Process for reviewing a research proposal
Submission of research proposal
An investigator who is interested in using the resources available through the Research Incubator must submit an application for resources.
Description of review committees
Scientific Advisory Committee
Comprised of eight to 10 voting members with interdisciplinary expertise in a wide variety of research interests across VCU, the SAC will be responsible for retrospectively evaluating the scientific merit of projects within the RI and the utilization of RI resources. The SAC will meet monthly.
Research Incubator Advisory Committee
The RIAC will be a smaller, more flexible committee than the SAC, but it will have similar composition and responsibilities. The RIAC will meet at least monthly.
Working Group
The Working Group will include the director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research and the RI director, as well as RIAC committee members who rotate to the Working Group on a scheduled basis. The Working Group will meet weekly with the RI staff to review applications, utilization of resources and progress of ongoing projects. It will then provide information regarding approved projects, availability of resources and progress of ongoing projects to the SAC and the RIAC, as appropriate.
Review and prioritization of research proposals
All projects will be reviewed for scientific merit, project feasibility and resource availability by the Working Group, which will prioritize the requests according to the following criteria:
- Scientific rigor.
- Innovation.
- Application to clinical research/potential for translation to the general population.
- Multidisciplinary collaboration.
- Resources requested/available.
The Working Group committee may ask a research area-specific expert to review a request for resources if it feels that such a review is necessary. The expert will review the proposal and provide a recommendation to the Working Group regarding the application’s scientific rigor and feasibility within one week of his/her receipt of the proposal.
The Working Group will score each application according to set criteria and will allocate RI resources to those applications with the best scores and resource requirements that match availability.
An investigator may revise and resubmit an application that is not originally approved for inclusion in the RI program.