Overview:

The Grant Summit Program (GSP) was created to increase support for UW–Madison vision research by facilitating successful resubmissions of competitive federal grant applications. To this end, the program provides McPherson ERI investigators up to $10,000 over the course of a year to help them further develop their grant applications and gather additional data to support resubmission. Examples of supportable activities include, but are not limited to, lab personnel salary (not PI salary), grant writing expertise/review, as well as costs to complete experiments, obtain equipment/tools, add research subjects, etc.

In order to apply for this funding, you must be a UW-Madison faculty member or a permanent principal investigator, a McPherson ERI member, and your federal grant application must be focussed on vision research (see complete eligibility criteria here). Funding will be available for use only over a one-year period: Thereafter, any unused funds will be returned to the McPherson ERI. In addition, GSP award recipients must agree to resubmit their grant applications within one year of receiving their award.

Applicants are welcome to discuss their proposal with McPherson ERI administration and staff, but this is not a requirement. Funding decisions be made on a rolling basis with no internal deadlines or pre-determined grant quotas. For any questions on award eligibility or conditions on award use, contact Dr. Jonathan Lang at jonathanlang@wisc.edu.

Eligibility Requirements:

To be eligible to apply for and receive Grant Summit Program funding, you must…

• …be a McPherson ERI member at UW-Madison engaged in vision-research.

• …be faculty or a permanent principal investigator.

• …be applying to resubmit a federal grant (one which provides indirects) that has been deemed competitive by the study section (as determined either by receiving a percentile score (NIH) or a ranking other than “noncompetitive” (NSF)).

• …request no more than the allowable $10,000 maximum.

• …if awarded, expend all GSP award funds within one year of the date that you receive them. Funds remaining one year after issuance of the award will be retained by the Institute.

• …if awarded, resubmit your grant within one year of the date that you receive your GSP award funds (delay in resubmission past one year without approval may result in future GSP applications being ineligible).

• …if awarded, present data obtained with support from your GSP award within 1–2 years at a McPherson ERI-sponsored event (e.g., our monthly seminar series or MERI-At-A-Glance).

• …if awarded, acknowledge McPherson ERI GSP funding on presentations and/or publications supported by your award.

Submission Guidelines:

To apply for a Grant Summit Program Award you will need to…

1. Complete the fillable application form using single-spaced text, Arial font no smaller than 11 point. This will require that you provide…

• a brief explanation of how the funding will improve the revised proposal (500 words or less)

• a brief comment on the proximity of the applicant’s grant score to historical pay-lines and/or other insights regarding the likelihood of successful resubmission (1-3 sentences).

• a targeted, fit-for-purpose budget request (up to $10,000) along with a brief explanation of how the requested funding will improve the revised proposal (500 words or less).

• your signature as PI

2. Attach your grant score/summary sheet to your application form

All materials should be saved as a single PDF and submitted to Dr. Jonathan Lang (jonathanlang@wisc.edu). When submitting, format your email subject line as follows: GSP Award Application: [your last name], [your first name]