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Resources for Researchers

Grant writing resources & requirements
Negotiating the UW & NIH systems

Emily White, Associate Dean for Research, SPHCM
ewhite@fhcrc.org

Developing Study Ideas & Finding Funding
Grant Writing & Submission
Managing Research
Outside Work

DEVELOPING STUDY IDEAS & FINDING FUNDING

  1. Resources for developing study ideas and finding collaborators
    1. Mentors/colleagues in your group—ask your chair or program director
    2. Build on prior work by you or your mentor
    3. Centers in SPHCM: http://sphcm.washington.edu/research/centers.asp
    4. Investigate NIH awards (funded research) in a research area at UW or elsewhere -CRISP database: http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/
    5. Get ideas from RFP’s and PA’s –see below
  2. Finding Requests for Proposals (RFP) and Program Announcements (PA) at NIH and other agencies
    1. To subscribe to the NIH Guide Weekly Table of Contents LISTSERV, follow the instructions at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/listserv.htm.
    2. Search for grant opportunities in all federal agencies (NIH, NSF): http://www.grants.gov
    3. ASPH (Association of the Schools of Public Health) provides a list of funding opportunities from NIH, CDC, AHRQ and others targeted to Public Health: (http://www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=747).
    4. Register at Community of Science for targeted weekly emails of funding opportunities or search their database (federal and non-federal): http://www.cos.com
    5. SPHCM Research News –I review the above and other media for RFA’s/RFP’s of most interest to faculty in the School and send out a newsletter
  3. Types of funding
    1. Pilot funds
      • UW Royalty Research Fund -proposals due last Monday in September and first Monday in March. The focus is on new research directions at UW which will lead to external funding or new technology. Maximum award is $40,000. See:http://www.washington.edu/research/rrf.html
      • NIH R03 or small grants ($50K year, 2 years)
      • Local pilot funds for focused research –alcohol and drug abuse, nutrition (Clinical Nutrition Research Unit--CNRU), clinical studies (Institute for Translational Health Sciences-ITHS—also has core support for clinical studies, first become a member through www.iths.org ), diabetes (Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center-DERC) http://www.crc.washington.edu/Resources/UWFunds.aspx
    2. K awards—2-5 years with large percent of PI salary and small research budgets. Many targeted for MD’s but some for PhD’s. http://grants.nih.gov/training/careerdevelopmentawards.htm
    3. Investigator initiated awards (investigator’s ideas or in response to PA’s)—NIH R01’s (up to $500K year, up to 5 years)
    4. Responses to RFA’s
    5. Other federal and non-federal agencies

GRANT WRITING & SUBMISSION

  1. Grant writing
    1. Courses available –
      • Epi 588-Preparing and writing research proposals
      • Institute for Translational Health Sciences-ITHS— gives short courses/video courses on grantsmanship, Human Subjects, biostatistics, etc. First become a member through www.iths.org
    2. Work with department administrators on budgets and other pieces
    3. Use mentors and colleagues as sounding board and source of study ideas, as reviewers of abstract and aims and reviewers of full proposals
    4. UW Researcher’s Guide-covers Proposal development, Project start-up, and Award management http://www.washington.edu/research/guide/index.php
  2. UW and federal grant submission requirements
    1. Work with your department administrator to submit to UW Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) for electronic approvals by all departments and schools involved. SAGE – System to Administer Grants Electronically (eGC-1–UW submission form )
      http://www.washington.edu/research/osp/gc1.html
    2. Grants.gov--electronic submission of all federal grants including NIH:
      http://grants.gov
    3. NIH Commons-NIH system of grants management, including getting priority scores, percentiles and reviews ("summary statements"). Your department must register you first, and you must be registered to submit grants through Grants.gov. https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/
    4. Institutional Research Board (IRB or Human Subjects) approval—for NIH grants, IRB approval is not needed for submission but is needed before an award. So submit to IRB when you get a fundable score. See: http://www.washington.edu/research/hsd/index.php
      for forms, procedures and training.
    5. Registration of Clinical Trials now REQUIRED --Two regulations/policies require registration of clinical trials—the FDA requires registration of drugs, biologics and devices (large fine for failure to register) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requires registration of all health-related trials including behavioral interventions (cannot publish results in Lancet, NEJM, JAMA, Annals and other journals if trial not registered). The rationale for both is that information needs to be available on the existence and results of all trials, including those not published (e.g., due to null results or results contrary to hypothesis). Trials must be registered after IRB approval and before the first participant is enrolled. For the FDA requirement, the sponsor is responsible for registering, but may delegate this to the PI. For NIH funded trials, especially R01’s, it is probably the PI who must register. It is best to check with your sponsor for ALL trials to see if the sponsor or PI must register. Registration is usually through ClinicalTrials.gov, but to register a UW-based trial use the UW link: http://www.uwmedicine.org/Research/ClinicalResearch/clinicaltrialsregistrationfaqs.htm

      Some guidance from NIH:
      http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-014.html

      ICMJE rules:
      http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/298.1.jed70037
  3. Required training for submitting grants through UW
    1. Human subjects training —on-line or in–person course
      http://www.washington.edu/research/hsd/index.php
    2. Faculty Grants Management (fiscal management rules and guidelines)-must take on-line or in-person class within 4 months of becoming PI:
      http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/pod/fgm.html
    3. Faculty Effort Certification (FEC)–on-line training for those who complete UW FEC
      http://www.washington.edu/research/maa/training.html

MANAGING RESEARCH

  1. Managing your externally funded budgets. Plan your spending carefully and absolutely avoid any cost overruns on grants. The University policy on this issue is very clear: the Principal Investigator is responsible for monitoring his/her grant spending and avoiding cost overruns.

    See Award management and Award close-out sections of UW Researcher’s Guide:
    http://www.washington.edu/research/guide/index.php
    Use the UW budget management system—My Financial Desktop
    http://ucs.admin.washington.edu/MyFD/Home.aspx
  2. Scientific misconduct. Scientific and scholarly misconduct, consisting of intentional misrepresentation of credentials, falsification of data, plagiarism, abuse of confidentiality, or deliberate violation of regulations applicable to research, is grounds for dismissal (See University Handbook Volume Four, Part II And, Volume Two, Part II, Chapter 25, Section 25-51 for definitions and regulations). Research misconduct is a form of scientific and scholarly misconduct and is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit. Researchers need to guard against scientific misconduct in their own work and that of their students and colleagues. All authors of a paper, particularly the first author and the senior author, may be held responsible for the misconduct of one author.

    For links for teaching students appropriate citation of other’s work, and for the SPHCM procedures for handling suspected academic misconduct, see: http://sphcm.washington.edu/gateway/plagiarism.asp

OUTSIDE WORK

  1. Conflict of interest and Significant Financial Interest Disclosure (GIM 10). If a study investigator or any of his/her relatives has a financial interest in a company or non-profit organization that could be affected by the research findings of a grant, this must be disclosed and a "management plan" developed by the Office of Research. Financial interest is defined as compensation, equity (stocks or stock options) or intellectual property. See:
    http://www.washington.edu/research/osp/gim/gim10.html
  2. Outside compensation: UW places limits on compensation for outside activities. These provisions have been adopted to assure that faculty members remain in compliance with Washington State ethics laws. The most important Handbook section is Volume 4, Part V, Chapter 6.

    If you wish to engage in outside activities for compensation, you must obtain prior approval for these activities by completing a Request for Approval of Outside Professional Work for Compensation available on line at http://www.washington.edu/admin/acadpers/procedures/responsibilities/outside_conflict.html.

    You will also be asked to complete an Annual Report of Outside Activities (also described on above website).
  3. Use of UW resources for non-UW purposes. UW ethics laws are also very strict about use of UW resources for non-UW purposes. Use of any UW resource (even email) for an outside company you have ownership in or are paid by can lead to dismissal, unless it is for consulting related to your UW research that has gotten prior approval. Even then, the use of UW resources must have no monetary impact to UW (e.g., no long distance calls, no use of supplies). See:
    http://www.washington.edu/research/4researchers/ethics.php
    (Similarly, personal use of UW resources (telephone, computer) must have no monetary impact on UW.)