George and Judy Marcus Innovation Fund

Marcus Program in Precision Medicine Innovation

2017 Call for Proposals

The Marcus Program in Precision Medicine Innovation (MPPMI) seeks to fuel innovation in precision medicine by fostering creative, high risk, high impact team science projects anchored in basic science and extending into the precision medicine continuum toward improved patient outcomes. See MPPMI Program Overview on the program website.

The MPPMI invites proposals for our 2017 funding in two award categories, Seeding Bold Ideas, and Transformative Integrated Research. Each category:

• supports translational precision medicine research with a strong basic science core.
• requires two or more co-PIs: at least one a basic scientist, and at least one a clinical, social/behavioral or population scientist; either existing or newly formed teams may apply.
• seeks high-risk thinking or approaches that will likely yield explicit “deliverables” (including discovery that the idea was wrong) after one year.

Marcus Program Seeding Bold Ideas Award (MP-SBI)

• Up to $75,000 for one year; eligible to compete for up to $400,000 in year two, if funds are available
• SBI awards enable initial exploration of untested concepts or hypotheses with great potential impact
• Up to four awards granted

Marcus Program Transformative Integrated Research Award (MP-TIR)

• Up to $400,000 for one year; eligible to compete for up to $400,000 in year two, if funds are available
• TIR awards support new directions for established basic science-driven translational studies
• Up to three awards granted

Eligibility:

UCSF Faculty, at least one with an Academic Senate Appointment; UCSF Sandler Fellows and Physician Scientist Scholars Program awardees are also eligible. Please note faculty with Emeritus status are not eligible to serve as a PI. (They can be a co-investigator participant).

Selection Process:

A diverse faculty committee with appropriate expertise and understanding of precision medicine goals will select MP-SBI and MP-TIR awardees and establish funding levels.

Criteria (1-4 must be met; address 5-7 explicitly to the extent that they apply to your proposal):

1. innovative precision medicine approach
2. potential for tangible benefit to patients, including the likelihood that the study will have an immediate impact;
3. potential for data integration, bridging basic and translational research
4. multidisciplinary composition and expertise of team members.
5. attention to particular challenges of computational needs, interoperability, health disparities, privacy, participant engagement, consent, security, ethical and/or regulatory issues.
6. potential downstream use of tools, measurements, approaches, and data, including open public accessibility of generated data and publications
7. potential to scale, and to leverage the 14 million EHR from across the UC Health centers

Proposal Instructions (Arial 11 font; 0.5 inch margins)

1. Cover Page (1 page limit): Cover page with name of award program, deadline, title of proposal, scientific disciplines represented in the collaboration, amount of funding requested, Principal Investigator names, academic titles, departments, phone numbers, UCSF box numbers, and email addresses. Identify the contact PI and the UCSF department that will manage the award, the accounting manager/contact name, UCSF box number, email address, and phone number.
2. Project Description (2 page limit): Rationale/background; proposed research; innovation; impact. Preliminary data not required. Figures must be included within these 2 pages.
3. Competitive Renewal Statement (if applicable, additional 1 page to Project Description): If this proposal is a request for Year 2 follow-on funding of a 2016 project award, please describe the research results obtained with Year 1 funding, including the extent to which Year 1 goals were achieved and/or any issues encountered. Describe the relationship between the aims of the Year 1 funding proposal and those proposed for Year 2.
4. References (not part of page limitations)
5. Budget and Budget Justification (1 page limit): Funds may not support faculty salary.
6. Biosketch (not part of page limitations): for each PI, new NIH format.
7. Current & Pending Support (not part of page limitations): All current and pending intramural and extramural research support information for each PI, following the NIH format.

Submission: As a single PDF, via email to Gretchen Kiser at [email protected] no later than Tuesday, February 21, 2017, 5:00 pm PST. NOTE: Include contact PI last name in the file name and put Marcus Award in the Subject Line.

Program contact: Gretchen Kiser, PhD, in the UCSF Research Development Office: 415.502.1665; [email protected]