BIPH Call for Proposals

The Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health (BIPH) seeks proposals that address compelling problems related to precision health in any of the Institute’s research themes:

• Molecular Mining
• Molecular Recognition
• Microbiome and Human Health
• Micro- and Nanoscale Biomedical Instrumentation
• Point-of-Use Platforms

Requested funds, for any theme or topic, may be used:

• For the exploration or development of new ideas and/or tools (“seed funding”), or
• As matching grants to projects that are currently supported by extramural funding, with the intent of building on existing data and/or technologies and rapidly moving promising results to translation and/or implementation (“harvest funding”)

This year, BIPH anticipates awarding an approximate total of $250,000 through both the seed funding and harvest funding mechanisms, combined. Applicants are encouraged to apply to the theme/topic and mechanism that best advance their idea or project. Projects can be designed around a one-graduate-student, one-year model, or they can be collaborations that involve multiple investigators, or projects of longer duration.

Seed Funding Mechanism

The goal of these awards is to test new ideas and collect the preliminary data needed to prepare strongly competitive extramural grant applications to carry those ideas forward. The budgets of these projects typically cover personnel, supplies, equipment, and/or core facility fees.

How to Apply

All proposals should be submitted by e-mail as a single PDF file to precisionhealth@nd.edu and should contain the elements listed below:

1. Title page - including contact information for the PI(s)
2. Two-page project narrative, including:
   1. Short summary
   2. Goals/aims
   3. Research plan
   4. Milestones
   5. Other personnel and resources leveraged
3. Bibliography (no page limit)
4. Budget, with justification
5. Two-page CV for all PIs

Harvest Funding Mechanism

These matching grants should extend the scale or scope of currently funded research that addresses one or more of the BIPH themes in some way. This could include, for example, assay validation, prototype development, engineering designs, materials testing, computational modeling, etc. The funds can be used to support new work by graduate students/postdocs, purchase of supplies or materials, supercomputer access time, infrastructure needs, or other appropriate costs of executing the specified research.

How to Apply

All proposals should be submitted by e-mail as a single PDF file to precisionhealth@nd.edu and should contain the elements listed below:

1. Title page - including contact information for the PI(s)
2. Two-page project narrative, including:
   1. Project summary of the externally funded project including sponsor, dates, and total direct costs
   2. Statement of proposed new work, including relevance to programmatic areas, specific experimental or computational research objectives, and potential impact of the proposed
   3. Research plan
   4. Milestones
   5. Other personnel and resources leveraged
3. Bibliography (no page limit)
4. Budget, with justification
5. Two-page CV for all PIs

If there is ambiguity about external funding data, the NDR Cayuse system will be considered the official record.

Evaluation Criteria

All proposals, of both types, will be reviewed for:

• Scientific excellence
• Relevance to program objectives
• Feasibility of the research plan
• Potential for technology translation (if applicable)
• Capacity to attract sustainable external support or leverage existing resources

After peer-review ratings are received, proposals will be ranked and a proposed set of funded projects presented to the BIPH Steering Committee for approval.

Deadline

Please check back again soon for details on how to apply.

Questions?

Please contact Prakash Nallathamby or Arnie Phifer.