Health IT Seed Grant Program

The Center of Excellence in Health Information Technology Research is an interdisciplinary initiative among The University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, with a mission to develop solutions that can accelerate the envisioned and much needed transformation of healthcare. The Center is sponsoring a competitive Seed Grant Program. The intent of this program is to foster teams of investigators crossing disciplinary boundaries working to establish specific research foci and generate preliminary data with the ultimate goal of submitting research proposals to funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Science Foundation (NSF), or other federal or private funding agencies. The program also is intended to foster collaborations between junior and senior investigators and provide mentorship for new investigators in the art of grant writing and research.

The first round of funding was awarded in June 2011 - click here for press release

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The program solicitation has three broad domains that serve as themes for proposal submissions:

   1. The Patient-Centered Medical Home

   2. Electronic Health Information Exchange: A Core Foundation for Healthcare Transformation

   3. Health IT Applied to Public Health Priorities

To review details of the domain areas please click here

Guidelines

The proposal should identify the theme area of focus, address the scientific merits of the proposed research, and identify specific NIH, AHRQ, NSF, or other federal or private programs that would be receptive of a full proposal that contains preliminary results obtained under the Seed Program. This award program seeks to encourage groups of researchers (minimum of two faculty PI’s) to collaborate on new avenues of research that would not otherwise be explored by any one group alone. The number of awards will depend on the quality and quantity of proposals received as well as the proposed budgets. The program will fund multiple proposals with an aggregate total of $45,000. The approximate grant size is $15,000.  The awards are made for projects of one year or shorter duration.

Individual investigators can be a participating PI on only one awarded proposal but can submit multiple proposals. The top ranked proposals after committee review will be eligible for funding. Investigators can serve as a collaborator on an unlimited number of proposals.

Eligibility

All full-time tenured or tenure track faculty members at UMCP and UMB.  Proposals must contain at least one faculty member from UMCP and UMB.

Expectations

Award recipients are expected to produce sufficient preliminary results so that within 6 months after expiration of the award, a proposal for external funding is submitted. Such a proposal is a desired outcome, but is not mandatory, however expectations are that publication(s) or manuscript(s) will result from the funded work. Awardees will participate in future Progress Session(s) or other events that bridge campuses and bring researchers together. Recipients will remain faculty members of the participating school throughout the course of the grant, with any substitutions requiring approval in advance.

Review

Proposals will be evaluated by a committee from UMB and UMCP campuses and representatives from each school with wide ranging expertise appropriate to submitted proposals. Applicants should not expect detailed written critiques of their proposals. Proposals will be reviewed for: 1) how well the project meets the themes and the goals of the Seed Program, including the composition of the team of investigators; 2) meeting NIH criteria (e.g., significance, approach, novelty, and qualification of investigators to carry out the research); and 3) likelihood of attracting outside funding. Scientific merit of the proposed studies will be the most important factor assessed in this competition, but the inclusion of junior tenure track faculty will be considered as a highly favorable component of any application. At least one award will fund collaboration with a clinical organization and inclusion of clinical partner(s) is viewed favorably.

Conditions of the award:

1. Awards are made to principal investigators and are not transferable without prior approval by the Steering Committee.

2. Equipment purchased with these funds are property of UMB and UMCP and must remain should the PI leave his/her University.

3. A brief mid-year and an annual progress report will be prepared.

4. Periodic surveys will require completion for interim progress or update on patent, invention, creation of new companies, technology for commercialization, or other areas of interest to the schools.

5. Three years after the project ends, the PI will be asked to file an update (part of final report) listing all presentations, published papers, and extramural funds that have resulted, in whole or in part, from the project. These should be sent to the Steering Committee upon request.

6. Funds should be budgeted for completion and exhausted in a maximum of one year.

Other: The proposal should also identify specific research goals that will enhance the success of a full proposal, as well as, provide a specific targeted timeline by which these objectives can be reasonably achieved.

Your proposal must contain the items outlined below, under the page limitations provided. Proposals not meeting these guidelines will not be considered for funding.

Anticipated start date for funding round one will be June 2011.

Proposal Structure Guidelines:

Cover Page (maximum 2 pages) including:
- Title of Project;
- Name of all Co-PI's - specify tenure-track appointments, any exceptions must be approved by the Dean of the participating school prior to submission of a proposal;
- Abstract;
- Statement of Collaborative Effort - A specific statement as to how the collaboration between the investigators from each campus is necessary to move this research forward. This should include processes for maintaining communication and interactions between campuses.

Proposed Research (maximum 4 single-spaced pages) including:
- Specific Aims;
- Project Description - including Project Plan, expected outcomes;
- Brief Discussion - on how this interaction will impact your research program's future direction.

Budget (limited to 1 page):
- Amount of Funds being Requested;
- Budget - including amounts by campus

Additional Information including:
- Biosketches- NIH format (all senior personnel);
- Identified Future Funding source - be explicit- which program in which agency will be targeted for a future application and an FOA if available;
- References - including full titles

To download a PDF version of the above along with details of the domain areas please click here