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SCI/TBI Advisory Council Meeting July 29, 2005 Via DDN at USDSU
Present: Mary Pat Forsberg, Ryan Green, Leo Hallan, Grady Kickul, Chris Olson, and Dr. Barry Timms
Also Present: Maria Kramer
Absent: Jim Tesch
Call to Order The meeting started at 10:27 a.m.
“Instructions for Grant Application” Draft Introduction Paragraph Dr. Timms recommended that the Council address the goals further on the web site rather than in the grant application. Chris noted www.scitbi.org is the current web site that should be put into the Instructions for Grant Application. Leo recommended that a mission statement be added on the web site. This application, when finalized, will be downloadable from the web site either as a Word document or .pdf file.
Grady suggested adding the following statement in this section: “The intent of these grants is to promote new and exciting studies that have potential to meet the goals of the Advisory Council as outlined in Executive Order 2004-07.” The web site address will follow the statement. Grady noted the following should also be inserted after “…Advisory Council…” in the first paragraph: “… as directed in Executive Order 2004-07”.
The Review Process Dr. Timms noted that the major grants would be funded for 1-year and be renewable. The pilot grants deadlines are May 1st and November 1st, and the major grants deadline is November 1st. Dr. Timms recommended that the Council get the revised application out by August 15th with a submission deadline of November 15th and an implementation date of January 15th.
Leo talked about his visit with Dr. Yang. Dr. Yang thought he might be able to do what Leo suggested starting his research from the current end point.
Research Grantee Responsibilities Dr. Timms recommended that the instructions should include a statement that it is important to the Council that this research has as a short-term goal to be applicable in the clinical arena. Grady suggested that after the web site address add another sentence to state “these goals include” and then list the priority items. Dr. Timms suggested the following: “important to these goals is the need to consider future implications of application to human therapies etc. and to encourage collaborative investigations.”
Dr. Timms also noted that it’s important that collaboration be encouraged. The reason being that if you have people from different disciplines working together, you increase the chances of something valuable coming out of that research because you’re touching upon many different areas. So you could have, for example, some basic neuroscience research allied to drug therapy trials. You could have basic neuroscience research allied to rehabilitation therapies, but that would involve completely different personnel and collaborative studies. Dr. Timms asserted that sentence is important. It needs to be worded in such a way that anybody looking at it will be encouraged to say “Well, before I apply for a grant, even though I think my grant is going to be new and exciting, I have to have a reason for doing this beyond the research. I need to look at the clinical relevance of the application. And if I can bring in collaborators that will help me achieve that, then that’s going to give me a better chance of being funded.” Dr. Timms noted that the sentence will be added after the web site address and before funding.
Funding Limitations The Advisory Council discussed the funding limitations for the pilot and major grants.
Mary Pat recommended the following under “Funding Limitations”:
Instructions for Application Dr. Timms recommended having the applicant provide a summary budget with the application and then when the grant is approved, there is an opportunity for the Council to come back to the applicant. If additional funds are available, the Council could tell the applicant that more funds are available. Then the applicant could reflect the desire for more funds when they submit the revised detailed budget.
Dr. Timms noted a statement is needed under the “Funding Limitations” section that implies that there is a limit to the number of grants that the Council can fund, but there is a possibility of a number of grants being funded depending on the level of funding requested in a given year. Dr. Timms will put together a statement regarding the funding. Grady clarified that the Council anticipates funding from 3 to 12 major and pilot grants during the upcoming year. This is consistent with an earlier suggestion by Chris.
Dr. Timms noted the change in the proposal section from a maximum of 5 pages single spaced and 2 pages of references to a maximum of 10 pages double spaced and the 2 additional pages for references. Dr. Timms noted that this is a generic instruction sheet for both the pilot and major grant application.
Grant Application Draft Dr. Timms noted that under #11, the PI can send up to three recent publications so that the review process can include what the applicant has already worked on. Grady noted that on the application under #14, budget; there isn’t any reference to the 1:1 institutional match. Grady recommended that the 1:1 institutional match be added in parentheses. Dr. Timms recommended that the Council put the institutional match on the instructions for the 2005 grant application. Dr. Timms will go through the application and the instructions to make sure the information matches.
Advisory Council’s Decision Leo asked for a motion to approve the application instruction amendments, the award amounts, and the deadline dates. Grady suggested the Council make the major grant $100,000 knowing that the applicant has to get a match. Grady moved that the max limits for pilot grants be $25,000 and major grants be $100,000. Chris seconded the motion and the Council unanimously approved the motion.
Grady also moved that the changes to the documents discussed today, the application instructions and application, be sent to the entire Council for a 5-day review and comment period. Then the Executive Committee (Leo, Chris, and Dr. Timms) will finalize the documents and publish them by August 15th with a November 15th deadline for applications and the implementation date January 15th. Mary Pat seconded and the Council unanimously approved the motion.
The next SCI/TBI Advisory Council meeting is TBA.
Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
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