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Strategic Program for Asthma Research
Mission and Policies
Mission:
Develop important new pathways of investigation in basic research regarding asthma.
Aims:
Another important objective of the Program is to promote scientific interaction between Awardees. To facilitate this, Awardees are required to attend the Annual Meeting in May, which promotes scientific exchange among the Awardees as well as experts in the field.
Policies:
See below for:
- Criteria for investigators (Senior Investigator Awards and Early Excellence Awards)
- Nature of work to be supported
- Annual Meeting of Awardees
- Criteria for institutions
- Application
- Review of applications (criteria/notification)
- Indirect costs
- Award budgets
- Funding of awards
- Payment of awards and financial reporting
- Review of progress
- Change in direction of work
- Change of institution
- Intellectual property
1. Criteria for investigators. In supporting basic research, the Program seeks to break new ground. To this end, it is particularly interested in attracting investigators from outside the field to apply their expertise to the study of asthma. Prior research in asthma is not required. Investigators within the field are eligible for awards, but they must demonstrate that their proposed work represents a departure from their current and past research. Because the Program seeks to develop new paths in asthma research, innovation and risk are strongly encouraged. The Program supports basic research at two levels:
Senior Investigator Awards. Senior Investigators will have well-established research programs and an international reputation for their research. They will usually hold a full-time academic appointment as Professor, Associate Professor, or the equivalent. Senior Investigators will receive $250,000 (U.S.) per year for three years.
Early Excellence Awards. Qualified Investigators will have already established an independent research program. They will usually hold a full-time academic appointment as an Assistant Professor, early Associate Professor, or the equivalent, and will have national-level, independent funding. Early Excellence Awards are not intended as start-up funds for investigators at the onset of their careers. Rather, they are intended to support investigators who have demonstrated exceptional early accomplishment as independent investigators, permitting the expansion of their work into the field of asthma. Recipients of Early Excellence Awards will receive $150,000 (U.S.) per year for three years.
The number of awards each year is not fixed, and the proportion of Senior Investigator and Early Excellence Awards may vary.
2. Nature of work to be supported. The proposed work should be directed towards uncovering basic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of asthma. We wish to support work from a broad range of investigative fields. Studies may involve laboratory or clinical investigation, including genetic and epidemiological studies, but the Program will not sponsor therapeutic trials. Studies involving human materials must be approved and governed by the sponsoring institution. Approval by the sponsoring institution's Committee on Human Research must be received in the SPAR office prior to Award activation (i.e., July 1).
3. Annual Meeting of Awardees. An important part of the Program is the Annual Meeting of the Awardees, which is held in May and lasts for 2½ days. Attendance at the yearly meeting is required of Awardees. Awardees are strongly encouraged to bring a fellow or a collaborating investigator to the meeting.
4. Criteria for institutions. Investigators may apply from any nonprofit organization in the United States or Canada that can and will provide the necessary facilities and infrastructure for the research, and that will assure compliance with guidelines for animal and human studies established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Applicants from Canadian institutions must also provide evidence that the institution has been designated as a public charity by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). (Most large, nonprofit research institutions in Canada have this status. If not, they may be able to obtain this designation from the U.S. IRS, given sufficient lead time (minimum three months). Contact the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division of the IRS for further information (877-829-5500, or visit their website at http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96085,00.html ).
5. Application. Applications will be accepted once annually for funding to commence on July 1. The Program office will annually announce the specific dates of application (February 7, 2008) and the application requirements (see Application Instructions ). Applications must be received at the Program office no later than 5:00 PM, Pacific Standard Time on the deadline date in order to be considered.
6. Review of applications. Applications that meet eligibility criteria will be reviewed by members of the Scientific Advisory Board. The major criteria for review are:
- Innovation
- Quality of the Proposed Work
- Quality of the Investigator
- Relevance to Asthma
Applicants will be notified of the outcome of the review process in May (May 23, for year 2008). Due to the streamlined competitive award process, the Program is unable to provide critiques or evaluations to applicants concerning their proposals.
7. Institutional indirect costs. No funds may be used for institutional indirect costs or for renting space.
8. Award budgets. Budgets are not required at the time of application. Successful applicants will be asked to submit a budget. The following restrictions will apply:
- The sum of salaries for investigators (not including postdoctoral fellows or technicians) is limited to $50,000/year plus fringe benefits. Individuals are generally considered to be investigators if they are appointed in a faculty series and/or are eligible to apply for unmentored grant support. Salaries should be proportionate to percent effort.
- The budget must include the cost of yearly travel to the Annual Meeting of investigators in the San Francisco area. Other travel costs are limited to $2,500 yearly.
- Up to 10% of the budget may be used in support of administrative costs that are under the direct signatory authority of the investigator, such as office supplies for the laboratory and salary for administrative personnel under the direct supervision of the investigator. Administrative costs may include up to $5,000 for office computers to be used in support of the project. The purchase of any additional computers (e.g., for use with laboratory equipment) must be fully justified.
- All other expenses must be in direct support of scientific work.
Subcontracts to other non-profit institutions are allowed, but they must meet the above restrictions, including the lack of institutional indirect costs.
Up to 40% of the annual award allocation may be carried from one year to the next, including carryover of funds into a fourth year, without restrictions beyond those listed above. Carryover funds from each year must be spent during the subsequent year, and these funds may not be banked. Larger amounts may be carried over with approval from the Program Director. If >40% of yearly funds are carried from the third year into a fourth year, the Principal Investigator will be encouraged to attend the Annual Meeting in the fourth year, in addition to the first three years. When funds are carried into a fourth year, the Principal Investigator salary may not exceed 30% of the amount carried over.
9. Funding of awards. Awards will be funded by th American Asthma Foundation, following the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Board. The SPAR office will assure compliance with Program policies and will be responsible for all administrative matters involved in the funding of awards. The American Asthma Foundation, its administrative program, and its Scientific Advisory Board members do not assume responsibility for the conduct of the investigation or acts of the investigator, since both are under the direction and control of the Awardee's institution and are subject to the institution's medical and scientific policies. Awardee institutions must safeguard the rights and welfare of individuals who participate as subjects in research activities by reviewing proposed activities through an Institutional Review Board (IRB) as specified by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office for Human Research Protections, DHHS (OHRP). Furthermore, Awardee institutions must adhere to current U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines regarding financial conflict of interest, recombinant DNA, research misconduct, and vertebrate animals. The Awardee's institution must assure appropriate governance of animal studies as well as human studies.
10. Payment of awards and financial reporting. Award amounts are in U.S. dollars. Awards are paid in U.S. dollars at the beginning of each Award year (i.e., July). Award budgets and annual expenditure reports must be stated in U.S. dollars.
11. Review of progress. Awards are for a period of three years, but yearly renewal will require satisfactory progress. This will be assessed by written reports and presentations to the Scientific Advisory Board at the Annual Meeting in May.
12. Change in direction of work. The Program wishes to encourage innovation and flexibility, but any substantive change in the direction of work should be reviewed in advance by the Program Director.
13. Change of institution. Awards are assigned to individuals rather than to institutions and may be transferred to another institution that can provide adequate support for the research and that will accept the award under the policies of the Program. Permission must be obtained from the Program office.
14. Publication. SPAR Investigators are encouraged to publish in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) or other open-access journals. The Program will pay publication expenses in PLoS for articles stemming from a SPAR Award, provided that this is done through direct billing to the SPAR Office by PLoS. Otherwise, the publication costs should be paid from the Award.
15.
Intellectual property.
The Strategic Program for Asthma Research (SPAR) does not claim rights to patents on discoveries sponsored by their
Awards, but the Program requires prompt disclosure of discoveries to the
public. Unique research resources developed with SPAR funds must be
made available rapidly to the research community, after publication, for
further research, development, and application, in order to advance the
research enterprise and to accelerate the development of products and
knowledge that are of benefit to the public.
Unique research resources include synthetic
compounds, model organisms, cell lines, viruses, cell products, and cloned
DNA, as well as DNA sequences, mapping information, crystallographic
coordinates, and spectroscopic data. Model organisms are not
restricted to mammalian models, and they include genetically modified or
mutant organisms and embryos, as well as relevant protocols and genetic
and phenotypic data for mutant strains.
To facilitate the availability of unique research
resources developed with SPAR funds, investigators may distribute the
materials through their own laboratory or organization or may submit them
to external repositories. Investigators are expected to submit
unique biological information, such as DNA sequences or crystallographic
coordinates, to the appropriate data banks so that they can be made
available to the broad scientific community. When distributing unique
resources, investigators should include pertinent information on the
nature, quality, or characterization of the materials.
SPAR expects its Award recipients to use modest sums
from their Award to distribute resources and/or to charge a reasonable
amount to defray costs associated with sharing materials or transferring
these materials to appropriate repositories. If the costs of
distributing materials cannot be met, this should be addressed with the
SPAR office. Investigators are encouraged to confer with their
technology transfer office and/or office of sponsored programs for
guidance.
In their evaluation of annual Awardee progress, SPAR’s Scientific Advisory Board will consider, as part of the criteria for continued funding, adequate progress in sharing unique research resources developed with SPAR funds, as well as a demonstrated willingness to make research resources developed during the project widely available to the research community.
Posted 6/6/08
Strategic Program for Asthma Research
TEL: 415-514-0730 | FAX: 415-514-0734 | Contacts