.

Full proposals will be due Monday, April 23, 2012 for those selected finalists.

Application Timeline