Bridging Grant Program

The KUMC Research Institute is pleased to announce the availability of bridging funds for research conducted by faculty members of the University of Kansas Medical Center at Kansas City, Wichita and Salina. Funding for this program is derived from Research Institute income and through the generosity of external philanthropic programs.

The objective of the Bridging Grant program is to provide interim support during a funding hiatus that will be used to improve previously submitted proposals. These competitive awards provide interim support to those who have submitted grants to national organizations that were approved on the basis of scientific merit, but did not receive priority scores within the funding range. This interim funding is intended to assist investigators in obtaining data needed to enhance the success of a revised application. Decisions on funding are expected approximately 3 weeks after submission of the materials indicated below.

Eligibility Requirement

All faculty at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, Wichita and Salina are eligible to apply, if their applications meet the following criteria:

• Applications for bridging support will only be accepted for grant applications with annual direct costs exceeding $100,000 and with durations of 2 years or greater. The investigator applying for this bridging award must be the Principal Investigator on that application submitted to the external agency.
• The application must be eligible for resubmission to the respective funding agency. Applications that have expended all allotted resubmissions or are in response to a one-time Request for Applications are ineligible for bridging funds. An extensive revision that is to be submitted as a new application may be considered for bridging funding, but is likely to receive a lower ranking.
• A commitment to submit a revised application to the same and/or other funding agencies within 18 months of the onset of this award.
• Only one bridging award per grant submission is eligible. An investigator who has received prior Research Institute funding is allowed to apply for bridging funds, but only for a different research project.
• A commitment to return all remaining funds to the Research Institute in the event that the revised application is funded, or immediately upon accepting a position at another university during the tenure of this award.

Required Submission Items (In the following order)

1. A cover letter containing an explicit statement regarding plans for resubmission. Provide specific information regarding the title, the type of award to be applied for, the funding agency, and the date when the revised application will be submitted. This letter should contain, in lay terms, the objective of the research, the hypotheses to be tested, and the potential significance of the findings.
2. The complete Summary Statement or Critique released by the peer review committee/study section of the respective funding agency, indicating committee membership. Only a single Summary Statement for a single grant application will be considered. This summary statement must have been released within the 12 months immediately preceding this application for bridging support.
3. A point by point response to the criticisms raised by the peer review committee/study section. This document should not exceed one single-spaced page in length with Arial 11 point font. Each response should begin with a brief restatement of the relevant criticism followed by a succinct and explicit statement as to how the application will be amended to address that concern.
4. The original application that was submitted to the funding agency.
5. A detailed itemized budget and budget justification indicating a valid purpose/rationale for bridging funds. State how the bridging research funds (up to $35,000) will be used to enable the investigator to address the criticisms listed above. Stating that funds will be used to conduct experiments to simply ‘strengthen the application’ is not sufficient justification. We do not fund faculty (PI) effort.
6. An ‘Other Support’ section in which all funding sources available to the investigator (internal and external) are indicated. For each active and pending application, list title, the type of award, the principal investigator, years of support, direct and indirect funds, and research objectives. Any overlap with the current proposal must be indicated.
7. Funding history of all completed major awards received during the investigator’s tenure at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Use the same format as in #6.

Prioritization Criteria

The following criteria will be taken into account when ranking these bridging applications:

• Level of merit assigned by the Peer Review Committee/ Study Section. This will be based on priority score, percentile ranking, descriptors of research merit, and the Peer Review Committee’s/Study Section specific remarks regarding the research quality contained within the Summary Statement narrative. Unscored applications are not automatically excluded; however, the Summary Statement must indicate that the application has significant merit and the case for funding such an application must be compelling.
• Justification for bridging funds.
• Adequacy of the responses to the concerns raised in the Summary Statement.
• Need for funding. While need alone is not sufficient to justify bridging support, priority will be given to applications where trained personnel are in danger of termination as a result of a funding hiatus.
• Prior major funding of the same or similar research program that is now in hiatus. Where possible, priority will be given to an ongoing program.
• Funding history, including duration of funding and the cumulative total of direct and indirect costs brought into the University of Kansas Medical Center by the investigator.

Deadline for Submission

To apply for Winter Bridging Funds, the above items must be received by REDCap as a single PDF by the Research Institute office by January 14, 2012 by 12:00 PM (noon) (CST).

NOTE:
Starting with this funding cycle, we will be asking investigators to submit their applications online through our REDCap database, https://redcap.kumc.edu/surveys/?s=DWXaN2 which we use for our Frontiers (CTSA) Pilots/Collaborative Studies Funding Program. This database will also require you to answer some questions pertinent to your application.

For questions or additional information, please contact Kelly Robertson at (913) 588-5436 or e-mail at krobertson@kumc.edu.