Ivy Fund for COVID-19 Research RFA

Ivy Foundation COVID-19 Translational Research Fund Request for Applications

Request for Applications as PDF

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ResearchApplication Deadline: Monday, June 22, 2020 by 5:00 pm

Program:

The Charlottesville-based Ivy Foundation has committed $2 million to accelerate biomedical research focused on COVID-19 at the University of Virginia. This newly created Ivy Foundation COVID-19 Translational Research Fund will support critical research that advances COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment options, vaccine development, and healthcare worker protection needs.

Awards will be made under a framework similar to that of the foundation’s Ivy Biomedical Innovation Fund, which was created in 2008 to support a broader biomedical innovation and translational research projects at UVA to address unmet clinical needs that have a realistic path to delivering improvements in health care. This solicitation may also support critical shared research infrastructure needs, with strong justification, embedded in the proposals for conducting the proposed COVID-19 related translational research, but also broadly enabling other researchers working on COVID-19, and to build a capacity for studying other viral infectious diseases of the future.

Eligibility Criteria:

  • Each proposal must have at least two co-investigators, of whom one must be clinical investigator (medical doctor, nurse, or a professional who sees patients).
  • At least one investigator from each team is required to be permanent, full-time, PI-eligible faculty at professorial rank (assistant, associate, or full professor).     

Proposal Evaluation Criteria:

  1. The quality of the science and technology presented, its feasibility, and its practical near-term orientation.
  2. The potential of the technology/approach to be rapidly integrated into and adopted by the healthcare system for addressing COVID-19 related challenges.
  3. Assuming the science/technology works as anticipated, the potential to implement the solution at scale in an economically viable manner.
  4. Critical knowledge/technology developed and the likelihood of IP generation and attracting follow on funding.
  5. Qualifications and Experience of the team.
  6. If infrastructure is included in the proposal, the relevance of the infrastructure for the proposed research, its justification, and the potential for enhanced capabilities at UVA for future studies in virology.

Proposals will include these components:

Cover Page: (not included in page limit)

  • project title
  • names of the co-investigators
  • funding amount requested
  • project summary (250 words or less)
  • approval/signature of the department chair(s)/Dean(s)

Project Plan: Research description and commercialization potential (five page limit):

  • Problem description - Describe the product/procedure/knowledge that you ultimately intend to develop.
  • Innovation - How is your approach to addressing the problem different relative to known efforts in the field?
  • Proposed Approach - Describe your scientific approach to solving the problem, including methods, and a plan.
  • Specific research milestones and the research plan for achieving each milestone. Include the experiments to perform to achieve each milestone; provide supporting preliminary data/hypothesis as appropriate.
  • Projected timeline for achieving milestones.
  • Include IRB and/or ACUC status for project if relevant.
  • Current intellectual property status, commercialization potential to advance the technology into the market and/or clinical adoption, the FDA approval plan (if relevant).
  • Plans for follow-on funding after this award expires.
  • Operating plan if core infrastructure request is included.

Proposal Supporting Documents (not included in page limit)

  • 1-page Budget and budget justification (use any format)
  • 2-page CV’s of each investigator in any standard format (NIH, NSF, and the like)
  • List of relevant current funding and pending proposals for each investigator

Application Guidelines:

Applications should be submitted as a single PDF and not exceed five pages of technical project description, including project timeline, milestones, and references. In addition, a cover page, a budget and budget justification page, and two-page CVs for each of the co-investigators should be included.

Note: exceeding page limit on your technical project description may result in your application not been reviewed.

Submission:

Please use Use Arial font, 11-point size, standard margins. Final proposal submissions are due by 5pm Monday, June 22, 2020. Please submit them via the internal submission system: https://virginia.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1816474

Duration:

Grants will be awarded for a one-year period. Awardees may be eligible to apply for competitive renewal applications in future rounds of funding, subject to availability of funds.

Budgets:

Eligible budget items include salary support (faculty, graduate students, and other research staff), operating supplies, minor equipment items, prototyping expenses, imaging time and travel directly associated with the research activity. For shared infrastructure proposals, details of ongoing operating costs and proposed means to cover them must be identified. There is no specific budget limit for the proposals. Budgets that are commensurate with the scope proposed and articulated in the justification section will be reviewed for allowability.

Reporting:

Award recipients are required to provide quarterly progress reports and a final report.

Target Dates:

Announcements of awards are expected in 30 days after the submission deadline, on or around July 22, 2020.

Questions? Contact Cheryl Wagner