Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award
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Limited program-the sponsor has reinstated the institutional nomination process. Because Stanford has been invited to submit only five applications, a university-wide internal selection process is required. For physician scientist assistant professors with UTL, MCL, and NTL-R appointments who are within the first four years of their first full faculty appointments. Please see eligiblity below.
# of applicants permitted: 5 (see the internal submission guidelines below)
Timeline:
Internal Cancer Institute deadline: Monday, Dec. 15, 2014, 3:00 p.m. (see internal submission guidelines below)
Jan. 12, 2015-date the final applicant selected by the Cancer Institute internal review committee will be notified to proceed with the full application
Feb. 10, 2015- Research Process Manager (RPM) (in RMG) deadline
Feb. 17, 2015- Sponsor's application deadline
Program overview:
http://www.damonrunyon.org/for_scientists/more/clinical_investigator_award_overview
Application Guidelines
http://www.damonrunyon.org/for_scientists/more/clinical_investigator_award_application_guidelines
Amount of funding:
$150,000/yr x 3 years ($450,000 total costs over 3 yrs) (no indirect costs are provided)
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation will retire up to $100,000 of any qualifying medical school debt still owed by the awardee.
Purpose:
The Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award supports independent young physician-scientists conducting disease-oriented research that demonstrates a high level of innovation and creativity. The goal is to support the best young physician-scientists doing work aimed at improving the practice of cancer medicine. The program is specifically intended to provide outstanding young physicians with the resources and training structure essential to becoming successful clinical investigators. The goal is to increase the number of physicians capable of moving seamlessly between the laboratory and the patient’s bedside in search of breakthrough treatments.
Eligibility:
- The applicant must apply within the first four (4) years of his/her initial full assistant professor faculty appointment (UTL, MCL or NTL-Research appt.) (cut-off July 2011). Adjunct or acting positions are not eligible. Please use the date the Provost Office approved your formal UTL or MCL faculty appointment. Time spent in your acting assistant professor appointment is not counted as "acting" appointments are not considered faculty appointments at Stanford. If you were an assistant professor at another institution prior to coming to Stanford, time spent in that position must be included.
- Clinical Educator Line assistant professors and Instructors are not eligible.
- The applicant must be a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident.
- The applicant must have received an MD or MD/PhD degree(s) from an accredited institution, completed his/her subspecialty training and be board-eligible.
- The applicant must hold a valid, active U.S. medical license at the time of application.
- The applicant must commit to spending 80% of their time conducting research. [In rare unique circumstances, the CIA Review Committee may consider an applicant with a very modest reduction of 80% protected time if their Department Chair can provide a compelling reason explaining why a waiver of the 80% requirement should be granted, what percentage of effort will be guaranteed, and what safeguards will be put in place to make sure the individual’s research will not be compromised by their clinical/administrative activities.]
- The applicant is required to apply in conjunction with a Mentor who is established in the field of clinical translational cancer research, cancer prevention and/or epidemiology and can provide the critical guidance needed during the period of the award. No more than two Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators will be funded to work with the same Mentor at any given time.
- Candidates may apply up to three times during this eligibility period.
- Candidates holding or awarded R01s at the time of application are not eligible to apply.
Investigators may receive funding from other sources to support their research. However, no other physician-scientist mentored career development award from a private source (non-federal government) may be held concurrently with the Clinical Investigator Award.
- Physician-scientist career development awards from the federal government including the National Institutes of Health (e.g., K-08, K-12, K-23), the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are allowed.
Scientific or budgetary overlap with other funded projects is not allowed. Therefore, it is critical that all current and pending grant support for your research be reported to the Foundation and the relationship of that support to the Damon Runyon funded project be explained.
- Examples of awards that cannot be held concurrently with the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award include (but are not limited to):
- AACR- Career Development Award
- American Cancer Society- Mentored Research Scholar Grants in Applied and Clinical Research
- ASCO- Career Development Award
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund- Career Award for Medical Scientists
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation- Clinical Scientist Development Award
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute- Physician-Scientists Early Career Award, Early Career Scientist Competition
- Kimmel Foundation- Kimmel Translation Science Award, Kimmel Scholar Award
- Leukemia and Lymphoma Society- Career Development Program, Scholar Awards
- AACR- Career Development Award
Definition of Clinical Research
For the purposes of this award, the Foundation’s definition of clinical research will follow the definition set out in “The NIH Director’s Panel on Clinical Research Report to The Advisory Committee to The NIH Director,” December, 1997.
- a) Patient-oriented research: Research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator directly interacts with human subjects. This area of research includes: patient-based studies of mechanisms of human disease, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, clinical trials and development of new technologies for the detection, treatment and prevention of human cancers.
- b) Epidemiologic and behavioral studies.
- c) Outcomes research and health services research.
Excluded from this definition are in vitro studies that utilize human tissues but do not deal directly with patients. In other words, clinical or patient-oriented research is research in which it is necessary to know the identity of the patient(s) from whom the cells or tissues under study are derived.
Preference will be given to research that adheres to the “Handshake Rule,” meaning that the physician will conduct research studies that directly involve patients.
- Excellence of the applicant and mentor.
- Innovation, creativity, quality and originality of the research proposal.
- The commitment of the mentor and institution to the development and training of the applicant as a skilled clinical research investigator.
- Evidence of the applicant’s commitment to clinical translational and/or cancer prevention research and their ability to apply advances in laboratory research to clinical problems.
- Importance of the proposed research to the field of cancer and/or cancer prevention.
- Adherence of the proposal to the definition of clinical research as set out on this web page.
- Adherence to the “Handshake Rule.”
Internal Submission Guidelines
By Monday, Dec. 15, 2014, 3 p.m. please send one PDF file containing the following, in the order listed below (title page, scanned copy of the original signed nomination letter, research proposal, biosketch, other support) to:
Denise Baughman
Project Manager
Stanford Cancer Institute
deniseb@stanford.edu
File name: Last name_Damon_Runyon_Clin_Inv.pdf
You do not have to prepare a budget or submit a PDRF online form for the internal review process, nor do you need to involve your institutional representative (RPM/RMG, OSR).
1) Title Page
Title of this RFA: Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Clinical Investigator Award
Title of your proposal:
PI contact information: (name, title, department, address, email, phone, fax)
2) Nomination letter prepared by your mentor printed on your department letterhead addressed to the Stanford Cancer Institute Internal Review Committee signed by your mentor, division chief and your department chair. The nomination letter must confirm that the nominee can commit a minimum of 80% of their professional effort to the conduct of research and research career development.
3) 4 page Research Proposal (illustrations & references not included in page total)
Font size at least size 12 with half-inch margins. (include specific aims, preliminary results and research design)
4) 4-6 page NIH-format biosketch
5) Other funding--current and pending, sponsor, amount of funding, term as well as start up funds.
Selection Process
The internal proposal packets will distributed to the Stanford Cancer Institute Internal Review Committee which will select the five applicants to represent the School of Medicine. The sponsor's deadline is Feb. 17, 2015.
