NEWS

Research Incubator Fund Seeks Funding
October 10th is Deadline for Letter of Intent
The Baystate Health Research Incubator Fund Steering Committee announces the second year of the BH Research Incubator Fund. The goal of the Fund is to encourage innovative research by incumbent BMERF and BH physicians through providing grants, with the intent of securing external funding. Funding of approved projects begins in January 2007.

Grants are awarded for up to 3 years, subject to annual review of progress towards the stated goals and continued institutional funding. Total anticipated awards for this round are 2-4 grants of $25,000 - $50,000 per grant. Key financial support for this endeavor has been committed by BMERF, the Division of Academic Affairs, SAS, BRI, and WNERTA.

The Application Process
October 10, 2006: Deadline to submit an initial brief Letter of Intent (LOI)
Month of October: Committee review of LOI
November 1: Applicants are notified if a complete proposal is requested
December 1: Deadline to submit complete proposal
Month of December: Review of proposals and notification of awardees
January 1, 2007: Funding begins.

THE LETTER OF INTENT - LOI ( 2 pages)
Briefly states the Significance, Background, Preliminary Results (if any), Research Plan, Key Personnel, Other Support, and total amount of the budget.

THE COMPLETE PROPOSAL (5-8 pages, plus references)
Details the Significance, Background, Preliminary Results (if any), Research Plan, Key Personnel, Other Support, Budget, Timeline with milestones, and relevant Letters of Support.

Valid budget items include support personnel salaries (technologists, biostatisticians, nurses, etc.), reagents, supplies, consumables; equipment; and reasonable expenses for travel for a relevant national meeting. In general, investigator time will not be supported.

Award Criteria
Awards are made to proposals with the highest likelihood of success (e.g., project completion, publications in peer reviewed journals, and development of proposals for external funding) and likelihood of future external funding.

The specific criteria include:

• Significance: Does this study address an important problem?
• Approach: Are the conceptual or clinical framework, design, methods, and analyses adequately developed, well integrated, well reasoned, and appropriate to the aims of the project?
• Innovation: Is the project original and innovative?
• Investigators: Are the investigators appropriately trained and well suited to carry out this work? Is the work proposed appropriate to the experience level of the principal investigator and other researchers?
• Environment: Does the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success?

For further information about the application process, please contact Louise Morse at louise.morse@bhs.org or 794-7906. For questions about a potential project, please contact Drs. Richard Friedberg, Hal Jenson, or Gordon Josephson.