Monkeypox Rapid Response Pilot Grant

The CFAR Monkeypox Rapid Response Pilot Grant Program seeks to support rapid response research at UCSF focused on the emerging Monkeypox epidemic in the context of HIV.

Timeline

Background

Many aspects of the epidemiology and viral pathogenesis of monkeypox are not fully understood. We seek to support research efforts to better understand monkeypox in the context of HIV infection or prevention. Projects must be within NIH’s HIV/AIDS research high or medium priority areas and clearly linked to HIV in order to be eligible for CFAR funding.

• Proposals can address a broad spectrum of monkeypox related research, including viral pathogenesis, immunology, epidemiology, sociobehavioral aspects, and clinical implementation.
• Successful applications will describe how completion of the proposed work will impact the current understanding of the monkeypox epidemic
• Successful applications will describe the next steps if the aims of the project are achieved and plans for supporting that next-step research effort (e.g., extramural funding).
• High-risk thinking or approaches that will likely yield explicit “deliverables” (including discovery that the idea was wrong) will also be considered.
• Multiple-PI and cross-disciplinary efforts are encouraged.

Clinical Trials: NIH does not allow CFAR to fund clinical trials. If your study involves one or more human subjects, involves one or more interventions, prospectively assigns human subjects to interventions, or has a health-related biomedical or behavior outcome, please contact Lauren Sterling with a brief description of your study (lauren.sterling@ucsf.edu) to determine whether your proposed project would be eligible for funding through CFAR.

Funding

• Up to $30,000 direct costs for up to one year
• We anticipate awarding 2-3 proposals

Eligibility

Investigators must be at UCSF or CFAR-affiliated partner institutes (Gladstone Institutes, Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco Department of Public Health, and San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center/NCIRE.)

Who is eligible:

• Postdoctoral or clinical fellows in training
• Current faculty in any Series (Ladder Rank, In Residence, Clinical X, Health Science Clinical, Adjunct) at the Assistant Professor or Clinical Instructor level (including acting positions) who have not yet received an R01-equivalent award in HIV/AIDS
• Current faculty in any Series (Ladder Rank, In Residence, Clinical X, Health Science Clinical, Adjunct) in the ranks of Assistant professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, and Clinical Instructor (including acting positions) who have not yet received any HIV/AIDS research funding.
• Non-faculty series - Professional Research Series including Specialist Series. Investigators in these series must make a strong case for their plan for becoming independent researchers

Selection Process

A diverse faculty committee with appropriate expertise and understanding of the research arena will select awardees and establish funding levels.

Review Considerations

1. impactful monkeypox research focus set in the context of HIV;
2. potential for tangible benefit to patients, including the likelihood that the study will have an immediate patient impact;
3. potential for supporting tangible next steps – larger projects, follow-on funding, etc.;
4. attention to health disparities, community engagement, stigma, ethical, and/or regulatory issues;
5. potential downstream use of tools, measurements, approaches, and data, including open public accessibility of generated data and publications.

Proposal Instructions

Format: Arial 11 font; 0.5 inch margins (see attached template)

1. Cover Page (1 page limit): Cover page with title of proposal, Principal Investigator name(s), Abstract (300 words)
2. Project Description (2-page limit): 2-sentence Problem Statement; Rationale/background; proposed research plan (details below*). Preliminary data not required. Any figures count in the 2 page limit. References do not count in the 2 page limit.
3. Budget and Budget Justification (together with 1 page limit): Administrative support and tuition are not allowable expenses. Funds may support PI salary. Similarly, other costs may be allowed if well-justified and necessary for the rapid execution of the project.
4. Biosketches: (not part of page limitations): for each PI, new NIH format.

Research Plan

Details for what should be included in the Proposed Research Plan:

• Specific Aims – What are you going to do?
• Approach – How are you going to do it?
• Feasibility and Timeline – How likely is it to be done in the time proposed/allowed?
• Innovation – What is innovative about this proposal? the approach? the question? etc.
• Significance and Impact – Why is the problem important? If you succeed, what “needle” is moved and by how much? We especially encourage work that will have an immediate impact.
• Dissemination of Results – Describe in ≤3 sentences how you plan to rapidly disseminate the study results to the scientific and lay communities.

Submission

Please complete the linked webform (if you have issues with the webform not showing, try this direct link: https://airtable.com/shrRDJuE7PuBeMl4x) and upload your single PDF proposal with the above components no later than Wednesday, August 3, 2022 12:00 pm PDT. NOTE: Include contact PI last name in the file name.