AGENCY: The Hartwell Foundation          

PROGRAM: Individual Biomedical Research Awards

OBJECTIVES:  This program provides funding to stimulate discovery in early-stage biomedical research that will benefit children. Projects should represent innovative and cutting-edge biomedical research that has not yet qualified for significant outside funding, including those proposals not yet submitted for funding consideration. As part of the evaluation criteria, the Foundation will look carefully for collaborations, technologies used, translational impacts, benefits to children, and how the pursuit of the research will make a difference. The Foundation will only consider proposals in biomedical research and will not support research in social science, psychology, ecology, environmental impacts, anthropology, or botany.

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: Boston University may nominate up to two candidates for this competition. All candidates must be citizens of the United States, hold a full-time appointment in the sponsoring institution, and be eligible to serve as a principal investigator in biomedical research. The Foundation intends these funds to be used for the support of a senior investigator.

DEADLINES:
BU Internal Deadline: September 1, 2009
Nomination Deadline: November 2, 2009

FUNDING INFORMATION: The Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award provides funding for three years at $100,000 in direct costs per year. No part of the Award may cover institutional overhead or other indirect costs. With the exception of health insurance, no portion of an award may be subject to deductions for fringe benefits by the sponsoring institution.  All recipients of the Individual Biomedical Research Award agree to attend an annual meeting in October of each year in lieu of a formal second Quarterly Review, with expenses paid by the Foundation.

AGENCY CONTACT:
Michael Dettelbach
Director
Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations
595 Commonwealth Avenue, West Entrance, Suite 700
Boston, MA 02215
Telephone: 617-358-2501
E-mail: mdettelb@bu.edu
Web: http://www.thehartwellfoundation.org

INTERNAL REVIEW PROCESS: Faculty wishing to be considered for nomination should provide the following proposal material to Associate Provost Joan Kirkendall, Office of Sponsored Programs, 25 Buick Street, Boston, MA 02215, for internal review purposes:

(1) Letter of recommendation from the appropriate Department Chair or Research Mentor, highlighting the nominee's achievements and the basis for selection;

(2) Description of the nominee's proposed research (maximum length 3 pages) that specifically addresses why the research is early-stage, innovative and cutting-edge. The description should identify key collaborations as well as productivity technologies that will be used in support of the research and should explain the approach that could be used to translate results to patients.

(3) Nominee’s curriculum vitae.

Nomination material will be collected and forwarded to the Office of the Vice President for Research for final selection. All nomination material should be received by Tuesday, September 1, 2009.

REMARKS: The selected nominees will prepare proposals in accordance with the Foundation’s application guidelines. The nominating institution must send all required documents to the Foundation as PDF files on a USB portable drive, by November 2, 2009.

Beginning November 6, the Hartwell Foundation will interview all the nominees from each eligible institution on site at the institution. Interviews are open only to the nominee and will last 60 minutes. Nominees will make a concise presentation about their proposed research in the context of their professional goals (max 30 minutes), followed by a question and answer session.