2023 Scholar in Clinical Research - Career Development Program

Eligibility

Scholar in Clinical Research applicants must…

• Have a Sponsor who will attest to institutional support for the applicant. An appropriate Sponsor may be a department head, chief of service, or program chair. The Sponsor must be from the same institution and in a supervisory position relative to the applicant.

• Be an independent investigator of at least an assistant professor position or equivalent; this includes any permanent, independent clinical faculty who are not on a laboratorybased, tenure-track career path (see Experience/eligibility clock).

• Not be a full professor as of the award start date.

• Have clinical training in blood cancer.

• Have adequate funding to support the proposed research (see Research Support Requirement).

• Have started their first independent position no less than 4 years but not more than 10 years as of January 1 the year of the award start date (see Experience/eligibility clock). Instructor-level positions are not counted as independent for eligibility purposes. However, all non-mentored positions are considered independent for this calculation.

• Have protected time for research after the funding start date in the range of 20-40%. Deviations from this may be allowed and will be determined on a case-by-case basis by LLS scientific staff. If an investigator is more laboratory-based than clinic-based, they cannot apply for this award; they should consider the Scholar subcategory.

• Have a least one first author, full length (which may include short reports), peer reviewed, primary research publication available on PubMed by the full application due date* (Not including reviews, perspectives, conference/meeting presentations or abstracts, etc.). Note that those applicants with no corresponding author publications are eligible but are less likely to be competitive.

• Be performing clinical research involving patients (generally clinical trials), which is related to their clinical duties. Laboratory correlative studies are welcome, and any laboratory studies must directly relate to the clinical studies.

Citizenship The program welcomes applications worldwide from appropriate non-profit academic institutions and investigators of any nationality.

Degree and Training Applicants must generally hold an MD or equivalent, but in some cases, we may consider those with other advanced degrees if they are clinicians who have undergone rigorous clinical training. All Scholar in Clinical Research applicants must have formal clinical training in blood cancer.

Experience/eligibility clock Applicants must currently hold an independent, faculty-level position. As a new policy starting in the 2022-2023 cycle, those with the title of full professor (or equivalent) by the award start date are ineligible to apply. The eligibility window is 4 to 10 years in an independent position (see Eligibility Outline table). All such positions are counted in the 10-year total. Instructor-level positions are not counted as independent for eligibility purposes. In some cases, LLS may ask for a letter from any applicable institution confirming employment start date(s). As a new policy starting in the 2022-2023 cycle, all non-mentored positions will be considered as independentfor purposes of the eligibility window. Therefore, research assistant professor and similar positions will count towards the eligibility window. For example, if you were a research assistant professor for 5 years and a tenure-track assistant professor for 6 years, you would have 11 years of experience and you would therefore be ineligible to apply. One criterion is publishing (or the ability to publish) as corresponding author in the non-mentored position, in which case this type of position will be considered as part of the 4-10 year eligibility window.

Summary

You must be a highly qualified investigator who holds an independent faculty-level appointment and is conducting independent clinical research, often involving early-stage clinical trials, that will advance the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of hematologic malignancies and/or relevant pre-malignant conditions. The research should be related to your clinical activities and must directly involve patients. Investigators who are primarily laboratory-based, and/or who are working on primarily blood cancer model systems rather than blood cancer patients are not eligible for the Scholar in Clinical Research Award and should consider applying for the Scholar Award instead.

This salary award is for 5 years and the maximum award per year is $125,000.

*Please find all program documents available for download below:

2023-2024 Guidelines & Instructions - Scholar in Clinical Research

CDP Funding Agreement Template - for Scholars and Scholars in Clinical Research

Overhead

5%

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

Application deadlines

Eligibility phase deadline

Letter of Intent Stage

Prior to submission, please connect with your Faculty as this is a Salary award - not a research grant, and their eligibility requirements for supporting your application may differ from those of a standard research grant. Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Eligibility Phase deadline: October 27, 2023; 3:00 PM (ET)

Follow the instructions on the LLS Research Portal and this document to complete and submit your Eligibility Phase components. The Eligibility Phase requires completion of both the web form and the current eligibility form, which should be downloaded from the Project Document section of the web form.

No submission to Research Services is required at this stage. 

Letter of Intent stage

You will receive an email notifying you of your Eligibility approval status, which happens after LLS staff review. It typically occurs within 24 hours, but may take up to 10 business days, which means you will benefit by doing this step early. Once your Eligibility is approved, return to the LLS Research Portal, select "New or Pending" under Requests on the left panel and follow the instructions on the site and in this document to submit your Letter of Intent Phase components.

o You may be contacted by an LLS staff member if the information provided on your eligibility request suggests that you may be better suited for a different award category.

o LLS staff will determine eligibility on a rolling basis using the criteria described in this document.

Reference letter requests are required during the Letter of Intent Phase. Applicants are responsible for making sure that all required reference letters are submitted by their letter-writers by the Full Application deadline.

Once you have submitted your Letter of Intent Phase information, you may immediately begin the Full Application Phase. 

No submission to Research Services is required at this stage. 

Full application stage

Full applications, plus approval in the Research Management System (RMS) (https://research.ucalgary.ca/conduct-research/additional-resources/research-management-system-rms), will be required by RSO by noon on November 28, 2023.  Please be sure to select "Submitted for approvals" (Under Save & Progress) in RMS in good time to allow for approvals from your Department Head and/or ADR prior to the Research Services deadline. Consult your department and faculty for more information on their approval processes and timelines. 

The Full Application Phase requires completion of both the web form and the current application template, which must be downloaded from the Project Document section of the web form. Failure to follow all application instructions may result in administrative disqualification of your application.

o Contact researchprograms@lls.org with any questions about the application

Once your RMS record has been approved by Research Services, submit to the agency by their deadline on December 1, 2023.