Research Partnership Scholars Grant

Access the slides here

Activities for the Research Partnership Scholars Grant

• Engage in collaborative learning to deepen critical thinking skills that support community-academic research partnerships
• Build relationships between partners (e.g., facilitating formal and informal meetings for partners to learn more about each other, to explore the involvement of other potential partners, and to discuss how the partners will adopt and use equitable collaborative principles and operating norms)
• Explore shared research interests and identifying capacity building needs with partners (e.g., identifying partnership research priorities, determining the nature of a collaborative research approach that will be used, delineating capacity-building needs, participating in trainings and/or ongoing mentoring opportunities)
• Develop a structure (Advisory Committee and/or other appropriate partnership infrastructure mechanisms) for ongoing communication between community and academic partners to support future research (e.g., define roles and responsibilities, develop communication and decision-making mechanisms, policies and procedures; develop a set of collaborative participatory research principles to guide decisions regarding various aspects of the research process).

• Direct costs up to $10,000 may be requested for 9-months.
• The total budget, per project, reflects the amount for community researchers and academic researchers combined.
• Community researchers and academic researchers will serve as co-Principal Investigators.
• Applicants should consider allocations of a minimum of fifty percent (50%) of requested funds to the Community co-Principal Investigator.

All projects must have a community researcher and an academic researcher identified at the time the application is submitted.  Both are considered co-Principal Investigators.  The BU CTSI Community Engagement Program is available for consultation to assist with identifying potential partners. 

Academic Researchers:  Applicants must have a primary faculty appointment at Boston University to qualify for this award.

Community Researchers:  Researcher or other professionals who work primarily in community-based organizations, state or local government, faith-based organizations, community health clinics, private practice, etc.  Community researchers may also be independent contractors who are not attached to any one organization.

• Both community and academic researchers are eligible to apply and/or serve as the lead applicant.
• Both the community and academic researchers will be considered co-Principal Investigators on the grant.
• If projects include Human Subjects research, investigators must submit planned human subjects research for IRB review using INSPIR II.
• Renewals or follow-up funding requests from previously funded BU CTSI pilot projects will not be considered.

Submit a 3-page narrative through the application portal.  The narrative should be written single spaced in Ariel 11-point font with one-inch margins.

• ½ page: Aims of your partnership:

Tell us about your shared goals as a partnership. Describe your shared interests or what brings you together. What do you hope to achieve during the project period?

• ½- ¾ page: Background and significance:

Tell us about your partnership. How did you come to collaborate? How long have you been working together? How did you connect? For established partnerships, tell us about your accomplishments to date as a collective. Tell us how the proposed grant will help to advance you advance your shared goals?

• 1-1½ page: Strategy/Partnership development plan

Tell us about how you will approach partnership development, communications, relationship development, collaborative planning and decision-making.

• ½- ¾ page: Dissemination plan and timeline

Tell us about the products you will develop as well as how and who you will share them with. Describe the pilot grant to which you will apply.  Provide a timeline.

Requested total grant funds will be split between community and academic partners.  Consider allocations of a minimum of fifty percent (50%) of requested funds to the community partner to adequately compensate community partners for their time (e.g. meetings, material review and preparation, environmental scans, training, networking and outreach, etc) and use of resources at their organizations (e.g. assistance from staff at community organizations, translation or interpretation services, etc).  Grantees agree by their acceptance of this funding to identify, and budget for, an opportunity for the partnership to disseminate project outcomes back to the community and prepare a short presentation at a BU CTSI Community Engagement Program monthly seminar.

Allowable costs include:

• Costs related to hosting meetings
• Costs related to further developing the community-academic partnership (e.g. facilitation or training materials such as booklets, props, transcription charges, software)
• Costs associated with planning, collaborative research projects and joint grant proposals (e.g. literature searchers, printing articles or grant proposals).
• Costs associated with tracking and reporting on partnership activities.

BUDGET EXAMPLE – applicants are not limited to the example line items
	Academic	Community
Personnel (e.g. community co-investigator’s time, staff support, etc)	$1,000	$4,000
Training materials	$1,000	$1,000
Supplies	$500	$500
Print/Copy
Meetings	$500	$500
Study Subject Incentives	$500	$500
Sub-Totals	$3,500	$6,500
Total		$10,000

• Applications must be submitted on-line on WebCAMP no later than 11:50pm on Jun. 2, 2023. Access the application here.

Applications should be uploaded into WebCAMP as Supporting Documents:

• 3-page narrative
• Budget and budget justification
• Letters of support
• Resume, CV, or biosketch for each co-Principal Investigator

Pre-Award Requirements

• Review the webinar slides and the FAQ sheet to learn about the funding opportunity.
• Have further questions about the Research Partnership Scholars Grant? Feel free to drop into one of our office hours:
  • Wednesday, May 10^th 12-1pm EST: Register Here
  • Tuesday, May 16^th 4:30-5:30pm EST: Register Here
  • Thursday, May 25^th 10-11am EST: Register Here
  • Tuesday, May 30^th 12-1pm EST: Register Here

Post-Award Requirements

Awardees are required to:

• Participate in 3 collaborative learning forums hosted by the BU CTSI Community Engagement Program
• Submit a final progress report at the end of the funded project which will report on how and to what extent the partnership achieved its goals, and the challenges and facilitating factors associated with developing, maintaining and sustaining the partnership. The final report should also describe the partnership’s plans to submit to a pilot grant funding opportunity or other funding opportunity?
• Present on partnership development activities at a BU CTSI Community Engagement Program monthly seminar.

Review Criteria

The Review Committee will be composed of community and academic reviewers experienced in community engaged research. 

Applications should be well written, precise, succinct, and should answer all applicable questions in the order in which they are presented in the application.

Preference will be given to partnerships with community members in Greater Boston, that have the potential to meaningfully engage community partners in the research process, improve research translation at clinic or community level, and plan to develop pilot grant applications that focus on addressing health equity.  

Scoring criteria will include:

• General responsiveness to the RFA requirements
• A well-demonstrated conceptual understanding of the principles of community engaged research
• Project focus on health equity
• Partnership development plan
• Project outcomes related to community-engagement, partnership development, translational research, and health equity
• Realistic budget given the activities outlined in the proposal

Funding recommendations will be based on an assessment of the merits and potential impact of each application and a comparison of the budget request to the proposed work plan, which will be reflected in a numerical score by which applications will be ranked. Applications will be funded in order of rank until funding is exhausted. The Review Committee will present funding recommendations to the Leadership of the BU CTSI and Community Engagement Program for approval. All funding decisions are final. Brief, written feedback will be provided to unfunded applicants. 

Please contact BU CTSI CE Program (ctsice@bu.edu) to request a consultation or with questions on:

• Eligibility
• Requirements
• Webinar
• Networking session
• Accessing the submission portal
• Other miscellaneous questions related to the Application

The CTSI offers an array of research resources in support of research at BU and we strongly encourage CTSI Pilot Grant applications to use these valuable resources. In many cases, leverage of these resources increases the competitiveness of an application.  Some examples include the following:

• Regulatory Support
• Grant Writing & Editing, Formatting and Editing Services
• Biostatistics, Data Management & Analysis
• Research Tools
• Study Implementation
• Research Networking
• Consultations – CTSI staff will offer feedback on the feasibility, impact, and design of the proposed scientific investigations

To request a CTSI free service please visit the CTSI Research Navigator Team page here.

We encourage inquiries concerning this RFA and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants. Please direct your questions to BU CTSI CE Program (ctsice@bu.edu).

In 2022, three partnerships were awarded:

• Sarah Bagley from Boston University, Deb Schmill founder of the Becca Schmill Foundation, and Abita Raj from UMass Memorial together seek to improve interventions to reduce and prevent youth overdose. As members of the first cohort of Research Partnership Scholars, Dr. Bagley, Mrs. Schmill, and Dr. Raj will develop and convene an advisory board representing youth, family members, teachers, public health professionals, and providers to develop a shared vision focused on reducing youth overdose. Together, the Research Partnership Scholars Grant will allow the academic and community researchers to develop a research proposal to tailor overdose intervention for youth.
• Margaret Lombe and Maria Emilia Bianco from Boston University partner with Mojdeh Rohani and Lauren Shebairo from De Novo to develop and support initiatives to improve the mental health and material well-being of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Boston. As members of the first cohort of Research Partnership Scholars, the BU and De Novo researchers will strengthen their partnership, develop and nurture an advisory board, and establish mechanisms for continued engagement, including preparation for further funding opportunities. The Research Partnership Scholars Grant will allow the academic and community researchers to build evidence informed by the lived experiences of women of color to advocate for supportive policies.
• Kaku So-Armah from Boston University and Judith Kokui Azumah from Pantang Hospital in Accra, Ghana, seek to improve the substance use disorder care for women and girls in Accra, Ghana. As members of the first cohort of Research Partnership Scholars, Dr. So-Armah and Mrs. Azumah will work to develop a framework that supports equitable collaboration and sustain this collaboration. The Research Partnership Scholars Grant will allow the bi-continental partners to focus on their short-term goals of relationship building and network building in Accra to progress toward their long-term goals of improving substance use disorder care of women and girls in Accra.