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Sleep Research

Submissions for Sleep Pilot Grants

Program Goals:

Learn more about our Sleep Innovative Research Grant.
The Sleep Innovative Research Grant program offers funds for research in clinical or translational sciences.

To build an internationally recognized program of research in sleep science at UNC-Chapel Hill. The grants will:

  • Provide research funding to conduct innovative sleep science research in the clinical or translational sciences
  • Foster interdisciplinary research capacity in sleep science
  • Facilitate extramural funding success among investigators with faculty or a post-doctoral fellowship at UNC-Chapel Hill

Funding

  • Funds up to a maximum of $10,000 will be awarded for a one-year period
  • Up to three recipients per year will be awarded, beginning in 2018

Types of Research Supported

Any application proposing clinical or translational research meeting the NIH definition will be eligible. We will fund:

  • Research across the translational continuum (T1-T4 research)
  • A variety of methodologies (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, single case)

Eligibility

  • Applicants must have a faculty-level appointment (tenure-track or fixed-term) or a post-doctoral fellowship appointment (with a faculty mentor) at UNC-Chapel Hill
  • Early-stage investigators are encouraged to apply
  • No track record of research in sleep science is required

LOI and Application Requirements

LOI Information

  • PI’s first and last name
  • PI’s email address
  • PI’s phone number
  • PI’s school or departmental affiliation
  • PI’s faculty rank
  • Name and school/departmental affiliation of all other key personnel
  • Project title
  • Project abstract – no more than 2,500 characters, including spaces

Application details

  • Cover page (one page) including title, investigators, affiliations, and 250-word abstract
  • Biosketch of lead PI (up to five pages)
  • Specific aims (one page)
  • Research strategy (up to four pages), including significance, innovation, approach with preliminary data (if any)
  • Future plans
  • Literature cited (one page)
  • Budget and budget justification (one page). Allowable items include consultants, participant incentives, graduate/research assistant hourly wages, software, supplies, computers, and travel. Non-allowable items include faculty/post-doc salary support, equipement costs of more than $5,000, indirect costs, graduate/research assistant tuition/fees, and food.

Review of Proposals

  • Pilot grant applications will be assigned to experienced grant reviewers who use NIH scoring guidelines
  • In addition to providing scores for the project’s overall impact, significance, innovation, and approach, reviewers must respond to the following questions:
    • Are plans for submitting future extramural grant application(s) specific and clear?
    • If the proposed pilot project is successful, will the findings yield sufficient preliminary data to support a future larger-scale grant application

Meet the 2020 recipient

Meet the 2019 recipients

Meet the 2018 recipients

Questions?