Dr. Timothy Quill encouraged health care professionals to keep an open dialogue with terminally ill patients, being prepared to answer difficult questions. (photo by Dana Johnson)
Applications for the VUMC Discovery Grants Program are now being accepted. The funds are intended to stimulate the development of new ideas and are not intended as a source of bridge funding. Applications will be evaluated primarily on the likelihood that a project, if further developed, will be competitive for external funding. In the past, approximately 25 percent of the applications have received funding.
This program consists of two different funding mechanisms:
• Interdisciplinary or Equipment Grants — Up to $50,000/year will be awarded for up to two years for projects involving investigators from two or more different departments. A project may involve an investigator at Vanderbilt outside of the Medical Center; however, the principal investigator must be on the Medical Center faculty. These grants are meant to stimulate interactions between investigators who may be able to accomplish more as a team than as an individual. Proposals for new equipment to be used by multiple research programs will be considered under this category. Normally, no more than one equipment application is funded.
• Pilot/Feasibility Studies — Up to $25,000/year will be awarded for up to two years for single investigator projects. These grants are intended to enable investigators to perform key preliminary studies prior to submitting new grant applications. A proposal must be for a new project or idea that is distinct from any current funded project. For established investigators, the proposal should represent a radically new area of research for that laboratory.
Funds are available to all Medical and Nursing School faculty. Deadline for this round of competition is Oct. 14, with a start date of Jan. 1. Application forms and information may be obtained from Jeannine Courtney, CCC-3322 Medical Center North, 343-0415. Information and forms are also located on the Office of Research Web page, http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/opd/pdindex.htm.