Purpose
The Rising Star Award provides funding for a trainee embarking on a career in colorectal surgery or junior colorectal surgery faculty member to engage in a professional development opportunity. The goal is to develop a diverse group of colorectal surgeons with skills to advance our field across the domains of clinical practice, research, education and ultimately become the next generation of national and international colorectal surgery leaders. The professional development plan should directly align with the applicant’s goals.
Funding
Up to $7,000 to be used for coach air travel, hotel accommodations, meals, and registration for a career development course; with residual funds available for direct research assistance (e.g., to support purchase of data analysis software, transcriptions, or biostatistician support), if applicable. Course examples include:
- AAS Fall Career Development Course
- AAS Fall Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course
- ACS Health Services Research Methods Course
- ACS Surgeons as Educators
- ACS Surgeons as Leaders
- ACS Residents as Teachers and Leaders
- ASCRS Surgical Leadership Institute (for faculty applicants)
- AAMC Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Certificate Program
- AAMC Minority Faculty Leadership Development Seminar
- ASE Fundamentals of a Career in Surgical Education
- ASE Fundamentals of Teaching
- ASE Surgical Education and Leadership Fellowship (SELF)
After attending the course, the award recipient is required to present a brief video summary and written report of their educational experience while at the Course and their vision of incorporating this experience into academic research/practice.
Application Deadline
August 15
Review/Notification Date
October/November
Eligibility
- Applicant can be a General Surgery resident (PGY4 or higher with a plan to complete a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery within 1-2 years), Colon and Rectal Surgery resident, or faculty member in the first three years of practice, with demonstrated interest in pursuing academic career in colon and rectal surgery.
- Applicant must be a Member or a Candidate Member of ASCRS in good standing.
Review Criteria
- Applicants must submit an essay (600 words) outlining motives for applying for the award (e.g., institutional support is not available), specific academic career goals, course the applicant would like to attend, and their plans for utilizing skills developed from the course to advance their career goals.
- If requesting to use the residual funds for project support, the project, specific funding need, and budget should be provided.
- Letter of Support (PDF upload) from chair, program director, or colorectal division chief.
- Curriculum Vitae (including publications)
Submissions
The Research Foundation of the ASCRS uses a web-based platform for all grant submissions. Full instructions are available on the site in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
Applicants will log in to their ASCRS account to submit a grant application. Applicants do not need to be an ASCRS member but do need to have an ASCRS account. When the applicant clicks the Submit Grant button, they will be directed to the web-based portal, to sign in or to create an account.
Preparing Application Materials
Applicants will be asked to enter or upload necessary information to submit a grant application, available here.
Important Information*
- Keep a record of Control ID number, which can be found on the top right corner on each page of the submission template. When communicating with the Research Foundation and the ScholarOne Customer Care Team, please include the Control ID as a reference.
- Note that some institutions have firewalls that make it difficult to receive communications from the submission site. To ensure uninterrupted email delivery, please whitelist amazonses.com and abstractcentral.com domains.
- Do not forget to click the submit button (at the bottom of Step 6: Review and Submit). If the system is exited without submitting, the submission will be saved and will appear in the “DRAFT” section of the system “View Submissions” page upon re-entering the system.
- Notifications and correspondence will be sent to the email address in the ASCRS account. Correspondence can be obtained by clicking on the Messages in the grey bar at the top right of the screen in the system.
- Applicants should receive a confirmation email after submission (please check spam/junk folders for this email). To prevent this, add [email protected] and [email protected] to address book. If an email confirmation is not received, please contact [email protected].
- Applicants should use Chrome to submit grant applications. Pop-up Blocker must be turned off for submission.
Need Help?
Technical questions or problems with the system should be directed to the ScholarOne Customer Care Team. They can be reached by clicking the "Help" link in the top right-hand corner of the screen in the ScholarOne system or by emailing [email protected]. Please include your Control ID number, name, phone, email and an explanation of the problem in all support correspondence. ScholarOne Customer Care is available Monday 12:00 a.m. through Friday 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, +1-434-964-4100 (US) or +1-888-503-1050 (International).
For grant-specific questions, please contact the Research Foundation administrative office at [email protected] or (847) 607-6410 and ask to speak to the foundation grants staff.
Application Review
The Young Researchers Committee, Research Foundation of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, reviews all completed applications received by the deadline through a peer review process. A recommendation is then submitted to the Research Committee for approval. Members of the Young Researchers Committee serve pro bono and do not participate in evaluation of applications from applicants or institutions in which there is a conflict of interest.