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November 2021
Dear Colleagues,

As we make our way into the holiday season, we wanted to pause to give thanks to you, our colleagues, for your steadfast pursuit of knowledge and understanding, for your collaboration, and for being outstanding colleagues. With your achievements, you put us on the map, with your collegiality, and you make this an incredible place to work. In this month’s edition, we’d like to highlight a few career development opportunities like the Physician Scientist Scholar Program (PSSP), funded and administered by the SOM. This is a rare opportunity for funding as early as residency. Please also note that the management training program for early-stage investigators (PIVOT) is filling up fast, so see the blurb below and apply to secure your spot. And as usual, we congratulate all our colleagues for their successes in their research as we highlight their grants below. 

All the best, 
Diane and David

Diane Havlir, MD, Associate Chair for Clinical Research
David Erle, MD, Associate Chair for Biomedical Research 
Career Development Awards
Nicholas Arger, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine at UCSF Health received a K23 from the National Health, Lung & Blood Institute for a project entitled, "Using high T-bet-expressing cells and serum chemokines as indicators of disease severity in sarcoidosis."
Christopher Berger, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine at UCSF Health received a K23 from the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute for a project entitled, "Digital adherence technologies to facilitate completion of short-course tuberculosis preventive therapy among people living with HIV."
Jennifer Chen, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at ZSFG received a K08 from the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases for a project entitled, "Role of ceramide in hepatic stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis."
Wagahta Semere, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at ZSFG received a K08 from the PHS Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality for a project entitled, "Promoting safety by engaging diverse diabetes patients and their caregivers in secure messaging."
Sachin Shah, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine at UCSF Health received a K76 from the National Institute on Aging for a project entitled, "Individualizing anticoagulant use in older adults with atrial fibrillation."
Bhavika Kaul, MD MAS, has been selected for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) Scholars Program. The PFF Scholars Program supports promising young investigators in the field of pulmonary fibrosis with grant funding and career development opportunities with the goal of advancing research that improves outcomes for patients with PF. Dr. Kaul’s scholarship focuses on the equitable implementation of evidence-based interventions that improve access to high quality complex subspecialty care. During her tenure as a PFF Scholar, she will investigate diagnostic and treatment delays impacting Veterans with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, evaluate the consequences of these delays on clinical outcomes, and use this data to inform care delivery infrastructure redesign. 
New UCSF Profiles Feature
UCSF Profiles now has a new feature to indicate (self-identity as) 'physician-scientist.' This 'Physician-Scientist' checkbox can help to better track, improve, and advance academic life for all physician-scientist faculty and trainees across departments and institutes/organized research units at UCSF. 

If you are a physician-scientist, we encourage you to log into your Profile and update your record.

For instructions, please click on the button below.
Career Development Programs
REMINDER: DOM PIVOT (Principal InVestigator Organizational management Training) 
Application deadline is December 1st 
  
Are you an early-stage investigator just starting to build your research program as a PI? You know the science, but do you know how to navigate the NIH and UCSF research infrastructure successfully? Do you want to avoid the pitfalls of managing personnel and over committing your budget?
 
Learn the answers to all these questions and more by applying to PIVOT (Principal InVestigator Organizational management Training) for Early-Stage Investigators. This is a 4-session, case-based, interactive program designed by DOM research faculty and DOM administrative leadership. It will start in early 2022. Eligible faculty members are those who have a primary appointment in the Department of Medicine and have an active NIH career development award (K08, K23 or named as scholar on K12/KL2), or recently received their first R01 or equivalent funding. If you are unsure about your eligibility, you are encouraged to apply. Though space is limited, there will be future sessions. 
 
Applications are due on December 1, 2021. For more information including how to apply, please click the button below.
EXTRAMURAL HIV/Aging Pilot Program
Concept proposals are due December 3rd

The purpose of this program is to promote interdisciplinary research into Aging among PLWH by bridging research excellence between CFARs and OAIC/ NSC/MBIs and develop the next generation of HIV Geroscience translational researchers. Proposals with an emphasis on the emerging field of Geroscience and its application in HIV will be the focus. This RFA is to specifically encourage interactions between OAICs, NSCs, or MBIs, and CFAR investigators and to encourage interdisciplinary engagement through collaborations between experts in HIV and aging. Any new stage investigator or any stage Gerontology faculty who is new to HIV research can apply. Post-doctoral fellows must be faculty on or before July 1, 2022 to apply. Two to four pilot grants will be funded, (up to $40,000 total costs per grant).

Concept proposals are due on December 3, 2021. For more information contact Mary Thielen or Lydia Drumright. To view the RFA, please click the button below.
REMINDER: UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center K12 Physician Scholar Program in Clinical Oncology (PSPCO) 
Application deadline is December 3rd

The goal of PSPCO is to foster the development of the next generation of clinical scientists to be effective partners with discovery scientists and conduct high impact and innovative patient-centered cancer research. PSPCO will support cancer-focused junior faculty, giving them 75% protected research time for up to 2 years.

Applications are due by 3:00pm on December 3, 2021. To view the RFA, please click the button below.
SOM Physician-Scientist Scholar Program (PSSP)
Application deadline is December 17th

PSSP provides financial resources, career guidance and protected research time to facilitate the early career development of clinician-scientists who have high potential to conduct transformative laboratory-based research to advance human health. Candidates can be nominated as early as when they are considered for residency training (rare!), or as late as four years after completing ACGME-mandated residency/clinical fellowship training if those four years involved >50% effort in laboratory research. This is a highly competitive award (typically one per year across the School of Medicine). 

All proposed nominations must be approved by the division chief and submitted to the DOM by Friday, December 17, 2021. If you are interested in this grant, talk to your Division Chief about a nomination.
Funding Opportunity
REMINDER: SOM Bridge Funding: Invitation to Apply to the 30th Cycle!
Application deadline is December 10th

The Bridge Funding program provides up to 12 months of support for full-time faculty members who have independent research programs and are experiencing a temporary, but significant, loss of funding. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has particularly impacted faculty members who have child and dependent care responsibilities. The Bridge Funding program will consider applications from faculty for whom pandemic-related caregiving responsibilities have negatively impacted their research program, particularly due to delayed submissions of renewal or revised applications which have resulted in a funding gap.

Applications are due by 5:00pm on December 10, 2021. For more information including how to apply, please click the button below. For questions, contact Michelle Teng.
NIH Updates
Attention T32, F32, and K awardees: Online Option for Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research Available Through December 2021

NRSA (T32/F32) and Career Development (K) Awards requirements for in person instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) have been modified due to COVID to allow online courses through December 2021. Options for in person RCR instruction for lab-based investigators at UCSF remain very limited, and we strongly encourage those without a good option for in person training to complete online training while this is allowed. Online training is available through CITI.

For more information from NIH, see the Guide Notice (NOT-OD-21-152) and visit the FAQ page by clicking on the link below. 
NIH Other Support Changes 

In March 2021, the NIH announced changes to requirements for Other Support for applications and progress reports submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2021. Some Institutes and Centers have already begun enforcing the new requirements, and all ICs will start enforcing them beginning in January 2022. Your RFA may reach out to you soon to update your Other Support, so here are a few reminders about the biggest changes:

  • PIs must now report “in-kind” support and estimate a dollar value or % effort for each in-kind contribution. In-Kind Contributions are defined here as resources and/or financial support from all foreign and domestic entities, that are uniquely available to the researcher.
  • Foreign activities and resources must be reported on the OS. Supporting documentation is required for foreign support or appointments and PIs must attach copies of any contracts translated in English.
  • Each PD/PI or other senior key personnel must electronically sign their respective OS prior to submission.

Here are some examples of projects, resources, and scenarios to help guide you as you work with your RFA to update your Other Support.
For more information and to visit the FAQ page, please click on the button below. For questions, contact Jon Rueter.
Help with Grant Preparation
DOM PREPARE Program
Requests for grant reviews are accepted on an ongoing basis

Get peer reviews for your proposal via the PREPARE program! You do not need to have a draft to request a review – just enter the study name and a brief description and we'll match you with experts who will provide feedback and guidance. Submit a request today!
If you'd like to contribute to future newsletters, please send your items to Ilona Paredes.
In Case You Missed It
ReSearch ReSource Newsletter

The Office of Research delivers a monthly communication of news and resources dedicated to the research enterprise, a helpful companion to DOM Research News! Read the newsletter here.
Resources for Space Planning Updates

For updates on work space projects, be sure to check out the UCSF Space websites for Parnassus Heights and ZSFG. Also, check out the Parnassus Vision website, maintained by a group of Parnassus-based research faculty.
Copyright © 2021, University of California, San Francisco, All rights reserved.

Please send comments, suggestions and questions to:
Diane Havlir, MD, Associate Chair for Clinical Research (diane.havlir@ucsf.edu)
David Erle, MD, Associate Chair for Biomedical Research (david.erle@ucsf.edu)

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