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Full Application Instructions

IMPORTANT NOTES
Applicants are strongly advised to read completely through the program descriptions and guidelines before starting an application.
Applications are available on the Foundant Technologies Website.

ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW

Please note that after you submit your application it will be reviewed by ATS Research Program staff. If there are any problems or if these guidelines have not been followed, your proposal will be un-submitted. Please make sure that you check your email after you submit your application so that any outstanding issues may be addressed as quickly as possible.

ELIGIBILITY*

Grants without a letter of intent stage will include sections on eligibility. Please refer to the letter of intent instructions and eligibility criteria for any questions.

KEY PERSONNEL

Please a) list the key personnel on your project b) list each of their roles on the project (mentor, consultant, research technician, etc.) c) approximate the total percentage of total effort* that the person will contribute to the project.

*Total effort may be defined by percent of participation on the project, percent of salary support, or a combination of both of these factors. Make sure that you are clearly stating how you are defining total effort.

SIGNING OFFICIAL

A signing official is any individual at your institution with the authority to sign contracts.

BIOSKETCHES (5 page limit)

Please note that you MUST observe the limits indicated in the biosketch template (e.g. biosketches may not exceed 5 pages). Applications with biosketches that do not meet the requirements will be un-submitted. The applicant is required to upload his/her biosketch and is has the opportunity to submit biosketches for a mentor and two co-investigators. Biosketch templates should be downloaded by clicking here.

SYNOPSIS/LAY SUMMARY

USING TERMS THAT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD BY A NON-SCIENTIFIC AUDIENCE, please briefly describe what you are investigating, the techniques you will use to support your hypothesis, and how your project will contribute to the scientific understanding of your disease of interest.

Note that this General Audience Summary will become public information; therefore, do not include proprietary/confidential information.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Please provide a technical abstract of your proposal, keeping your response to 5000 characters or less.

FUTURE PLANS

Where would you take this research after funding ends, and how will this support contribute to your research career development?

HEALTHCARE EQUALITY

How will your proposal promote healthcare equality?

For example, for clinical studies, please reflect how your patient recruitment strategy is likely to draw participants that reflect the burden of disease in the general population. Thus, for diseases like sarcoidosis, which affects mostly African Americans, the bulk of patients recruited should be African Americans, which will in turn help ensure that any therapeutic advances arising from the studies will be helpful to the ethnic/racial groups most affected.

RESEARCH PLANS (10 page limit)

PLEASE CHECK: The Research Plan (Sections A-D) must be no longer than 10 pages including pictures with margins at .75 (right and left), .50 (top and bottom), using Arial size 11 font with no less than single-line spacing. Applications with research plans that do not meet the requirements will be un-submitted.

The Research Plan should include sufficient information needed for evaluation of the project. The format for preparing this section is provided below. Be specific and informative, and avoid redundancies.

A. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND SPECIFIC AIMS 
What do you intend to do?

State the problem concisely and describe the specific aims of the research proposal. What is the hypothesis you will test? What is the experimental paradigm?

B. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE 
Why is the work important?

Briefly provide the scientific background leading to the present application. Critically evaluate existing knowledge and identify the scientific gaps that the project is intended to fill. If the aims of the proposal are accomplished, how will this affect the scientific field? Where will these studies lead in developing a larger research program?

C. WORK ACCOMPLISHED AND PRELIMINARY STUDIES 
What has already been done?

Provide an account of the principal investigator’s preliminary studies pertinent to this application. Preliminary data often aid the reviewers in assessing the likelihood of the success of the proposed project. List any publications, manuscripts accepted for publication, patents, or other printed materials that have resulted from preliminary studies.

D. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS 
How are you going to do the work? 
Describe the research design and methods that you will use in the proposed studies. Organize this section by the specific aims of the research proposal. Include how the data will be collected, and analyzed, and describe potential problems or limitations. Published or commonly used methods do not need to be described in detail. This section must be written so that reviewers can evaluate the scientific questions, the experimental design, and the likelihood that the experiments will produce interpretable results. Include a tentative timetable showing how you will prioritize the work. Clearly identify collaborations with other investigators at the same or other institutions.

RESUBMISSION STATEMENT (2 page limit)

A resubmission is an application that was reviewed in a previous cycle but was not funded. Please note that an application is not considered a resubmission if it has major changes. Only fill out and upload this form if your application is a resubmission. Applications with resubmission statements that do not meet the requirements will be un-submitted.

In the Resubmission Statement you must:

1.         Explain how you addressed the scientific critiques of the original application.
2.         Explain how the application has been strengthened and modified since the original submission. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY/LITERATURE CITED

  • No page limit
  • List citations by number in the order in which they appear in the text.
  • Use the format below (“New England Journal of Medicine” style in EndNote and “Annals of Internal Medicine” in Reference Manager).

1. Kajikawa O, Frevert CW, Lin SM, Goodman RB, Mongovin SM, Wong V, Ballman K, Daubeuf B, Elson G, Martin TR. Gene expression of toll-like receptor-2, toll-like receptor-4 and MD2 is differentially regulated in rabbits with Escherichia coli pneumonia. Gene 2005;3:193-202.

2. Altemeier WA, Matute-Bello G, Frevert CW, Kawata Y, Kajikawa O, Martin TR, Glenny RW. Mechanical ventilation with moderate tidal volumes synergistically increases lung cytokine response to systemic endotoxin. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2004;164:1949-1958.

BUDGET FORM

Please complete the budget form available on the research program website. The Research Program works with the awardees on the grant start dates which may vary due to things such as ethics approval. The earliest grant start date would be May 2024

Please Note: indirect costs are not permitted on ATS Research Program Grants unless otherwise stated.

LAB RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT

List the resources that you have available to you that will be needed to complete your project.  Describe these resources, and explain how each will contribute to the successful completion of your project. Please note that the limit for this section is two pages.

This document should be divided into six sections: 
Laboratory 
Clinical 
Animal 
Computer 
Office 
Major Equipment 
Other

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

You are responsible for providing the name and email address of two references who can provide a letter of recommendation in your application on the Foundant Technologies Website.

Letters of recommendation are usually letters from someone not directly involved in the project but who can emphasize its importance, institutional leaders (e.g., division director, chair, dean) who can write letters to highlight their commitment for the candidate, or a mentor. The letters of recommendation are due at the time of the full application deadline.

LETTER FROM COLLABORATOR

You may also submit a letter(s) from collaborator(s) or donor(s) who are providing expertise or reagents needed to accomplish the work. You may submit as many of these letters as you feel are necessary. Please place all letters from collaborators into a SINGLE ZIP file and upload this file to your application.

DISCLOSURE OF CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

Many individuals have competing interests that may cause conflicts of interest. Disclosure and review of a potential "conflict of interest" (COI) that might affect an ATS research award doesn't imply that an "outside interest", or a person with such a relationship or interest, is wrong or inappropriate. Nor does it imply criticism of the character or actions of the individual, or of any commercial or non-commercial entities with which an individual may be involved. Rather, ATS COI policies and procedures exist to assure the public of appropriate levels of transparency of the outside interests of participants in official ATS activities, and that official ATS activities are managed in a manner that maintains scientific rigor and independence.

•          Disclosure of a real or potential COI will not automatically invalidate an application.

All personal financial relationships with commercial entities (such as pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers), and/or with non-commercial, non-governmental funders (such as private foundations), that are relevant to the application’s subject matter must be disclosed. Such involvement with relevant commercial entities (companies) includes employment or ownership; consultancy(ies); Board or advisory committee service; service on speakers' bureaus or other acceptance of lecture fees directly paid by the company; expert testimony on behalf of the company; research grants; patents received or pending; royalties; and stock ownership or options (excluding mutual funds unless a sector fund concentrated in an industry or industries relevant to the activity).

The ATS "Policy on Tobacco Relationships" requires that individuals with a current tobacco industry relationship not hold certain ATS roles, including that of research awardee. (Note: if the relationship is limited to personal holdings of tobacco stocks or options, divestiture of such holdings. See the policy for details.)

PLEASE RESPOND in the corresponding answer spaces on the online application.

COI 1A: Have you within the past 12 months had a financial interest in a commercial entity (i.e., a “commercial interest”) that could be considered broadly relevant to the subject matter of this proposal, or do you expect to have one during the duration of the grant award period?

COI 1B: If yes, please provide the company name(s) and the type of relationship:

COI 2A: Have you within the past 12 months received financial support from a non-commercial, non-governmental source (such as a private foundation or other non-profit source) that could be perceived as a real or potential conflict of interest relevant to the subject matter of this proposal, and/or do you expect to receive such before the end of the grant award period?

COI 2B: If yes, please provide the organization name(s) and the type of relationship:

COI 3A: Have you within the past 12 months had any non-financial affiliation or interest (i.e., a personal, professional or other affiliation or interest) that might be perceived to be a real or potential conflict of interest relevant to the subject matter of this proposal, and/or do you expect to receive such before the end of the grant award period?

COI 3B: If yes, please provide the company or organization name(s) and the type of relationship:

COI 4A: Have you within the past 12 months had a professional relationship with a tobacco entity or expect to have one before the end of the grant award period?

COI 4B: If yes, please provide the company or organization name(s) and the type of relationship:

SIGNATURE PAGE

After you complete all of the proposal sections, you must print the signature page available on the research program website, sign it, and have your financial administrator sign it. Once you have the signatures, upload the signed page back onto the application as an attachment. Please only upload one signed page. Please do NOT mail the signature page to the ATS office. Please Note: In 2023 we will accept electronic signatures.

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