RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program

CALL FOR PROPOSALS IN POPULATION HEALTH

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at The University of Pennsylvania(RWJF H&SSP at Penn) has set aside a Competitive Research and Education Fund to promote interdisciplinary research and education in population health at Penn.  We expect that most of these funds will be used by Penn faculty to develop pilot projects which will attract external support for larger-scale studies, to fund small scale projects, or to develop enduring educational materials that will advance teaching and training in population health concepts or methods within the University. We expect that most grants will be in the range of $2,000 to $20,000 (although we will consider larger grants for especially creative projects). All funds must be expended by August 31, 2010.
We make a distinction between small grants and pilot grants.  Small grants support projects that, while small in scope, are designed to produce independently publishable research results.  Pilot grants are meant to support work that is essential to test the feasibility of methods or analyses as a way to design larger projects and attract external funding to support those projects.  Pilot projects may or may not lead to independently publishable research results.  Although we can support both kinds of projects under this solicitation, the most competitive proposals will be those with clearly and explicitly articulated next steps for funding or research.
This call for proposals is open to faculty throughout the Penn community and is intended to:

• stimulate research and training ideas among the Penn community,
• help Penn researchers attract support from external sources for large-scale studies,
• encourage the development of new collaborations between investigators of different backgrounds and disciplines, and
• encourage the entry of new investigators to the field of population health.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Applicants must be faculty of the University of Pennsylvania (this includes current Health & Society and Clinical Scholars) and proposed projects must be relevant to the area of population health. Investigators who have already received funding for the same project are not eligible under this solicitation.
Research or education and training proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria:

• Relevance to the field of population health and the social determinants of health; (proposals whose focus is largely on health care, rather than health, will be at a disadvantage in this solicitation);
• Feasibility: project aims can be completed within specified timeframe;
• Scholarly merit: for research projects, proposed methodology is strong and appropriate high quality data are available or will be obtained to address research question(s); for education and training projects, conceptually important and innovative approaches are proposed;
• Uniqueness: the project offers potential for new insights into methodological, ethical and/or health policy issues in population health;
• Potential to become self sustaining:  for research proposals, pilot funds should increase the probability of garnering external sponsorship for larger projects.  Proposals should detail as specifically as possible the potential future funding sources and how that future funding would be difficult to obtain without pilot funds.  For education and training proposals, pilot funds should increase the probability that the project will produce educational materials of enduring value, or a course of instruction from which several cohorts of students or trainees may benefit;
• A crisply defined set of aims, expectations and deliverables;
• A highly qualified investigative team, with priority given to interdisciplinary collaborations.
• Although the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is focused on issues pertaining to domestic health care, we recognize the relevance and value of cross-national research for American health policy.  We will consider comparative research, so long as the US remains central to the proposal.

Collaboration with Current Health & Society Scholars
The funds set aside for this solicitation are designed to advance the intellectual infrastructure in population health at Penn and exist in parallel with the current RWJ Health & Society Scholars Program.  Collaboration with current Health & Society Scholars is not a requirement for proposals, but effective collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries can enhance a proposal’s priority.  Information about the Health & Society Scholars Program and the current Scholars can be found at www.upenn.edu/rwjhssp.
Other Requirements
All investigators receiving grant funds must submit a final report to the H&SSP at the end of the funding period.  Investigators may also be requested to present their results at a research seminar series.  All publications resulting from this study must acknowledge the RWJ H&SSP at Penn.  Investigators must send a copy of all publications and other products of the program (including syllabi and course materials) to H&SSP. All funds must be expended by August 31, 2009. Grant awardees must also provide a budget accounting for their project no later than July 13, 2009. Details on this reporting will be outlined in the award letter.
Use of Grant Funds
Funds may be used to support project staff, consultant fees, data management, supplies, and other direct expenses including the development of didactic material.  Funds may be used to support domestic travel to meetings to present work, and/or to purchase equipment but only if essential to the project and unsupportable by other means. Funds may not used to support faculty or fellow salaries or benefits.
How to Apply
Penn faculty should submit an electronic version of a 3 page project proposal to Penn’s H&SSP.  This proposal must contain a project abstract (not to exceed 250 words) and a project description (up to two pages, single-spaced) which contains the following information:

• A statement of the project’s principal objectives, significance and impact
• A description of the research plan and methodologies to be employed (if relevant)
• A clear discussion of how the data will be collected (if relevant)
• For pilot projects, an explicit discussion of how this pilot project will enhance the investigator’s ability to attract additional external sponsorship, specifying future potential funding sources
• For requests for curricular development, a discussion of planned activities and how the resulting products will contribute to developing the research potential of Penn trainees (e.g. RWJ Health & Society Scholars)
• A clear description of deliverables expected at the completion of the project (e.g., a manuscript ready for submission, a full research proposal ready for submission, a research presentation in the form of PowerPoint slide deck, a course syllabus, a lecture series in notes and slides, an annotated bibliography, etc.)
• A timetable
• Project budget that justifies the specific items requested (not to exceed one page)
• Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) biosketch with selected relevant publication bibliography
  (not to exceed two pages)
• Other pending proposals for the same project
• Co-Investigators’ biosketch(es) with selected relevant publication bibliography (not to exceed two pages)
• One copy of appendices (if included).

Applications should be submitted electronically along with an email clearly stating the following:

• The name, campus address, email and phone number of the Principal Investigator (PI) and up to 2 co-PI’s.
• The name, email and phone number of your business administrator
• The title of the project
• The amount being requested

Please email this information to Program Coordinator, Melissa Kulynych: mkulynyc@wharton.upenn.edu. Please do not submit your application without emailing this additional information. Any applications received without this information will be returned.
The deadline for submitting applications is November 13, 2009. Awards will be announced by December 15, 2009.
As a condition of funding, PIs of all proposals must receive IRB approval from the ORA affirming that the project meets all regulatory standards; approval in hand is not necessary but materials should be submitted to the IRB prior to submitting the proposal to the RWJ H&SSP.  

For additional information, please contact Melissa Kulynych by telephone at (215)746-7744 or email mkulynyc@wharton.upenn.edu.  Please visit us at: http://www.upenn.edu/rwjhssp/