The Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Grant Program 2022 Cycle

The Pac-12 Conference (“Pac-12”) offers grant funding to directly support the advancement of Pac-12 student-athlete health and well-being and has made it a priority to utilize funded project results to develop best practices for general improvements in these areas. 

Program Funds

The Pac-12 has made approximately $1,000,000 available for the Pac12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Grant Program (the “Grant Program”) awards, for this cycle.  The $1.0M will be used to fund standard grants and exploratory/bridge grants related to the Topics of Interest noted below.

Standard grant: A STANDARD GRANT is a type of grant in which the Pac-12 agrees to provide a specific level of support for a specified period of time with no statement of Pac-12 intent to provide additional future support or without expectation of submission of another proposal.  There is no dollar limit, however, we encourage projects generally under $150,000/annually.

Exploratory/Bridge grant:  An EXPLORATORY/BRIDGE GRANT is a type of grant similar to NIH R-21 grants which are used to fund preliminary studies, exploratory, or development-based projects that would have large growth potential with a high likelihood of NIH support. This grant would lead to submission of a larger, NIH R01 award in the future.  Exploratory/bridge grants are limited to two years at $200K/yr. including indirect costs. 

The Pac-12 funds institutional grants and direct institutional athletic department funding for proposed projects.  Appendix A, Part 3 Budget and Justification, sets forth the requirements for direct institutional athletic department funding.  

Eligibility 

Principal Investigators (“PIs”) and Co-Investigators (“Co-PIs”) must be employed by a current Pac-12 member institution or an organization that is directly affiliated with a Pac-12 member institution, and must meet their employer’s requirements for such status. Third-party entities/partners are eligible to receive Grant Program funding provided that its submission is sponsored by, and the research is coordinated with, a Pac-12 member institution(s) involving only Pac-12 athletes. Third-party entities/partners that are interested in collaborating in Pac-12 supported research projects should contact Pac-12 member institutions directly or the Pac-12 to find possible research partners.  We encourage research partnerships with institutions outside the Pac-12 Conference with the understanding that Grant Program funds may only be allocated to support the Pac-12 participants.

Topics of Interest / Collaboration

The aim of the funded projects should be to improve the health, general well-being, and safety of student-athletes at all Pac-12 member institutions. The Grant Program’s primary focus areas are listed below.  Although this is not an exclusive Grant Program focus list, priority will be given to those projects targeted at the focus areas below.  Priority also will be given to projects that are the result of collaboration amongst multiple Pac-12 member institutions, are translational in nature, and will have direct and significant impact to student-athletes as a result of the project. Projects should not duplicate other work funded by the Pac-12 Grants Program. Prior grant awardees and their projects may be found at: Pac-12 Grant Program - Prior Awardees.

• Head Trauma*
• Prevention of Sudden Death
• Cardiac
• Temperature matters/hydration
• Overuse Injuries / Injury Prevention
• Emergency Care – Planning / Prevention of Emergent Medical Events
• Student-Athlete Well-Being
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Student-Athlete Health
• Mental Health*
• Nutrition
• Sleep*
• Data Driven Decisions (Use of Pac-12 Health Analytics Program (HAP) )
• Expansion of Presagia Platform (e.g., Software Development)
• Sports Injury Epidemiology including projects using PacTrac exposure data

*The Pac-12 funds the Pac-12 Concussion Coordinating Unit (Director, Dr. Matthew McQueen, Matt.McQueen@colorado.edu) and the Pac-12 Mental Health Coordinating Unit (Director, Dr. Daniel Taylor, danieljtaylor@arizona.edu). In addition to reviewing previously funded projects at https://pac-12.com/pac-12-research-grants-program, you are welcome to contact Dr. McQueen regarding a Head Trauma proposal or Dr. Taylor about a Mental Health or Sleep proposal to determine if there might be synergies with these unit’s priority research projects.

Application Instructions

Researchers from the University of Washington interested in submitting a grant for the Pac-12 RFP should have a letter of intent submitted to the Office of Research by September 6, 2021. It does not need to be signed by the Pac-12 Board representative or athletic director. The unsigned LOI will be used to determine if it is one of the three proposals from the University of Washington that will be sent onto the Pac-12 for full consideration. A decision will be made if the submitted proposal will move forward by September 10, 2021 so that necessary athletic department signatures can be obtained prior to the Pac-12 LOI submission deadline of Sept. 17, 2021. 

Please submit:

1. a one-page letter of intent with a description of proposed aims and approach
2. CV (not NIH format)  of the PI

to research@uw.edu by 5:00 PM Monday September 6, 2021.