BUSM Faculty Intending to Submit Shared Instrumentation Grants in 2015

 SIG Pre-submission Process

The Shared Instrument Grant (SIG) program encourages applications from groups of NIH-sponsored investigators to purchase or upgrade a single item of expensive, specialized, commercially available instruments or integrated systems that cost at least $50,000. Types of instruments supported include, but are not limited to: X-ray diffraction systems, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometers, DNA and protein sequencers, biosensors, electron and confocal microscopes, cell-sorters and biomedical imagers.  See RFA here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-15-088.html

The office of the Associate Dean for Research, BUSM will facilitate an internal SIG pre-submission process to foster collaborative proposals and increase the success rate for the University. This pre-submission process requires that applicants fill out an online form designed inform Dr. Antman, BUSM Dean and BUMC Provost of your interest in applying for an S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant.

The proposals will be routed to the Core Advisory Committee, who will assist the Associate Dean for Research, BUSM and the Provost with evaluating scientific merit and ensuring that highly-rated applications receive the appropriate level of institutional support to make them most competitive.

This process will:

  1. Identify the necessary level of institutional support needed for a competitive application.
  2. Identify any potential space and renovation needs ahead of the application.
  3. Help obtain access to equipment, or equipment loans, in order to generate additional data to strengthen the application if needed.
  4. Alert other members of the research community who may be important additions to the users group, and ensure transparency of the SIG process.
  5. Ensure that we do not have competing applications for similar equipment.

This process is not intended to prevent submission of applications, but to recognize that when multiple applications are being submitted, it may not be possible to centrally support all of them at a competitive level from the Provost’s or the Deans’ resources, providing the opportunity to identify alternative sources of funding.

If you are considering submitting a SIG in 2015, please fill out the SIG pre-submission online form as soon as possible.  The internal submission deadline university-wide is March 9.