TIPS - Transdisciplinary Initial Project Support Grants

Funded TIPS Projects 

Call for Proposals 2005- 2006

In addition to educating the next generations of health professionals, creation of new knowledge, contribution to improve public health, and accomplishment of intellectual influence nationally are at the heart of academic activities in the College of Health Sciences.  We take pride on the many excellent achievements of our faculty as we move forward with research by attracting major grants and by developing research centers.

TIPS - Transdisciplinary Initial Project Support – Awards up to $15,000. 

• The activity based on this intramural support should advance a multidisciplinary research group, create or elevate a research Center and achieve the development of one or more, large federally funded or comparably supported research project proposals.
• Support can be requested for faculty release time (one course teachload reduction) during a semester in which they are preparing a grant application for external funding, travel to centers of excellence, GRA support, visiting scholarships, computers, discretionary small equipment, office/laboratory resources, and any other necessary research infrastructure items which increase likelihood of generating external research funding. It is anticipated that 2-6 TIPS awards will be made during the next 12 months.

Eligibility criteria:

• The principal investigator/Project Director has to be a full-time CoHS faculty member
• The initiative has to be substantial collaboration of professionals from at least two different schools, colleges, or institutions
• The project has to lead to at least one PubMed indexed, peer reviewed publication and also one or more major federal or comparable research grant application (e.g., NIH, RWJ).

Ineligibility Criteria:

• Lack of apparent commitment to improve the health status of patients or public health in the specification of project goals
• Lack of transdisciplinary collaboration; proposals coming from a single discipline

Deadline: continuous during the academic year

Application:

• No more than three-page structured proposal (title, background, objectives, methods [sites, samples, measures, data collection, analysis], expected results, collaborators and their roles, targeted journal, targeted large grant, requested TIPS funding, budget justification). The application has to be signed by the Project Director and his or her School Chair.
• Requests for release time and/or pilot funding to support proposal development should include proposal topic, intended funding agency, Program Announcement or RFA number (if known), and timeline for proposal development/submissionRelease time needs to be negotiated with Department Chairs with at least 2 months notice prior to the semester in question.
• TIPS funding may be requested to support either of 3 types of initiatives:
  • Smaller TIPS applications (generally under $3,000) are designed to provide funding for individual research project-related activities such as data collection, respondent incentives, faculty release time, and/or travel related to the development of grant proposals for external funding.
  • Larger TIPS applications (up to $15,000) are intended for multi-disciplinary research center development activities.
  • Proposals aiming to establish a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating research center should include a letter of support from a WHO official are eligible for higher maximum funding (up to $25,000).
• Larger Research Center development proposals should describe the initiative, its mission, participants with competencies and addresses, list of planned research activities with sustainability.  The application should include a hot link to a web site presenting the research group/center collaboration as well as useful electronic resources for professionals interested in the particular field.  The Associate Dean for Research arranges technical assistance for putting provided content on the web.

Submission: electronic file transfer to the office of the Associate Dean for Research

Review: Anonymous peer evaluation using the NIH Project rating scale by two reviewers. Brief feedback comments are provided to applicants.  Based on the recommendation of the reviewers, award decisions are made by the Dean of the College in consultation with the Associate Dean for Research. After submission, review and award decision will be completed within one month.  Interested applicants are encouraged to get pre-submission advice from the Associate Dean for Research. Good luck with your TIPS applications!

Revised, February 2005

E. Andrew Balas
Professor and Dean
College of Health Sciences