Team Grant Accelerator

The Team Grant Accelerator program is structured to provide comprehensive support across the planning, pre-award, and post-award stages with specific mechanisms designed to incentivize investigators to pursue new large awards, fostering collaboration and enhancing grant success rates. Program projects receiving WFUSM support are expected to result in grant submissions. Below, please find the eligibility criteria for this program as well as four key areas of support for this program.

Institutionally funded Research Centers should become the key drivers and conveners of program projects and center grants. Centers’ contribution to these applications and awards will become a main criteria during annual reviews. As such, the large institutional commitment to pilot funds through Centers must be leveraged to develop program project or center grant applications. Projects can be funded independently with a single Center or receive joint funding from multiple Centers, where applicable.

Eligibility Criteria

WFUSM faculty at any rank and regardless of their WFUSM Centers or Institutes affiliation are eligible to apply. To be eligible for these funds, faculty must fill out the Intent to Submit Team Grant Application prior to submitting the proposal to the sponsor. The requests will be reviewed, and competitive applications will be invited to participate in the Team Grant Accelerator. Examples of eligible funding mechanisms supported by the program are listed below:

P01 – Research Program Project Grant
P30 – Center Core Grants
P50 – Specialized Center
P51 – Primate Research Center Grants
P60 – Comprehensive Center
U19 – Research Program-Cooperative Agreements
U54 – Specialized Center-Cooperative Agreements
UM2 – Program Project or Center with Complex Structure Cooperative Agreement
RM1 – Collaborative Program Grant for Multidisciplinary Teams

Other mechanisms, including non-NIH mechanisms, may be eligible, such as one supporting a large multi-center clinical trial. A determination will be made based on the review of the Team Grant Application.

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Other eligibility requirements include:

New or competing renewals.
WFUSM serves as prime site.
Direct support exceeds $1M per year for at least 3 years.
Indirect support (F&A) must be the NIH or PCORI level of support.
Other grants/mechanisms not specified may be eligible; please submit the application to prompt a discussion with the Research Vice Deans to determine official eligibility.

Team Grant Accelerator Support Mechanisms

Support Mechanism 1: Central Administrative Support

WFUSM will provide substantial central administrative support to teams establishing applications that meet the goals of this program. Specifically, WFUSM will provide:

Project Manager support to advance team activities towards the target goal of submission.
Priority access to CTSI Team Effectiveness Consultation.
Priority access to grant editing support.
Budgetary development and any accompanying documentation.
Formatting and assembling essential administrative documents, including biosketches, facilities and resources descriptions, major equipment, data safety monitoring plans (DSMP), data sharing plans, assembling sub-contracts, and other administrative components as needed. This includes timeline development, and process management during the weeks leading up to grant submission.

Applicants can opt out of this Support Mechanism if it is not needed.

Support Mechanism 2: Pre-Award/Pilot Funding ($25,000)

Support Mechanism 2 can be leveraged to provide additional funding of up to $25,000 for any variety of pre-award or pilot study activities. These may include:

support for travel to attend a conference related to the application;
support for travel to meet with funders to request approval to submit the application;
support to bring experts together for planning purposes (e.g., travel, honorarium); or
funding to supplement pilot funding already provided through a Center.

If a Center receives pre-award/pilot funding and does not submit a program project or center grant, the amount of funding received will be reduced from the following year’s Center budget. Applicants can opt out of this Support Mechanism if it is not needed.

Support Mechanism 3: Submission Incentive ($25,000)

To further incentivize the pursuit of large grant awards, research Centers that successfully submit a grant or contract meeting the eligibility criteria established above will receive $25,000, regardless of whether or not the grant/contract is ultimately funded. The intent of this incentive is to increase the number of applications submitted on behalf of WFUSM.

Support Mechanism 4: Funded Project Incentive

For program project or center grant applications that receive funding, WFUSM will augment the study budget in support of the research team by providing up to $100,000 per year in direct funding. These funds can be used to support additional faculty, staff, or other expenses for funded awards. These funds will not be awarded to the specific Contact PI and/or Contact PI Department, but instead will be a central account specifically allocated to augment the project’s budget beyond any cost share requirements specified. The goal of these funds should be to continue to build capacity for further expansion of the team grant or for development of future extramural proposals. Upon receipt of funding, a proposed budget and justification for WFUSM support will be submitted for approval.

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Team Grant Accelerator

Eligibility Criteria

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Other eligibility requirements include: