WHERE TO FIND FUNDING FOR YOUR CLINICAL OR BASIC SCIENCE RESEARCH PROJECT Scott D. Gitlin, M.D., F.A.C.P. American Society of Hematology December 6, 2003

WHY DO I NEED TO FIND MONEY? 1. You need funds to cover research expenses Basic Research salary support for others involved laboratory technicians post-doctoral or clinical fellows reagents, laboratory assays/experiments animals laboratory equipment Clinical Research salary support for others involved clinical fellows research nurses biostatistician clinical tests/assays, radiology, procedures, pathology clinical trials office, IRB therapeutics equipment

WHY DO I NEED TO FIND MONEY? 2. You need to cover part of your salary academic expectation provides “protected time” for your research demonstrates that your project is worthwhile enough to be awarded funding helps you toward promotion (for the reasons above) keeps your boss off of your back

WHY DO I NEED TO FIND MONEY? 3. No one else is going to do it for you it is your responsibility to find the funds needed to support your research

STEPS TO GETTING FUNDING 1. Develop a research question (i.e. hypothesis) and decide how to best design the “experiments” necessary to answer your question 2. Evaluate your research project as to what entities or groups would be interested in this work 3. Identify funding agencies and available grants or other sources of funds that might be appropriate for your research 4. Gather information about application requirements, types of support provided, application deadlines, amount of funding, duration of funding

STEPS TO GETTING FUNDING 5. Prepare and submit application(s) Don’t be shy about soliciting input and feedback from other investigators, administrators, the funding agency, etc Spend whatever time is needed to present a well-thought out proposal Start well ahead of the submission deadline - Internal reviews and approvals - Gathering supporting documents - Adequate time to solicit and incorporate feedback from others - Last minute revisions to proposal Be certain to submit all of the funding agency’s required materials ON TIME

STEPS TO GETTING FUNDING 6. Funding agency reviews and evaluates applications 7. Funding agency notifies you of their decision regarding your application Depending on the agency, you may or may not receive feedback from the review of your application If you do receive reviews of your application, read them and use them to help strengthen your project Reviews are often helpful when you are considering the next grant application

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING I. Federal National Institutes of Health (NIH) - a number of different types of grants for biomedical research are available - use NIH Guide for RFAs and PAs - K08-Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award K23-Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award K12-Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Program Award RO1-Investigator-initiated Awards R21-Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award R34-Clinical Trial Planning Grant Program P01-Program Project Grants

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING I. Federal National Science Foundation (NSF) - Funds basic science and engineering research that is generally not health or disease related Department of Veterans Affairs Merit Review-investigator initiated awards Career Development awards

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING II. Private Foundations Medical Professional Societies American Society of Hematology American Society of Clinical Oncology American Association for Cancer Research Disease-specific Charitable Organizations The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society American Cancer Society Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc. Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation, Inc. American Heart Association American Lung Association

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING III. Local Research Grants Your Academic Institution -there may be several sources of funds here Cancer Center Division Department Medical School Main campus research office General Clinical Research Center Local Charities and Organizations State hematology/oncology society Health Insurance Companies/Payors Medicare Blue Cross/Blue Shield

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING IV. Industry Primarily fund clinical research projects, but might fund a laboratory component of a project that will impact clinical care Pharmaceutical companies Medical device companies

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING IV. Private Donors Endowments Gifts

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING V. Other Ask your mentor and others for ideas of where to look Street corners Collection jars Return containers for their deposit

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING VI. Funding Search Sources Community of Sciencewww.cos.org Grants Netwww.grantsnet.org Society of Research Administratorssrainternational.org The Foundation CenterFdncenter.org U. Michigan Non-federal sourcescgi.research.umich.edu/ healthbook/healthbook.lasso Illinois Researcher Information Servicewww.library.uiuc.edu/iris/ Newsletter services Google, other internet search engines

YOU NEED TO BE AGGRESSIVE AND PROACTIVE Use all resources available to you to identify funding sources for your research project Most grant applications do not get funded Seek out details of grant eligibility - don’t assume you aren’t eligible by reading the title of the application notice You may need preliminary data for your application Be aware of application deadlines Obtain input and feedback from your mentor(s) and colleagues

YOU NEED TO BE AGGRESSIVE AND PROACTIVE Discuss your research proposal with the funding agency, if you have any questions about their interest in your type of research or the application process Don’t rely on one submission---submit multiple applications for the same project (worry about turning down the award later, if you get more than one application funded) Contact your central Grants Administration office to get lists of funding organizations

HEMATOLOGY GRANTS WORKSHOP San Diego Convention Center Room 33 Saturday, December 6 4:15 pm - 6:00 pm Focusing on NIH K awards, this year

GOOD LUCK