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Purpose
Improving the health of all patients with colorectal diseases is core to the mission of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons Research Foundation. Within the US, disparities exist in health care delivery, including the management and outcomes of colorectal diseases. Additionally, opportunities exist to diversify the colorectal surgery workforce (surgeons and nurse practitioners) to align more appropriately with the populations that we care for.
This special call aims to advance our knowledge in reducing disparities in the care and outcomes of the racial/ethnic minorities, women, LGTBQ+ populations and those living with disability who have colorectal conditions. Therefore, we are seeking proposals that aim to improve equity in colorectal surgery via pilot patient-oriented interventions conducted in real-world environments. The proposal is strongly encouraged to include patient-facing work in the environment where you practice.
Possible areas of focus include:
- Quality improvement efforts focused on improving the experience and outcomes for colorectal surgery patients with limited health literacy, limited English proficiency, or from historically marginalized groups.
- Areas of focus might include improving prevention and screening, evidence-based surgical care processes or outcomes along the five phases of surgical care as defined by the American College of Surgeons, and/or longitudinal surveillance past the 90-day window (e.g. - survivorship).
- Community-based projects to create awareness and action around colorectal diseases.
- Improving access and/or outcomes to colorectal services in areas where it is not readily available e.g. in safety net hospitals and/or rural hospitals.
- Enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the colorectal care team workforce.
- Supplemental funds to current grants/contracts addressing issues related to DEI.
- Projects focused on exploring/overcoming barriers to the accrual of traditionally underrepresented patient groups to clinical trials and other research studies.
Funding
Up to $20,000 for 1 year.
- LPG need not be given every year.
- LPG award may be funded in whole or in part.
- No consortium/contractual arrangements will be allowed with collaborating organizations.
- Salary support for the Primary Investigator is not permitted.
- LPG funding is limited to “Direct Cost Only” budgets. Additional indirect costs will not be approved.
Application Deadline
March 15
Review/Notification Date
May / June
Award Eligibility
- The proposed research must be investigator-initiated, hypothesis-driven
- The proposed research must be conducted within the United States or Canada
- ASCRS members must be co-principal investigators or principal investigators.
- Prior to submitting your application, any proposed research that includes human or animal studies must have approval from the institution’s appropriate review board.
Award Expectations
- The Research Foundation will disperse funding to the Institution in two installments. Installment one upon execution of the grant agreement and installment two upon receipt and review of an interim report at six months.
- Institution shall submit an Interim Research Report to the Research Foundation in six months.
- Institution shall submit a written report to the Research Foundation fifteen months after the receipt of the award.
- Awardee will present findings to the Research Foundation during a specified time during the ASCRS Annual Scientific Meeting.
- Findings and tools developed as part of the work will be expected to be shared with the larger ASCRS community via the Research Foundation webpage.
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, +1-855-258-5858 (US) or +44 8003288044 (EMEA).
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 manager.
Application Review
The Research Foundation of the ASCRS Research Committee reviews all completed applications received by the deadline through a peer review process. The committee is composed of funded researchers who are members of the ASCRS. Members of the committee serve pro bono and do not participate in evaluation of applications from applicants or institutions in which there is a conflict of interest.
Re-Submitting a Limited Project Grant
If you have previously submitted an LPG that was not funded, you may re-submit the same application during the next submission cycle. Re-submissions must adhere to the following: