SPHERiC
Seed Funding Programme
Application Form
SPHERiC Seed Funding Application
The Singapore Population Health Improvement Centre (SPHERiC) Seed Funding grants under NMRC Centre Grant aim to support the development of population health research capabilities in Singapore. This grant is designed to support small exploratory studies that may provide preliminary data to potentially vie for bigger grants on a national level.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to engage one of the SPHERiC Core(s), ie. Population Health Analytics Core, Health Systems and Models of Care Core, and Implementation Science Core prior to their grant submission.
The duration of each of the awarded seed funding project would be for up to 2 years and funding period should not exceed the end date of the main Centre Grant (August 2021). The funding cap for each proposal will be up to S$50,000 per project.
Successful awardees are strongly encouraged to disseminate the findings of their research projects through publications (hardcopy or electronic) in professional journals, presentations at scientific meetings/conferences and/or conducting training.
Submission Guidelines
All sections of the application must be completed. Incomplete forms will be returned.
Investigators are required to complete and submit the following forms and documents (hardcopy and softcopy):
Seed Funding Grant Application Form which includes, but not limited to the following:
i. Research plan limited to ten pages. The research plan should include sections that cover Abstract (<300 words), Specific Aims, Background and Significance, Preliminary Results (if available), Research Design and Methods and References
ii. A list of deliverables, milestones and timeline of research plan
iii. Budget planning with justifications on the type and amount of manpower FTEs, equipment and OOE required
iv. Biographical sketch (not more than 2 pages) of the PI and each co-investigator, including a summary of other research support and a declaration of current and previous grants held in the last five years which should include Funding Agency, Project Title, Duration of Project, and Total Budget Awarded
Cover Letter indicating how this research will build capabilities in population health research and foster collaboration with the goal of translating evidence into action
All applications (hardcopy and softcopy) must be submitted through the RHS Planning Office (SPHERiC).
Note: Hardcopy submissions may take a longer time to reach the RHS Planning Office and factor in this time for your proposal to reach us by the stipulated deadline.
Address: 1E Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block Level 12, Singapore 119228
Attn: Nur Farzira Bte Harudin (SPHERiC Seed Funding Grant Call for Proposal)
Email address:
The proposals will be collated and undergo review by the SPHERiC Review Committee for selection. The Investigators will be informed of the outcome at the end of April 2018.
Requirements from Grant
a. All research that involve human participants must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to receive funding. While advance IRB approval is not a prerequisite for submission of an application, investigators should be aware of the impact of these and other necessary administrative or regulatory reviews on project timeline and feasibility.
b. Annual progress reports and a final progress report must be submitted to SPHERiC within 30 days after the end of the year and completion of the project, respectively.
c. Funding period should not exceed the end date of the main Centre Grant.
d. Support from the grant must be acknowledged in any publications resulting from the research.
SPHERiC Application Form Version 1: Effective 1 November 17
Project No. (for office use): _____
1 Title of Research Project
(Limit to 256 characters)
2 Applicants
(Only full time appointments from NUHS are eligible to apply)
Applicant / Role / Position / Department / InstitutionPI
Co-Investigator
Collaborator
(Please add more rows if required)
Roles of Team Members
Elaborate (in one paragraph) the role of PI, Co-Investigators and Collaborators involved in the project. Specify the research background, technical competencies, role and contribution to specific deliverables and achievements that are relevant and necessary to ensure success for the proposed research.
3 This project will be applying to the following SPHERiC Research Core(s):
Population Health Analytics Core
Health Systems and Models of Care Core
Implementation Science Core
4 Total amount of funds applied for : SGD (capped at $50,000)
5 Period of Support requested : years (max 2 years)
Date of Commencement : DD/MM/YY
Date of Completion : DD/MM/YY
6 Key words (Mandatory. Please provide maximum 6 key words)
7 Ethical Considerations and Containment
Fund disbursement is subjected to ethics approval if the project involves any of the below.
Please declare the participating institutions where study requiring ethics approval is
Please tick accordingly if project involves any of the following: conducted:
a) Human Subject Yes No
b) Use of Human/Animal Tissues or Cells Yes No
from Primary Donors
(i.e. subject/volunteers recruited for project)
c) Use of Commercially Available Yes No
Human/Animal Tissues or Cells
d) Multi-centre trial(s) Yes No
A copy of the ethics approval is attached:
Yes No If no, please state the progress:
8 Description of Proposed Research Project
In not more than 10 pages for Sections 8a – 8g, please describe in details, including:
a) Abstract (not more than 300 words)
b) Objectives/Specific Aims
c) Materials and Methods
Describe the following in detail
(i) experimental design and the procedure,
(ii) any new methodology and its advantage over existing methodologies,
(iii) the potential difficulties and limitations of the proposed procedures and alternative approaches to achieve the aims,
(iv) any procedures, situations or materials that may be hazardous to personnel and the precautions to be exercised,
(v) Statistical justification and the means by which data will be analysed and interpreted.
d) Impact to Healthcare Significance
Briefly sketch the background of the research proposed, critically evaluate existing knowledge and specifically identify the gaps which the project intended to fill. State concisely the importance of the research described by relating the specific aims to both short term (3-5 years) and possible long implications.
Describe how your research will contribute to:
(i) solving the health problem;
(ii) develop new knowledge;
(iii) develop scientific/clinical applications; and
(iv) provide tangible improvements in public health/healthcare.
e) References
Please list the references in the order cited in this proposal, including the titles.
f) Research Developing Plan (Phase I, II, III).
Please describe the specific targets and milestones and use crosses to indicate the targeted duration.
Milestones(eg. Qualitative or quantitative outcomes; Impact to population in the health, societal and economical aspects) / Targeted Duration
Year 1* / Year 2* / Year 3*
Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
Eg. Milestone 1 (please replace)
Eg. Milestone 2 (please replace)
Eg. Milestone 3 (please replace)
*FY starts at 1st April and ends at 31st March of the following year.
g) Expected Outcomes
Please indicate your realistic expectations on the outcomes of this grant. Please state ‘NA’ where indicator is not applicable.
Performance Indicators / Indicate number / valueHuman Capital / No. of CSA awards
No. of Transition awards
Clinicians who graduated from Masters or PhD programmes
MD-PhD or PhD employed
No. of Master and PhD students trained and graduated
No. of PhD and Master who work in Singapore (i) upon graduation and (ii) 5 years after graduation
Intellectual Capital / No. of publications in top 10% journals by field
No. of publications which are not in top 10% journals by field (e.g. peer-reviewed journals)
No. of individuals (PI) holding peer-reviewed national/international-level grants
Please specify the target:
Total amount/quantum of competitive grants as PI
Healthcare Deliverables / No. of regulated Clinical Trials (registered under clincaltrials@gov, HSA or equivalent agencies)
No. of subjects recruited for clinical trials (including overseas sites if the Singapore Investigator is the overall study PI)
No. of subjects recruited for cohort or other clinical studies
No. of citations in healthcare/health research studies arising from NMRC-supported centres/programmes/projects
No. of Health Service Development Projects (HSDP) or documented quality improvement projects arising from previously NMRC-supported centres/programmes/projects
No. of reports/presentations arising from NMRC-funded centres/programmes/projects that are made to policy-makers, health system managers, healthcare leadership, etc
No. of NMRC-supported clinician scientists/investigators who progressed to take on leadership positions (e.g. Head of Department, Div Chair,etc)
No. of electronic/online/non-traditional/technological tools developed from NMRC-supported centres/programmes/projects that lead to better information dissemination to doctors and patients
No. of media reports and public education materials (e.g. Health Promotion Board booklet) arising from NMRC-supported centres/programmes/projects
No. of outreach or community programmes developed due to the influence of NMRC-supported centres/programmes/projects (e.g. HPB campaigns, new screening programmes)
No. of health economic (including cost effectiveness and other health technology assessment applications) studies from NMRC-funded centres/programme/projects that influenced health/healthcare policies or services
9 Budget Planning
Please project the cashflow in accordance with your proposal start and end dates to assist in the administration in cashflow projection.
Category / Year 1* / Year 2* / Year 3* / TotalManpower
Equipment
OOE
Total (by year)
*FY starts at 1st April and ends at 31st March of the following year.
a) Manpower (Total Researchers and Staffs)
Please budget for all the manpower required for the project including part-time personnel and those to be shared with other projects. State whether they are existing personnel in your institution or new staff to be recruited. Please use salary scales provided by HR as a reference. The cost should include annual increments, National Service increment, staff welfare, medical and other related benefits as per the HR policies of the relevant institution.
Staff Category / Existing/New / No / Remarks / Total costTechnologist / NewExisting
Research Assistant / NewExisting
Research Associate / NewExisting
Research Nurse / NewExisting
Postdoctoral Fellow / NewExisting
Visiting Consultant / NewExisting
Others:
(please specify) / NewExisting
Sub-Total
/ $0.00Justifications
b) Equipment (Existing and Request to Purchase)
Please budget for all scientific equipment you need to purchase to carry out the project. Indicate sharing of equipment with other projects, if any.
Qty
/Equipment
/Unit Cost
/Year 1*
/Year 2*
/Year 3*
/TOTAL
Sub-Total
/ $0.00 / $0.00 / $0.00*FY starts at 1st April and ends at 31st March of the following year.
Justifications
c) Others (including travels, please list in details)
This category covers other expenses directly related to the project such as the purchase of animals, consumables, laboratory manuals, literature search, and maintenance of equipment. Conference travel will be funded only if a presentation or if an article is presented and is capped at $6,000 per trip per requested year. The presentation or article must be directly related to the project.
/Item Description
/Year 1*
/Year 2*
/Year 3*
/TOTAL
Materials & ConsumablesOverseas Travel
Others:
(please specify) /
/
Sub-Total
/ $0.00*FY starts at 1st April and ends at 31st March of the following year.
Justifications
Materials & ConsumablesOverseas Travel
Others
10 Biographical Sketch
(a) Principal Investigators
Please provide the required information on the Principal Investigators. Please limit to 2 pages per PI.
· Name
· Title
· NRIC/Passport No.
· Office Mailing Address
· Contact No
· Current Position (Please provide full details, e.g. joint appointments; other academic appointments including those outside of Singapore; percentage of time spent in Singapore every year, if applicable)
· Employment History
· Academic qualifications (Indicate institution’s name and year degree awarded)
· Research interests
· Publications in the last 5 years (include only publications of direct relevance to study, stating impact factors where possible)
· Patents held (related or unrelated to the study)
· Scientific Awards
· Research Outcomes from other grants (e.g. publications, patents, awards, etc)
· Grants (past and present) held and/or supported by industry partners within the last five years
(b) Co-Investigator and Collaborators
In not more than 1 page per applicant, please use the format below to provide the required information on the Co-Investigators and Collaborators.
· Name
· Title
· NRIC/Passport No.
· Office Mailing Address
· Contact No
· Current Position (Please provide full details, e.g. joint appointments)
· Academic qualifications (Indicate institution’s name and year degree awarded)
· Research interests
· Publications of direct relevance to the study
· Relevant patents held related to the study
· Scientific Awards
· Current and previous support
· Grants (past and present) held and/or supported by industry partners within the last five years
SPHERiC Application Form Version 1: Effective 1 November 17 Page 16 of 16
SPHERiC Application Form Version 1: Effective 1 November 17 Page 16 of 16
11 Conflict of Interest
Please provide name and contact information of individuals in NUHS who might have conflict of interests with your current research proposal. This includes competitors who are in your specific area of research
S/N / Title / Name / Department / Reason for COI1
2
3
12 Signatories
In signing the Grant Application, the Principal Investigator and all Co-Investigator(s) & Collaborator(s) UNDERTAKE, on any Grant Award, to:· Declare that all information is accurate and true.
· Not send similar versions or part(s) of this proposal to other agencies for funding.
· Submit supporting documents of ethics approval obtained from the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Animal Ethics Committee for studies involving human subjects/human tissues or cells.
· Be actively engaged in the execution of the research and comply with all laws, rules and regulations pertaining to animal and human ethics, including the Singapore Good Clinical Practice guidelines.
· Ensure that the requested equipment/resources are not funded by another agency or research proposal.
· Ensure that there is a reasonable effort in accessing available equipment/resources within the host institution or elsewhere within Singapore.
The undersigned agree to abide by the conditions governing the award of research grants set out by