Seed Grant / Pilot Project Review Process

Proposals for pilot projects will be accepted for bi-annually in March and September.Pilot grant projects are limited to one year and with a maximum request allowance of $10,000.Pilot studies will be exempted from the startup fee and must perform all imaging on the scanners in the Q300 suite.

Investigators must commit to submitting a full grant application based on the pilot data within 3 months of completing the pilot data project.

If a grant is funded as a result of pilot data supported through a seed grant, the investigator agrees to perform all subsequent imaging for the duration of the project on MRIRC resources unless there is a mutual agreement to stop or the inability of the MRIRC to perform the studies at a rate not to exceed that listed in the request

Priority is to be given to new investigators without existing NIH funding and investigators with NIH funding for whom imaging is new

Applications should include:

  1. Specific Aims
  2. Significance (i.e. how will this impact clinical care or basic science)
  3. Innovation
  4. Pilot data required for submission
  5. Experimental plan for pilot data
  6. Projected MRIRC use if pilot data lead to a funded grant (system time, personnel support)

Review Process

Proposed members of the review committee include:

Drs. A. Oto, G. Karczmar, T. Carroll, S. Keedy, A. Patel, D. Gallo.

Other reviewerswill be invited on an ad hoc basis depending on relevant expertise.

Expert review focusing on science and clinical issues

  • Clinical/Biological Significance
  • Major concerns to be addressed by the grant
  • Feasibility of scientific aims

Expert Review on Technical Aspects

  • Technical feasibility(Technical Director, as appropriate)
  • Development requirements (hardware, personnel etc.)
  • Technical novelty/merit of the methods
  • Resource Requirements (Scheduling, technologists, and other staff support)

Financial Review(Finance Director)

  • Costs to the program for pilot
  • Financial benefits if subsequent grant application is funded

Alignment withprogrammatic objectives of the MRIRC/ University and overall probability that a subsequent grant will be funded

Pilot Project Follow Up Review

–Did PI perform study to completion?

–Did data support submission to eventual grant target?

–Did the review process identify potential problems, strengths, weaknesses etc.?

–Did the MRIRC data result in the intended targeted grant funding?

•Needs to be reported, even if delayed after completion of pilot project

•Amount of grant award and duration of grant.