Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Awards

The Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award is intended to be an early career grant to early-career investigators who are embarking on an independent research career. Eligibility is thus restricted. Please consider:

• At award date, MD or MD/PhD applicants should be four to nine years past the last year of clinical training required for medical specialty board certification and must hold a full-time tenure-track faculty position (or equivalent) at their current US based institution.
• At award date, PhD scientists should be four to nine year past completion of their terminal degree. They must have either primary or secondary appointments in clinical departments related to maternal or child health.
• Applicants who have transition faculty-mentored awards (e.g. K99/R00) are welcome if they still have one year of the mentored portion. If not, application should be deferred. K12 and K08 grantees are encouraged to apply.  
• Candidates may not simultaneously hold a grant for any other March of Dimes research program.  
• Applicants may not have total grant support exceeding $200,000 per year before the Basil O'Connor Award start date (e.g. R01).
• Those who have previously received a Basil O’Connor Award are not eligible.

Requests for exceptions on timing (e.g., parental leave) may be submitted to Courtney Dower at ([email protected]).   

The entire application must be completed online at https://modresearchgrants.aibs-scores.org.

Each application should be accompanied by a letter of nomination from the applicant’s chair; please see below for more details.
 

Applications (templates provided at the application link above) for the proposed research should include the following information in this order:

1. Contact information
2. Project information
3. Academic appointment details
4. Animal/human subject use and assurance information
5. Payee information
6. References

Application attachments

1. Candidate’s biographical sketch
2. Current financial support
3. Pending financial support
4. Professional personnel
5. Consent form (if applicable)
6. Budget
7. Budget justification
8. Research plan
9. Research plan citations

Letter of nomination: 

Chairs of departments may submit nominations for this award. Included in the letter of nomination should be: Nominator’s name, academic appointment, mailing address, telephone number, and email address. The nomination letter should be submitted via the online system. As part of the nomination, the letter should vouch for a candidate having an unrestricted faculty position and dedicated lab/clinical research space. Information provided should explicitly include: details concerning the candidate’s faculty appointment, independence, laboratory space (assigned to the candidate), startup package, and access to core facilities. This information will be scrutinized closely.

Two (2) letters of recommendation: one letter should be the postdoctoral mentor and the second letter of reference is of the applicant’s choosing.

 

Assessment

1. The academic background and potential of the candidate.
2. Resources available as judged by the nominator’s letter.  
3. The proposal: once completed, it should place the candidate in position to be competitive for a R21 or R01 building on the results of the project.
4. Clinical relevance to research priorities of March of Dimes as outlined above.
   
    

March of Dimes works with a variety of researchers from around the world. Our hope is that our awardees view their time as scholars, grantees, or center partners as mutually beneficial, and with value beyond the monetary consideration.

We expect our awardees to attend key meetings that pertain to their award program, or assign an appropriate delegate if not possible. We expect members of our research centers to collaborate scientifically and collegially with other centers or non-profit organizations that are identified during the course of the award period. We expect that our awardees will attend scientific meetings that may be established by March of Dimes and use good faith efforts to help March of Dimes raise funds for future awards through attendance at some events, interviews, or other public-facing opportunities. 

We expect our awardees to make an impact on the thematic areas outlined in our strategic plan as they relate to their awards. To that end, we expect awardees to notify us of publications, posters, and presentations so that we may help to amplify their good work to the public.

These efforts are intended to amplify success of our current and future awardees.

Questions:  
Please direct any questions to [email protected].