WHSDM Center (Women's Health & Sex Differences in Medicine) Seed Grants 2021-2022

Stanford Women’s Health and Sex Differences in Medicine (WHSDM) Center

SEED GRANTS for Biological/Medical Research on Sex Differences and/or Women’s Health

Deadline:  October 25, 2021, noon

The Stanford Women’s Health and Sex Differences in Medicine (WHSDM*) Center aims to promote basic & translational, clinical, and population health research on sex differences and women’s health at the Stanford University School of Medicine (SoM), and to facilitate research collaborations on these topics among SoM Departments and across Stanford University.                       * “wisdom” see: http://WHSDM.stanford.edu/

WHSDM plans to fund 4-5 grants of up to $20,000 to enable researchers to collect pilot data, conduct feasibility studies, and/or demonstrate interdisciplinary collaborations that would enhance applications to the NIH, NSF, etc. (e.g. R01s, K-awards) for research on the role of the sex in genetics, cell and tissue biology, organ function, etc.; interactions of sex and gender on biology and medical outcomes, e.g. diagnostic tests, treatments, procedures, etc. and/or in women’s health or sexual and gender minority persons’ health, including studies that will help to determine how findings reported in one sex/gender group compare to another, as well as studies that seek to distinguish the influence of sex and gender on health outcomes and/or medical practice.

Please submit budgets of $20K (or less) with enough detail for personnel; supplies; and other direct costs to enable the Review Committee to determine how funds will be used to achieve your project goals. Awards will be divided into two payments of 50% of the total award, with the second payment contingent upon satisfactory progress on goals stated in the proposal in relationship to the study timeline, based on a midway progress report to be submitted to the WHSDM Director by July 15, 2022.  (Funds may be released sooner if thes goals are reached sooner.)

We are particularly eager for School of Medicine faculty to collaborate with faculty from departments other than their own within the School of Medicine, or with faculty from the other 7 Stanford Schools, e.g. Humanities & Science, etc.

Eligibility:

• Each proposal should include at least one Stanford University Associate or Assistant Professor

or K-eligible Instructor and at least one School of Medicine faculty (Full, Associate or Assistant Professor).

• The proposed Principal Investigator must be a Professor, Associate or Assistant Professor in the UTL, NTL, UML, or CE line, or a K-eligible Instructor
• CE faculty and Career Development PI waivers are not needed for internal Stanford fundingopportunities.
• Collaborations involving faculty from at least two departments will be favored.
• Proposals that include a faculty partner from across the University (other Schools) will be favored.

Application guidelines:

By Monday, October 25, 2021 noon please submit one PDF file containing the following in the order listed below via email attachment to:

Dr. Marcia Stefanick, Director, Stanford WHSDM Center

stefanick@stanford.edu

cc: T.O. Preising         preising@stanford.edu

File name: Last name_WHSDM_Seed_grant.pdf

Institutional representative: you do not have to work with your RPM to prepare your budget or your internal proposal. You can submit your proposals directly to Dr. Stefanick per these instructions.

1.     Title Page

Name of this RFP: Stanford WHSDM Seed Grants for Biological/Medical Research on Sex Differences and/or Women’s Health

Project Title

PI name, title, department, address, phone, and email address

Co-PI(s) name, title, department, address, phone, and email address

Finance Manager for the project name, Org Code, and email address

2.   Proposed project

Discussion of how the proposed project would enhance a more major research application (or complement a funded project) is an important component of the application.

Format: do not exceed 3 pages in length for this section (≥ 0.5” margins, font equivalent to Times New Roman 12pt). (Not including references or illustrations)

Include:

• Brief Background of what is known (or not known)
• Scientific Rationale and possible impact towards gaining insight into sex differences and/or the role of gender on the biology of the research focus, and/or on women’s health
• Specific Aims
• . [Note: the study should be completed within 10 months of funding (shorter timelines are encouraged) with the plan to apply this to an application (i.e. “Preliminary Studies”) to be submitted [or for a larger project to be initiated] within 18 months.  Must include midterm milestones/goals which will be used to gauge whether progress is satisfactory for release of second payment. (Can include a presentation of preliminary findings at a scientific meeting.)

1. Description of Investigators and relevant experience should be presented separately (no page restrictions, but brevity is preferred. NIH biosketches may be provided, but are not necessary) with a brief discussion of the nature or value of the collaboration. For each investigator:

First and Last Name, position, department: relevant experience and nature or value of the collaboration

4. Budget Outline

Please submit a budget outline, indicating how you plan to spend the money, for: Personnel; Supplies; Other Direct Costs. Award start date: date of announcement of the award; end date: one year from announcement. Note: Funding can include support for post-doctoral fellows and research staff, as well as travel to present the data at a national meeting, but will not include publishing costs or other travel. Budget guidelines are attached as Exhibit “A”.

Funding Guidelines:

WHSDM Seed Grants are supported by the Dean’s Office and individual SoM Departments. Thus, funds must be used for the identified project; if the project cannot be completed, remaining funds should be returned to the WHSDM Center. University Administrative Guidelines (anchored in IRS/relevant authorities) must be followed. Generally, the funds are unrestricted.

Selection process

WHSDM Advisory Board members (http://WHSDM.stanford.edu/) with relevant expertise in the proposed research area (and no conflict of interest regarding awardees) will make up the review committee and determine award funding and satisfactory progress based on the midway report.

Awards will be announced by Monday, November 15, 2021.

Phased payments: to receive the second half of the award, recipients must submit a midway report to the WHSDM Director on July 15, 2022 demonstrating satisfactory progress of the study towards an application or larger project to be initiated within 18 months of the initial award. Determination of satisfactory achievement will be based evidence that the project will be completed as outlined in your  proposal.

Awardees or a co-investigator are expected to present their work at the summer 2022 WHSDM seed grant workshop.

NOTE: WHSDM Director, Dr. Marcia Stefanick, and the WHSDM administrative staff will offer assistance in the development of an application to the funding agency for the larger project, including coordination of pre-proposal discussions and planning activities, referral to appropriate resources, and consultation within their area of expertise and experience, if appropriate.

Reporting: Investigators are expected to report on the progress of their projects at a WISER (WHSDM Interdisciplinary Science, Education and Research) meeting, Seed Grant Workshop or WHSDM Symposium within a year of receipt of funding.

Questions? Contact Person: TO Preising, WHSDM Assistant Director, Operations preising@stanford.edu

Exhibit A

Budget Guidelines

The budget should be reflective of the costs necessary to accomplish the scope of work described in the application. At the time of award, a PDRF will be initiated by SPRC and will route to the PI for approval.  While the funding will reside in SPRC, an individual award will be set-up for each funded project. 

The total award amount cannot exceed $20,000 (direct costs only). The project period is one year beginning in January.

Allowable Direct Costs

1. Salaries including post docs and research staff and fringe.See DoR website for current rates:https://doresearch.stanford.edu/research-administration/proposal-and-award-lifecycle/rates
2. Consultants

1. Materials & Supplies (laptops)
   - general lab supplies/consumables
   - general office project supplies
   - photo copying, printing, postage

1. Patient care costs / human subjects

1. Recruitment costs

1. Animal costs – purchase and per diem cage costs

1. Data storage costs

1. Domestic travel (must be national scientific conference, and must present data)

Unallowable Costs

1. Publication costs
2. Travel for reasons other than noted above
3. Capital equipment (over $5K)
4. Equipment maintenance and repairs
5.  

Requirements

For each grant proposal, grantees must provide: 

• a project budget, and
• a corresponding budget narrative that clearly outlines and defines the project costs.

For questions regarding the budget, please contact:  

Young Lee, SPRC Finance and Grants Specialist, at youalee@stanford.edu