AGA-General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition Research Scholar Award in Gut Physiology and Health

AT A GLANCE

DESCRIPTION

This award provides $75,000 per year for three years (total $225,000) for a young investigator working toward an independent career studying the relationship of gut microflora to physiology and immune function.

OBJECTIVE

The overall objective is to ensure that a young investigator has protected time for research in the area of gut microflora.

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 prior to December 31, 2010. 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 intended to support young faculty (not fellows), 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 gut microflora. 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 (January 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, the recipient must forfeit the RSA. The balance of the forfeited award must be returned to FDHN for redistribution.
• The intent of this award is to foster the scientific independence of junior investigators. Therefore, applicants whose research activities are incorporated into a federal grant application from a senior mentor will need to clearly delineate the scientific and experimental distinctions between their respective programs. This requirement applies both to pending applications and applications submitted during the award term. Applications must also state that the work submitted is that of the applicant and not other senior mentors. Should the contents of other applications be included in the application for the Research Scholar Award, 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 scientific progress reports consisting of a one-page plain language progress report, a list of publications, and division chief or department chair certification by December 31 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 AGA-General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition Research Scholar Award in Gut Physiology and Health.

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.

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 January 2011.

APPLICATION PROCESS

• The application deadline date for this award is midnight, September 3. 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.