Regular Grants Program 2015

The mission of the Foundation is to support early stage investigators engaged in basic biomedical research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis or treatment of disease.

1. The funds are designed to provide faculty members who hold M.D. and/or Ph.D. degrees, and who are in the first to fourth year of a tenure-track position, with support to move the project forward to the point where R01 or other independent funding can be obtained.  Applicants with current R01 funding should not apply.
2.  The regular grants provide $60,000 per year for a period of up to three years.  The grants are not renewable.  Institutions may submit a maximum of two proposals annually.  Accordingly, interested candidates should work through their research grants office in obtaining the appropriate sponsorship or approval from your institution.
3. Proposals must contain an adequately detailed description of the project to be clearly understandable by the scientific members of the Trustees.  They need not be in the detail requested by the NIH for R01 grants and should not exceed five pages in length.  Additional material can be submitted, but the five page application should contain the essential information.  References should also be included to support the proposal.  Note that the five page limit is only for the project description. 
4. A one to two page lay summary must be provided as part of the proposal. Applicants should bear in mind that our Board includes non-scientist members, making this summary of particular importance.  The summary should include the project’s title.
5. In addition to the institution providing recognition of an internal selection process resulting in no more than two candidates (this requires just a sentence that may be included in the letters), the proposal must be accompanied by letters of approval by the Dean of the medical school and/or another senior faculty member or members who can represent the support of the institution and who are acquainted with the qualifications of the applicant and the potential impact of his/her work.
6. An updated C.V. and bibliography must accompany the application.  The C.V. should contain the current contact information for the principal investigator.
7. Proposals must contain an adequate budget with a breakdown as to how the funds will be used.  It is important to justify how the funds to be received will be used to advance the unique problem under study in a way that cannot be done with existing funds.  In addition, the proposal must detail the levels of support of any grants already available or pending.
8. The Foundation will not fund overhead.  Grants will be made and restricted to domestic institutions.
9. Funding for years 2, 3 (and 4 in the case of Scholar Awards) is contingent upon approval of a yearly progress report by the applicant submitted via e-mail.  These are generally one page summaries of the work in progress.  Failure to submit progress reports jeopardizes subsequent funding.
10.  A grant is made on the assumption that the recipient will use the funds for the purposes indicated in the applications and in the same institution.  If the recipient moves to another institution during the term of the grant, payments may or may not be continued, depending upon reconsideration by the Trustees of the Foundation upon receipt of a written request and justification for transfer of funds.
11.  Unexpended funds will be returned to the Foundation at the end of the year for which a grant has been made, unless an extension is requested and justified and approved by the Trustees in writing.
12. Proposals should be submitted via e-mail as a single PDF file to the attention of Becki Blankenship at  emjf.org@gmail.com.

Application Instructions

Please submit:

1. a one-page letter of intent with a description of proposed aims and approach
2. Biosketch or CV of the PI
3. A letter of support from the Dean or Chair. This letter of support signifies that the Dean or Chair have ensured that the nominee and application are likely to be of sufficient quality to be competitive nationally

to research@uw.edu by 5:00 PM Thursday, May 14, 2015. Full proposals are due to the sponsor 8/1/15, so you will need to have your materials in to the Office of Sponsored Programs by 7/23/15 for processing, if given the go ahead by the Proposal Review Committee.