Seed Grant Program

A total of $25,000 is available.  Ideally, five awards of up to $5,000 each will be awarded (one per college); however, final awards will be determined by the nature and quality of the submissions.  All grant funds must be expended within one year of the award date. Unexpended funds will revert to IPER.

Seed grant funds may only be used for direct costs of carrying out approved projects, such as:

• Personnel who are essential for conducting the research project, such as graduate research assistants and student labor. Individuals who are not on the regular state payroll (i.e., consultants and other off-campus assistance) may be hired to perform special research-related tasks as
• Resources that require fee-for-services within TAMU Health or TAMU.
• Participant incentives for recruitment or study
• Travel that is necessary to conduct the research, NOT travel to present the results of the research, or travel to explore future funding
• Equipment necessary for conducting the research (“equipment” is defined as an article of tangible, nonexpendable, personal property that costs $5,000 or more).
• Project supplies, including services.
• Other specifically authorized expenses as may be essential to carrying out the

Seed grant funds may NOT be used for the following:

• The salary of the HSC Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator(s), or any faculty member.
• Living
• Service/maintenance contracts on
• Laboratory renovations or other infrastructure
• Institutional memberships in professional
• Travel to professional meetings to present the results of the research, or any conference attendance.
• Indirect costs, including clerical and administrative personnel
• Costs associated with the publication of results of the research, such as purchase of reprints. Page charges are allowable
• Investigator training costs, including

1. Research proposals must be novel and take an interprofessional approach. Multiple PI applications are encouraged and all PIs on the team are expected to make appropriate and significant contributions to the proposed research, and to perform new research that could not be achieved without the collaboration and seed grant
2. A TAMU Health PI is required and must meet the following eligibility requirements:
   1. The TAMU Health PI must have an eligible faculty appointment within TAMU Health, and s/he must be eligible to submit grants. Eligible faculty appointments are tenured or tenure-track faculty, in-residence research faculty, clinical faculty, other research faculty, research scientists/scholars, and adjunct faculty.
   2. Ineligible faculty appointments are post-doctoral fellows, lecturers, research assistants and research associates, visiting titles, and extension
   3. Graduate students are not
   4. Seed grant proposals must be predominantly the work of the PIs and for the benefit of the PIs’ research programs. Proposals written primarily by graduate students or others in the PIs’ names are not
3. The proposed research must be consistent with the missions of TAMU Health, its components, and the IPER mission.
4. The PIs must commit in good faith to using the seed grant funds to obtain pilot data to support an external grant proposal as indicated in the Key Dates table above. IPER will, at the request of the PIs, support the PIs with their external grant submissions (e.g., proposal development, administrative support).
5. PIs may obtain only one seed grant.

Stage 1 - Letter of Intent

1. Applicants are encouraged (but not required) to contact the IPER Executive Director, Chris Kaunas, as they develop ideas for their Letter of Intent.
2. All applicants must submit an online Letter of Intent (LOI) form, available at XXX, by the date/time indicated in the Key Dates table above. A budget is not required at the time of LOI submission. LOIs do not require routing through grants offices.
3. LOIs will be reviewed by the HSC IPE Leadership Team to determine the eligibility of the proposed research and applicant team.
4. Applicants must receive written approval of their LOI from the HSC IPE Leadership Team through the IPER Executive Director, Chris Kaunas, prior to submitting a full proposal.

Stage 2 - Full Proposal

1. Applicants are encouraged (but not required) to contact the IPER Executive Director, Chris Kaunas, as they further develop ideas for their proposal.
2. Full proposals must be submitted online at XXX by the date/time indicated in the Key Dates table above. The application must include the following:
   1. Project Information – title, PI(s), community partner(s), requested amount
   2. Abstract/Project Summary (3000 characters)
   3. Research Plan (maximum 3 pages)
   4. Specific Aims
   5. Research Strategy– brief description of significance, innovation, and approach
   6. References
   7. Roles and functions of project personnel, and the individual responsibilities of the PI(s) (maximum 1 page)
   8. Budget with justification for each item
   9. Biographical sketch of PI(s), in NIH or NSF format
3. Full proposals will undergo a rigorous review process. One or more external reviewers may be consulted as well. Individuals who are Senior/Key Personnel or Other Significant Contributors on a seed grant proposal will be excluded from participation in the review process. Reviewers may request additional information from applicants to better evaluate the scientific merit of the application, to clarify any aspect of the proposal, or to assess how the application fits within the strategic priorities of the HSC, its components, or IPER.
4. Each PI will be notified whether or not his/her proposal has been awarded funding at the IPER Symposium on the date indicated in the Key Dates table above.

Letter of Intent Submission Link

Priority for funding will be based on the following review criteria, in no particular order:

• Scientific merit of the research
• The potential for the project to expand existing knowledge related to interprofessional heath care collaboration in the areas of education, healthcare team building, and/or patient and population outcomes (priority given to proposals linking interprofessional interventions with measurable outcomes).
• Utilization of innovative approaches using existing methods toward enhancing collaboration in healthcare delivery or developing new
• Relevance of the study to the research missions of the HSC, its components, or IPER.
• Feasibility of investigational activities within project
• Importance of the research question to external
• Feasibility of plans to submit a subsequent proposal to external funders by the date indicated in the Key Dates table above.
• Composition of the research team (preference will be given to teams with representation of three or more health-related professions).

• If awarded, the PIs are not required to route their proposal through Sponsored Research Services.
• The awarded PIs are responsible for obtaining all required approvals for their research. Please visit the TAMU IRB website for more information about IRB approval.
• Awardees will be required to submit a 2-page progress report at 6 months and a 2-page final report at the conclusion of the award period.
• Changes to the project’s objectives, PIs, and/or budget will require prior approval from the HSC IPE Leadership Team.
• Detailed awardee instructions/requirements will be distributed to seed grant winners when they are notified of the award decisions.
• All awardee requirements described above are subject to change in accordance with updated institutional procedures (e.g., routing requirements).

For questions, please contact the IPER Executive Director, Chris Kaunas.