The van Geest Heart and Cardiovascular Diseases Research Fund
Grant Awards Scheme - Guidance Notes
Guidance notes are provided below to explain the remit of the van Geest Heart and Cardiovascular Diseases
Research Fund (‘the Fund’) and the application and selection process. These guidance notes have been agreed
jointly by the Fund’s Trustees and the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences Research Strategy Board (‘the Board’).
They will be reviewed each year at the Annual Meeting of the Trustees.
1.
Project criteria
a. Proposed projects must be hypothesis driven, with clear aims, and should:
• fit within the general remit of “cardiovascular research”
• fall within the 3 major Department of Cardiovascular Sciences research themes:
i. cardiovascular genomics and proteomics
ii. cardiovascular cell biology and cell signalling
iii. cardiovascular physiology, pathophysiology and clinical trials
• be focused on research that is likely to lead to significant external grant funding and/or a new
direction of research.
2.
Funding Principles
a. All projects are expected to be funded from the income generated by the investment of the Fund. The
consent of the Trustees must be obtained for any use of the capital fund. The Trustees have indicated that
such consent will be given only in exceptional circumstances.
b. Funding should be directed towards either strategic developments or to pump-priming of novel ideas likely
to generate a significant grant application or publication within 12 months. The Fund’s Trustees will expect
the Board to achieve a reasonable balance between these two funding streams.
c. Funding can cover staffing costs including potentially clinical fellowships and PhD studentships, equipment,
consumables, and other costs directly related to the proposed project.
d. Other proposals will be considered but must be first discussed with the Chair of the Board.
e. Funding must deliver ‘added value’ and must not be used to replace funding which might reasonably be
expected to be provided from core budgets in the College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology
(‘the College’).
3.
The Applications Process
a. Applications can be made by individuals, groups of colleagues, or by the Board.
b. The Chair of the Board will be very happy to discuss any potential applications with colleagues.
c. Applications for funding will be response-mode using the application form (attached as an appendix to this
note).
d. Calls for applications will be made three times a year, with submission deadlines two weeks prior to a
meeting of the Board.
e. If, on receipt of an application, the Chair of or Secretary to the Board feels that the information provided is
incomplete, the form will be returned to the applicant for revision.
f. There will also be a facility to consider ad-hoc applications for well justified and urgent funding requests at
any time.
4.
The Selection Process
a. All applications will be reviewed by the members of the Board with additional input from up to three coopted members, with appropriate experience, drawn from outside the Department of Cardiovascular
Sciences. The co-opted members will serve for a term of three years (renewable) and will be nominated by
the Chair of the Board to the Trustees for approval. Professor John Thompson (Health Sciences), Dr John
Mitcheson (Cell Physiology and Pharmacology) and Dr Don Jones (Cancer Studies) have been appointed as
co-opted members until 31 July 2016.
b.
c.
d.
All applications approved by the Board will be forwarded to the Head of College, acting as solely in his or
her capacity as a Fund Trustee and with delegated authority on behalf of all of the Fund’s Trustees, for final
review and confirmation that they comply with the above Funding Principles.
Where an application is considered by the Board or the Head of College not to meet the agreed Project
Criteria and/or Funding Principles, or requires modification, the applicant will be informed in writing by the
Chair of the Board. If a re-submission is to be permitted, the applicant will be advised about the aspects
that require revision.
Applications for >£75k may be sent out by the Chair of the Board for external peer review before they are
submitted to the Head of College. When a grant application exceeding this amount is not sent out for
review an explanation will be provided for this decision. In such an instance, if the Head of College (who
may first consult with the other Trustees) still feels that peer review is necessary, then this will be sought.
5.
Reporting
a. Successful applicants will be expected to provide annual reports to the Board on the progress of the
research, including its expected outcome and impact, outputs (including publications and presentations)
actual and final projected expenditure against the approved budget, and the leverage of other sources of
funding to enable follow up research to proceed
b. The Board will prepare an annual report, including copies of summary reports for funded research projects,
and its own comments on the progress of the projects, for presentation to the Annual Meeting of the
Trustees
c. The requirement for reporting may vary (e.g. for equipment grants or for projects of less than 1 year
duration) and any specific reporting requirements will be indicated to applicants at the time of the award.
6.
Funding Allocation and Financial Monitoring
a. The Annual Meeting of the Trustees will be held in the autumn term. At this meeting the Trustees will
receive a report from the Finance Office on the performance of the Fund’s investments in the financial year
just ended and the total value of commitments made to date against the Fund. The Trustees will then
confirm the extent of the funding to be made available for allocation by the Board in the current financial
year.
b. The Board is responsible for ensuring that the total annual expenditure committed is within the overall
limits specified by the Trustees at their Annual meeting, and that there is no overspending by individual
projects against their approved budgets. Similarly underspends on approved projects must be returned to
the endowment fund to be reallocated in accordance with the objectives of the fund.
7.
Process for release of funding to projects
The successful funding applicant should forward details of the approval, including the confirmation from the
Head of College, to Mike Newton, Treasury Accountant (mn34@le.ac.uk), with a SAP code to allow an internal
transfer of funds from the endowment.
van Geest Trustees
March 2014
Application to the van Geest Heart and Cardiovascular Diseases Research Fund
Section 1: PRINCIPAL APPLICANT
Name
Contact Phone Number
Email Address
CO-APPLICANT(S) (if any)
EXTERNAL COLLABORATOR(S) (if any)
Name
Department/Institution
Section 2: PROJECT
Project Title (Maximum 20 words)
Relevant Cardiovascular sub-theme:
Cardiovascular Genomics & Proteomics
Number of months funding requested
Cell Biology & Signalling
Cardiovascular Physiology & Clinical Trials
Total cost requested (give details in section 4)
Proposed start date (if appropriate)
Outline proposal (maximum 2 pages including relevant references)1
References
Explain the measurable outcomes of this project in the context of the criteria set out above (Maximum of 500 words)2
Is any funding already available? If so please give details below
Yes
1
No
For projects, fellowships and studentships the outline should include an hypothesis as well as a brief plan of the study. Bids for equipment should indicate how
widely the equipment could be used and where it would be located.
2
Examples of outcomes would be papers, grant applications, new research initiatives, etc
Section 3: Breakdown of costs3
Staff
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Grade & spine point
Basic salary or stipend
Employers NI
Superannuation
Inflation – state % used
Total
Consumables
Equipment
Purchase price
Maintenance costs
Any associated consumables
Total
Outline the resources costed above and give a justification of need
Section 4: CVs
For applications where a named person is identified, please attach a 1-2 page CV of any named candidate
Section 5: RSB Comments and Prioritisation for Trustees
Applications should be submitted electronically to Eleanor Jackson, Secretary to the Research Strategy Board, at
ej86@le.ac.uk
3
Salary costs should be obtained from LUCRE to ensure on-costs are included