Due to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, all John S. Dunn Collaborative Proposal deadlines have been moved forward 30-days.  This means that UTMB faculty interested in preparing a new collaborative pre-proposal with faculty from another GCC institution have until April 30 to submit that pre-proposal to Melodi Moore at mdmoore@utmb.edu.

The new timeline is as follows:

April 30 - UTMB pre-proposals due to Melodi Moore
May 20 - Invitation to submit issued
July 10 - Full proposal due to GCC
Sept 1 - Project start date
August 31, 2021 - Project end date

Pre-proposals will include:

1. PI name, title, department, institution, email
2. Co-PI name, title, department, institution, email
3. If applicable: Co-I name, title, department, institution, email
4. Title of project
5. Abstract of up to 450 words
6. Statement attesting to this being a new collaboration among team members (i.e., no joint papers, abstracts, grant funding of any kind) 
7. Statement that the collaborative team leadership (PI and co-PI) is submitting the proposal only once and only to the PI institution
8. Timeline including milestones for the 2-year funding period as well as a best-case scenario plan for transition to clinical studies within 5 years of project start (not included in 2-page limit).
9. Biosketches for the PI and co-PI (2- page limit). ***Note: If a Co-I is included, a 2-page biosketch must also be submitted. 2-page biosketch should only reflect information (e.g. publications) pertinent to the proposal.
10. List of suggested reviewers – name, institution and email; 3 internal to GCC community and 3 external – in the event the team is invited to submit a full proposal. These reviewers will be able to provide an unbiased, knowledgeable review of your team’s inter-disciplinary proposal. Please avoid suggesting reviewers with whom you have conflicts of interest (i.e. joint authorship or grants, frequent interaction, collegial affiliations, etc.). See COI form.

***Note that timeline, biosketches and suggested reviewers will not be included in the 2 page limit.

Team Eligibility Requirements
Please read the below eligibility requirements carefully. Proposals that do not meet these requirements will be disqualified. Eligible teams must satisfy all of the following criteria:

1. Faculty
   • The PI and Co-PI must be PhD (tenured or tenure-track), MD, or MD/PhD.
   • Co-I: a third team member is optional and must be PhD (tenured or tenure-track), MD, or MD/PhD.
2. Institutional Affiliation:
   • PI and co-PI must be faculty at different GCC member institutions.
   • Co-I may be from any GCC member institution or from a GCC affiliate institution (Houston Methodist Research Institute, Texas Southern University)
3. New Collaborations:
   • None of the investigators on the proposing team, including co-PIs and Co-Is, should have worked together previously, since the goal of this program is to initiate new research collaborations. An exception is if the Co-I is providing services from a core facility.
   • Previous collaborative activity is defined as collaborations that have resulted in measurable outcomes, including but not limited to abstracts, publications, grants, patents, etc.
4. One-proposal Limit:
   • Faculty can be PI or a member of the collaborative team on only one pre-proposal.
   • The pre-proposal may be submitted only once, to the PI institution.
5. Previous Recipients:
   • There is a 3-year moratorium for all previous award recipients. Members of any research team that received an award between 2017-2019 are ineligible for the 2020 research grant program.
   • A listing of past recipients can be found here.

   Any questions about the above requirements may be sent to Suzanne Tomlinson PhD.

All pre-proposals will be reviewed internally by a designated research review committee of the PI institution. Based on their review, the committee will select three pre-proposals and notify the GCC of the committee selection. GCC will invite the PI of each to submit a full proposal directly to the GCC. Those not invited to submit full proposals will be notified by the PI institution.