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.
- 30 -
News for
the week of Jan
16 –
Jan 21
