Diversity Supplement Grant
| Issue Date: | November 25, 2024 |
| Application Due Date: | January 5, 2025 by 11:59 pm ET |
| Grant Selection Notification: | By May 7, 2025 |
| Period of Performance: | 8 weeks – 3 years |
| Amount of Grant: | Up to 20% of the parent research grant, with a maximum of $50,000 |
The Diversity Supplement Grant provides an opportunity for sleep and circadian science investigators, who have a funded research program, to support mentored sleep and circadian research training of promising students, post-doctoral fellows and clinical fellows who are members of minority groups traditionally underrepresented in US science to participate in sleep and circadian science research projects. All sleep and circadian science investigators holding an active research grant may request supplemental funds to improve the diversity of the sleep and circadian research workforce.
The following individuals are eligible to apply:
- Principal investigators with an active sleep and circadian science research grant from a US federal agency or US-based non-profit organization.
The following candidates are eligible to be supported by the grant:
- Candidates who are directly supported by the Diversity Supplement Grant must be one the following:
- Students who are enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate, or health professional degree-granting program.
- Individuals who are enrolled in a post-baccalaureate program.
- Individuals who are within one year of completing bachelors, masters or doctoral degree and taking a gap year in their education.
- Clinical residents, post-doctoral fellows, or clinical fellows.
- Candidates who are directly supported by the Diversity Supplement Grant must be from one of the groups identified as underrepresented in the extramural U.S. biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences workforce
- Candidates must be citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States or individuals who have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States (i.e., in possession of a Permanent Resident Card, Form I-551).
The following individuals are not eligible to apply:
- Due to varying definitions of underrepresented groups across countries, international investigators are not eligible to apply.
- Current AASM and AASM Foundation Board of Directors members are not eligible to apply and cannot be listed as a principal investigator, key personnel, mentor (paid or unpaid) or paid consultant during their term on the Board and for one year after their term ends.
Note: In rare instances, AASM and AASM Foundation Board members may serve as unpaid consultants on an application, however, this requires Executive Committee approval prior to submitting the application.
- Individuals and organizations located in, or operating from, countries subject to U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctionsare not eligible to receive AASM Foundation funding.
The Diversity Supplement Grant provides an opportunity for sleep and circadian science investigators, who have a funded research program, to support mentored sleep and circadian research training of promising students, post-doctoral fellows and clinical fellows who are members of minority groups traditionally underrepresented in US science to participate in sleep and circadian science research projects. All sleep and circadian science investigators holding an active research grant may request supplemental funds to improve the diversity of the sleep and circadian research workforce.
Research Focus
This request for applications for the Diversity Supplement Grant is open to mentored projects that address one or more important unanswered scientific questions related to sleep and circadian science, sleep disorders and/or sleep health.
The proposed research must provide meaningful experience in sleep and/or circadian science-related research to stimulate and/or retain interest in sleep research careers, develop a candidate’s research capabilities for all education and training levels of candidates. For candidates with advanced education or training, the proposed research must assist in supporting the research training in preparation for an independent sleep research career.
Mentoring
Since this is a Career Development Grant, the individual applying must serve as the research mentor of the candidate for the duration of the Diversity Supplement Grant. The applicant must have skills, knowledge, and resources to mentor the candidate in sleep and circadian research and have active research grant funding.
Number of Applications and Scientific Overlap
Individuals may apply for multiple AASM Foundation grants, however, the same proposal (i.e., projects with budgetary and scientific overlap) may not be submitted for multiple requests for applications in a given cycle. Additionally, if an individual submits more than one application in a given Career Development Grant cycle, the AASM Foundation will only approve funding one grant should multiple proposals submitted by the applicant receive a competitive score.
Individuals who are the Principal Investigator on an open AASM Foundation research grant at the time of the application deadline can apply if they can demonstrate that there is no budgetary or scientific overlap between their open grant and the new project they are applying for funding. If there is budgetary and/or scientific overlap between projects, the applicant must indicate their plan to close their open grant in the event their new application is selected for funding (e.g., relinquish the current grant or complete the current grant to start the new grant).
Additionally, individuals who are seeking funding from AASM Foundation research grants to support ongoing projects currently funded by another granting body or supplement ongoing work (e.g., enrolling additional subjects into an ongoing trial) are not eligible to apply. The principal investigator will be required to make a statement regarding any overlap in their Other Support page of the application. Furthermore, candidates cannot be supported by the Diversity Supplement Grant if already supported by the parent sleep and circadian science research grant.
Resubmission Policy
Past applicants of the Diversity Supplement Grant who were not funded are allowed a single resubmission within 12 months of receipt of the original application notification.
If resubmitting an original and unfunded application, the applicant and candidate must still meet all eligibility criteria listed under the Eligibility section of this request for applications. The resubmission must include a response to the reviewer’s critique and a response to the original application’s reviewers.
Resubmission of an original application for one grant program across another grant program is not permitted.
The Diversity Supplement Grant provides funds for 8 weeks to 3 years, depending on the duration of an active parent research grant, and can be for up to 20% of the parent grant (maximum of $50,000). The funds can be used for salary support (commensurate with current stipends or salaries) for a mentored sleep and circadian science research project of a parent sleep and circadian science research grant. Indirect costs are not allowed. A sample contract is available here.
The Diversity Supplement Grant may support no more than two candidates who meet the eligibility criteria below, and the total support cannot exceed the established amount of the supplemental grant (i.e., up to 20% of the grant not to exceed $50,000).
This AASM Foundation research grant is supported by AASM Foundation general funds.
A grant review committee, appointed by the AASM Foundation Executive Committee, will evaluate and score all submitted applications. Factors that will be taken into consideration include:
- Research Plan and Goals: Research plan is tailored to the academic level of the candidate and includes goals, milestones, and objectives of the proposed research. The proposed research must contribute significantly to the research career development of the candidate.
- Mentoring and Training Plan: Plan for training includes opportunities to acquire new research, presentation, and publication skills; training also includes protections for human subjects or animal care. Plan for mentorship includes experiences to increase candidate’s knowledge, skillset, and abilities.
- Candidate Statement: Candidate’s career goals, educational achievement and interest in science will be bolstered through this new research experience. Appointment of candidate will promote diversity in the sleep research field.
Only materials submitted within the application will be used in the evaluation of applications. The AASM Foundation Executive Committee will make the final funding decisions.
| Payment #1 – Upon execution of contract | 100% |
Outcomes are an essential component of this grant. All proposals must identify the goals and appropriate outcome measures of the research. The outcomes should align with the goals and objectives stated in the applicant’s and candidate’s proposal for this grant. As such, the following deliverables are required:
- The applicant must address the specific aims and any major modification requires AASM Foundation Board of Directors or Executive Committee approval.
- The AASM Foundation expects that the research funded by this grant will lead to the publication of original research in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, and submission of an abstract to the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) for presentation at the annual SLEEP meeting, with the opportunity for the candidate to be the lead author. The plan and costs for these deliverables must be stated in the application.
- The applicant must submit progress and final reports during the project period and set deadlines, describing project activities and results, as outlined below. Failure to submit reports per the established schedule will result in withholding grant payments from the sponsoring organization and the grant recipient becoming ineligible to apply for future AASM Foundation funding until all outstanding reporting is up to date.
| Progress Reports |
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| Final Report | Within 90 days of grant completion |
The due dates for progress and final reports are established after a grant contract is executed between AASM Foundation and sponsoring organization.
Frequently asked questions for our grant programs can be found here.
Eligibility questions may need to be reviewed by a member of the AASM Foundation Executive Committee, so please allow for at least a 1-week response time for eligibility questions. For all other inquiries, please allow a minimum of two business days for a response. Please note that questions received within 48 hours of an application deadline may not be answered before the deadline.