Seed Grant Program

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology (CETI), an NIH-sponsored Center of Biomedical Research Excellence located on UNM’s main campus, supports researchers from the University of New Mexico and Los Alamos National Laboratory in evolutionary and theoretical immunology through direct funding of projects and by providing a variety of research resources and academic opportunities. CETI’s Seed Grant Program provides small grants to investigators with the intention that they will use the funds to generate sufficient data to apply for external funding (preferably an NIH R01 grant). The CETI Seed Grant Program is not accepting applications at this time. Check back for future opportunnites.

CETI’S THEMATIC FOCUS
CETI’s thematic focus is study of the evolution and diversification of immune systems across all of organismal life. CETI researchers seek to understand the functional principles underlying immune systems and their interactions with pathogens, based on both theoretical and comparative approaches. CETI’s Seed Grant Program can fund only those applications that relate to CETI’s theme. 

FUNDING
It is anticipated that at least one award will be made this funding cycle. Awards will be made initially for one year of support up to $40,000 (total award amount) per year, with an optional second year conditional on progress attained. It is anticipated that most or all awardees will receive a second year of support. Budgets may include lab supplies, travel directly related to the proposed project and support of graduate students or other personnel needed to complete the proposed work. Depending on the quality of applications, partial funding may be granted to awardees to allow for additional awards to be made. LANL applicants may elect to have their award as a subcontract through the New Mexico Consortium in order to reduce costs.

ELIGIBILITY
We welcome applicants from the University of New Mexico’s Main Campus, Health Sciences Center and from Los Alamos National Laboratory. To be eligible for funding, applicants must be PI-eligible employees of either the University of New Mexico or Los Alamos National Laboratories. As one of CETI’s goals is to mentor and support junior investigators, funding priority will be given to researchers who have not received research funding as a PI on a federally funded grant. Senior investigators will be considered if they can demonstrate their application is a change in scope of their current research program. Applications must be consistent with the thematic focus of CETI in order to be considered. 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION
Applications are currently not being accepted.  Check back for future opportunites.

APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Application forms may be downloaded from our website or by emailing a request to ceti@unm.edu.  Applications may be submitted directly via our website in pdf format or emailed to ceti@unm.edu.

Applications must include the following sections or risk being returned without review:

1. A completed cover page (downloaded from the CETI website);
2. A project summary/abstract (no more than 500 words);
3. A 5 page research proposal that contains the following sections. Each section must be addressed separately with its own heading:

a. Specific Aims;
b. A statement as to how the proposed research relates to CETI’s theme;
c. Research Strategy:

i. Significance;
ii. Innovation;
iii. Approach.

d. A statement to indicate how the project will use CETI core facilities (if core facilities are not relevant to the project, please state and explain);
e. Grant submission plan to include a description of planned NIH or other funding agency submissions;
f. Literature Cited (not included in the 5 page limit);

4. An itemized budget not to exceed $40,000 per year for up to two years (form page to be completed may be downloaded from the CETI website);
5. A budget justification;
6. A list of current and pending support and a short statement describing each award’s relationship to this project;
7. An NIH style biosketch.


REVIEW PROCESS
Given that an important goal of the CETI seed program is to enhance the chances of UNM investigators obtaining NIH funding for their project(s), NIH review criteria and procedures will be used. Each proposal will be scored according to the five NIH criteria: significance, investigator, innovation, approach and environment. For information on these criteria and procedures see NIH notices NOT-OD-09-024 and NOT-OD-09-025. It is anticipated that three reviewers who will be selected to avoid conflict of interest will review each proposal. To the extent possible, all proposals will be reviewed by the same three reviewers, so that direct comparison can be made.

Final decisions regarding awards will be made by the COBRE PI and co-PI in consultation with CETI’s External Advisory Committee. 

CONDITIONS OF AWARD
IACUC or IRB approval is not necessary to apply for funding but must be received before an award can be made. Awardees will be required to sign a memorandum of agreement as a condition of project funding. This memorandum will serve to indicate the recipient’s willingness to attend CETI functions, take advantage of CETI’s mentoring and support activities, participate in annual External Advisory Committee (EAC) meetings and program review, cite CETI and NCRR in the proper format in any publications stemming from their seed grant, present their work at IDeA or other national meetings and submit a progress report two months before the end of each year of support.

QUESTIONS
All questions on CETI’s Seed Grant program or related to this announcement should be directed to the CETI program office, 505-277-5508, or ceti@unm.edu.

ADVICE FOR APPLICANTS
Reviewers will take the relevance to CETI’s theme very seriously. This is mandated by the funding agency. The applicant should address this criterion explicitly to be competitive. Although the reviewers will be sympathetic to interpreting such connections broadly, they will expect the case to be explicitly stated.

NIH COBRE programs have two fundamental goals: First, mentoring and support for investigators that have not been the Principal Investigator on a US Federal award such as NIH or NSF, and second, increasing the number of successful NIH funded investigators in the State of New Mexico. For these reasons preference will be given for the following:

1. Early stage investigators who have not yet been the PI on a federal grant;
2. Investigators who do not have other current forms of support for their research, or who have not already been supported by COBRE;
3. Investigators who have the potential to be COBRE mentees in the future;
4. Investigators proposing projects with the likelihood of future success for obtaining NIH funding.