The Pilot and Feasibility Projects can focus on the microbiota at any body site of human, animal, plant, or water systems and its relevance to human health. Projects can focus on composition and/or function of bacterial, fungal, archaeal, or viral communities as well as their physiological and pathological effects on their hosts. Please reach out to the Program Manager (Casandra Hoffman, clh4he@virginia.edu) if you have questions regarding the relevance of your project to this funding opportunity.
Number of Awards and Available Funding:
Five $60k, 1-year awards will be awarded semiannually. Funding announcements will be made in January 2020, January 2021, and June 2021.
June 2021 Call for Proposals
University of Virginia
TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative
Pilot and Feasibility Grant Program
Application Deadline:
Thursday, July 22, 2021 by 5:00 PM
Purpose and Research Focus:
The mission of the TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative (TUMI) is to facilitate functional studies of the microbiome and the altering of its composition and activity to improve health. TUMI is funded by the Strategic Investment Fund and aims to support microbiome research across Grounds. The Pilot and Feasibility Grants are designed to bring together microbiome investigators from various departments and schools and to sponsor microbiome research within their subject areas. One of the major goals of TUMI is to involve undergraduate, graduate, and postdoc trainees in the proposed research. The Pilot and Feasibility Projects can focus on the microbiota at any body site of human, animal, plant, or water systems and its relevance to human health. Projects can focus on composition and/or function of bacterial, fungal, archaeal, or viral communities as well as their physiological and pathological effects on their hosts. Please reach out to the Program Manager (Casandra Hoffman, clh4he@virginia.edu) if you have questions regarding the relevance of your project to this funding opportunity.
Number of Awards and Available Funding:
Five $60k, 1-year awards will be awarded semiannually.
Eligibility:
All faculty members of the University of Virginia are invited to submit proposals. We particularly encourage applications from established and early career investigators who wish to expand into studies of the microbiome.
Investigators who submitted applications and received feedback during the first or second round of funding, but were not selected for an award, are encouraged to apply with updated proposals. To further discuss your first submission and reviewer feedback, please contact Casandra Hoffman (clh4he@virgina.edu).
Investigators awarded TUMI pilot funding in the January 2020 or January 2021 terms ARE ELIGIBLE to apply during the third round of funding.
Evaluation Criteria
TUMI Seed Grant proposals will be evaluated on three equally-weighted criteria:
- How effectively will the proposed activities utilize TUMI Core Facilities, particularly the TUMI-sponsored gnotobiotic and metabolomics core facilities, and/or the novel Emulate Organ on a Chip System.
- How likely are the proposed activities to lead to external funding to sustain the proposed research and/or support translation of an innovation into practice?
- What is the potential scientific and clinical impact of the project?
- If this is a resubmission, were reviewers comments from your first submission used to enhance your application?
Proposal Preparation:
Submit all documents as a single PDF via email to TUMI’s Senior Research Program Manager, Casandra Hoffman (clh4he@virginia.edu). Complete proposals for this third call are due by 5PM on July 22, 2021. Awards will be announced in August 2021. This is the final planned round of TUMI Pilot Grants.
Format:
- NIH-style Specific Aims Page
- NIH Biographical Sketch
- Sections for the 6 page maximum (excluding references) main proposal include:
- Background and Preliminary Results
- Research Plan
- Trainee Involvement: 1-2 paragraphs must be included that demonstrate the involvement of trainees (undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral researchers, staff, etc.) in the proposed research activities.
- Future Directions: 1-2 paragraphs must be provided at the end of the proposal articulating how this pilot award will provide necessary data to obtain extramural funding. Please be as specific as possible in the plan for follow-on funding, including information on previous related applications and outcomes, agencies and funding opportunities, etc.
- Senior Investigators should indicate how this project represents a new direction in their research.
- Budget and Justification, 1 page maximum:
- One year, $60,000 budget
- Salary support of $10,000 or less allowed, not for the PI.
- Outline of Estimated TUMI Core usage: All awardees are required to use at least one of the TUMI Core Facilities. At least 50% of funds must be spent at one of the current TUMI Core Facilities: Gnotobiotic Animal Core, Metabolomics Core, Sequencing Core(s), Organ on a Chip Resources (including Emulate Organ Bio Kits: https://www.emulatebio.com/products)
- Milestones: Funds will be released in two $30,000 disbursements. The second disbursement is contingent upon reaching certain milestones (e.g. the use of the first $30k, the completion of the first gnotobiotic experiment, the completion of the first metabolomics experiment, etc.).
- For more information, please reach out to the research program manager (Casandra Hoffman, clh4he@virginia.edu).
- Additional information can be found below for budget preparation.
- Data management and analysis plan
- A summary for how data will be collected and stored
- A summary of the data analysis plan, including any letters of support from the Bioinformatics Core or other bioinformaticians and biostatisticians that will aid in the analysis of collected data. For more information or help identifying bioinformaticians at UVA, please reach out to the program manager (Casandra Hoffman, clh4he@virginia.edu).
Award Terms:
- A progress report is due 6 months into the project period. The report will contain a one-page synopsis of scientific progress and a list of resulting collaborations, microbiome program core utilization, publications, grants that were applied for, and grants awarded.
- A final progress report is due within one month after the close of the project period. The report will contain a one-page synopsis of scientific progress and a list of resulting collaborations, microbiome program core utilization, publications, and grants.
- The awarded funds will be disbursed in two parts. The second disbursement requires that certain milestones or benchmarks have been met. Milestones and/or benchmarks will be determined by the PI and TUMI. Funds that are not used by the end of the 12 month (1 year) period will be returned to TUMI.
- Awardees will be asked to highlight research activities at the annual Trans-University Microbiome Initiative symposium.
- Awardees must acknowledge TUMI support in resulting publications.
- The project title, PI name, and key personnel names will be published on the TUMI website as an announcement (no financial or project details will be included).
- Awardees are required to inform the Trans-University Microbiome Initiative in the event that the Pilot/Feasibility Project receives external funding or a project results in a publication during the project period.