Under-Represented Faculty & Senior Fellows in Clinical and Translational Research Awards

Project Award Amount $50,000

Academic Senate sponsors Spring and Fall Cycles and can only support Faculty members.
CTSI Pilot Awards sponsors Spring Cycles only and can support Faculty members as well as Fellows.
REAC sponsors Spring and Fall Cycles and can only support Faculty Members.

Description
This grant mechanism provides support for senior fellows, instructors, assistant, associate and full professor faculty from historically disenfranchised racial and ethnic groups that are under-represented in health sciences, or for those with a personal or professional background of economic disadvantage. The goal is to encourage fellows and faculty from these groups to remain in academia as career professionals and thus to increase the diversity of our facult0y.

Research can be in any area relevant to clinical and translational research, including bench-to-bedside/laboratory-to-human (T1) translational research, clinical research and bedside-to-community/evidence-to-practice (T2/T3) research. Social, behavioral and economic research as it impacts health may also be supported through this mechanism. If not directly involving the study of people or populations, the proposed research must be clearly justified as being on the path to potential impact on humans.

At least 50% active time (Postdoctoral, Clinical Fellows, and any Faculty series) must be committed for doing research.

NOTE: The UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach defines Under-Represented Investigators in the Health Sciences as: African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American and Asian sub-categories of Filipino, Hmong and Vietnamese.

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements need to be met as of date of submission; no waivers are allowed.

Who's Eligible:  Senior Postdoctoral or Clinical Fellows, Specialists who are senior postdoctoral and clinical fellows or Faculty at all ranks (Instructor, Assistant, Associate and Full Professors) in any series (Ladder Rank, In Residence, Clinical X, Health Science Clinical, Adjunct), Appointees to the Professional Research Series and Librarian Series who meet the under-represented group definitions described below are eligible.

Who's Not Eligible:  Residents.

Underrepresented Group Definition:
Recall that the UCSF Office of Diversity and Outreach defines Under-Represented Investigators in the Health Sciences as: African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American and Asian sub-categories of Filipino, Hmong and Vietnamese..

The Department Chair, Division Chief, Unit Director, or designee is required to affirm that the applicant is an Under-represented Investigator, as defined above, in the Letter of Support.

Economically or Educationally Disadvantaged Background Definition:
HHS defines Economically or Educationally Disadvantaged Background as individuals who come from a family with an annual income below established low-income thresholds based on the HHS Poverty Guidelines. Disadvantage must be demonstrable in the applicant’s ‘original’ family background (i.e., as a child or undergraduate student), not necessarily their current status. Though these definitions are relative to those raised in the US, all candidates can speak in their applications to their personal or professional contextual background related to income disadvantage.

Each candidate will be requested to provide an explanation/justification in a section of the application as to how their URI and/or Economically Disadvantaged status impacts their career. This is a critical aspect of the application and applicants are asked to supply context for their self-identification as URI and/or Economically Disadvantaged and how these experiences have impacted their careers – both as challenges and as potential enhancements to their research and contributions to UCSF.

Submission Rules

Criteria for Review
Under-Represented Faculty & Fellows applications will be reviewed by the Career Development Review Committee.

  1. Fulfillment of eligibility criteria.
  2. Quality of the research proposal and its relevance to clinical-translational research.
  3. Clear statement from the Department Chair in writing that if an award is made, the fellow (postdoctoral or clinical fellows) recipient will have at least 50% time devoted to research or the faculty recipient will have the percent time effort as stated on the application to devote to the proposed research activities.
  4. Research mentor in content area (If applicable for an Early to Mid-Career Applicant to have a Research Mentor): include mentor's NIH bio-sketch and letter of support.
  5. Qualities and potential of the applicant to conduct the research within the context of their overall career commitments, including service contributions to UCSF.

Award Administration
Projects are for one year and are not renewable. To determine what is and is not allowable, please refer to the instructions. Projects that involve human subjects will require human research committee approval before funding is released.

Additional criteria from funding agencies (for informational purposes only, since the review process is centralized).

CTSI-Pilot Awards will sponsor this grant mechanism only in Spring Cycles. CTSI-Pilot Awards cannot fund any international projects or expenses; projects where there may be foreign co-authorship will require additional approval prior to release of funds. Current K scholars are not eligible to receive salary support under this mechanism from CTSI-Pilot Awards. K scholars must submit the type of K award received and award dates. Current K scholars must also submit justification for the differences between K-awarded project and RAP project. K2 awardees are not eligible. Projects that involve human subjects and/or animal subjects will require IRB/IACUC approval letters, evidence of human studies training (if applicable), and supplemental documentation for NIH Prior Approval for timely release of project funds.

Academic Senate

  • All paid faculty, including K scholars, in any faculty series (Ladder Rank, In Residence, Clinical X, Health Sciences Clinical, Adjunct, Professional Research and Librarian Series) and at all ranks (Instructor, Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor) are eligible to receive salary support from the Academic Senate.
  • Fellows or non-faculty applicants including Specialists cannot be funded by the Academic Senate.

International projects are not preferred but may be considered under exceptional circumstances.

REAC 
Sponsors Spring and Fall Cycles and can only support Faculty Members.

The proposal will be evaluated based on the following questions: click here to view the review form for this grant mechanism.

Selection of Awardees
Funding decisions are made independently by each funding agency based on several factors – scientific review score, alignment of proposal to funder’s strategic goals, proposal research area of focus, and specifically called out eligibility or other requirements like membership in a center, affiliation with a specific school or relevance to a stated auxiliary topic.

STEP 1) Complete the electronic application formPlease note there are several pieces of information that need to be provided directly via the electronic application form (selecting the appropriate grant mechanism, providing demographic information, uploading an abstract, etc.).

Click here to preview an inactive template of the electronic application form.

STEP 2) Upload your proposal as a SINGLE PDF that includes all the things listed in numeric order in the instructions below.


INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROPOSAL PDF

Please write your proposal following the instructions listed below and create one single PDF file. Do not include form fields in your PDF document.

Proposal Length: Maximum 6 pages, including figures and tables, excluding table of contents, literature cited, Additional Investigator Background, and Community Engagement component (if applicable).

Format Requirements:  Arial font; 11 pt; minimum 0.5 inch for all margins; no appendices; include page numbers and table of contents.

Resubmissions
Definition: same research topic with an amended application or research plan rather than a new research topic and new research plan.

Requirements: Please use up to one extra page to introduce your revised proposal, addressing the issues raised in the review, and any additional changes to your proposal. Make sure the new edits are highlighted in bold or italic font so the reviewers can easily see where and how the proposal has changed. Do not use "track changes". A new letter of support from the Department Chair or other Unit Head is required in all cases.

1.  P.I. Name (no multiple PIs). Only one application as PI (PI1 OR PI2) is permitted per cycle.

2Project Title

3Proposal (maximum 6 pages, including figures and tables)

     Within 6-page limit:

  • Aims. Do not submit an application that describes an idea that is the same or similar to one used in a previously funded RAP grant. If it is a similar idea, describe how the new proposed research is uniquely different.
  • Feasibility. Describe what steps you are taking to ensure the proposed project can be completed within the one-year project period for this grant (approximately 300 words max).
  • Background and Significance
  • Preliminary studies
  • Experimental Design and Methods (include time-table)
  • Explain how this pilot project is important for your career goals (e.g., lead to major funding, etc.)

      Outside of 6-page limit:

  • Additional Investigator Background. (not to exceed one page and not included in overall Proposal page limit)
  • Explain any life experience, positionality, or perspective that may strengthen the application or make you uniquely qualified to conduct the research.
  • Explain the career impact of your personal or professional contextual background involving economic disadvantage, underrepresented investigator status, or related intersectionality.
  • Literature cited (not included in page limit)

It is recommended that PIs with projects involving human subjects prepare an IRB application concurrently with the application for funding. Please refer to the UCSF Human Research Protection Program to determine if your research requires IRB review and if your research meets the definition of human subjects research.

4. Detailed Budget $50,000 maximum per proposal; round up to the nearest thousand (e.g., instead of $49,869 list $50,000).
    Use the following form: PHS 398 Form Page 4 "Detailed Budget for the Initial Period":
    http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html

    Budget Preparation Resources:

 

Allowable

Not Allowable

PI Salary *

X

 

Co-Investigator(s) Salary

X

 

Network Recharge Rates

X

 

Post Doc Salary

X (CTSI)

 X (AS)

Administrative Support

X

 

Supplies

X

 

Equipment

X

 

Software

X

 

Personal Computers

 

X

Mailing

X

 

Tuition

 

X

Travel

 

X

Research Staff Support (e.g. RSA; Lab. Technician)

X

 

Patient Care

 

X

Indirect Costs on Subcontracts at other universities (CTSI-Pilot Awards)

 

X

Publication fees; max $5K  X  

General Guidelines:
*The NIH base salary cap applies.  PIs are required to list their effort whether it is paid or in kind.

PI partial salary support should be well-justified with respect to project activities. Due to their small size, RAP grants are designed for project support and are not intended to provide PI salary support unrelated to the project.  PI salary amounts greater than ~10% of the requested award amount (e.g., $5,000 of a $50K award proposal, not 10% FTE) must be well justified and it should reflect work done by the PI to conduct specific scientific tasks on the project (e.g. data collection, computation) and not merely general supervision of project goals and personnel.

Multiple PIs can decide how to distribute the 10% salary support among themselves (e.g., 5%/5% or 6%/4%). 

  • The 10% limit on salary support is a guideline and includes SALARY & FRINGE BENEFITS.
  • Update: General Automobile and Employee Liability (GAEL) are NOT allowable costs.
  • The award amount is DIRECT COST ONLY.

If you need assistance with budgeting for statistical or recruitment help, please contact CTSI-Consultation Services. Consultation Services offers a free hour to all researchers per project and service, and it can assist with appropriate budgeting if your project is awarded.

5. Budget Justification: Clearly and fully justify all costs. Budget Overlap - If the proposed study is closely related or a sub-study of existing funded research listed in the applicant’s bio sketch, clarify the relationship between the two projects and confirm that there is no overlap in funding.

For all personnel, clearly identify any discrepancies between the actual effort (i.e., real percent time) the individual will contribute to the project, versus the amount of salary effort they are requesting.  This is particularly important for personnel/PI's who expect to contribute project effort with little or no salary, such as those whose salary is above the NIH base salary cap.

NOTE: If your Other Support references projects that may appear to have scientific or budgetary overlap with this proposal, please clearly identify and explain why this proposal is unique and non-overlapping.

6. NIH BioSketch of Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator(s) and UCSF Faculty Mentor(s) (if applicable), (5 page format):

·         Use Form Version H at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch-blank-format-rev-10-2021.docx
·         Include bio sketches for both PIs of a multi-PI application
·         Only NIH Bio sketch version H will be accepted with RAP applications this Fall 2024 Cycle.

7. Other support pages of Principal Investigator(s) and Co-Investigator(s) and UCSF Faculty Mentor(s)

8. Letter(s) of support (1 page only):

a) If applicable for an Early to Mid Career Applicant to have a Research Mentor, please provide a letter of support from the research mentor that outlines the mentoring role.

b) Please provide a letter of support from the department chair or other unit head. The letter of support should include information explaining why the individual qualifies as an under-represented faculty or senior fellow. The Department Chair, Division Chief, Unit Director, or designee is required to affirm that the applicant is in an Under-represented group, as defined above, in the Letter of Support.