OpportunityTitle: DoD Multiple Sclerosis Investigator-Initiated Partnership Award
Description: The MSRP Investigator-Initiated Partnership Award (IIPA) mechanism is being offered for the first time in FY14 with the goal of attracting promising investigators and new perspectives on a research project to improve MS patient care and/or quality of life.The Investigator-Initiated Partnership Award supports the development of translational research collaborations among no more than three independent investigators (known as partners), who synergistically combine efforts to address a central problem or question in MS. The application should demonstrate each partner&#146;s contribution and criticality to the project, which together bring a new perspective to MS research and create the synergy of the team. A proposed project in which one of the partners merely supplies tissue samples or access to patients does not meet the intent of this mechanism. The success of the project must depend on the contribution of unique skills and expertise of each partner. The application must include plans clearly outlining the process for interactions between all partners. The plans must include communication structure and meeting schedules, coordination of research milestones, progress updates, plans for data transfer and analysis, and sharing of results. Additionally, multi-institutional applications must provide an intellectual property plan to resolve potential intellectual and material property issues and to remove institutional barriers that might interfere with achieving the high levels of cooperation needed to ensure the successful completion of the project.Observations that drive a research project may be derived from a laboratory discovery, population-based studies, or a clinician&#146;s firsthand knowledge of patients and anecdotal data. The ultimate goal is to move an observation forward into clinical application. Important aspects of the Investigator-Initiated Partnership Award are as follows:1. Partnership: The partnership must consist of no more than three partners; the three partners include the Initiating PI and one or two Partnering PIs. The application should clearly describe each partner&#146;s role, expertise, and why they are essential to the project. At least one partner must be a clinician, and at least one partner must be a research scientist. At least one partner must have experience in either MS research and/or MS patient care, and at least one partner must be from outside of the MS field. Experience in MS research is defined by a history of previous or current MS research funding and peer-reviewed MS publications. The proposed collaboration must be new in that the proposed team as a whole cannot have collaborated previously. Some, but not all, partners of the proposed collaboration may have collaborated with each other in the past. Previous collaboration is defined by a history of past or current shared research funding and/or joint peer-reviewed publication of research. Co-authorship on review papers and/or symposium summaries is not considered previous research collaboration.2. Impact: Applications should describe both the potential short- and long-term outcomes of the proposed research and their potential impact on improving MS patient care and/or quality of life.3. Preliminary Data: Preliminary data to support the feasibility of the research project and research approaches are required; however, these data do not need to come from the MS research field.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: CDMRP Help Desk
GrantorContactText: CDMRP Help Desk &lt;br/&gt;301-682-5507