Award Level:

• $50,000 - $100,000 direct costs per year for maximum of two years.

Purpose:

• Most PPL awards will support investigators with strong potential to be future COBRE Research Project Leaders (those who qualify as NIH ESI and/or NI).
• A few PPL awards will be made to established investigators when there is strong evidence that the outcome of the pilot project will support an extramural funding application.
  

Application Review Timeline:

• Applications are accepted anytime and are reviewed on a rolling basis.
• We expect that applications will be revised according to feedback from peer review and COBRE Advisory Committee evalution prior to submission to NIGMS program staff for final approval. All applicable IACUC, IRB, and Clinical Trial Regulatory approvals must be in place before submission to NIGMS. Consequently, the time from initial application to submission to NIGMS is typically 3-6 months. NIGMS review typically requires 1-2 months. Once approved by NIGMS, funds are released to the PPL.

Eligibility criteria:

• Priority is given to NIH Early Stage Investigator (ESI) and/or New Investigator (NI) (definitions are here: https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/early-stage-investigators). However, as stated above, established investigators are eligible if there is strong evidence that the outcome of the pilot project would lead to extramural funding.
• Applicant must currently hold a full-time position as Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor at UNMC, UNL, UNO, or UNK.
• Projects must be focused on a topic within the scope of the Center for Heart and Vascular Research.
• Applicant must be a CHVR member in good standing (see CHVR website and summarized below).
• Awardees may not concurrently hold funding from any other IDeA program (other COBREs, IDeA-CTR, etc).
• Applications by ESI/NI require a primary mentor. The Primary Mentor should have strong track record of mentoring including mentoring early career faculty to independence, and established track record of prior and current extramural funding.

Selection Process:

• Applications are first screened for eligibility and fit for CHVR by COBRE leadership. Subsequently, applications are peer reviewed using IDeA-CTR infrastructure. Applications receiving favorable reviews are evaluated by the COBRE Advisory Committee for final recommendation. Applications recommended for funding are then submitted to NIGMS program staff for approval.
• Competitive applicants are those who have a solid track record of research productivity, well developed research proposal, and propose studies that will generate preliminary data to support a future RPL application or extramural funding application in the future.

Requirements for Awardees:

• Attend all required mentoring and career development activities outlined in the COBRE RPL/PPL Handbook.
• Actively participate in at least one CHVR focus group.
• Attend the center's meetings, seminars, review committees, retreats and related activities as appropriate. It is expected that members will attend a minimum of five events per year.
• Acknowledge the COBRE in all publications (manuscripts, reviews, book chapters), in oral/poster presentations, grant submissions and media announcements.
• Agree to maintain an updated CHVR membership profile in Piestar. 
• Complete all surveys to track activities or funding, collaborative efforts with other members, mentoring, service-related, and community engagement activities.