Programmatic Internal Funding

Over the past five years, our NIH funding portfolio at Thomas Jefferson University has grown at a steady pace. What remains underrepresented in our NIH portfolio are large, multi‐project grants and Center grants. As Dean Tykocinski has discussed, this represents both a liability and an opportunity for the Jefferson research community.

The Provost’s Research Affairs Office is committed to providing support that will lower the barriers to programmatic grant submissions. To this end, we are offering institutional support to groups who are in the planning process for large programmatic grants.

2021 Awardees

Groups who apply for these funds should be planning the submission of an external grant in the near future.

Groups receiving these funds should be planning for submission of P grants, U grants, RM1s or other Center‐of‐Excellence grants.  Please review current funding trends at NIH on this spreadsheet, which includes the ~800 new P and U grants funded by NIH this year.

Groups receiving this support will be provided a Project Manager who will assist with administrative aspects of the application. The Project Manager will also be responsible for assuring that presubmission milestones are achieved on the proposed timeline.

Groups receiving this support will be provided grant writing and editing services.

Support from the Research Affairs Office can also include pilot funds. Any such funds will be provided in increments as pre‐submission milestones are achieved. Examples of activities that pilot funds might support include:

• purchase of key reagents or services (animal lines, CRISPR/Cas9‐edited cell lines, omics analysis, etc.)
• effort for lab personnel engaged in generating preliminary data relevant to the application
• honoraria for external advisors.

Applications for support from the Research Affairs Office were submitted by Monday February 15, 2021. (Teams planning an early 2021 programmatic grant submission should contact Steve McMahon directly to explore the possibility of immediate support.)

Applications for this support received a rapid, two‐tiered review by JCoR and the Research Affairs Office leadership.

Support may be renewed in an expedited manner for groups achieving milestones or whose A0 applications receive a meritorious score but require additional preliminary data prior to submission of the A1 application.

Applications were submitted as a single .pdf file via InfoReady on February 15, 2021.

Application contents included:

1. A summary outlining the central theme, synergies and innovation associated with the overall project and sub-projects (1 page).
2. Drafts of Specific Aims pages for the overall proposal, individual sub-projects, and cores (1 page each).
3. CVs for all PIs, Core Leaders and key collaborators. CVs should include current and pending support.  PIs, Core Leaders and key collaborators from outside TJU can be included.
4. Letter/emails confirming participation of members of the external advisory board.
5. CVs for external advisory board members.
6. Personnel justification page for PIs and Core Leaders (1 page).
7. A timeline for activities to be conducted leading to the final submission.  Please include specific milestones.
8. An outline of financial support requested from the Research Affairs Office, with itemized budget and justification.