Research Announcements
ASTMH Gorgas Research Award in Tropical Medicine
Application Deadline: October 15, 2009
Objective: To enhance and facilitate the development of scientific linkages between Panama, nations of Central America, tropical and sub-tropical South America and the Caribbean Islands, Mexico and the United States and Canada through support of short-term travel for young research investigators from these regions for the purposes of: (1) establishing collaborative biomedical research projects focusing on tropical diseases of health importance to people living in these areas, and (2) learning new techniques and approaches applicable to the study of such diseases.
Background: The Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine (GMI) was named for General William Crawford Gorgas, the U.S. Army physician (later Surgeon General) who managed control efforts of yellow fever, malaria and other diseases during the building of the Panama Canal. The GMI has a long history of fostering research and disease control in Panama and Central America. Since moving to new headquarters at the William Gorgas Center for Geographic Medicine in the University of Alabama at Birmingham, GMI is continuing to pursue its goal of fostering research and training in tropical disease problems through support of collaborations between investigators working within this region and in the United States. To this end, the GMI will sponsor and manage awards, to be awarded by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, to fund collaborative investigations, as well as short-term visits of young investigators between research institutions within the Americas and the United States. The Gorgas Memorial Institute Research Award program is intended to allow young scientists within this region the opportunity to acquire new techniques or develop new approaches for the study and control of tropical diseases, and to establish new scientific linkages for the purpose of initiating cooperative studies and programs.
Eligibility: Applicants should have Ph.D. or M.D. level training in a relevant field. Exceptions may be made for outstanding candidates with demonstrated equivalent expertise. They should be citizens or permanent residents of the Americas, and hold a position at a research, medical, public health or teaching institution in that country. The applicant must have the endorsement of the home institution in order to participate in this program. Award applicants are investigators in training or junior investigators (and not established senior scientists), although exceptional cases may be considered. Previous award recipients will not be considered.
Regarding direction of collaboration/travel, the award has no restrictions, i.e. applicants can travel from a Disease Endemic Country to the U.S. or Canada, or from the U.S. or Canada to the Disease Endemic Country, or between Disease Endemic Countries.
Financial Arrangements: Awards will generally not exceed $10,500 to cover the total costs of round-trip travel, housing and supplies required for a project. The number of awards made annually will be contingent on availability of funds. Awards will be made directly to the applicant’s institution, and will be monitored through the headquarters office and the GMI Research Award Committee
of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The award allows for indirect costs of up to 8% to be assessed against the total budget. Funds cannot be used to pay salary/stipend to the award recipient.
Application Deadline: October 15, 2009
Submit your application on line via link posted at http://www.astmh.org/funding/index.cfm beginning the week of September 14, 2009.
Collect all application materials prior to submitting them to the online awards system. Although you will be able to edit your award submission prior to the October 15 deadline, the submission process will be much easier if you collect all application materials prior to submission.
Applications materials include:
1) A proposal of no more than three (3) pages in length, in
English, to include:
. collaborator name, institution, city and country
. the research goals of the project (2500 characters, approximately = 2/3 page)
. the methods or plan of action (2500 characters, approximately = 2/3 page)
. the relevance to the health problems of the Americas and/or the Caribbean (2500 characters, approximately = 2/3 page)
. short budget (up to 3000 characters = almost one page)
2) Information from applicant’s curriculum vitae regarding education, training, work experience, prior research experience, any publications or abstracts, honors and awards. The application will solicit institutional affiliation, department and specialty if applicable.
3) Three (3) of the applicant’s recent publications (uploaded to application site in Microsoft Word or pdf file format) chosen on the basis of relevance to the project and/or significance to the field.
4) A letter from an appropriate administrative official of the applicant’s home institution endorsing the project and verifying that the travel period will be considered as official duty by the institution.
Very important…You are responsible for uploading the letter from your home institution as a pdf or Microsoft Word file to your application site. Please obtain this document from your home institution before you begin your online application.
5) A letter from the collaborating investigator at the host institution indicating his/her willingness to participate in the project, specifying his/her role and any special facilities to be provided, and including a curriculum vitae.
Very important…You are responsible for uploading the letter from your collaborating investigator at the host institution as a pdf or Microsoft Word file to your application site. Please obtain this document from your collaborating investigator before you begin your online application.
6) Documentation that the project has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate institutional committees if the project to be funded deals directly with human or animal subjects.
Very important…You are responsible for uploading this documentation as a pdf or Microsoft Word file to your application site. Please obtain this document before you begin your online application.
After October 15, any applications that do not include all items outlined here, including the three letters described in #4, #5 and #6 above, will be considered incomplete and will not be forwarded to the review committee.
Evaluation Process: Award applications will be evaluated by the Gorgas Memorial Institute Research Award Committee of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which meets annually for the selection process. Award considerations will include the qualifications of the award applicant and the host institution, the relevance of the proposed research plan to health problems of the Americas, and the maintenance of an equitable geographic distribution.
Reporting Requirements: Following completion of the travel period, the recipient will send to the Gorgas Memorial Institute Research Award Committee (at the address given above) a report of no more than five (5) typewritten pages, describing his/her accomplishments under the award and detailing all expenditures made using award funds. The report must include receipts for round-trip travel; no other receipts will be required. This report must be submitted to the committee no later than three (3) months after travel has been completed.
Questions? Contact:
Gorgas Memorial Institute Research Award
111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100
Deerfield, IL 60015 USA
Tel: +1-847-480-9592
Fax: +1-847-480-9282
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.astmh.org
Posted Aug 27, 2009