Venture Grant Application
Overview: The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) promotes the development of interdisciplinary teams working to define the interaction between brain processes and complex behavior. In order to accomplish this mission, the Center provides venture grant awards for innovative research and educational outreach programs in behavioral neuroscience.
Scope: Funds up to $30,000 per project will be awarded for a duration of 1 year. Only applications that fall within the mission of the CBN (see will be considered. The primary purpose of the venture grant program is to fund new investigators and to provide “seed” money for projects that will be used to obtain grants through other mechanisms. Applications for venture funds will fall into two general categories:
1. New research activities employing a cross-disciplinary approach involving the collaboratories or cores of the CBN and involving two or more participating institutions when possible. Preference will be given to those applications proposing novel or risky projects, innovative strategies or state-of-the-art approaches to fundamental questions in behavioral neuroscience relalted to the Center’ s mission. Integration of research activities with the CBN’s educational mission will be considered a plus.
2. Development of educational activities including new course development for undergraduate or graduate students, workshops based on activities of collaboratories or cores, and curriculum development for K-12 students. Applications having educational outcomes that use Center collaboratories and cores are encouraged.
Criteria:
1. Two or more of the team members must have faculty membership status in the CBN through one of the participating institutions: Clark-Atlanta University, Emory University, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College and Spelman College. PIs can be CBN faculty members or CBN postdocs (fellows or members), but not graduate students.
2. The subject of the proposal should relate to the CBN’s primary interest in understanding neural and hormonal mechanisms of complex behavior, particularly social behavior and emotional responding; proposals consistent with this will be given higher priority for funding.
3. Projects must be collaborative involving at least two CBN faculty members and/or members of their laboratories. Single investigator proposals will not be considered.
4. Applications requesting support to supplement existing federally-or privately-funded projects will not be considered unless they develop a new, inter-disciplinary approach. This justification must be clearly explained in the proposal.
5. Applications for projects whose primary purpose is technical development will not have high priority for funding.
6. Applications to support clinical trials will not be considered.
7. Budgetary requests for full support for a technician, graduate student or postdoctoral researcher will not be approved; in some circumstances, partial support may be appropriate.
8. Proposals MUST BE presented and discussed in a collaboratory or cross-collaboratory meeting and must receive verbal support from one of the collaboratory heads prior to submission. If this is not possible, applicants must contact the co-Director for Research and Academic Programs, Dr. Walt Wilczynski ( or 404-463-4808).
Review: Applications will be accepted twice each year with deadlines approximately the end of each May and November. Awards will be issued based on merit, innovation, multi-disciplinary and/or inter-institutional collaborations, training opportunities for students, potential for external funding, and relevance to the mission of the CBN. Applications involving animals, human subjects, or biohazardous materials must be approved by the relevant regulatory committees at each participating institution before funds can be dispersed.
Post-award activities: Successful applicants will submit a one-page summary of progress at 6 month intervals and at the end of the project summarizing results. Reports should include any/all publications, including abstracts presented at national and local meetings that are derived from the project. All publications that result from work supported with CBN resources MUST include an acknowledgement of support from the CBN such as: “This material is based upon work supported in part by the STC Program of the National Science Foundation under Agreement No. IBN-9876754.”
Extensions for completion of project: Time extensions for projects will be granted under exceptional circumstances. A formal request for an extension must be submitted at the time the progress or final report requested. These requests must provide specific details to justify continued support, and will be evaluated for progress and productivity.
Please e-mail completed applications in Word or pdf format along with CVs for all non-CBN team members to:
Kelly Powell –
Associate Director
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3966
Atlanta, GA 30302-3966
Questions about the program or the relevance of your project idea for this program, contact:
Walt Wilczynski –
co-Director for Research and Academic Programs
404-463-4808
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
Application for Venture Funds
A. Application Identity
Title of Application:
Indicate the aim of the proposed project (research or education):
PI and contact person:
School/Department:
Institution:
Mailing Address:
Phone:
Email:
Project Team Members:
NameInstitutional AffiliationCBN Collaboratory/Core Affiliation
B. Results of Prior Venture Grant Support
If you have received a previous CBN Venture Grant, please supply the following information: (1) Venture grant title: (2) Date awarded; (3) Publications and presentations resulting from the project; (4) Grants applied for and/or received using results generated by the project (include research grants as well as individual pre- and postdoctoral fellowships such as NIH NRSAs).
PLEASE NOTE: Funds for a new Venture Grant will not be awarded unless final reports from all previously completed Venture Grants have been submitted.
C. Proposed Project
Abstract: Describe briefly the goals of the project, techniques used to achieve these goals, and relevance to the mission of the Center (do not exceed 100 words).
Project description: List the specific aims; include a brief background section describing the hypothesis, the relevance of the project, and the relevant literature; describe the specific design and methods that will be used to achieve the goals of the project and justify why these methods are preferable to others that might be used; and describe the long-term impact of the project (potential extramural funding, educational outreach). You may use the headings below to organize your proposal (DO NOT EXCEED 2-3 PAGES, EXCLUDING REFERENCES).
1) Specific Aims and Hypotheses
2) Background
3) Experimental Design and Methods
4) Long-Term Impact
5) References
Collaborative Nature of the Project: Describe the collaborative nature of the project (cross-collaboratory, cross-institutional, CBN core involvement). Make clear the role each team member listed will have on the project.
Educational Nature of the Project: Describe the educational scope of the project including training of students and/or postdocs or other types of training that will occur. Be specific about the unique nature of the training that will occur.
Budget Description: Itemize all expected expenditures and include 1-2 lines justifying each line item (why other sources of funding cannot be used, why necessary for project).
Approved budgetary items:
Supplies and equipment
Per diems (note rate to be charged, # animals, #days)
Technical support (salary support should include fringe benefits) NOTE: budgets that
are primarily salary will be heavily scrutinized and must provide adequate justification;
Salary support to allow release time from departmental duties (approval of Dean
required);
Partial financial support for students and post-docs may be requested, but funds for
such support are very limited and may not be approved
TOTAL BUDGET AMOUNT REQUESTED:
D. Has this application been submitted to another funding agency? (Yes or No)
E. Current and pending support: List all sources of current support (federal or private funds) for all ongoing research or educational outreach programs. You must provide a detailed account of the potential overlap between these activities and the proposed venture project.
Title of Project:
Funding Source/Agency:
Project Leader:
Project Duration:
Overlap with Proposed Venture Project:
(If there is any overlap between your funded research and this proposal, you must justify the need for Venture Grant funds separate from your current funding to conduct this project).
F. Regulatory Approval:
Yes / No / Regulatory approval (approval date, pending, or N/A)Animals
Human subjects
Biohazardous Materials
Regulatory approval forms from all participating institutions (if already approved) should be mailed to the address above as soon as they are available.