APA/Commonwealth Fund Young Investigator Awards
APA Young Investigator Program
for Child Development and Preventive Care Services for Young
Children, Ages 0-5, Supported by The Commonwealth Fund
With generous support from The Commonwealth Fund, the Academic Pediatric Association Young Investigator Award Program for Preventive Services for Children, Ages 0-5, provides financial support to research projects focused on preventive and developmental services. Through the process described below, the Program may grant up to $15,000 per selected project drawing upon APA and Young Investigator Award Program funds. This is the second and final cycle of funds available for this program focused specifically on preventive and developmental services. We anticipate providing 3 awards, although the number of awards will be dependent on the size of the grant requests of the selected projects.
This funding will support studies focused on improving preventive and developmental services for young children, 0-5 years old, including:
- The effectiveness of health supervision, particularly with regard to anticipatory guidance to parents of young children and coordination of care for developmental problems,
- Translation of available science to practice for preventive services, and
- Promotion of effective preventive service delivery.
The specifics of this program are as follows:
- The principal investigator of any proposal submitted must be a member of the APA or have submitted an application for membership. Preference will be given to NEW investigators, including those in training. New investigators are defined as: 1) faculty members who are no more than five years out from completion of all training; 2) fellows; or 3) residents. The principal investigator also must submit a biographical sketch using the standard two-page NIH biosketch form and a letter of support from a mentor with the initial two-page proposal. These documents do not count toward the page count.
- Proposals submitted should address an important area of concern for preventive and developmental services and the health of young children. The awards will be one-time grants; multiple-year funding requests will not be considered. Preference will be given to those proposals that have the potential of leading to projects of a larger or longer-term nature as well as to proposals that go beyond merely describing poor quality of preventive services. To that end, proposals that link with child health outcomes or lead to actionable next steps will be more favorably considered. Possible projects might include, but are not limited to: feasibility studies of innovative interventions or qualitative assessments of systems issues; projects focused on improving the efficiency of well child care; or studies designed to better individualize preventive care.
- Initial proposals must be received by October 25, 2009. These initial proposals must include the following items:*
- Cover sheet indicating title of project, name, and contact information, including e-mail address for the principal investigator.
- Description of the proposal- - not more than two single-spaced pages in length, including the budget and budget justification, and must use a font size no smaller than 11 with 1" margins. This section must provide a brief overview of the project including the aims of the project, background, methods, evaluation, and significance of the study. The cover sheet and references are not included in the two-page limit.
- Budget and budget justification- - This should not include overhead (indirect costs), salary for principal investigators or mentors who are full time faculty, or equipment for long term use (e.g., computers). A maximum of %1,000 is allowable for travel.
- Biographical sketch using the standard 2-page NIH biosketch form. This can be found at the following site: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/biosketch.doc. Instructions for filling it out can be found at the following link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/biosketchsample.doc
- Letter of support from the primary mentor. A typed signature is acceptable if an electronic signature is not available.
- A review panel, convened by the Chair of the Research Committee will review the submitted proposals, and identify those that warrant further elaboration. Those proposals so identified will be notified by November 16, 2009, and have a December 16, 2009 deadline for submission of a full proposal.
- Full proposals must include the following items:*
- The entire proposal, including cover sheet, tables, budget, references, and appendices, no longer than ten pages in length using a font size no smaller than Arial 11, 1" margins, and double spacing,
- Cover sheet indicating title of project, name and contact information including email address for the principal investigator,
- Specific aims, background; preliminary studies (if applicable), detailed methods, evaluation, timeline (the project must be completed within 1 year), description of key personnel; and detailed budget with justification (see restrictions listed above),
- Goals for faculty development related to preventive services research,
- Biographical sketch using the standard 2-page NIH biosketch form, and
- Letter of support from the primary mentor including the plan for communication with the mentee. The APA will provide an additional $1000/project as an honorarium for the primary mentor for awarded grants; this amount should NOT be included in the proposal budget.
- A second "study section" convened by the Research Committee Chair will review and score the full proposals and prepare 1 - 2 page review sheets that will be sent to applicants. Funding decisions will be based on the results of the study section review and approval by The Commonwealth Fund. The number of proposals approved and funded will be determined by the funds available for the given year. The awardees will be announced at the PAS meeting.
- Review criteria for full proposals include: relevance of the proposed project, likelihood of project success and contribution to the evidence-base, support from the home institution as well as a preventive services research mentor, and overall quality of the submission.
- Awards will be made with the condition that work begins by March 2010, and is completed within one year. Awardees are encouraged to submit abstracts to a PAS meeting and to submit results to the APA journal, Academic Pediatrics, for possible publication.
- Awardees are required to submit to the APA Board a progress report of the funded project at the end of nine months and upon completion of the project.
- Three additional grantee requirements are intended to enhance career development. First, awardees will communicate with an assigned National Facilitator who will enhance networking and bridge projects, where possible. Second, grantees will be required to participate in conference calls (3x/year). Third, awardees will be required to attend a 1-day meeting in the fall of 2010; additional travel funds will be provided.
- Each awardee will be paired with a national facilitator, an accomplished, nationally recognized senior investigator from an institution other than the PI's. The facilitator will be available to provide advice and input on the project; complement the PI's mentor by offering additional mentoring on an as needed basis; supply networking opportunities for awardees in their field; provide career advice to awardees regarding future academic pursuits; and be in regular communication with the awardee, via phone calls, e-mails, and in-person meetings at the annual PAS meeting.
*Please Note - Incomplete submissions and proposals that exceed page limits will not be forwarded to the review team.
