The VCU General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) is a vital resource for training medical students, residents, fellows, dietitians, and other health care professionals in clinical research. The VCU GCRC urges all investigators to use this valuable asset to foster and stimulate continued interest in clinical research.
A K23 candidate is a young academic scholar, trained in patient care and research through the Fellow level or its equivalent, who wishes to develop a career in clinical investigation. Awards are granted for up to five years of support including a salary of up to $75,000 per year plus commensurate fringe benefits for a minimum of 75 percent effort. Additional funding of up to $25,000 per year is available for research development support (research expenses, travel, statistical support, tuition expenses). Requests for K23 awards are made to the appropriate NIH institute (including the National Centers for Research Resources which funds the GCRC). In most cases, the applicant will benefit from utilization of many of the reources of the GCRC. Prospective K23 applicants are encouraged to discuss their intentions with the GCRC Program Director well in advance of an application deadline. Candidates may wish to submit their proposal to the Advisory Committee for review prior to submitting an application to NIH. NIH application deadlines are February 1, June 1, and October 1 for corresponding earliest beginning dates of December 1, April 1, and July 1.
NOTE: Please click here to view Information about NIH Career Development Awards including the K23 (a new browser window should open).
Award: NIH provides funds for a single non-continuing clinical research project through the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). The maximum annual award is $20,000. The actual amount funded will be dependent upon priority assigned by the GCRC Research Panel, following review and approval by the GCRC Advisory Committee. The research project should be completed within 12 months of the award and reported to the GCRC Advisory Committee upon completion.
Eligibility: The CReFF award program is designed to support innovative patient oriented research by junior faculty at the rank of Instructor or Assistant Professor that will be conducted utilizing the GCRC facility. Therefore, applicants must have a full-time faculty appointment at VCU.
Although primary interest is toward junior faculty, funds can be allocated to more senior faculty who are embarking on a new research area and require seed money to complete a pilot project prior to submission for extramural funding.
Individuals who have received support from this program within the past four years are generally not eligible. However, junior faculty who are still within the first four years of their employment at VCU may reapply for additional support.
Solicitation of Applications:
Applications are solicited
annually with announcements sent by email typically in January
or February.
Application Process: The research proposal must have a
clearly defined and testable hypothesis, sound and well designed
methodology, adequate statistical analysis and sample size. In
general the application should be in NIH format and conform to
the requirements of all research protocols submitted to the GCRC
(http://www.vcuhealth.org/crc/proiinfo.htm)
and to the VCU Institutional Review Board.
Review Process: All proposals will be reviewed and ranked by the GCRC Research Advisory Panel. The panel is comprised of individuals from the GCRC Advisory Committee and ad hoc reviewers if a particular expertise is required.
The Subcommittee will meet within one month of the application deadline. A primary and secondary reviewer will be assigned to each protocol. Priority will be accomplished using NIH format with a score of 1.0 (outstanding) to 5.0 (unacceptable).
The recommendations of the Research Advisory Panel will be submitted to the GCRC Advisory Committee who will make the final approval of awards. Awards will be determined on priority rank and availability of funds.
Selection Criteria: Reviewers will be asked to evaluate the protocol on scientific merit, qualifications of the applicant, human subjects concerns, and GCRC utilization.
A) Scientific
merit
1) Significance of the project
2) Feasibility of the scientific approach
3) Innovation of the experimental design
4) Likelihood of eventual external funding
B) Qualifications of the
applicant
1) Academic preparation
2) Prior research achievement
C) Human Subjects Concerns
D) GCRC utilization
In addition, reviewers will be asked to comment on whether the requested resources are sufficient to conduct the proposed research. The reviewers should also comment upon the possible demands upon GCRC resources not included in the budget (e.g. GCRC ancillaries and Core laboratory).
Program Evaluation: Recipients of CReFF funds will be required
to submit 2 reports as follows:
Preliminary findings within 60 days of completion of the study
funding period
Final report no later than 9 months after the end of the funding
period
These reports should include a listing of publications, presentations and grant applications/awards related to the CReFF project.
The GCRC Advisory Committee will evaluate the overall success of the program by measuring the percentage of CReFF funded projects that result in external funding, the retention of the investigator in academics, as well as publications, and presentations resulting from the CReFF awards.
Medical Students: The VCU GCRC became actively involved in teaching medical students in the Fall of 1995. The entire first year medical school class was admitted (staggered admissions) to the VCU GCRC for an experimental program on risk factor analysis and disease prevention. In addition, VCU GCRC electives are available for 4th year medical students.
Dietetic Internship Rotation: These students spend several weeks on the VCU GCRC working with the RD, reviewing protocols, and assessing the dietary component of a particular research protocol for presentation.
RN Leadership: Students explore the role of nursing in clinical research and learn about study review and research experiments.
Mentored Medical Student Clinical Research Program: The GCRC at VCU will provide funds for medical students during three of the four years of their training. The purpose of these awards is to expose promising students to an active and productive research atmosphere and to serve as an avenue for exploring options for a future academic and research career in clinical investigation. More detailed instructions and an application form may be downloaded in MS Word or PDF format.
In addition to an elective for medical residents to participate in research on the VCU GCRC, residents and fellows may participate in research on the unit as they rotate throughout various subspecialities.
The NIH offers several career development opportunities for clinical investigation. Please click here to view the NIH web pages concerning these "K-Series" awards (a new browser window will open).
|
|
|