Research
Center for Research Excellence Awards
Previous Guidelines Set by the SOP Office of the Sciences
The following guidelines applied to all Research Center applications prior to Fiscal Year 2005, the period of time during which the Office of the Sciences Office ( School of Pharmacy) administered the Center for Research Excellence Awards.
Funding for Research Centers awarded through the SOP Sciences Office varied each year. Typically, one to two Research Centers were selected for funding each year. That funding sometimes extended into a second year of support, but that also depended on available financial support.
The following guidelines were in place prior to Fiscal Year 2005:
Applications should be submitted on 8 ½" by 11" paper in not less than 12-point font and with no margin less than one inch. An application must include the budget schedule (see link below to NIH forms) and the team members' abbreviated CVs and may not exceed twenty-five (25) pages, including attachments, references, and appendices. The application should be organized with the following subheadings to allow review according to the criteria specified below:
- Title - Give the name of the proposed Research Center;
- Staff - Provide the names and titles of the TTUHSC personnel who will staff the proposed Center, identifying the individual(s) who will direct the Center;
- Summary of Center's Goals and Activities - Offer a concise description of the Center's goals and the activities by which it intends to meet those goals;
- Scientific and Scholarly Rationale (60% of points awarded) - Provide the scientific and scholarly rationale for the Center, demonstrating how the Center rests on a foundation of creditable, leading-edge science that is presented in the scholarly tradition of academic health centers at major research universities;
- Credentials of Team Members & Cross-Disciplinary Quality (10% of points awarded) - Describe the research accomplishments of the team members related to the scientific foundation of the Center proposal (at least one principle member of the team must be a full-time faculty member of the School of Pharmacy) and describe the extent to which the Center involves the different schools in TTUHSC and/or TTU;
- Outcomes & Sustainability (20% of points awarded) - Describe and justify the measurable outcomes by which the Center is to be judged, explaining how those outcomes are explicitly valued and rewarded by constituencies outside TTUHSC. Also, describe the Center's explicit plans for attracting support for continued operation after the Centers of Excellence funding has expired;
- Plan of Work, Timetable & Budget (10% of point awarded) - Give the Center's plan of work, indicating how that plan will coordinate new resources with existing assets in discrete processes to yield the Center's identified outcomes; Present the Center's timetable, explaining how it gives the necessary work processes sufficient time to produce the targeted outcomes; Present the Center's budget, organized by objects of expenditure (i.e., salaries and wages, contract services, operating expenses, and equipment) and explaining how that budget contains sufficient resources to efficiently execute the Center's work plan according to the proposed timetable (Research Center funds should not replace existing grant, contract or state appropriated salaries nor should these funds be expended on food, entertainment, communications, foreign travel, hospital per diem charges, research subject payment charges or professional memberships).
Applications should be submitted in quadruple to the Office of the Sciences by deadline. With each application, identify the names, addresses, fax numbers, and telephone numbers of three individuals outside the School of Pharmacy who could serve as an external reviewer (outside the School of Pharmacy and within the USA) of the proposal. Please note: those who have been previously funded may reapply for additional funding using the suggested format.
In accepting an award, a Research Center agrees to:
- Report on the Center's achievement of identified outcomes in a format and on a schedule established by the Senior Associate Dean for the Sciences;
- Refrain from responding to subsequent School of Pharmacy Research Center RFP's for a period equal to that for which it receives funds under the RFP;
- Secure permission to reallocate budget items in excess of $1,000; and
- Apply for extramural funding from an appropriate sponsor to sustain the Center within six (6) months of termination of funding.
NIH forms PHS398 (Biographical Sketch & Budget)
Previous Recipients of Center for Research Excellence Awards