Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engaged Research Program
Mini-Grant Application
2014
Contact Information for lead Community Partner
Name:
Title:
Organization:
Address:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
Please include a 1-2 page description of your organization’s mission, history, and prior work in your community around the issues being considered in this proposal as an appendix. If multiple partners are involved in this project, a letter of support and acknowledgement of role in the project should also be included from each.
Information for lead Academic Partner
Name:
Title:
Organization:
Address:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
Please include a 1-2 page bio-sketch outlining your research interests and experience as an appendix.
[If the lead researcher is currently a graduate student or serving in an administrative role, please also provide a statement of support from the faculty mentor on this project (see Mini-Grant Guidelines].
1. Title of Project:
2. Brief statement of purpose: Why are you undertaking this project? What is your research question and/or what is the community health concern being addressed? How does this project address one or more of the following goals: to improve community health outcomes, increase access to health and health-related services, enhance quality and effectiveness of health interventions, and/or inform future health policy.
3. Project plan/research design: If proposing a capacity-building project, please describe how this project improves the ability of the partner organizations to engage in an ongoing research agenda; the main steps/components of the project and which partner is responsible for each step; a timeline for completion; and budget with justification. If proposing a pilot research study, please outline your research design. This should include a statement of your research question or hypothesis; a description of the persons (or data sources) that you plan to involve (as participants and/or comparison group) and how those persons will be selected and compensated for their involvement; a description of the information you plan to collect, and the qualitative or quantitative methods that will be used to analyze that data.
4. Academic and Community Partner roles: Please list all collaborating organizations and/or key individuals. Describe how each partner has been involved in the development of this project and what their roles will be during implementation. If you will be collecting data from human subjects, the academic partner will take responsibility for obtaining IRB approval, monitoring data collection, and assuring that those involved in data collection have appropriate human subjects protection training. [NOTE: Projects must include a research partner from Meharry Medical College and/or Vanderbilt University but may involve researchers from other institutions as well].
5. Benefits to partners: How will each academic and community partner benefit from this project? How will this activity contribute to a sustainable community-academic research partnership?
6. Outcomes/Products: Briefly describe the outcomes/products (aka “deliverables”) of the proposed activity and how these will be measured. NOTE: If a tangible product is proposed, a copy of each product should accompany your final report or, in the case of publications, submitted when it becomes available. [Note: all publications need to state that the work was “supported in part by the Vanderbilt CTSA grant UL1 TR000445 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences/ National Institutes for Health”].
7. Impact on community health: How will this activity ultimately improve health in your community in the short and/or long term? [Note a program logic model could be included as an addendum].
8. Timeline: NOTE: Projects must be completed within 12 months of the date that you receive funding for your project. Please be sure to plan time for IRB approval if needed. For your planning purposes, please note that it may take up to 6-8 weeks for contracting and funding to be processed after the mini-grant award is announced. The 12 month period will begin with the date the funds are received by the community partner.
9. Budget and justification: Please indicate how the funding will be used and how you arrived at the budget numbers. Note that funding may not be used to support existing program operations or salary, or activities unrelated to the development of research partnerships focused on health. If persons are being asked to contribute time for interviews, surveys, or focus groups for example, please budget adequate compensation for their time. If in-kind donations are being made or supplemental funding is available, please indicate this too. [Note: funds for this project are institutional, not federal funds. The community partner, which will be the recipient of the funding, will be responsible for sound accounting of how the funds are dispersed should an audit be requested].
Application Due Dates: Completed applications must be submitted electronically by midnight March 17th or September 15th, 2014 to . If questions arise during preparation of your proposal, please feel free to email Clare Sullivan or call 615-322-5093. Clare may also be able to connect you with a CERC faculty member for consultation on questions or quandaries related to research design if time and scheduling permit. (If electronic submission is not possible, please contact us in advance of deadline to make other arrangements).
Additional Submission requirements:
o Proposals may not exceed four pages and type size may not be smaller than 12 point.
o A 1-2 page description of applicant organization’s mission, history and current work in the subject area of this proposal should be appended. If multiple partners are involved, a letter of support and acknowledgement of role from each partner should also be included in an appendix.
o A 1-2 page bio-sketch of the lead academic partner(s) should be appended. If lead academic partner is a graduate student, a letter of support from a faculty mentor must also be included.
o You may include additional appendices if the material helps explain elements of the proposal and has been referenced in the text of the proposal. (For example, the questionnaire you intend to use in a survey, a map of your target project area, chart of your work plan, demographic data on your target community). Please limit additional optional appendices to no more than 6 additional pages.