Application Deadline:	Friday, September 27, 2002 (Fall Funding Cycle)
	Friday, April 25th, 2003 (Spring Funding Cycle)
	MUE-253, Box 0764

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application approximately six weeks after deadline date

Award range:	Up to $35,000
Contact:	Elizabeth Langdon-Gray, Academic Senate Analyst
	Elangdon-gray@senate.ucsf.edu
	Tel: (415) 476-1307

The Committee on Research (COR) invites applications for funds for research by new investigators and established investigators who experience lapse of funding or wish to establish a new direction or re-entry. In all cases it is expected that work supported by COR funds will lead the applicant to outside funding. As a result, successful applications are usually well focused and present a clear pathway from the applicant's present state to acquisition of outside funding. The applicant should outline how the specific preliminary results to be obtained will be used to support a subsequent application for outside funding. Description of specific experiments that will actually be performed or data to be collected is preferable to an exhaustive list of possible experiments or potential areas of data collection. Applicants are encouraged to begin writing their proposals early and to obtain advice from established investigators in their area of interest or to seek assistance from the Committee on Research and the Academic Senate Staff.

ELIGIBILTY

Who's Eligible: University policy automatically confers PI status on faculty who are salaried at 50% or more of full time in the ladder-rank, in-residence, clinical X, adjunct, clinical or research series, and to appointees in the librarian series. PIs on sabbatical can apply for supplies and equipment. Preference will be given to new investigators.

Who's Not Eligible: Faculty without a salaried University appointment, visiting professors, specialists, residents, fellows, post-docs, graduate students, undergraduate students and staff employees. The Committee will not fund curricular or administrative studies or research conducted by graduate students relative to ongoing studies and dissertations, and will not subsidize extramural and intramural budget reductions.

HOW TO APPLY

An original and twenty-five copies of the application must be typed, single-spaced, double-sided and stapled. The type must not be smaller than 12 characters per inch. An application should be prepared with the same care given to outside agencies. An application should be written in terms that can be understood by Committee on Research members working in diverse fields of biomedical and other sciences, whose areas of specialization may not coincide with that of the planned work. Verbatim submissions of NIH grants will not be accepted. Nothing should precede the application cover page.

Supporting documents (letters from department chairs and collaborators) must be included with the application and filed in the Appendix. School of Medicine faculty may concurrently apply to the Research Evaluation and Allocation Committee (REAC) for research grants awarded by the Dean of the School of Medicine. If a grant is submitted to both REAC and to the Committee on Research, you must provide the Committee on Research with two copies of the REAC grant, including the budget. Applicants who apply to both the Committee on Research and REAC are encouraged to apply for funding in different categories for the same project in order to avoid potential reductions of funding should both REAC and the COR approve funding for a project with identical budgets.

Applications will be returned if information is insufficient to conduct a satisfactory review.

SELECT ONE FUNDING CATEGORY

Start-up Category:

For junior faculty with 4 years or less of service at UCSF who have achieved independent status and can show need for funds to establish their own research. Investigators applying for first time support must acknowledge

1. any start- up or matching funds provided by their department or Dean, or
2. the lack of start up or matching funds.

New investigators, who are without their own lab, must include a letter (in the Appendix) from their Department Chair acknowledging whether:

1. the investigator is independent,
2. the investigator is solely responsible for the proposed project,
3. the investigator's work does not overlap with ongoing work of others in the lab; and,
4. that the project will not be transferred to a different department or institution without specific Committee on Research approval.

An investigator can receive start-up funds once; however, under exceptional circumstances, a second request for funding may be considered. Requests for continued support must include a summary of the previously supported Committee on Research study.

Short-term Lapse Category:

For investigators who are experiencing a temporary interruption in funding and can document their hardship. A short-term lapse of funding designation (particularly when pending applications are not listed) must include a 5-year funding history for the PI, a copy of the pink sheets and rebuttal.

New Direction Category:

For investigators at all levels. This category applies to investigators who wish to embark on a new and/or substantially different direction of research. It is the responsibility of the investigator to demonstrate beyond a doubt that the proposed study is a distinctly new direction of research. For example, studies that are conceptually similar to those being performed in a different tissue or in a different animal model, or with a different assay system in the investigator's current research program, would not constitute a new direction.

Re-entry Category:

For investigators who have pursued non-classical pathways and now wish to resume their research careers. Such pathways include investigators who have relocated with a spouse or partner, or those who have dedicated their primary effort to teaching or clinical practice rather than to research.

FORMAT FOR MAKING APPLICATION

Cover Sheet: Provide name, department, title, series, phone, fax, email of Principal Investigator. Identify the category/categories of funding for which you are applying. Provide the name of project. Identify total budget request for project in upper right hand corner. (See cover sheet template below).

Table of Contents: Provide a one-page table of contents for the application, immediately following the cover sheet.

Funding Category Justification: Provide 100 to 300 word abstract.

Aims: Describe the project's scope, objectives, and rationale. Specific aims for most research proposals can be itemized. There are usually no more than 3 - 4 specific aims for an eight-month to a one-year study. Not to exceed one page.

Background: Describe the background to the present application and the appropriateness to the total scheme of the research. Not to exceed one page.

Preliminary Studies: Describe previous work accomplished by the PI and co-investigator(s) appropriate to the proposal. Not to exceed one page.

Research Methods: Describe the methods, information or techniques to be employed, scientific basis for choice, data to be obtained, sample selection and control, data organization and analysis, management of biases, discrepant findings, errors of measurement and sample losses. Provide details of collaborative arrangements and include a letter from each collaborator in the Appendix. Not to exceed two pages.

Significance of this Research: Explain how the results of the proposed work will advance the knowledge in this specific field and lead to extramural support. Not to exceed one page.

Human subjects/vertebrate animals: If human subjects are involved, provide details of the group from which samples will be drawn and the sampling methods to be used. If animal subjects are used, identify the species, the approximate number to be used, a rationale for involving animals and the appropriateness of the species, and describe the proposed use of the animals. Patient or animal studies should be justified with a power calculation, if appropriate. This section is limited to 1/2 page per description.

References: For each cited reference (number sequentially starting with 1) include the name of the author, title of the article, name of the book or journal, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. Not to exceed one page.

Biographical Sketch: Include a CV or biographical sketch for the principal investigator and each co-investigator. Limit bibliographies to publications pertinent to the application. Limit each biographical sketch to two pages.

Other Research Support: If you have no current and/or pending support, explain why. List current and pending research support (extramural and intramural), support source, identification number, project title, percent time devoted to project, role in project, term of project, notification date for pending applications, include notification date (e.g. receipt of Pink Sheet from NIH) and annual direct costs. Identify any budgetary or scientific overlap with the COR application and specify modifications to be made. List the "aims" from current or pending grants that overlap with this application.

Budget: Itemize expenses for personnel, consumable supplies, equipment costing less than $500 and travel.

Budget Justification: Justify expenditures by category: Personnel, Supplies, Equipment, and Travel. If applicable, describe how the budget compares with pending and/or current research support, and why funding was not subsumed by those sources. (See notes on following page explaining the four categories of budget justification).

Appendix: List Research Subjects and Environmental Protection Committee (RSEPC) applications and/or approval number(s), letters from department chair and collaborator(s), and figures or drawings relative to the application. For the short-term lapse in funding category, include a copy of the pink sheets and rebuttal along with the investigator's 5 year funding history.

Research Subjects and Environmental Protection Committees Any applications involving the following Committees will not be funded unless there is evidence of current approval: Committee on Animal Research (CAR), Biosafety Committee (BSC), Chemical Safety Committee (CSC), Committee on Human Research (CHR), Radiation Safety Committee (RSC) and Radioactive Drug Research Committee (RDRC).

BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

Please clearly itemize the proposed budget according to the following categories and provide all the required information for each category.

Personnel Category
List the principal investigator, co-investigator(s) and other personnel and indicate the percent of effort for each (i.e. the percentage of daily working time to be spent by each investigator on the proposed project). Describe the specific function of each person on the budget justification page. This category does not supplement the salary of the principal investigator, co-investigator(s), staff employees, consultants or Postdocs.

UCSF Fee Remission Policy: Pertains to registered students appointed to research titles at 25% of the time or more for a full academic term. Copies of the Fee Remission Policy for Students with Research Appointments are available by telephoning 476-1558. If student remission fees are not budgeted by the investigator, the grant will be assessed to cover that charge. University regulations allow students to work no more than 50% time during the academic year and 100% time during the summer months. This policy does not apply to non-resident tuition fees.

Supplies Category: (Equipment costing less than $500) Itemize consumable supplies, animals, statistical services and analysis. Equipment and software items costing less than $500 should be listed in this category. Charges for the use of UCSF owned equipment will be closely reviewed and must be accompanied by a rate sheet; radiology, clinical labs and sequencing charges usually fall under this category. Allowed charges for UCSF clinical services ordinarily fall below the "list price" that UCSF bills to third party payers. Investigators should negotiate charges with relevant clinical services and departments when preparing this application. If animals are requested, provide unit and per diem costs. A sampling of costs that may not be funded include expenditures related to infrastructure, office supplies, reprints, publication costs, installation costs, maintenance costs, contract costs, photographs for publication purposes, slides for teaching, subcontracts, subscriptions, organization of focus groups and symposia, and superfluous costs associated to research subject payments.

Research Subject Payments: A copy of the UCSF Research Subject Payment Summary is included with each CHR application packet if reimbursement is indicated on the Committee on Human Research (CHR) Cover Page. The guidelines for research subject payments applies when 1) a research protocol involving research subjects has been reviewed and approved by the Committee on Human Research which includes issuance of a CHR Approval Number and 2) the research department has completed and submitted a Research Subject Payment Summary Form to Accounts Payable with a copy of the CHR Approval Letter and a CHR Cover Page. Payments to research subjects are tax reportable as income; therefore, the PI should not make out-of-pocket direct payments to subjects and then seek reimbursement from UC. Purchases associated with research subjects such as translation services must be procured though University processes, i.e., Purchase Order.

Equipment Category: Equipment is defined as non-expendable personal property having a useful life of more than two years and costing $500 or more per unit. Title to or ownership of all University property or material is vested in the Regents of the University of California, a Corporation. Without exception, equipment purchased with COR funds remains the property of the Regents of the University of California and cannot be transferred from the University. The investigator should indicate that a thorough investigation of the University Surplus Pool (extension 2-3064) has been made and that the desired equipment is not available. If funded, the award can only be applied to the specified equipment. On the budget justification page, explain the need for the equipment and list alternate funding sources should the Committee offer partial funding. The Committee will not provide funds for a personal computer if its sole use is for the preparation of a manuscript.

Manufacturer's Price Quote: Installation costs and maintenance contracts will not be funded and should be listed separately in the quote. An application without a manufacturer's price quote will be rejected. Please make sure that you include any tax and shipping charges related to equipment purchases.

Travel Category: Funds for transportation are available to conduct field research for the purpose of gathering data and research materials. These funds are intended for transportation costs exclusively and under no circumstance can they be used for subsistence (including hotels, registration fees etc.).

Please read carefully POLICY RELATING TO THE AWARDING OF GRANT FUNDS If awarded funding, the Academic Senate requires Principal Investigators and their Department Chairs to provide the Academic Senate with a letter which states agreement to adhere to the requirements of the Grant Award and which provides the Academic Senate with a Department Fund/Account to be used by the Academic Senate in the event an overage above and beyond the Grant Award appears in the Senate Fund/Account assigned to the Principal Investigator. In order to expedite the processing of your award, should you receive funding, please include this letter with your original application. Only one copy is required. Failure to include this letter may result in a delay in funding.

Before Submitting, please ensure that you have included the following:

• Page Numbers
• Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Funding Category Justification
• Aims
• Background
• Preliminary Studies
• Research Methods
• Significance of Research
• Human Subjects/Vertebrate Animals
• References
• Biographical Sketches
• Other Research Support
• Budget
• Budget Justification

Appendix

• RSEPC Approvals
• Research Subject Payment documentation
• Letters from department chairs, collaborators
• Manufacturers price quote(s)
• Figures or drawings
• For short- term lapse category, provide a copy of pink sheets and rebuttal with investigator's 5 year funding history.