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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Fellowship in Global Mental Health Research
Introduction
The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center at the Vanderbilt University Institute for Global Health (VIGH) is pleased to announce a new one-year clinical research training program for persons in post-residency clinical fellowships, in other health-related post-doctoral programs, and/or within three years of their last major degree training (e.g., registrar, residency, fellowship, doctoral program). Persons in residency programs are also eligible with the permission of their residency director. The program is designed for persons from low, lower middle, and upper middle income countries (as listed by the World Bank at http://go.worldbank.org/K2CKM78CC0) or for citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. This new program is sponsored by the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and several collaborating institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and managed by VIGH.
The ICRF Program supports one year of mentored clinical research only in a developing country setting. High income nations as per the World Bank list are not eligible as training sites, nor are applicants from those countries, with the exception of the U.S. Applicants for the fellowship must develop a collaborative research proposal with an eligible institution overseas.
Sites were pre-approved as suitable for ICRF in a site competition completed in 2008, and several new sites have been added in 2009. These can be found on at http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/sites. f one of these sites is selected for collaboration, no site component of this application is needed other than a letter of support.
The National Institute of Mental Health partners with the FIC to fund this opportunity through VIGH. Funding is available from VIGH from July 2010 to June 2011 for one year of proposed clinical research overseas related to basic, clinical, and translational research to advance understanding of the diagnosis, causes, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders.
* Two fellowships will be awarded for 2010-2011
* This fellowship is an opportunity to immerse medical and health scientists in training related to global health and international collaboration. Persons in health-related disciplines (human or animal) such as medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, optometry, and others who are currently engaged in post-doctorate programs and qualified to do clinical research are welcome to apply.
Purpose of the Fellowship
The purpose of this program is to support a one-year, mentored research fellowship for clinical investigators studying diseases and conditions in developing countries and to build international health research capacity.
The ICRF is a post-doctoral program and is complementary, but not overlapping with the International Clinical Research Scholars (ICRS) Program for health science students (pre-doctoral). Information on the scholars program for health science students (rather than the post-doctoral or clinical fellow focus of ICRF described here) can be found on the Support Center webpage: www.fogartyscholars.org/scholars
Eligibility to Apply
* Citizens of the United States or its territories or possessions, or persons lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence. Resident aliens must include their green card number in their application.
OR
* Citizens of any nation exclusive of high income countries as defined on the World Bank web site http://go.worldbank.org/K2CKM78CC0) may apply for this award.
* Persons from developing countries who are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents MUST apply in partnership with one of our 48 approved fellows sites (http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/sites) to be eligible for this fellowship.
Site Eligibility
* U.S. citizens and permanent residents can propose alternate sites other than approved sites under the specific conditions below. ICRF-eligible sites must be a recipient of U.S. government research or evaluation support and must have a standing Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Federal Wide Assurance (FWA) as documented in good standing as of February 1, 2010 at the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) web site: http://ohrp.cit.nih.gov/search/. There will be no exceptions to these two requirements for site eligibility, i.e., the site is in receipt of U.S. government health-related funding in research or evaluation and the site has an active IRB and FWA. All of the 48 pre-approved ICRF sites are eligible and we encourage prospective applicants to consider them as research venues.
Selection
Applications are received by the Institute for Global Health at Vanderbilt University as described in the SFA section – Submitting an Application. Vanderbilt University conducts a scientific peer review of all proposals and makes awards. The Vanderbilt-organized review considers issues of potential conflicts of interests of reviewers and other key issues following guidelines of the Center for Scientific Review of the NIH. The Principal Investigator at the Support Center at VIGH serves as the administrator for these reviews, but does not vote on any proposal.
Orientation
All fellows will be brought to Bethesda, Maryland for an approximately two-week intensive orientation session on the NIH campus from July 8-20, 2010. Economy-class air travel (or suitable ground transportation for persons near to Washington, D.C.) and lodging will be provided, as well as up to $200 for visa costs and added administrative facilitation for non-U.S. ICRF trainees from overseas.
Stipends
For U.S. Citizens & Permanent Residents – The standard stipend for a U.S. fellow regardless of site is $45,000. U.S. fellows will receive stipend payments directly from VIGH, or via subcontracts with their home U.S. institution.
For Non-U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents – There is no standard stipend for non-U.S. fellows. Applicants must indicate a stipend level that is fair and equitable with salary ranges at their institution commensurate with the experience and qualifications of the applicant. Applicants will be asked for documentation demonstrating the basis for your proposed stipend. Under no circumstances will this stipend exceed $45,000 per annum (full-time), no matter what the circumstances are at the host institution. Non-U.S. fellows will receive their stipends via subcontract to their host institution.
Health & Evacuation Insurance – Fellows who are not citizens of the country in which they are working will receive health and evacuation insurance. Fellows can choose to retain their current health insurance of the institution where they are residents, clinical fellows or post-doctoral research fellows, and can opt for a reimbursement up to $4,000 for their expenses. Overseas fellows who are doing ICRF in their own nations are expected to have pre-existing health insurance from their home institutions that should be continued unabated through the ICRF year; if this is not feasible, the Support Center at Vanderbilt should be notified at least three months before the commencement of the ICRF so that the NIH can be informed and the ICRF award can be reconsidered. Fellows who are citizens where they will be working and whose institutions provide no health insurance coverage should contact the Support Center at Vanderbilt as soon as they receive their award notice. Fellows should consult with their home and host institutions to determine the best way to obtain the needed health insurance coverage. Non-U.S. fellows will receive health insurance coverage for their two-week stay in Bethesda, Maryland, arranged by the FICRS Support Center.
Pre-Departure Support for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or international fellows who reside in the U.S.
The ICRF Program’s support to your partnering U.S. institution (if any) is:
* $4,000 administrative support payable to the U.S. institution (this amount is only applicable toward one fellow. If more than one fellow is administered out of the same U.S. institution, the institution will receive an additional $1,500 per fellow).
* Up to $1,200 for suitable travel and pre-travel medical consultation and services (anti-malarial and anti-diarrheal drugs, and indicated vaccinations), upon presentation of receipts as required by the subcontracted institution.
* Up to $300 toward visa and passport fees for each U.S. fellow, upon presentation of receipts as required.
* Up to $5,000 for roundtrip airfare to overseas sites for each U.S. fellow, upon presentation of receipts as required.
* Up to $200 miscellaneous transportation/arrival costs at overseas site such as taxi, upon presentation of receipts as required.
If your partnership is directly with an overseas institution, i.e., there is no U.S. academic partner, the Support Center at Vanderbilt will provide these services directly. Vanderbilt University requires receipts prior to any and all reimbursements.
Research Training Costs for all Fellows
The following financial support will be sent via subcontract to your U.S. institution, which will provide support to your overseas site as applicable. If you do not have a partnering U.S. institution, these amounts will be handled via cost-reimbursement by the Support Center at Vanderbilt or subcontracted directly to your overseas site or partnering US institution.
* $8,000 infrastructure and administrative support for the overseas site.
* Up to $15,000 discretionary and research-project-related funds for scholar-related expenses per fellow, such as support for supplies, analysis, equipment, meetings, supplies, language courses, computer, software, etc. We expect your partner institutions to have most of the necessary equipment and supplies in place for a fellow’s project. These funds are supplementary and must be justified in the application.
Program Timeline
I. February 12, 2010: Applications are due by 3PM Eastern Standard Time.
II. Early March 2010: All finalists will be interviewed by telephone, after which final awardees will be selected by the VIGH-organized selection committee.
III. Late March 2010: Awards will be announced.
IV. July 2010: Fellows will participate in a two-week experience on the NIH campus. All fellows are required to attend and participate fully.
V. On or around August 1, 2010: ICRF awardees will begin their overseas work on-site and will be on-site for at least 10 months.
VI. After completion of the research training year: Selected ICRF fellows will return to Bethesda, MD, to present their findings at a Fogarty Trainee Conference in March 2011, depending upon the availability of funds provided by the Support Center at Vanderbilt. In addition, the completion of a brief questionnaire (anticipated to be approximately four questions) about their current career decisions plus a copy of their current curriculum vitae (including basic contact information, training and research experiences, awards, publications, and employment history) will be required every two years for the next 20 years. This is part of the NIH-mandated long-term career tracking function of the Support Center at Vanderbilt in order to assess the impact of the training.
Eligible Sites
A total of 48 sites have been competitively selected as pre-approved ICRF Fellowship sites. Information on these sites can be found at http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/sites.
Non-U.S. applicants in particular are required to apply to conduct their research training at one of these sites.
Applicants affiliated with one of these sites are not required to submit a Site Application along with the rest their application; however, US citizen/permanent resident applicants are able to choose sites other than those that have been approved. U.S. applicants not partnering with approved sites must partner with an eligible developing country site willing to host and mentor the candidate during their research. The eligible site must further be willing to select a local national to also become an ICRF for the same year. To be eligible to host a fellow, a site must demonstrate U.S. federal government supported research and/or evaluation (e.g., PEPFAR*) funding, e.g., from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, or the United States Agency for International Development. This funding support must be extant during the year that a fellow is on-site (i.e., for the 2009-2010 ICRF, U.S. federal funding must extend through June 2010). IRB and FWA requirements are given earlier in this RFA.
(*President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: www.pepfar.gov)
Submitting an Application
Applications are due electronically to Catherine Lem, MPH, Program Manager, (c.lem@vanderbilt.edu) by 3 pm EST on February 12, 2010. It is expected that all candidates will submit electronically. However, if a candidate is unable to submit the application electronically, please contact Cat Lem by February 1, 2010 to make alternative mailing arrangements. Please anticipate these deadlines and avoid a last minute submission as there will be no applications accepted after this deadline even due to circumstances beyond the applicants’ control.
Application forms and instructions are found at:
Submitting an Application (www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/submitting-an-application)
Where to Direct Inquiries
All general-interest queries will be posted to the web site and answered therein. Please read “Frequently Asked Questions for the ICRF Program” on the following web site: http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/faq to see if a given query has already been addressed.
Queries by telephone to the VIGH will be abstracted such that questions and answers are summarized and added to our web site. You may contact the following resource persons for this solicitation:
Catherine Lem, MPH, Senior Program Manager
Tel: (615) 343-3555
Email: catherine.lem@vanderbilt.edu
Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator of the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars/Fellows Support Center at Vanderbilt and an additional resource person
Tel: (615) 322-9374
Email: sten.vermund@vanderbilt.edu
The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center at the Vanderbilt University Institute for Global Health (VIGH) is pleased to announce a new one-year clinical research training program for persons in post-residency clinical fellowships, in other health-related post-doctoral programs, and/or within three years of their last major degree training (e.g., registrar, residency, fellowship, doctoral program). Persons in residency programs are also eligible with the permission of their residency director. The program is designed for persons from low, lower middle, and upper middle income countries (as listed by the World Bank at http://go.worldbank.org/K2CKM78CC0) or for citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. This new program is sponsored by the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and several collaborating institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and managed by VIGH.
The ICRF Program supports one year of mentored clinical research only in a developing country setting. High income nations as per the World Bank list are not eligible as training sites, nor are applicants from those countries, with the exception of the U.S. Applicants for the fellowship must develop a collaborative research proposal with an eligible institution overseas.
Sites were pre-approved as suitable for ICRF in a site competition completed in 2008, and several new sites have been added in 2009. These can be found on at http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/sites. f one of these sites is selected for collaboration, no site component of this application is needed other than a letter of support.
The National Institute of Mental Health partners with the FIC to fund this opportunity through VIGH. Funding is available from VIGH from July 2010 to June 2011 for one year of proposed clinical research overseas related to basic, clinical, and translational research to advance understanding of the diagnosis, causes, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders.
* Two fellowships will be awarded for 2010-2011
* This fellowship is an opportunity to immerse medical and health scientists in training related to global health and international collaboration. Persons in health-related disciplines (human or animal) such as medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, optometry, and others who are currently engaged in post-doctorate programs and qualified to do clinical research are welcome to apply.
Purpose of the Fellowship
The purpose of this program is to support a one-year, mentored research fellowship for clinical investigators studying diseases and conditions in developing countries and to build international health research capacity.
The ICRF is a post-doctoral program and is complementary, but not overlapping with the International Clinical Research Scholars (ICRS) Program for health science students (pre-doctoral). Information on the scholars program for health science students (rather than the post-doctoral or clinical fellow focus of ICRF described here) can be found on the Support Center webpage: www.fogartyscholars.org/scholars
Eligibility to Apply
* Citizens of the United States or its territories or possessions, or persons lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence. Resident aliens must include their green card number in their application.
OR
* Citizens of any nation exclusive of high income countries as defined on the World Bank web site http://go.worldbank.org/K2CKM78CC0) may apply for this award.
* Persons from developing countries who are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents MUST apply in partnership with one of our 48 approved fellows sites (http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/sites) to be eligible for this fellowship.
Site Eligibility
* U.S. citizens and permanent residents can propose alternate sites other than approved sites under the specific conditions below. ICRF-eligible sites must be a recipient of U.S. government research or evaluation support and must have a standing Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Federal Wide Assurance (FWA) as documented in good standing as of February 1, 2010 at the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) web site: http://ohrp.cit.nih.gov/search/. There will be no exceptions to these two requirements for site eligibility, i.e., the site is in receipt of U.S. government health-related funding in research or evaluation and the site has an active IRB and FWA. All of the 48 pre-approved ICRF sites are eligible and we encourage prospective applicants to consider them as research venues.
Selection
Applications are received by the Institute for Global Health at Vanderbilt University as described in the SFA section – Submitting an Application. Vanderbilt University conducts a scientific peer review of all proposals and makes awards. The Vanderbilt-organized review considers issues of potential conflicts of interests of reviewers and other key issues following guidelines of the Center for Scientific Review of the NIH. The Principal Investigator at the Support Center at VIGH serves as the administrator for these reviews, but does not vote on any proposal.
Orientation
All fellows will be brought to Bethesda, Maryland for an approximately two-week intensive orientation session on the NIH campus from July 8-20, 2010. Economy-class air travel (or suitable ground transportation for persons near to Washington, D.C.) and lodging will be provided, as well as up to $200 for visa costs and added administrative facilitation for non-U.S. ICRF trainees from overseas.
Stipends
For U.S. Citizens & Permanent Residents – The standard stipend for a U.S. fellow regardless of site is $45,000. U.S. fellows will receive stipend payments directly from VIGH, or via subcontracts with their home U.S. institution.
For Non-U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents – There is no standard stipend for non-U.S. fellows. Applicants must indicate a stipend level that is fair and equitable with salary ranges at their institution commensurate with the experience and qualifications of the applicant. Applicants will be asked for documentation demonstrating the basis for your proposed stipend. Under no circumstances will this stipend exceed $45,000 per annum (full-time), no matter what the circumstances are at the host institution. Non-U.S. fellows will receive their stipends via subcontract to their host institution.
Health & Evacuation Insurance – Fellows who are not citizens of the country in which they are working will receive health and evacuation insurance. Fellows can choose to retain their current health insurance of the institution where they are residents, clinical fellows or post-doctoral research fellows, and can opt for a reimbursement up to $4,000 for their expenses. Overseas fellows who are doing ICRF in their own nations are expected to have pre-existing health insurance from their home institutions that should be continued unabated through the ICRF year; if this is not feasible, the Support Center at Vanderbilt should be notified at least three months before the commencement of the ICRF so that the NIH can be informed and the ICRF award can be reconsidered. Fellows who are citizens where they will be working and whose institutions provide no health insurance coverage should contact the Support Center at Vanderbilt as soon as they receive their award notice. Fellows should consult with their home and host institutions to determine the best way to obtain the needed health insurance coverage. Non-U.S. fellows will receive health insurance coverage for their two-week stay in Bethesda, Maryland, arranged by the FICRS Support Center.
Pre-Departure Support for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or international fellows who reside in the U.S.
The ICRF Program’s support to your partnering U.S. institution (if any) is:
* $4,000 administrative support payable to the U.S. institution (this amount is only applicable toward one fellow. If more than one fellow is administered out of the same U.S. institution, the institution will receive an additional $1,500 per fellow).
* Up to $1,200 for suitable travel and pre-travel medical consultation and services (anti-malarial and anti-diarrheal drugs, and indicated vaccinations), upon presentation of receipts as required by the subcontracted institution.
* Up to $300 toward visa and passport fees for each U.S. fellow, upon presentation of receipts as required.
* Up to $5,000 for roundtrip airfare to overseas sites for each U.S. fellow, upon presentation of receipts as required.
* Up to $200 miscellaneous transportation/arrival costs at overseas site such as taxi, upon presentation of receipts as required.
If your partnership is directly with an overseas institution, i.e., there is no U.S. academic partner, the Support Center at Vanderbilt will provide these services directly. Vanderbilt University requires receipts prior to any and all reimbursements.
Research Training Costs for all Fellows
The following financial support will be sent via subcontract to your U.S. institution, which will provide support to your overseas site as applicable. If you do not have a partnering U.S. institution, these amounts will be handled via cost-reimbursement by the Support Center at Vanderbilt or subcontracted directly to your overseas site or partnering US institution.
* $8,000 infrastructure and administrative support for the overseas site.
* Up to $15,000 discretionary and research-project-related funds for scholar-related expenses per fellow, such as support for supplies, analysis, equipment, meetings, supplies, language courses, computer, software, etc. We expect your partner institutions to have most of the necessary equipment and supplies in place for a fellow’s project. These funds are supplementary and must be justified in the application.
Program Timeline
I. February 12, 2010: Applications are due by 3PM Eastern Standard Time.
II. Early March 2010: All finalists will be interviewed by telephone, after which final awardees will be selected by the VIGH-organized selection committee.
III. Late March 2010: Awards will be announced.
IV. July 2010: Fellows will participate in a two-week experience on the NIH campus. All fellows are required to attend and participate fully.
V. On or around August 1, 2010: ICRF awardees will begin their overseas work on-site and will be on-site for at least 10 months.
VI. After completion of the research training year: Selected ICRF fellows will return to Bethesda, MD, to present their findings at a Fogarty Trainee Conference in March 2011, depending upon the availability of funds provided by the Support Center at Vanderbilt. In addition, the completion of a brief questionnaire (anticipated to be approximately four questions) about their current career decisions plus a copy of their current curriculum vitae (including basic contact information, training and research experiences, awards, publications, and employment history) will be required every two years for the next 20 years. This is part of the NIH-mandated long-term career tracking function of the Support Center at Vanderbilt in order to assess the impact of the training.
Eligible Sites
A total of 48 sites have been competitively selected as pre-approved ICRF Fellowship sites. Information on these sites can be found at http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/sites.
Non-U.S. applicants in particular are required to apply to conduct their research training at one of these sites.
Applicants affiliated with one of these sites are not required to submit a Site Application along with the rest their application; however, US citizen/permanent resident applicants are able to choose sites other than those that have been approved. U.S. applicants not partnering with approved sites must partner with an eligible developing country site willing to host and mentor the candidate during their research. The eligible site must further be willing to select a local national to also become an ICRF for the same year. To be eligible to host a fellow, a site must demonstrate U.S. federal government supported research and/or evaluation (e.g., PEPFAR*) funding, e.g., from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, or the United States Agency for International Development. This funding support must be extant during the year that a fellow is on-site (i.e., for the 2009-2010 ICRF, U.S. federal funding must extend through June 2010). IRB and FWA requirements are given earlier in this RFA.
(*President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: www.pepfar.gov)
Submitting an Application
Applications are due electronically to Catherine Lem, MPH, Program Manager, (c.lem@vanderbilt.edu) by 3 pm EST on February 12, 2010. It is expected that all candidates will submit electronically. However, if a candidate is unable to submit the application electronically, please contact Cat Lem by February 1, 2010 to make alternative mailing arrangements. Please anticipate these deadlines and avoid a last minute submission as there will be no applications accepted after this deadline even due to circumstances beyond the applicants’ control.
Application forms and instructions are found at:
Submitting an Application (www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/submitting-an-application)
Where to Direct Inquiries
All general-interest queries will be posted to the web site and answered therein. Please read “Frequently Asked Questions for the ICRF Program” on the following web site: http://www.fogartyscholars.org/fellows/faq to see if a given query has already been addressed.
Queries by telephone to the VIGH will be abstracted such that questions and answers are summarized and added to our web site. You may contact the following resource persons for this solicitation:
Catherine Lem, MPH, Senior Program Manager
Tel: (615) 343-3555
Email: catherine.lem@vanderbilt.edu
Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator of the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars/Fellows Support Center at Vanderbilt and an additional resource person
Tel: (615) 322-9374
Email: sten.vermund@vanderbilt.edu
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