Eligibility

The Co-Principal Investigators must be faculty members at a UMass Chan. One Co-PI should be a faculty member who spends most of their time as a practicing clinician or clinician educator. The second Co-PI should have expertise in health services research.

Use of Funds

Funds can be used for student/postdoc support, supplies, research coordinator support, informatics, investigator support, and project costs such as incentives. Indirect costs are not allowed. Research coordinators with appropriate training are available through the Department of Medicine Research Core and can be supported with grant funds for part time effort on the project. Informatics support from the CCTS Research Informatics Core is available. Projects that plan to utilize this core (e.g., working with electronic medical records, such as data extraction for patient recruitment) should dedicate a minimum of $3,000 in their budgets for this resource. Projects with more complex informatics needs may require additional funding for the RIC, to be determined on a project-by-project basis. Reaching out for consultation with the RIC is encouraged during project development.

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Oversight

Pilot awards will be overseen by the PBRN, which is directed by Drs. Diane McKee and Ben Gerber, and led by a Steering Committee with representation from multiple departments (see the Steering Committee section on the website). Awardees will be expected to provide quarterly project updates to the Steering Committee, in addition to a final report.

Criteria for Awards

The evaluation criteria for proposals will include:

• Intellectual Merit –including potential for the project to enhance the knowledge base of primary and ambulatory care, rigor of design, and feasibility
• Growth Opportunity – projects that demonstrate the opportunity to be leveraged to attract and secure outside funding from federal, state, industry, foundation and other sources
• Health equity- potential of knowledge gained to advance health equity
• Stakeholder engagement- the degree to which relevant stakeholders, including patients, are included in project planning, implementation, and/or interpretation of findings
• Use of Resources - applicants will receive added consideration from the reviewers if they plan to and clearly describe use of one or more of the research resources available:
  • 1. Department of Medicine Research Core
    2. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture)
    3. CCTS Informatics Core
    4. CCTS Quantitative Methods Core
• One of the co-principal investigators should be a clinician with a primary faculty appointment in a clinical department.
• Preference will be given to teams that include an early career or first award PI.
• Preference will be given to projects that demonstrate new directions or fields of inquiry for the investigators. 

Application and Review Process

Describe your proposed project in two (2) pages or less.  Do not include a cover page. Include the following:

• Title of project Name, rank, affiliation, and email of contact PI and any other key personnel
• Background and significance of the project
• Specific Aims
• Preliminary data (if any)
• Project description/approach
• Future directions and specific funding plans

References do not count as part of the two-page limit. Budgetary information is not required at the LOI stage.

Letters of Intent (LOI) will be reviewed by the UMass ARC Review Committee to determine which projects are significantly linked to the criteria listed above. Based on this review, the most promising projects will be selected to submit full proposals.