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Spring 2024 Awards Cycle Important Dates

  • Letter of Intent due April 8
  • Application portal opens April 15
  • Applications due May 6

The Tier 2 Stimulus Award is intended to support innovative research initiatives aimed at obtaining sufficient data to allow new applications for extramural funding. Tier 2 may have a larger budget and/or a longer time frame than Tier 1 and should have some preliminary data supporting the research questions.

All UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center members and UNC-Chapel Hill faculty are encouraged to apply.


Terms of the Awards

Each award allows for 1-2 principal investigators (PIs). The award will consist of up to $100,000 per year, for one or two years, with an expected start date of July 1 or January 1. A report summarizing financial expenditures and a one-page summary of the scientific outcome of the project is required 2 months after the end of the funding period. When requested, all awardees will be expected to provide updates of publications and long-term grant support that originated from the award.

Eligibility

All UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center members and UNC Chapel Hill faculty are encouraged to apply. Non-UNC faculty must be in collaboration with a UNC faculty member, unless they are submitting under a targeted RFA for non-UNC faculty.

Tier 2 Awards can have multiple investigators. One PI must be chosen as the Contact PI. Applicants can be principal investigator on only one proposal per round. One can be PI on one proposal and a co-investigator on one or more additional proposals.

Awardees will be ineligible to submit proposals (as PI) for two years (or four submission rounds, whichever comes first) following their award.

Criteria

Proposals will be judged by the following criteria:

  • Scientific merit
  • Relevance to award category (basic, clinical/translational, or population sciences)
  • Qualifications, experience, and productivity of the applicant
  • Project feasibility given facilities, budget, time, and other resources available
  • Potential for future external funding and publications

Review

Review will be chaired by a UNC Lineberger Associate Director and be composed of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center members, including representation from each of the nine programmatic areas. Applications will be assigned at least two reviewers (usually three), who will score applications according to the criteria above, using the NIH scale of 1-9 (best to worst).

Restrictions

A. Projects must be completed in the designated period of the grant Grants are for one to two years, except when otherwise specified in the application and approved by the committee. No-cost extensions will be rare and must be applied for through the program director.

B. Funds may be budgeted for any of the standard categories and for purposes deemed necessary for the successful execution of the proposed project. Costs are limited to those directly related to the research proposed (overhead/indirects are not allowed). The following additional restrictions apply:

  • Faculty salary Requests for salary support of tenure-track or fixed-term faculty as principal investigators or co-investigator are not allowed. Requests for non-tenure track faculty who direct labs or projects and requests for consulting biostatistics faculty support (for data analysis) can be considered; however, requests for this kind of support should be appropriate for the level of effort required. Salary, tuition, and other funds for non-faculty named on the budget are allowed in amounts appropriate for the level of effort.
  • Travel – Requests for travel support should be limited to funds directly related to project performance. Travel to conferences and meetings will be permitted. International travel is also permitted.
  • Equipment – Requests for equipment should be limited to funds directly related to project performance. For example, a laptop for a research assistant to use in clinic to collect data would be appropriate.

Unused funds will revert to the supporting funding source. All proposed expenses must conform to the general policies of the University. Projects that use the UNC Lineberger Biostatistics Core, the Tissue Procurement Core, and/or other core resources are encouraged to consult with those cores prior to submission.

Requirements for Awardees

A. Prior to funding, all awarded projects that involve animals or human subjects must be reviewed and approved in accordance with the University’s general assurances and Reviews and approvals may be “Just in Time” and are not required for registration/application. Projects involving human subjects must be submitted to an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Intervention studies and clinical protocols must be reviewed and approved by the UNC Lineberger Protocol Review Committee. Appropriate animal forms must also be filed and approved. All investigators and all persons named on the budget page must have certification of training in the protection of human subjects.

B. A summary progress report shall be submitted two months after the end date of support. The summary progress report should give a financial accounting of funds used for the project, and reference all research products generated, including abstracts submitted/published, peer-reviewed articles submitted/published, grant applications submitted/funded, and potential/actual intellectual property (reports of invention, etc.).

Principal investigators will provide updates on publications, grants, and patents for at least three years after the end of the funding, when asked.

Where appropriate, progress reports should identify the counties and populations involved or affected. For example, for an intervention for adults that works through African-American churches in six NC counties, the report should acknowledge the population (African Americans) and name the six counties included in the study.

C. All manuscripts, abstracts, posters, and presentations should acknowledge support from the UNC Lineberger Developmental Funding Program; e.g., This project was funded [in part] by a grant from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

D. Awards co-funded by other sources will also adhere to reporting and other requirements established by those programs. Awardees are informed of funding source(s) at the time of award notice.

Application Format

Proposals must include in ONE PDF in this exact order:

  • A Title Page that includes: title of the proposal; the PI’s name, primary appointment, faculty rank, and contact information; the name, title and contact information of other investigators; Tier and category (basic, clinical/translational or population science) of the proposal; total Budget Registering online does not automatically create this title page: please include in your PDF.
  • Scientific Abstract: The abstract summary of the proposal for use by review committee members and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (250-word maximum).
  • Lay Abstract: Please provide a lay abstract/project narrative summarizing the research to a general audience in plain It should avoid the use of jargon and explain any technical terms. These lay abstracts will be used to describe the purpose of the research to the larger non-scientific community and will be reviewed by community and patient advocates as part of the review process.
  • Budget: Use PHS Form 398 Form Page 4
  • Budget Justification: The Budget Justification should include sufficient detail for reviewers to assess whether appropriate resources have been requested (no page limit).
  • Specific Aims: 1 page
  • Research Plan: The Research Plan should follow the standard NIH format: Significance, Innovation, and Include where applicable clear evidence of how the proposal meets the review criteria and specific cancer relevance. Five-page limit, including tables and figures. Specific Aims and References do not count towards the 5-page limit; single space, font no smaller than Arial 11, and .5- inch margins.You may include an appendix, but reviewers are not required to read beyond the 5-page limit. Letters of support may be beyond the 5-page limit.
  • Proposal Timeline
  • Human and/or Animal Subjects: Although Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC) approval is not required prior to submission, briefly describe any human and/or animal subject If human subjects will be involved in the research, provide a description of their involvement and characteristics, specific risks to subjects who participate, and protection against those risks. Describe the sources of materials that will be obtained from human subjects as part of their study participation. Provide assurance that the project will be reviewed and approved by the UNC IRB and comply with HIPAA. If vertebrate animals are to be used, provide a description of the proposed use of the animals in the work outlined and procedures for ensuring that discomfort, distress, pain and injury will be limited. Projects involving animal subjects must be reviewed and approved by an IACUC (no page limit).
  • NIH Biosketches for the key members of the research team.
  • Progress Report (if applicable) describing accomplishments of former UNC Lineberger awards

Submission

The application website will be announced and opened approximately one week ahead of the deadline. Both registration and submission must be completed by 5 p.m. on the deadline date.

Find more information about the application, guidelines and requirements: Developmental Awards Application


Support

If you have questions, please contact our team at lccc-dev-awards@office.unc.edu