Purpose

The Intramural Grants Program (IGP) is for all Augusta University investigators and is designed to assist and encourage faculty to develop research programs that can successfully compete for extramural funding, encourage collaborations, and to bridge funds when applicable. The major objective of this program is to provide funding to initiate or refine a project and acquire the necessary preliminary data for submission of a major extramural grant application to a federal agency, national foundation, or other external funding entity.  This program will include the following types of former applications:

  • Pilot projects – funding for all disciplines to assist faculty with initiating research projects or producing pilot data for extramural grant applications. Priority will be given to applications designed to produce pilot data for extramural grant applications that target Federal programs (e.g., NIH, NSF, NEH, DARPA, DOE, DOED, DOD or equivalent summary statement).
  • Bridge projects – funds that will allow faculty who have lost, or anticipate a loss of peer-reviewed extramural funding and have significant potential for future extramural funding. The primary goal is to enable faculty to continue their research by keeping teams together and maintain lab productivity as they seek to restore their funding.  Priority will be given to faculty with an NIH, NSF, NEH, DARPA, DOE, DOED, DOD or equivalent summary statement.
  • Translational/Interdisciplinary/Collaborative projects – the development of multidisciplinary, translational and interdisciplinary research teams from diverse disciplines to address important areas of investigation identified by the NIH roadmap.

Contact Us

Intramural Grants Program

pilotgrants@augusta.edu

FAQ's

What happens if my application is submitted late?

Late applications are not accepted; applicants would have to resubmit an updated application on the next cycle.

Are resubmissions allowed?

Unsuccessful IGP applications may be resubmitted one time after substantial revisions, and must include an introduction detailing any changes made. Applications that are substantially similar to proposals that were unsuccessful after two rounds of intramural review will be administratively withdrawn.

 

Eligibility

All full-time Augusta University (AU) faculty are eligible to apply. Faculty with voluntary ("clinical" or "adjunct") appointments are not eligible. Applicants may only hold one active Intramural Grants Program award at a time as the sole principal investigator. A faculty member with a current intramural award may participate as one of the Multi-PIs (MPI) on a collaborative project.

Faculty who are receiving extramural or intramural funding from any other institutional source must demonstrate that there is no scientific or budgetary overlap with this application.

Applicants with start-up and residual funds in excess of $50,000 are not eligible.

Research Incentive Account balances will not impact eligibility for funding.

Awards

Awards are made for a one-year period. The types of projects which may be submitted include:

  • Pilot projects - all applicants (sole PI or MPI) may request up to $30,000.
  • Bridge requests - applicants including a summary statement from an unfunded competing renewal application related to an ongoing extramural award may request up to $75,000. Extramural awards that cannot be renewed (e.g. NIH R21 grants) are not eligible for bridge funds.

 

The required outcome from the grant award will be: 1) Preparation of a proposal to obtain external funding from a federal agency or national foundation; and 2) Final progress report and annual updates of publications and extramural submissions/awards, and any other relevant project outcomes. Importantly, the expected outcomes need to be explicitly described.

Application Review and Criteria for Funding

A Research Advisory Committee composed of faculty from Augusta University will review and rank the proposals and submit recommendations to the Senior Vice President for Research. The Funding Council (consisting of the Senior Vice President for Research and the Research Associate Vice Presidents) will consider both programmatic needs as well as scientific merit from the recommendations and determine final awards based on the following priority criteria: 

  • The merit and quality of the application.
  • Likelihood of significant extramural funding.
  • The productivity of investigators, which includes the number of recent extramural applications submitted (as appropriate for the investigator’s discipline and stage of his/her career)
  • Type of project [i.e., pilot, bridge, collaborative, and interdisciplinary projects (e.g., across departments and colleges)].
  • The level of support by the applicant’s home department.  Evaluation of other available institutional funds.
  •  Submissions for which extramural reviews (e.g. NIH Summary Statements) are shared, and for which the PI IGP submission addresses
    requested modifications will be given preferential consideration in borderline funding decisions.
  • Multi-PI submissions will be given preferential consideration in borderline funding decisions.

 

The recommendations from the review committee on issues of scientific merit or institutional priority are not subject to appeal and should be addressed in a revised application. Administrative appeals based on conflict of interest or other issues of procedure will be considered by the Senior Vice President for Research.  Available critiques will be transmitted to the applicant after the meeting of the Funding Council. 

Applicant Submission and Preparation

Applications must be submitted using the InfoReady Portal. If an applicant has multiple documents to upload for a single section, please combine all documents into a single PDF before upload. View this demonstration video.

Links ( link icon ) and downloadable content ( file-download icon ) are indicated by the icons below.

1. InfoEd Routing

A completed and signed Intramural routing sheet in AU's electronic routing system eSproute is required. To submit your proposal for review, log in to eSProute and complete all required fields. The system will generate emails to the appropriate financial and administrative leaders for approval. Please note training and validation are required for use of eSProute.

2. Faculty Track Record Form

4. Detailed Budget and Budget Justification

Budgets that are not clearly justified run the risk of being administratively reduced. 

9. Other financial support

List all currently active and pending support, including any institutional intramural funding. List the specific aims of current and pending support and whether there is any scientific overlap with the proposed Intramural Grants Program work.

 

Applications will be accepted prior to required approvals, if applicable, by the IRB, IACUC, Radiation Safety, Institutional Biosafety, and Institutional Chemical Committees, as well as Augusta University Medical Center (AUMC) approval. However no funds will be awarded until all applicable regulatory approvals are in place.

Guidelines are available on the Tools for Researchers webpage.