Bernard L. Schwartz Designated Research Scholar Award in Pancreatic Cancer

Award supports young investigators working toward independent careers in pancreatic cancer research.

AT A GLANCE

DESCRIPTION

This award provides $75,000 per year for three years (total $225,000) for young investigators working toward independent careers in pancreatic cancer research.

OBJECTIVE 

The overall objective is to enable young investigators to develop independent and productive careers in pancreatic cancer research by ensuring that a major proportion of their time is protected for research.

ELIGIBILITY

• Candidates must hold an MD, PhD, or equivalent degree (e.g., MB, ChB, MBBS, DO).
• Applicants must hold full-time faculty positions at North American universities or professional institutes at the time award begins. Applicants must be Members of the AGA at the time of application submission. Please visit www.gastro.org or call 301-654-2055, extension 651, for membership information.  
• The award is not intended for fellows, but for young faculty, who have demonstrated unusual promise and have some record of accomplishment in research. Candidates should be in the beginning years of their careers; therefore, established investigators are not appropriate candidates.  
• MD applicants: No more than five years shall have elapsed following the completion of your clinical training (GI fellowship or its equivalent) and the start date of this award. PhD applicants: No more than five years shall have elapsed following the completion of your postdoctoral training and the start date of this award.
• An appropriately documented parental leave of absence will not be counted toward the above mentioned five (5) years of eligibility. Other exceptional circumstances will be considered. Candidates must devote at least 70 percent of their efforts to research related to pancreatic cancer. Women, minorities and physician/scientist investigators are strongly encouraged to apply.

AWARD OVERLAP

• At the time of application, candidates are not allowed to hold or to have held an R01, R29, R21, K-series award, Veterans Affairs Career Development Award or any award with similar objectives from non-federal sources (such as the American Liver Foundation, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or Glaxo Institute of Digestive Health). If an RSA recipient is notified of a similar award on a similar topic from another agency prior to the first payment of the RSA (July 1), the recipient must choose among the awards (i.e. the recipient will not be allowed to retain both the RSA and the other award). If the recipient receives notification from another agency that he/she has received a similar award after the first payment of the RSA (July 1), the recipient must forfeit the RSA. The balance of the forfeited award must be returned to the FDHN.
• The intent of this award is to foster the scientific independence of junior investigators, applicants whose research activities become incorporated into a federal grant application from a senior mentor will need to delineate clearly the scientific and experimental distinctions between their respective programs. This requirement applies both to pending applications submitted prior to review of this award and to applications submitted up to three years after any award is made. It must also be clearly stated that the work submitted by the applicant is that of the applicant and not other senior mentors. Should the contents of other applications be included in the application for the Designated Research Award in Pancreatic Cancer, the applicant will be disqualified from consideration.

REQUIREMENTS

• Resources allocated through this award are intended to support the career development of the applicant. Accordingly, requests for salary, fringe or other support for the mentor are not allowed. Indirect costs are not allowed. Upon notification of receipt of this award, awardee must provide approval from the appropriate committee at your institution for use of human subjects or animals. If approval is not necessary, awardee must provide explanation. Evidence for developing independence in research initiatives should be provided.  
• Recipients must file administrative reports consisting of a one-page plain language progress report, a list of publications, and division chief or department chair certification, by April 30 of each year. A complete financial statement and scientific progress report are required annually and upon completion of the program. Second and third year funding is contingent upon submission of these reports. 
• All publications, presentations and abstracts arising from work funded by this program must acknowledge support of the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition Bernard L. Schwartz Designated Research Award in Pancreatic Cancer.

INSTITUTIONAL COMMITMENT

• There must be a strong commitment from the candidate’s division and/or department to support the candidate by protecting time for research and providing adequate laboratory space and other supporting facilities. These commitments must be carefully described in letters from the candidate’s division chief and department chair. The letters must certify that the award is being used to provide protected time to the recipient in accord with the terms of the award. In addition, it is expected that the sponsor will outline specific plans for the future development of the research career of the applicant.  The institution must commit to assuring timely and accurate reporting of current research activities of awardees. This includes an annual report of the funding status of the applicant, grants submitted and pending, and all publications.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Recipients will be selected based on novelty, feasibility and significance of the proposal; attributes of the candidate, including potential for independence; evidence of institutional commitment; and the research environment. The candidate should state clearly how the additional training will benefit his/her research career. Special consideration will be given to those applications with a focus in nutrition or geriatrics.

REVIEW PROCESS

A selection committee comprised of members of the AGA Research Awards Panel will review the proposals and select the recipients. Funding will begin in July.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The application deadline date for this award is midnight, January 29. To download the award application, please visit www.fdhn.org. The completed application, letters of support or commitment and other documents, as applicable, must be combined into and submitted as one PDF document. The document must be titled by the applicant’s last name and first initial only. Hard copies are not permitted. Please email the application document to awards@fdhn.org. Please direct all questions to the Research Awards Manager, by telephone at 301-222-4012 or via email at awards@fdhn.org.