The Brain Health Institute (BHI) is pleased to announce a new BHI pilot grants program in neuroscience to support pilot experiments that will lead to Center and Program Project grant funding from NIH. For the current FY we plan to offer two awards. 

Requirements:

1. There should be at least 3 Rutgers PIs who currently have R-type NIH funding.
2. One or more of the PIs must be a core BHI faculty member (see BHI website).
3. The contact PI must be a tenured or tenure-track Professor or Associate
   Professor with active as well as a history of NIH funding.
4. The total award will be $125,000. In the proposal budget, the PIs specify if they
   intend to use the total award amount in one or two years. The budgeted amounts must be expended by end of each year in the award period. If a two-year budget is proposed, no carryover is allowed from year 1 to year 2.
5. For a two-year award, the second-year funds will be released once milestones
   for year 1 are achieved. For this, an interim progress report must be submitted
   at the end of year 1 and the progress reported at a specially organized
   workshop (deadline will be specified in the award letter).
6. The awards will be limited to direct costs and no indirect costs or overhead are
   provided.
7. Applicants must commit to submission of a multi-PI (e.g., P-type application)
   within 2 years of the end of the award period.
8. Applicants must first submit a required one-page Letter of Intent (LOI) that
   includes the RFA targeted (if known) or NIH institute targeted and associated
   rationale for choosing that RFA or NIH institute. They should also include a brief
   introduction, proposed Specific Aims and names of faculty involved. Applicants
   also will also need to include a current biosketch and the Other Support
   document (listing active funding info) for all faculty involved. Please submit the
   LOI by February 10^th, 2023
9. Final applications should be formatted as an R21 NIH style application (1 page
   Specific Aims and 6 pages for the Research Plan). Include Literature Cited,
   and, if applicable, sections on Vertebrate Animals, Protections for Human
   Subjects and Inclusion of Women, Minorities, and Children. Also include
   Budget, Budget Justification, NIH Biosketches for all Co-PIs, Facilities and
   Resources and Equipment information. Within the Research Plan under the
   Innovation section please describe explicitly how the pilot funding will promote
   new collaborations and/or new projects, how it will meet the requirements for the
   targeted RFA or goals of the proposed NIH institute, and how the awarded
   funds will strengthen the overall application to NIH. The application should be
   single-spaced, use font/size Arial 11 with 0.5 inch page margins.
10. All final applications must include the Cover page (Title, co-PI’s, institutions, etc.) and the Submission Check List accompanying this announcement. The application should be combined into one PDF document with the Cover page in the front. Only grant award recipients will need to submit the RAPSS Endorsement form and proof of University’s FCOI compliance. IRB and IACUC approvals will also need to be submitted post-award using the Just-In-Time (JIT) approach. These forms and approvals are not required at the time of initial grant application submission; however, awardees will have to submit these items before the funds from the grant award are disbursed.

Please note– the pilot award funds cannot be used for PI and co-PI salaries. Pilot funds can be budgeted for post-doc, student and research technician stipends and salaries. Purchase of equipment costing more than $5000 will not be allowed. The entire application, including the Cover page & Check List, should be combined into one PDF document with the Cover page in the front. Submit the SINGLE PDF file to bhi@bhi.rutgers.edu . The deadline for receipt of the final application is March 20th, 2023. 

To download the cover page and submission checklist, click the link provided below:

All grants will undergo a dual stage review process, organized by the Brain Health
Institute. They will have an initial review to judge scientific quality and assigned a
priority score by external reviewers (similar to NIH study section review). They then will
be reviewed by an internal committee (similar to an NIH Council Review) to allocate
funds consistent with the long-term strategies for developing neuroscience research at
Rutgers and the source of pilot funds. One main factor in determining funding will be
perceived likelihood that the pilot data generated will lead to external funding. We
expect to announce the awards by May 2023.

All pilot awardees will be required to submit a final progress report and give a
presentation at a specially organized workshop within 2 months of the end of the award.
The project report must also indicate plans and timeline for submitting a Center or
Program Project grant application within two years. The PIs must also acknowledge the
BHI funding in papers and presentations related to the project.