Utah Genome Project Request for Proposals

Philanthropic donations provided to Utah Genome Project will be funding 4 to 5 pilot projects with a maximum budget of $50,000.

  • Deadline for submission is November 15, 2018
  • Decisions will be made December, 2018
  • Funding to start January 15, 2019
  • Questions: Deb Neklason (deb.neklason@hsi.utah.edu)

NOTE:  The University of Utah Center for Excellence in Ethical, Legal, and Social (ELSI) Issues in Genetic Research (UCEER) is partnering with the Utah Genome Project to offer additional funding to Pilot Project awardees who include a research aim focused on ethical, legal or social issues related to genetic research. UCEER is interested in well-defined projects from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds that focus on ethical, legal, and social issues relevant to human genetics. The UCEER collaboration provides up to an additional $10,000 for two projects including an ELSI aim in their project. More information about UCEER can be found at http://healthsciences.utah.edu/uceer/. If you have any questions about the UCEER funding component or what qualifies as ELSI research, please contact Erin Johnson (erin.johnson@nurs.utah.edu) or Becky Anderson (Rebecca.anderson@hsc.utah.edu). 

Purpose:

The mission of Utah Genome Project is to investigate the genetic basis of human disease through genomic sequencing of Utah families to discover, understand, prevent and treat challenging medical conditions.

The goals of Utah Genome Project are to build infrastructure and best-practice standards and make this available to Utah clinicians and researchers to promote genomic discovery, discover novel disease-causing genes and pathways to improve diagnosis, testing and treatment of human disease.

Research Scope:

We invite applications that build upon the mission of Utah Genome Project as stated above. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • Development of new cohorts for genetic discovery
  • Genetic discovery in well-phenotyped human cohorts.
  • Development of new treatment or diagnostics for human genetic conditions.
  • Development of novel methods to explore existing UGP data.
  • Methods to assess impact of non-coding variants.
  • Other areas that specifically relate to the mission of Utah Genome Project, for example, ELSI, multi-omics, use of electronic health records, pharmacogenomics.

* Please note that call for pilot proposals for functional analysis of candidate genes will be coming out in January, 2019.

Proposal Guidelines and Eligibility:

  • Only one research proposal per principal investigator will be reviewed.
  • Principal investigators must be at least 0.75 FTE tenure- or career-track faculty at the University of Utah.
  • Applications must articulate deliverables and plans for external funding.

Proposal Preferences:

Preference will be given to projects that:

  • Have significant scientific merit.
  • Have a high potential for extramural funding, preferentially from the NIH.
  • Are not currently supported by extramural funding.
  • Build or strengthen interdisciplinary partnerships with Utah Genome Project and institutional initiatives (Diabetes and Metabolism; Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious disease;Cancer; Neuroscience)
  • Build upon a strong track record of publication and funding of the applicant.

Application Instructions:

Applications and all supporting documents to be submitted by November 15, 2018 as one PDF. Font and spacing should be NIH compliant. Plan and budget for all aspects of project including genomic data processing, storage, and analysis (see budget template for pricing guidelines). Grant administration is the responsibility of the principal investigators. All applications must include each item in the following order:

  1. Cover page. PI (department, title and contact information), co-investigators (department, title and contact information), project title, IRB/IAUC approval numbers if relevant.
  2. Lay abstract that will be publicly available (1/2 page)
  3. Specific aims of the research proposal (1/2 page)
  4. Detailed proposal. (Up to 3 pages, including figures). Please address significance, innovation, approach, timeline, deliverables, data sharing plan and plan for external funding
  5. References
  6. Budget justification (1 page)
  7. Budget – use template provided by the UGP Program and suggested genomic analysis costs. Contact Breanna Caruso (breanna.caruso@hsc.utah.edu) for template.
  8. NIH biographical sketch for investigators (current and pending support; 5 pages)
  9. List of investigator’s past University of Utah pilot grant funding (title, amount, dates, resulting publications and external grants).

Budget Guidelines:

Pilot grant funds may be used for salaries and benefits of non-faculty project personnel, supplies, miscellaneous expenses, and services. Funds cannot be used for faculty salaries, travel that is not directly related to project research (e.g., conferences cannot be supported by this grant); consultants; or office equipment, including computers (unless specifically justified).

Evaluation and Funding of Proposals:

Proposals will be reviewed by the UGP Scientific Advisory Board to assess innovation, scientific merit, likelihood for success and external funding, and alignment with the mission of Utah Genome Project. If human subjects or animal research are involved, one copy of the IRB or IACUC approval will be required prior to release of funds.

Mid-Year Progress Report:

After the first six months of funding, a one-page progress report will be required for review by the research committee to assure adequate scientific progress.

Final Report:

Funded proposals must provide a progress report of no more than two pages in length describing the results and deliverables of the research, future directions, and plans to secure additional funding.

Please submit applications as a single PDF document titled with “PI name_UGP2018” to Breanna Caruso breanna.caruso@hsc.utah.edu

Questions? Please contact: Deborah Neklason, deb.neklason@hci.utah.edu