Submission Instructions CBHI RFA

Eligibility and Scope

Faculty members at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, Kent State University, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, MetroHealth Medical Center, NEOMED, and University Hospitals may apply. 

Applications must be for novel collaborative work between at least two interdepartmental or inter-institutional research groups that addresses an issue affecting lifespan brain health. Proposed work may not duplicate existing, funded studies.

Letter of Intent

The letter of intent has four components: 1.) a cover page with the project title, PI names, affiliations, email addresses, and addresses of the locations where work will be performed, 2.) NIH biosketch for each principal investigator, 3.) a collaboration plan that outlines the roles for each research group, 4), a project description; all must be submitted no later than 5:00 PM 17 June 2019 via email to cbhi@case.edu

The collaboration plan and project description (3, and 4 above) should be one page each in length (.docx file, margins at least 0.5” in type no smaller than 11-point Arial font, single spaced). The collaboration plan should describe the respective roles of each research group. The project description should include the following sections:

  • Significance: Project significance to brain health, and a brief explanation of your study design/methods. 
  • Specific aim(s)
  • Innovation: An explanation of the innovation in the proposed work
  • Next Grant: A brief description of the grant mechanism you hope to pursue once your work is complete.

Full Application

Letters of intent will be reviewed and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application.  Full applications must be submitted no later than 5:00 PM 31 July 2019 via email to cbhi@case.edu. Applications will include the following:

  • An expanded project description document no longer than two pages (.docx file, margins at least 0.5” in type no smaller than 11-point Arial font, single-spaced) organized into the following sections: 
  • Abstract: This section should summarize the application in 30 lines of text.
  • Specific Aim(s): The project aim should be delineated in this section. 
  • Research Strategy in three sections: Significance, Innovation, and Approach.
  • References (not included in the page count).
  • A Budget in the form of a .xlsx file that details resource costs with a brief Budget Justification in the spreadsheet. CBHI may request a revision if matching funds (below) are awarded. While salary of key personnel may be included in the budget, PI salary and fringe is excluded under this RFA, as is cost sharing.   
  • Request for Matching Funds: please identify the institution(s) from which CBHI should request matching funds and indicate what component of work can be accomplished with CBHI funds, and how much greater the scope of work can be with matching funds.

Budget

Budgets will be a total of $20,000.00. If matching funds are awarded the budget will increase by $20,000 for a total of $40,000.00. Funds are available for use when they are disbursed into award accounts. Ultimate disposition of the funds should follow the budget outlined in the application. Funds must be used within 12 months of receipt or they will be returned to CBHI and the parent institution. Awardees may apply for a no-cost extension of up to 6 months with justification, to be approved by the CBHI Executive Committee.

Key Dates

The Due dates for application components are:
Letter of Intent: 5:00 PM 17 June 2019
Full Application (by invitation): 5:00 PM 31 July, 2019

Post-Award Requirements

Award recipients will be CBHI Scholars and are required to submit a Project Summary consisting of full Financial Reporting from your parent institution accounting for the funds disbursed, and a .docx file no longer than one single spaced page (margins at least 0.5” in type no smaller than 11-point Arial font) in three sections summarizing: 1.) Progress Made, 2.) Future Directions, 3.) the next Grant Mechanism that will be pursued. The Project Summary must be submitted within 4 weeks of the end of the project period. Awardees that do not submit a Project Summary and pursue grant funding beyond the CBHI Scholars Award will not be considered for future CBHI funding. Publications and presentations resulting from this work should cite the CBHI Scholars Award as a source of support.

Matching Funds  

CBHI grants that are funded will be recommended to parent institutions for matching funds. Thus far, matching funds have been pledged by the following institutions: CWRU School of Medicine, Kent State University, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, MetroHealth Medical Center, NEOMED, and University Hospitals.