UCSF’s Resource Allocation Program (RAP) is Accepting Applications for the Fall 2019 Cycle

By Patty Hoppe

Serving many a UC San Francisco researcher over the last 12 years, the Resource Allocation Program (RAP) is a campus-wide program that bi-annually facilitates intramural research funding opportunities. RAP is glad to collaborate this fall cycle with 21 on-campus funding agencies sponsoring 23 grant mechanisms. The grant application submission deadline is Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, at 2 p.m.

RAP seeds high-quality, high-impact and timely research and enables researchers access to funding that has a typical funding rate of about 37 percent. Faculty researchers are encouraged to take advantage of this valuable central funding program. Additionally, RAP welcomes interested faculty to participate and engage in the peer review process.

Detailed application submission information is found at https://rap.ucsf.edu/home.

New Awards for Collaborative Research

This fall, the program is excited to introduce two new funding opportunities for neuroscience researchers and a new award for health services research:

The Weill Pilot Award for Junior Investigators in the Neurosciences, sponsored by the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, is designed to support junior investigators working on a broad spectrum of neuroscience challenges, including therapeutics, diagnostics, imaging technology, biomarker discovery/validation, and computational methods. “The Weill Pilot Awards will allow us to seed high-need, high-reward projects and support outstanding junior investigators across the neurosciences at UCSF,” said institute director, Stephen Hauser, MD. “I feel confident that the research put in motion through these awards will lead to significant contributions that solve challenging problems of the human brain and advance our ability to treat brain disorders.”

The Kavli IFN Collaboration Award will support new collaborations between members of the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience. Preference will be for applicants with projects focused on the development or application of new approaches or technology for understanding the brain at any level of analysis (from proteins to behavior). Additional preference will be for groups of investigators without existing joint funding and without overlap between individual PI funding and the proposed project.

The Faculty Development Award in Precision Medicine and Health Services Research, a new scholar award offered by the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS), seeks to support faculty who wish to develop and collaborate on projects related to precision/personalized medicine, broadly defined. This includes research in health services, health economics, health policy and related fields.

Supplemental Funding Supports Diversity and Inclusion

RAP is proud to offer two types of grant supplements this fall that support UCSF’s mission to increase diversity and inclusion broadly:

The RDO RAP Diversity Supplement is directed at projects led by an under-represented minority (URM) investigator (PI1 or PI2) or that includes URM populations or bio-specimens. Up to five well-scoring proposals reviewed each cycle may receive $2,000-$5,000 on top of their RAP award amount.

The RAP Community Partnership Supplement, a pilot supported by the UCSF School of Medicine’s (SOM) Strategic Plan Action Group on Community Partnerships, is aimed at projects in which a School of Medicine PI1 or PI2 can propose a community engagement component to their RAP research proposal. Two eligible, awarded RAP applications will be selected to receive an additional $15,000 (at least half the funding needs to be dedicated to the community partner) based on evaluation of their community engagement component by the Community Partnerships Team.

RAP Continues ‘Seeding Outstanding Research’

RAP’s value to the UCSF campus is evidenced by the support given to high-quality, high-impact, and timely research. RAP enables researchers access to funding that has a typical funding rate of approximately 37 percent. An example of this outstanding research is seen in the award to Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio, PhD, MS. Her Team Science Award, titled “Shortages of Opioid Analgesics: Safety and Treatment Cost Implications in Surgical Patients” is addressing use of opioids in care delivery. Drug shortages are a significant ongoing threat to patient safety by increasing patient morbidity and mortality. Little is known about the impact of shortages of opioid analgesics on the care provided to surgical patients and health outcomes and Rodriguez-Monguio’s project is addressing this question.

Faculty researchers are encouraged to take advantage of this valuable central funding program. Additionally, RAP welcomes interested faculty to participate and engage in the peer review process. Together, our goal of providing an effective intramural funding program to “seed outstanding research” will continue to see a strong harvest.

Detailed application submission information is found at: https://rap.ucsf.edu/home.