California Coalition for Child Health Research – Request for Proposals

Sponsorship
California Coalition for Child Health Research. [1] This RFP is only open to the following institutions who are members of the California Coalition for Child Health Research: Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Loma Linda University, Rady's Children’s Hospital, Stanford Health, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and Valley Children's Hospital.

Purpose
To catalyze and incubate research focused on the health needs of California’s children and adolescents. Projects should provide much needed data for outstanding efforts to improve child health relevant to children and adolescents across the state via collaborative research. It is expected that the Coalition funds will be used to build teams and generate data that will be used for subsequent grant applications to appropriate governmental and foundation entities.

Eligible Projects
Clinical and translational research projects [2], demonstrating an active or planned collaboration between California Coalition for Child Health Research sites. Specifically, projects must clearly state the anticipated benefits to pediatric research (child health) in California and use data, expertise, and resources from Coalition sites. Emphasis will be placed on innovation and transformative potential of submitted proposals.

Examples of Potential Proposals:

• Implementing best practices for Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS)
• Impact of regional environmental factors on childhood diseases in California
• Implementation and dissemination of best practices for pain management in children
• Impact of regional healthcare (access to care) on disease outcomes in child health

One award will be available to a team comprised of Research Coalition investigators, and proposals must demonstrate engagement between institutions and anticipated benefits to each partner of the collaboration. The Principal Investigator(s) must be formally affiliated with the Coalition and can include: 1) institutional faculty, 2) key healthcare providers, and 3) post-doctoral researchers.

Prior to funding, all projects require Human Research Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval or an exemption determination prior to funds being released. It is recommended that the IRB application be submitted prior to final submission of this funding application. Collaborating sites should be part of the SMART IRB to help expedite the onboarding and approval process. All personnel on proposals must complete the CITI Human Research Protections Training Course and CITI Research and HIPAA Privacy Protections Course.

Available Funding
One award of up to $60,000 will be awarded and can be used to establish the research strategy and do proof of principle interventions to demonstrate feasibility of new innovative approaches to improve child health. Projects should be approximately 12 to 18 months in duration. The Rady Children's Hospital Foundation will distribute the funds directly to the research sites. Funds will be available to support direct costs only. No additional overhead will be provided.

All materials must include the investigator’s name at the top right corner, and use a font no smaller than 11 pts, with margins no narrower than 0.5 inches.

1. Abstract body: A brief description of the research plan limited to 300 words
2. Biosketch of PI (NIH new format), Co-PI (if applicable) and co-investigators
3. Keywords and Reviewers (click on link to download form)
4. Research plan (5 pages max., plus references); must include the following
   1. Specific aims
   2. Significance
   3. Innovation
   4. Approach
   5. Plans for applying for extramural funding (see below for possible NIH funding opportunities)
5. Organizational plan that utilizes representatives across the Coalition
6. Home institution letter of support and possibility for matching funds
7. Budget (itemized, 1 page maximum)
8. Budget justification
9. Funds cannot be used to support faculty salaries, computer purchases, or travel. Other personnel salaries (project coordinator, post-doc, graduate student, staff research assistant, etc.) are allowable.
10. No overhead will be provided for outside institutions

As each potential applicant prepares the application, please consider plans for sustainability and funding opportunities. We provide here some examples of current request for application from the NIH:

• Understanding Factors in Infancy and Early Childhood (Birth to 24 months) That Influence Obesity Development (R01)
  • Upcoming due dates: September 7, 2019, January 7, 2020, September 7, 2020, January 7, 2021 
• NHLBI Early Phase Clinical Trials for Therapeutics and/or Diagnostics (R33 Clinical Trial Required)
  • Upcoming due dates: June 4, 2019; October 2, 2019; June 4, 2020; October 2, 2020
• Adult and Pediatric Cardiac Research Program
• Asthma Funding Opportunities

Milestones and Monitoring
Grantees must agree to the following conditions:

1. Before funds are released, a meeting between the awardee, the department sponsor, a department financial analyst, and Research Coalition members will review specific milestones to gauge project progression
2. All key project personnel should undergo team-science training provided by the UC Irvine ICTS (Professor Maritza Salazar)
3. Regular review by the Coalition Research Acceleration and Facilitation Team (RAFT) (this team helps investigators achieve the project metrics and milestones)
4. Continuation of support throughout the entire award period will be contingent upon meeting the project's milestones in a timely manner

5. In the event that the pilot data generated leads to a larger multi-center grant proposal, we would urge the recipients to discuss continued administrative funding for project coordination with the California Coalition for Child Health Research

Review Process

Review criteria will include:

• Significance and potential impact of the proposed research
• Qualifications of the Research Team, including assembly of an inter-disciplinary team with the appropriate expertise in fields
• Innovative ideas
• Approach; scientific strength of the research design (please refer to NIH guidelines on scientific rigor and reproducibility (http://grants.nih.gov/reproducibility/index.htm)
• Scientific environment
• Translational nature of the project
• Project feasibility within the proposed time frame
• Likelihood of generating extramural funding
• Integration and engagement of the Coalition members

Notification Email for Receipt of Proposal
A notification email indicating the receipt of your protocol will be sent within 24 hours of submission. If you have not received an email, please contact Adrijana Gombosev (agombose@uci.edu or (949) 824-5265).

For more information, please contact Dan Cooper, MD at dcooper@uci.edu or Adrijana Gombosev, MS at agombose@uci.edu or (949) 824-5265.