This story was edited at 5 p.m. Jan. 20, 2005.

by Jennifer Kowalewski

Three college researchers will each receive $20,000 from the new Competitive Grant Program upon submission of their grant proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The program, which began last year, encouraged OU-COM faculty to seek NIH funding and provided timely critiques of their research proposals before submission to NIH. The program was sponsored by the Office of Research and Grants and and Research and Scholarly Affairs Committee (RSAC).

“Since NIH funding serves as a benchmark for research stature among medical schools, our NIH funding should increase as a result of the Competitive Grant Program,” says Jack Blazyk, Ph.D., associate dean for research.

The three grant awardees are Richard Klabunde, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology; Bonita Biegalke, Ph.D., associate professor of virology; and Xiaozhuo Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular biology.

“I think the grant program was tremendous,” says Klabunde. "Indeed, the program was competitive, and the program was a stimulus for writing good grant proposal.”

Klabunde says he will use this OU-COM grant as seed money while waiting to hear from the NIH regarding his research proposal, which he describes as “looking at how diet induced obesity and diabetes alters the mechanisms that control coronary vascular function in mouse hearts.”

R.V. Balaji, M.B.A., research grants development coordinator, says the program took shape in July, with an October deadline for researchers to submit their grant proposals.

To prevent conflicts of interest in determining awards, each proposal initially was reviewed by three specialists from outside Ohio University. Balaji says that each team of external evaluators was comprised of two experts and a non-expert reviewer familiar with NIH standards.

After the external review, a committee made up of University faculty from the departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Psychology selected three proposals for funding. Researchers will receive $20,000 awards after they submit their proposals to NIH in February.

“The program was structured this way so that awards were made on as fair a basis as possible,” he says, adding eight proposals were vying for the grant awards.

A real plus of the Competitive Grant Program was the critique of proposals. Instead of sending a proposal to NIH, and waiting nine months to a year for feedback, the program solicited critiques prior to NIH submission deadlines, so that researchers could improve their proposals before submitting them.

The $20,000 award can be used to jumpstart a project, such as by gathering more preliminary data, before receiving a NIH grant, Balaji says.

“Even if our grant recipients aren't funded by NIH, our grant awards can still be used,” he says. “For instance, if NIH says no, they can use the money to strengthen their proposals for a second attempt. The bottom line is improving the quality of the proposal.”

Because of its review process and awards, the Competitive Grant Program strengthened the proposals being sent to NIH and likely, stimulated the number of proposals submitted overall.

Biegalke will use the money to gather preliminary data for her research on a protein required for replication of a virus that causes birth defects.

“I think it’s great OU-COM is striving to increase the number of externally funded grants,” she says. “Advances in medical care are in large part due to basic research, with NIH providing a major portion of the necessary funding. One answer in research oftentimes leads to more questions.”

And those questions can lead to more research and, in turn, even more questions.

Chen wants to continue his research into diabetes and a natural compound showing promising anti-diabetic properties.

“It's exciting to receive this award,” he says. “This award is different from others, because the feedback I got will help me greatly improve my NIH proposal. And the money will help me continue my work.”

RSAC hopes that funding for continuing the Competitive Grant Program in the future will be available.