We are pleased to announce that our Center for Iron and Heme Disorders (CIHD) within the Division of Hematology at the University of Utah School of Medicine will fund two to three small pilot grants in 2024. Funds for these Pilot and Feasibility grants are available through the NIH NIDDK Institute. The awards will be either $33,000 or $50,000 (depending on the number of funded grant submissions) for one single year with no second-year extensions. The grants will be awarded competitively and are designed to support research projects from internal and external CIHD members to utilize our CIHD Cores in advance of the mission of our program. The goals of the CIHDare to support research on molecular/cellular biological pathways involved in normal hematopoietic stem cell biology, erythroid differentiation and disease states in addition to iron and heme biology. Our intent is also to: 1) support junior faculty members or established investigators launching new research directions that meet our mission objectives; 2) support CIHD members engaged in collaborative research projects with other CIHD members or investigators outside of the CIHD.
2024 Proposals are due July 1 with funding starting August 1, 2024. (Closed)
Applicant Eligibility
Applicants must be members of the CIHD (information on application can be found on our website; cihd.cores.utah.edu). One proposal per applicant will be accepted in each year. A Principal Investigator (PI) must be a tenure track or research track faculty with an appointment of at least 0.75 FTE. Research faculty must have had a two-year residency at their institution prior to funding applications. CIHD members are entitled to re-apply with a proposal distinct from any previous CIHD proposals from past funding periods. CIHD members from outside Utah are welcome to apply if they have an active collaboration with a Utah member of the CIHD.
Proposal Submission (web site: cihd.cores.utah.edu)
Proposals will be limited to three pages of narrative on significance, background and proposed studies. All proposals will require an additional statement of relevance of the proposed project to our CIHD mission objectives, a description of the CIHD cores to be utilized, NIH-style biosketches including current and pending support, a proposed budget and justification page and a page describing plans to submit proposals to NIDDK for extramural support.
Checklist for submissison
1. Abstract: 1 separate page (250 words maximum)
2. 3 pages of project description: include significance, scientific premise and approach
3. Statement of relevance to our CIHD (within proposal)
4. Description of CIHD cores to be utilized (within proposal)
5. NIH grant submission plans (within proposal)
6. NIH-style biosketch
7. Current and pending support
8. Proposed budget and justification
Applications should be submitted as pdf files to anna.beaudin@hsc.utah.edu
Proposal Evaluations
Proposals will be reviewed by an external review committee consisting of senior scientists at other universities. The group will each address the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal and rank the merits of the various proposals. Confidentiality of this process will be stressed to all reviewers. This group will rank the submitted proposals and make a recommendation for funding to the CIHD Internal Advisory Committee.
The review criteria used to evaluate submitted proposals will include:
a) Does the proposal have high scientific merit and potential impact?
b) Does the proposed work have high potential to leverage extramural funding?
c) Does the project meet the CIHD mission objectives stated on our web page and in the publicized funding opportunity?
d) Does the project build or strengthen cross-disciplinary collaborative efforts? Not all projects need to build collaborative partnerships, but this is a desired goal of the CIHD Pilot and Feasibility Program.
e) Is the applicant an early-stage investigator or a senior investigator with a major new research direction?
