OREGON CENTER FOR COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS

Career Development/Training Grant Program Announcement

ORCCAMIND is now accepting applications for awards from its Career Development Program. ORCCAMIND is an NIH funded research center composed of six major institutions: Oregon Health & Science University, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Western States Chiropractic College, the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Oregon State University and the Portland Veteran Affairs Medical Center. The Center’s mission is to conduct and foster research on the effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies for neurologic diseases. ORCCAMIND's Career Development Program provides up to two-year grants to foster the career development of clinical and basic scientists who have a long-term commitment to research in complementary and alternative medicine in neurological disorders. The Program is designed to provide salary support for the applicant to pursue a training and research program.

Eligibility

Applicants for the career development awards must hold a doctoral degree in any field including any clinical (D.C., D.O., M.D., N.D.) or non-clinical degree. Both clinical and basic researchers are eligible to apply. Applications from institutions outside ORCCAMIND will be accepted and reviewed with all other applications. We strongly encourage applications from women and minorities.

Deadline and Review

Completed applications must be received by Friday, January 3, 2003. Funding decisions will be made by April 2003.

Grant Proposal Description

Do not use a type (font) smaller than 11 point. The proposal will include a description of the training component and a research proposal based on an individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) application. The research component description will be limited to less than six single-spaced pages.

The proposal should include two mentors, with strong preference to having one from CAM and one from conventional clinical or basic neuroscience. This will help ensure the training of interdisciplinary researchers. Mentors directly associated with the Center are listed below but mentors may be chosen from any academic institution. The training program description will specify academic courses that the fellow is planning on taking and specific skills that are being developed, e.g., expertise in experimental design. The mandatory portion of the training component will include the monthly ORCCAMIND conference and the Principles of Scientific Conduct and Practice course co-sponsored by the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU. Clinical researchers will also be encouraged to enroll in the Human Investigations Program at OHSU.

Lastly, the application will require a research project to be described. This will include a summary of the research project, specific aims including a clearly stated hypothesis, background and significance, preliminary studies or data if any, a research design and methods section including data analysis and references. (Page limit does not include references, Resources and Environment, biosketch, budget or the training description.). Resources and Environment will be described as well as the use of any of the Core facilities of the Center. The grant may propose to use the Core facilities of the Center which include data management, biostatistics, standardized dietary assessments, measures of antioxidants and oxidative injury, and cognitive testing.

The applicant should provide a biographical sketch including prior education and research experiences. Biosketches for the mentors should also be provided (4 page biosketch; use NIH format). The budget should be given along with the requested time duration of the grant. Applications will be accepted for part-time sabbatical-type programs for senior investigators as well as full or half time traditional post-doctoral fellowships for investigators at the start of their academic career. The program duration can be from 6 months to two years.

Grant Review

Grants will be reviewed by basic or clinical scientists with expertise in the general areas of the grant. Most reviewers will be from Oregon but some may be from outside the region. Submissions to the Career Development Program will be evaluated on the basis of the proposal's relevance to the Center's goals and its integration of areas from CAM and conventional neurology. The quality and training of the candidate, as well as the mentors will be considered in the review.

Both the training portion of the proposal and the research project will be evaluated by NIH criteria for review of scientific merit (Significance, Approach, Innovation, Investigator, Mentors, and Environment). The reviewers will generate written reports based on the content of the submitted proposals. The projects are reviewed and prioritized on scientific merit and on the basis of the relevance of the proposal to the mission of the Center.

Next, the grant proposals to be awarded will be submitted with a justification to the Project Director at NIH for final approval. Grant awardees will be expected to present the results of their research to the external Advisory Committee as part of the annual review of ORCCAMIND. They will also participate in the monthly ORCCAMIND educational conference and be expected to give talks on different areas of interest at least twice per year.

Budget

Maximum award will be $53,852 annually and will consist primarily of salary with $5,000 for research supplies equipment and travel to scientific meetings. The salary level will be based on NIH NRSA stipend levels based on post-doctoral years of experience, ranging from $31,092 for 0 years post-doctoral experience to $48,852 for 7 or more years of experience. (NIH National Research Service Awards for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows, Notice:NOT-0D-02-028, January 22, 2002). For a full-time fellowship position it is expected that at least 80% of the fellow’s time will be spent in the research and training component, with no more than 20% time allocated to clinical or teaching responsibilities not specifically outlined in the training and research proposal.

Mentors

Possible mentors currently associated with the Center include:

• Barry Oken, M.D., Dennis Bourdette, M.D., Jeffrey Kaye, M.D., and Ruth Whitham, M.D. (Department of Neurology, OHSU) are available to mentor post-doctoral fellows in neurology and clinical trials as well as in specific areas of neurologic disease related to their expertise. Fellows may attend any of the approximately 6 weekly Department of Neurology lectures and conferences. If a fellow has a clinical degree and is interested in clinical neurology, rotations in some of the neurology outpatient clinics may be arranged.

• Cynthia Morris, Ph.D., Dale Kraemer Ph.D., and William Hersh, M.D. (Division of Medical Informatics and Outcomes Research, OHSU) provide opportunities for training in research methodology, biostatistics, clinical trial design, epidemiology, medical informatics and health services research.

• Mitchell Haas, D.C., M.A. (Director of the Research Division at WSCC) is available to mentor a fellow.

• Balz Frei, Ph.D. (Director, Linus Pauling Institute, OSU) is available to mentor fellows in the basic science of anti-oxidants and oxidative injury.

Other mentors at any of the five academic institutions who are not directly part of ORCCAMIND could also be chosen by a fellowship applicant. Mentors at other institutions can also be chosen but it is strongly encouraged that at least one mentor be an investigator associated with the Center.

Questions