RCMI Pilot Project Program
Funds are available from the Xavier RCMI program to enable full-time Xavier faculty to advance their biomedical research projects. One of the goals of these grants is to support research activities that are expected to yield preliminary/publishable data that can be used to support future competitive funding proposals to appropriate external funding sources.
Research Grants of up to $50,000 (total direct – indirect costs are not allowable) will be awarded on an annual competitive basis for one year of support. Priority will be given to the following:
- Junior/beginning faculty who seek sufficient preliminary data to support a competitive grant proposal to an appropriate external funding source;
- Experienced faculty who seek 'bridge funding' to continue a project where a competitive renewal or a prior grant submission was not funded, and the investigator seeks additional data to support a future grant resubmission;
- Experienced faculty who seek support to transition into a new research area; and
- Any faculty whose requests are 'matched' by University or Departmental funds such as CUR grant or Departmental startup funds.
The application process requires a brief Letter of Intent and a full Research Proposal, as detailed below. The deadline to submit Letters of Intent is December 2015. Information on the award status of the proposal will be sent to the PI with copies to PI’s Department Head, Dean, and the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. Funds awarded to successful applicants will be available from the RCMI programpending final approval of research projects by the NIH.
The goal of the RCMI Program is to build on and enhance faculty competitiveness strengths in cancer and health disparities research in a manner that will not only lead to exciting new discoveries, but also intensify our efforts to translate the results of these activities to the benefit of the public, particularly the underserved. Ideally, each research project will also utilize one or more of the three RCMI scientific Cores (Major Instrumentation, Drug Discovery and Delivery, Cell, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics) as appropriate to each project. Cancer, health disparities or translational research projects are a priority. If animal or human subjects are involved with the project IACUC and/or IRB approval will need to be complete no later than April 1, 2015. The one-year funding cycle for RCMI pilot proposals is April 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017.