Funding Opportunity Announcement: Community Organization PROPOSE Awards

The Mississippi IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (MS-INBRE) invites Community Organization ENGAGE Awardees to apply for the PROPOSE Award. The PROPOSE Award is intended to support the continuation of projects funded by the ENGAGE awards with the goal of grant proposal development and submission. MS-INBRE seeks to enhance research capacity within community organizations and research infrastructure between organizations and academic settings. PROPOSE applications must demonstrate the potential for future research capacity. 

Up to two years of funding may be requested. Two-year projects must present a need for the collection of preliminary data to promote proposal success. One-year projects will be considered as proposal development only projects that do not require preliminary data collection.

Eligible applicants include community organizations who have previously successfully completed the Community ENGAGE Award phase. 

Academic research centers and academic healthcare organizations are not eligible to apply for these awards. 

Total allowable direct costs: $40,000/year for 1 year for applications that include only proposal development, $40,000/year for up to 2 years for proposals that include preliminary data collection in addition to proposal development. Indirect costs (F&A) are in addition to the allowable direct costs.

4. Key Dates

• Application Cycle Due Date: June 15^th
• Application Review: July 
• Award Notifications begin: mid-August
• Project Start Date: September 1^st
• Project End Date: August 31^st 
• 2 hour required team orientation: Month of September/October
• 1 hour Mentor Meetings: Twice per month September - May

5. Full Application Submission Requirements 

1. Copy of Invitation to Submit Email (“invitation.pdf”)
2. Form page 1-NIH Face Page (“face_page.pdf”)
3. Form page 2-Summary, Relevance, Project Performance Sites, Key Personnel, Other Significant Contributors ("summary_personnel.pdf")
4. Form page 4-Detailed Budget for 1 or 2 year project period (“budget.pdf”). Allowable costs include: 
   1. Personnel
   2. Equipment
   3. Supplies
   4. Travel
5. Form page 5-Budget Justification: justify in detail all proposed expenses (“justification.pdf”; all combined as one document and no more than 3 pages in length per individual). All items requested in the budget are to be used during the award period. Use continuation pages as needed. 
6. Biosketch, CV or Resume for project personnel (“CV_resumes.pdf”; all combined as one document and no more than 3 pages in length per individual)
7. Specific Aims (“aims.pdf”; no more than 1 page total)
   1. This Specific Aims page should be a refined draft of the specific aims page that will be included in your final grant application to a funder at the end of the PROPOSE award.
   2. Please see this article and this website for guidance on completing a specific aims page.
8. Project Plan (“plan.pdf”; no more than 3 pages total) should be organized in and include the following sections to facilitate the review process (descriptions drawn from here): 
   1. Significance (About ¾ pages)
      1. Explain the importance of the problem or critical barrier to progress that the proposed project addresses.
      2. Describe the strengths and weaknesses in the rigor of the prior research (both published and unpublished) that serves as the key support for the proposed project.
      3. Explain how the proposed project will improve scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice in one or more broad fields.
      4. Describe how the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field will be changed if the proposed aims are achieved.
   2. Innovation (About ¾ pages)
      1. Explain how the application challenges and seeks to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms.
      2. Describe any novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation or interventions to be developed or used, and any advantage over existing methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions.
      3. Explain any refinements, improvements, or new applications of theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions.
   3. Approach (About 1.5 pages)
      1. Describe the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses to be used to accomplish the specific aims of the project. Describe plans to address weaknesses in the rigor of the prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project. Describe the experimental design and methods proposed and how they will achieve robust and unbiased results. Include how the data will be collected, analyzed, and interpreted
      2. Discuss potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success anticipated to achieve the aims.
      3. If the project is in the early stages of development, describe any strategy to establish feasibility, and address the management of any high risk aspects of the proposed work.
9. Note: If you are requesting two years of funding in order to collect pilot data, you must turn in a separate Aims and Project Plan document (“aims_pilot.pdf”; no more than 1.5 pages total). This will include a justification for the need to do the pilot work, the aim(s) that will be accomplished by the pilot project, and a brief plan for how it will be accomplished.
10. Grant request for proposals document (“grant_rfp.pdf”), listing the grant(s) that the team plans to apply for.