Overview:

Made possible by a generous gift from the Beyer family, this $20,000 award honors nationally recognized engineer Howard Weiss and his wife Nelle, both prominent Madisonians in the early 20th century, and is offered each year to support a McPherson ERI graduate student’s research on Glaucoma or Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

This award is only open to UW-Madison Graduate Students who are MERI trainee members and whose direct principal investigator mentors are MERI members at UW-Madison (see eligibility criteria). If you are not already a trainee member, please submit a trainee membership application along with your award application.

The winner of this award can expect to receive their award by the end of February of the same calendar year, and must use their award within 12 months of the actual date of receipt. Award funds cannot be used for meeting/conference attendance. Overlap in budget line items from any other internal or external grant mechanism is not allowed during the award period, but other support can be used to complement the proposed activities on this project. If budgetary overlap occurs after the project is awarded, the investigator must report it promptly to the McPherson ERI Center Administrator.

Eligibility Requirements:

To be eligible to receive a Howard F. and Nelle Weiss Graduate Student Eye Research Award, you must…

• …be a graduate student who has status as a McPherson ERI trainee member (if you are not already a trainee member, please submit a trainee membership application along with your award application. Further information about MERI membership is available here.)

• …have as your direct principal investigator a UW-Madison McPherson ERI member.

• …be seeking funding for an AMD or Glaucoma research project.

• …not have already won a Howard F. and Nelle Weiss Graduate Student Eye Research Award.

• …be proposing a project where there is no overlap in budget line items from any other internal or external grant mechanism during the award period (although other support can be used to complement the proposed activities on this project). If budgetary overlap occurs after the project is awarded, you or your PI must report it promptly to the McPherson ERI Center Administrator. Of note, submission of outside grant applications that utilize data obtained with Weiss Graduate Student Eye Research Award funds is highly encouraged.

• …plan to use the award within one year of the month that you received it. Funds remaining one year after issuance of the award will be retained by the Institute unless a one-year no cost extension is granted.

• …agree to present your award-supported project at a McPherson ERI-sponsored event (e.g., our monthly seminar series or our Fall poster session) within 1–2 years of receiving your award.

• …agree to cite your award in any presentations or publications that result from the support of your award. (For citation format, see here.)

Submission Guidelines:

To apply for a Howard F. and Nelle Weiss Graduate Student Eye Research Award you will need to submit as a combined, single PDF:

1. Your CV or biosketch (two-page maximum)

2. A research proposal in language that a person outside your field could understand, including text and figures. Your research proposal must not exceed three pages [single-spaced text, Arial font no smaller than 11 point, page margins of 0.5 inches] and should include the following sections:

• Background/Rationale

• Specific Aims

• Methods

• Anticipated Results

• Significance/Innovation

• Budget Statement (see directly below)

Budget statement: In a few sentences, and included within the three-page proposal limit, represent the best use of funds—up to $20,000—over a one-year award period. Use can include salary and tuition remission. Other possible allocations include equipment, reagents, laboratory animal costs (including RARC fees), or human subjects/Institutional Review Board fees. Travel can only be included if critical to conduct research. Do not include travel to attend meetings/conferences.

3. A list of references on a separate page following the three-page research proposal

4. Completed application and compliance forms, which will require the following:

(a) a statement by, and signature of, your McPherson ERI mentor/advisor

(b) a disclosure regarding other project support

(c) a brief abstract of your project (up to 250 words) written in LAY LANGUAGE. Please remember that Research Committee members reviewing these applications come from varied areas of expertise. Your application will be judged in large part by your lay description and its overall understandability

(d) a statement of how your project will lead to a better understanding of and/or treatment for Glaucoma or AMD

Finally, if you are not already a McPherson ERI Trainee Member you must also submit a McPherson ERI Trainee Membership application. Please send your membership application as a separate document and do not combine it with the other required documents above.

NOTE: In your abstract and your research proposal, whenever possible use LAY LANGUAGE. Avoid using jargon, acronyms, and technical terms that assume common expertise. The review panel is comprised of researchers from several different scientific fields, including psychology, biology, pathology, veterinary medicine, computer science, biostatistics and medical informatics, engineering, ophthalmology and visual sciences, and many others. Referencing the research work you describe in your abstract, make it clear and understandable for readers who are not experts in your area, explaining how/why the work is important in a vision-related context. Your ability to make your work accessible and understandable by a general audience is a key factor in the judging process.

All materials should be submitted to Dr. Jonathan Lang (jonathanlang@wisc.edu). When submitting, format your email subject line as follows:

Weiss GSER Award Application: [your last name], [your first name]