Next Issue Date: November 25, 2024
Next Application Due Date: January 6, 2025 by 11:59 pm ET
Next Grant Selection Notification: By May 7, 2025
Period of Performance: 1 year
Amount of Grant: Up to $100,000 per grant

The Bridge to Success for Early Career Investigators grant program provides ‘bridge’ funding to promising early career sleep and circadian scientists who plan to resubmit an application for a mentored, federal career development grant that was previously not funded. Applicants must be at a critical juncture where research funding is needed to stay in the sleep field. The Bridge to Success Grant for Early Career Investigators will give scientists the time and funding needed to revise and resubmit their mentored, federal career development grant application.

The following individuals are eligible to apply:

  • Individuals with a MD, DO, DDS, DMD, DNP, DNSc, PharmD, PhD, or equivalent professional degree
  • Individuals who have applied for a multi-year career development grant from the NIH, VA or another granting body in the field of sleep or circadian science that was scored in the peer-review process but fell below (or is likely to fall below) the funding agency’s pay line and plan to resubmit a revised career development grant application.
  • US and international applicants are eligible to apply.

The following individuals are not eligible to apply:

  • Individuals who have received independent research funding of more than $250,000 are not eligible to apply. This does not apply to post-doctoral/ fellowship level training grants primarily covering the applicant’s salary (e.g., NRSAs). Additionally, current and former Principal Investigators on an AASM Foundation Bridge to Success Grant for Mid-Career/Senior Investigators are not eligible to apply.
  • Individuals who have a financial conflict of interest or have the potential to incur significant financial benefit from the proposed work and beyond the work itself 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 PI, co-PI, key personnel, mentor (paid or unpaid) or paid consultant 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.

The Bridge to Success for Early Career Investigators grant program provides ‘bridge’ funding to promising early career sleep and circadian scientists who plan to resubmit an application for a mentored, federal career development grant that was previously not funded. Applicants must be at a critical juncture where research funding is needed to stay in the sleep field. The Bridge to Success Grant for Early Career Investigators will give scientists the time and funding needed to revise and resubmit their mentored, federal career development grant application.

 Research Focus

The Bridge to Success Grant for Early Career Investigators 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.

Career Development Grants

Mentored federal career development grants include:

  • National Institutes of Health K01, K08, K23, K25, K99/R00
  • S. Department of Veteran Affairs CDA-1, CDA-2

If the career development grant for which the applicant is seeking bridge funding for resubmission is not listed, the applicant must contact the AASM Foundation to ensure that it is appropriate to apply for the Bridge to Success Grant for Early Career Investigators.

Unfunded Application

Applicants must include the unfunded, mentored federal career development grant application, reviewer critiques and, if received, the priority score and summary statement with their Bridge to Success for Early Career Investigators grant application. Additionally, they must include a response to reviewer critiques.

 Resubmission Plan

The applicant must plan to resubmit their revised career development grant. The applicant needs to answer questions in the application, specifying the career development grant program they are resubmitting and applying to, the resubmission deadline, the eligibility requirements of the grant program, and whether they will still meet the eligibility requirements at the time of resubmission.

Resubmitting a grant to a different grant mechanism within the same federal funding agency (e.g., NIH K99/R00 to K23) may be supported through the Bridge to Success Grant for Early Career Investigators, but the applicant must indicate the reasoning behind this in their plan. Resubmitting a grant from one federal agency to another is not permitted, as this is considered a new application.

 Mentoring

Applicants must identify a research mentor in the application with the skills, knowledge, and resources to provide mentorship to the applicant in sleep and circadian research. Applicants are encouraged to identify more than one mentor (i.e., a mentoring team) if expert advice is needed in all aspects of the project. In such cases, a primary mentor must be clearly identified in the application. The applicant must work with the mentor(s) to prepare the application.

 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.

Since these grants are intended as bridge support, if the NIH/VA or equivalent grant is received, the principal investigator must notify the AASM Foundation, and the following would apply:

  • If external funds are received prior to distribution of AASM Foundation funds, AASM Foundation funds would not be released, and the grant would be closed out with the AASM Foundation.
  • If external funds are received after distribution of AASM Foundation funds, the principal investigator would be permitted to submit updated documents (i.e., a new budget, justification, and project timeline) and would be allowed to retain the funds if the grant recipient can provide evidence for non-overlap.

The Bridge to Success Grant for Early Career Investigators provides funds for one year and can be for up to $100,000 per grant. There are no restrictions on the distribution of expenses, however, indirect costs are capped at 8%. The grant is a contract between the AASM Foundation and the grantee’s institution. A sample contract is available here.

This AASM Foundation research grant is supported by AASM Foundation general funds.

A review committee appointed by the AASM Foundation Executive Committee will evaluate and score all submitted applications. Factors that will be taken into consideration include: 

  1. Significance: Strong scientific premise of planned research in addressing important problems or critical barriers needed to progress the sleep medicine field.
  2. Mentorship and Career Development: The planned mentorship and career development activities will facilitate the applicant’s success by filling gaps in their knowledge, skills, and abilities. The mentors and key personnel are well-suited to support the project and the applicant’s growth.
  3. Approach: Planned research (overall strategy, methodology, and analyses) is scientifically sound, plan addresses protection of human subjects from research risks and inclusion/exclusion of individuals justified (if applicable).
  4. Environment: Institutional support and availability of equipment and other physical resources for the planned research.

Only materials submitted within the application will be used in the evaluation of applications. The AASM Foundation Executive Committee will submit funding recommendations to the AASM Foundation Board of Directors based on the scientific grant review committee scores. The AASM Foundation Board of Directors will make the final funding decisions.

Payment #1 – Upon execution of contract 90%
Payment #2 – Upon receipt and approval of Final Report 10%

If unique circumstances are explained in the budget justification of the applicant’s proposal, the Board of Directors will consider requests for an alternate payment schedule, with a maximum variance of 10%.

 

Note: Once a contract is executed for the grant, reallocation of funds of <10% do not require approval.

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 proposal for this grant. As such, the following deliverables are required:

  • Resubmission of the revised, mentored, federal career development.
  • The applicant must address the specific aims outlined in the submitted application. Any major modification(s) require 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. 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, describing project activities and results, by the deadlines outlined in the Reporting Schedule 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 Every six months
Final Report Within 90 days of award completion

The due dates for progress and final reports are established after a grant contract is executed between AASM Foundation and sponsoring organization.

If using human or animal subjects, the applicant will be responsible for obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and use Committee (IACUC) approval. The IRB or IACUC letter of approval for the specified project must be on file with the AASM Foundation office prior to the execution of the contract. No funds will be released for the project without receipt of written approval by an IRB or IACUC. Failure to obtain IRB or IACUC approval will result in retraction of the grant.

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.