hand in purple glove using a microscope

Dean's Innovation Awards

The College of Pharmacy Dean's Innovation Research Award is an annual program intended to provide funding to college appointed faculty members who are pursuing the submission or resubmission of extramural grant proposals (single PI and multi PI) and require additional proof of concept experiments or feasibility studies. 

The award program is not intended to fund projects that are hypothesis generating. Highest priority will be given to support grant revisions and faculty members at a more junior rank. The goals of this award also include enhancing the competitiveness of grant proposals developed by applicants from populations underrepresented in the extramural scientific workforce. It is not expected that DIA funds will be provided more than once to the same PI.

Timeline

July 31: Letter of Intent (LOI) submitted by 5 p.m.
August 31: Proposals submitted by 5 p.m.
September 11: Proposals distributed to reviewers by Liz Clemens
October 2: Preliminary scores due to clemens.169@osu.edu
November 13: Awards announced at College Research Day

 

 

Budget and Duration of Funding

Available funds for this cycle: $100,000
Single/Dual PI project: up to $50,000
Funds are available for use for one year (December 1, 2024 through November 30, 2025).

Application Guidelines

  • Letter of intent (LOI) (strongly recommended):
    • A letter of intent (LOI) is an optional, non-binding statement of your interest in applying for the DIA. While this information is requested, it is not considered a part of the application nor used in any way to judge an applicant. The DIA review committee uses LOIs solely for internal planning purposes.
    • The LOI should include the following information:
      • PI, co-PI and co-I’s names, affiliations and contact information
      • Title of your application
    • If you choose to submit a LOI, it must be submitted via email to Liz Clemens (clemens.169@osu.edu) no later than July 31, 2024
  • Cover letter (1 page limit) describing:
    • Plan for future grant application and how this funding will be supportive
    • Significance and Innovation
    • Integration, for Dual PIs and programmatic projects
    • How the requested funding is necessary to address reviewer comments received previously
  • 3-page proposal [Aims, Background, Preliminary Data, Research Plan (with methodology), Alternative Approaches], Arial 11 pt font, 0.5 inch margins. 
  • Biosketch in NIH format
  • Other Support document with current, past, and pending support to evaluate potential overlap.
  • Budget with budget justification sufficient to allow the reviewers to assess the feasibility of the project. Budget and budget justification do not count toward the page limit.
  • Proposals intended to bridge to a mentored career development award (e.g., CDA, K award, etc.) require a mentorship plan (limit 1 page) and a supporting letter from the mentor (limit 1 page).
  • Proposals intended to support an extramural grant resubmission (i.e., a scored R01 or equivalent application that is outside the funding range) require summary statements, and the proposal should provide a justification as to how the requested funding is necessary to address reviewer comments.
  • Funds can support existing research support personnel but not PI or Co-I salaries (release time).
  •  Funds cannot support the purchase of equipment.
  • Projects that are already funded by other intramural/extramural research support are not eligible for these funds.

Please submit a single PDF file via email to Liz Clemens (clemens.169@osu.edu) no later than 5 p.m. on the submission date (August 31, 2024). 

Conditions of Funding

  • Funded investigators are required to present their progress at a college faculty meeting.
  • Funded investigators are required to submit a final report by 30 days after the end of project date.
  • Funded investigators will work with the college Communications Office on an article.
  • Any residual funds at the end of the project will be returned to the college.
  • Funds are not eligible for a “No cost extension”.
  • Dean's Innovation Research Award-sponsored research that generates tools or large data sets (i.e., mouse models, reagents, sequencing bioinformatics, etc.) should be shared with college members by the end of project, upon request.

 

 

Review Process

The College of Pharmacy Research Program Committee will assemble the panel of reviewers from within the College of Pharmacy, including representatives from populations underrepresented in the extramural scientific workforce. Additional research faculty and/or others with appropriate expertise outside the College of Pharmacy will be identified, as needed. Each proposal will be reviewed and scored by the panel of reviewers using NIH scoring criteria modified to fit the overall mission of this award. Reviewer comments and recommendations will be provided for all applications. 

Past Recipients