Request for Proposals:  HIPI Seed Funding

The Human ImmunoPhenotyping Initiative (HIPI) announces a call for Translational Research Seed Grant proposals to support innovative projects in precision immunomedicine. We seek to fund teams of two faculty, one specializing in immunological research and the other focused on clinical research. Competitive projects should aim to advance discovery in translational research and be novel, transformative, and set UVA apart from peer institutions. We expect seed funding recipients to use the award to generate preliminary data they will use to secure external funding. HIPI will also assist in identifying and pursuing additional funding opportunities.

Available Funding

Seed grants of up to $100,000 are available

Application Timeline

Applications for each year are due by June 1st at 5:00PM. Awards will be announced the following August.

Eligibility

We invite all UVA investigators eligible to apply for external funding to submit proposals. We will accept submissions from all collaborative teams that pair investigators with immunology and clinical expertise.

Evaluation Criteria

HIPI Seed Grant proposals will be evaluated on the proposal’s potential to:

  1. Impact, transform, and advance the future of precision immunomedicine.
  2. Foster new collaborations and leverage the expertise of team members to advance translational research.
  3. Lead to external funding to sustain the proposed research and/or support translation of an innovation into practice.

Proposal Format and Guidelines

All materials should be submitted as a single PDF file to hipi@virginia.edu. All documents should be prepared with 0.5-inch margins and 11-point, single-spaced Arial font.

  1. Cover page with project title and names of principal investigators, co-investigators, collaborators, and trainees. Include departmental and school affiliations.
  2. Research proposal, not to exceed 6 pages excluding references. Proposals must contain:
    1. Specific aims/objectives
    2. Significance/impact of the proposal to precision immunomedicine
    3. Background and preliminary findings
    4. Research plan including expected outcomes and alternative approaches
    5. Detailed approach for bioinformatics and/or statistical analysis
    6. Descriptions of the datasets, especially genomic/functional genomic data (e.g. CyTOF, WGS/SNP, RNA-sec, sc-RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, etc.), that will be analyzed. This could include data to be generated from HPI samples as well as data from the PI’s lab and/or publically available data.
    7. Timeline outlining semiannual milestones
    8. Future directions articulating how this seed grant will provide data to secure external funding. Be as specific as possible and include information on previous, related application and their outcomes.
  3. NIH-style biosketch including current and pending support for each lead investigator, co-investigator, and collaborator
  4. Budget and justification. The budget is not to exceed $100,000. Provide amounts and justifications for all major line items, including personnel. Allowable costs include supplies and salary support for UVA staff and trainees. No faculty salaries, purchase of equipment, or conference travel areallowed. The proposed budget must not have scientific or budgetary overlap with currently funded projects. Successful applications may be funded at less than the amount requested.
  5. Research involving human subjects, animals, recombinant DNA, or radiation must be approved by appropriate UVA committee(s) before the onset of the project.

Post-Award Expectations

  1. Two-page progress reports will be due 12 and 24 months after funding has been released. Reports will include summaries of scientific progress and list resulting abstracts, publications, and grants, both submitted and awarded.
  2. With the aim of fostering a collaborative ecosystem we ask that data generated be added into the UVA Resource and Data Exchange. This research data infrastructure enables the safe, secure collection, storage, sharing and analysis of data. Access will be controlled by project principal investigators and various levels of personalized access can be established.
  3. Awardees will be expected to budget for continued HIPI services, resources, and personnel in future proposals for external funding. Services include scientific, administrative, technical, bioinformatic, and biostatistical support.
  4. Awardees will present their research at HIPI events.
  5. Awardees will acknowledge HIPI support in any scholarly product resulting from this grant.
  6. Project summaries will be publicized on the HIPI website and other channels.

For questions regarding proposal preparation, submission, or other inquiries, please contact Dr. Jessica Allen at (hipi@virginia.edu).