Research Grants
Intuitive Surgical Inc. is pleased to announce the availability of funding to support Surgical Robotic Research Grants.
Overview
The purpose of these grants is to support clinical research in the field of surgical robotics. Successful proposals will address important clinical questions or support clinically-relevant technology development. Grants will be awarded to researchers at non-profit academic institutions worldwide. Awards are conferred on a competitive basis by submission of a grant application. Although this is a relatively new program, last year’s program was highly competitive.
Available Grants
Applicants may apply for $10,000 to $50,000 of funding per project. The grant monies can be used to fund salary, equipment, supplies and/or travel required to support the proposed research project for a period of up to one year.
Selection Process
Applicants must first submit a Letter of Intent to Propose (see expected content below). Letters of Intent to Propose for grants will be reviewed by the ISI Clinical Robotic Fellowship Grant Committee. Those proposal holders meeting a predetermined scoring threshold will be invited to submit a full Fellowship grant application. Letters of intent will be handled in a confidential manner and will not be distributed beyond the Grant Committee.
Letter of Intent to Propose Guidelines
A two page letter of intent to propose should be submitted by all grant applicants in 12 pt type face. Submissions should consist of 6 parts:
- Summary: one or two sentence proposal overview
- Description of Problem/Background
- Purpose, Hypothesis and Methods of research (not more than 500 words) for the project
- Capabilities: Indicate the identities, capabilities and credentials of investigators as well as any participating institution. Include contact information for applicant principle investigator
- Budget: Include a specific request for funds and include permanent hard equipment, statistical analyses, consumable equipment, salaries to staff and other direct expenses. Applicants can request $10,000 to $50,000 in funding. Hard equipment purchases should not exceed $5,000. The budget should not include salaries for the principal investigator or other investigators, although salaries for statisticians, lab technicians, fellows and other support personnel may be included.
Priority weighting will be given to research projects that have multispecialty application, eg Intraoperative imaging or lymph node identification.
Deadlines
The deadline for Letters of Intent to Propose is July 1, 2010. Invitations to submit full grant applications will be sent by August 1, 2010. The deadline for submission for the full grant application is October 1, 2010. Only complete application packets will be considered. Awardees will be notified by November 1, 2010. Grant monies must be used to support research expenses during the 2011 calendar year.
