The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the UAB academic community in many ways, including decreased research productivity, resulting in fewer new projects being initiated as well as hampering the progress of existing projects. The Heersink School of Medicine (HSOM) recognizes that some research faculty in particular have been negatively impacted and this has disproportionately jeopardized their research endeavors. To provide additional support to faculty who are facing gaps in sponsored funding, the HSOM has launched the COVID-19 Bridge Funding Program.
Terms:
- Duration of support – one year.
- Amount up to $75,000.
- 50% of the $75,000 is to be provided by the Departments/Divisions/Centers/UWRIC.
- Support applicants who face a funding gap due to transient inability to be competitive for extramural research grants.
- Can be used to cover salaries of lab and/or research personnel (including fringe), and materials and supplies. PI salary is not eligible.
- Under special circumstances, upon review, a one-year no cost extension might be allowable.
Eligibility:
- Applicants must be faculty members who have a full-time, salaried appointment in the HSOM and have been faculty members for more than 3 years. All faculty ranks (from Instructor to Full Professor) are eligible.
- Faculty members with an independent research program who have been impacted by COVID-19 are encouraged to apply if they are facing a significant funding gap due to delays in grant submissions or resubmissions.
- As examples, faculty who don’t have the means to re-establish key resources such as mice, difficulty in performing human research, and /or impacted by increased caregiving responsibilities, provided by themselves or by members of their lab.
- Funds provided based on need. Faculty who have reserve funds sufficient to operate their laboratories for at least one year are not eligible
- Applicants must demonstrate that their research program is jeopardized due to a lack of extramural funding (e.g., insufficient funds to cover personnel salaries, order supplies etc.), and that they will have exhausted all available discretionary funds within one year of applying for bridge funding.
Proposal Submission Guidelines:
To be submitted by the Chair or the Executive Administrator
- Full HSOM CV
- NIH Other Support, including internal sources of support from IMPACT, Start-up package, etc.
- NOTE: CV and other support can be uploaded as a single document.
- Application (2 pages maximum)
- Describe research being proposed.
- Personal statement describing the need for the requested funds as well as how the applicant’s current funding has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (increased caregiving responsibilities and other considerations).
- How the applicant plans to use the bridge grant to improve their score or collect preliminary data as to become competitive for an upcoming submission.
- A timeline of essential work planned for the next submission(s).
- If the anticipated funding gap is due to delayed submission of a revised (A1) renewal application or revised new application, the applicant should provide the reviews from the unfunded submission and describe plans for addressing the reviews.
- Proposed budget (use template availble here).
- Note: Application and budget should be uploaded as a single document, but budget page will not be counted in page limit.
- Letter of Support from the Department Chair.
- Letter from the Principal Investigator requesting funds.
- Deadline for application is Thursday, November 10, 2022.
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