Seed Grant Opportunities

2024 – 2025 Regenerative Medicine Seed Grant Announcement

Deadline: June 23, 2024

Call for “Georgia Partners in Regenerative Medicine” Seed Grant Program

The University of Georgia, Emory University, and Georgia Institute of Technology, under the Regenerative Engineering and Medicine Center (REM) announce the 2024-25 collaborative grant program.

This funding mechanism is intended to stimulate new, collaborative research in regenerative medicine among Georgia Tech, Emory University and UGA investigators. The collaborative grant team must have a minimum of two investigators and must have an equal partnership of faculty from two of the participating institutions with budgets split between the universities as equally as possible.

This funding mechanism may support collaborative projects at earlier stages of development in the “high risk, high yield” category or projects with exceptionally innovative or novel technology and/or a high potential for clinical or industry translation. Budgets for these proposals may not exceed $100,000.

NEW for 2024-2025 Cycle:

In addition to our core focus areas, we are particularly interested in proposals that explore the intersection of regenerative medicine and aging. With the global rise in life expectancy, age-related degenerative diseases present a growing challenge. Understanding and intervening in the aging process have profound implications for regenerative therapies and are thus of special interest for this grant cycle.

Proposals that aim to uncover the mechanisms of aging, age-related changes in tissue regeneration capacity, and the development of novel regenerative approaches to combat age-associated disorders are encouraged. Collaborative projects that combine expertise in regenerative medicine with gerontology, bioinformatics, or other disciplines relevant to aging will be viewed favorably.

Projects that demonstrate potential for translational impact in geriatric populations or contribute significantly to the body of knowledge in the field of aging and regeneration are particularly encouraged.

Deadline: The deadline for submission of proposals is June 23, 2024. Awards will be announced in mid-August. Note: Timeline is subject to change.

General Guidelines

ELIGIBILITY

• All faculty members with primary appointments at Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Georgia are eligible to apply.
• Proposals from those addressing new questions or taking new approaches are encouraged.
• Teams must consist of UGA and Emory, UGA and Georgia Tech, or Georgia Tech and Emory investigators.
• Investigators may not receive regenerative medicine seed grant funding for more than 3 years out of any 5 year period.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• The funding timeline for each award will be dependent on the type of funds used and the institution they are coming from. Details will be outlined in official award letters.
• Funds may be used for Ph.D. student/postdoc support, animal studies, research materials and supplies, and limited travel as related to the conduct of the research. Faculty salary support is not appropriate.
• Applicants are reminded that these are seed grants that are intended to promote the acquisition of extramural funding.
• The Regenerative Engineering and Medicine Center should be recognized in any grant or publication acknowledgements.
• The application must include a description of the long term funding strategy.
• Progress Reports will be due 6 and 12 months after the funding start date. An annual update will also be required for the next 5 years (due each year on May 1). Failure to submit a timely progress report will result in ineligibility for future award opportunities from this seed grant program.

**Emory Exception – IF TEAM INCLUDES P.I. FROM EMORY

The success of the research grant program will be measured by the publications and follow-on extramural funding from the seed grant and generation of intellectual property, and/or the initiation of clinical studies. Publications arising from a Emory / UGA or Georgia Tech / Emory seed grant should include the following citation in any publication, press release, or other document resulting from direct or indirect ACTSI support, “Supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1TR00454. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”

* Please note that no clinical trial activity beyond phase IIA may be supported by this grant. For more information on the definition of clinical trials and phases, please refer to the NIH Grants Policy Statement at https://grants.nih.gov/policy/nihgps/index.htm. For all allowable clinical trials the grantee must register the clinical trial on the ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration System Information Website at https://register.clinicaltrials.gov.

**Georgia Tech and UGA Exception

For Georgia Tech and UGA students supported on these funds, their tuition will be waived.

RENEWALS

Prior recipients of seed grant funding must fill out a progress report of work completed under the prior funding. This will be collected on an on-line system and should include a summary of the work, publications and presentations and funding applied for and/or received. If extramural grant applications were unsuccessful, reviews and scores from those applications should be included.

GENERAL FORMAT

The format for these grants is the same as used by the NIH for standard R01 applications with the exception that there is a 3-page limit to the application (excluding budget, abstract, and references).

Applications should include the proposal, a detailed budget using NIH forms, and NIH format and 2-page biosketches for the investigators.

DETAILED FORMATTING INSTRUCTION

SUBMISSION & QUESTIONS

Technical questions regarding the program can be addressed by emailing the Administrator at connect@ibb.gatech.edu. The proposal should be submitted as a PDF as one complete document..

A few notable past UGA Winners