Introduction
The Greenwall Foundation is
requesting proposals for the Spring 2021 cycle of its bioethics grants program,
Making
a Difference in Real-World Bioethics Dilemmas, to support research
to help resolve an important emerging or unanswered bioethics problem in clinical,
biomedical, or public health decision-making, policy, or practice.
The Foundation’s vision is to make bioethics integral to decisions in
health care, policy, and research. Our mission is to expand bioethics knowledge to improve
clinical, biomedical, and public health decision-making, policy, and
practice. Projects funded
under the Making a Difference program should promote the Foundation’s vision
and mission through innovative bioethics research that will have a real-world,
practical impact.
Letters of intent are due January 8, 2021 by 11:59 pm ET, for
projects to begin on or after July 1, 2021.
Priority Topics
While we welcome all innovative
proposals that will have a real-world impact, we are particularly interested in
proposals that address the ethical and
policy issues raised by the following priority
topics:
- The
COVID-19 pandemic and other public health crises;
- Bias and discrimination against patients
or clinicians, which may be based on a broad range of characteristics and which
may involve institutional and systemic contributors to bias and racism
as well as health disparities or social determinants of health;
- Developments
in artificial intelligence;
- Responses to the opioid epidemic;
- Healthcare
access, costs, and resource allocation.
Proposals for projects that address
other real-world, practical bioethics problems are also welcome.
Guidance for Proposals
Projects may be empirical,
conceptual, or normative. All proposals should explain how they will help
address a real-world bioethics dilemma. Projects to analyze the normative
implications of already-completed empirical research are encouraged. The
Foundation will support mentored projects in which a postdoctoral fellow or
junior faculty member works closely with an experienced bioethics scholar. The
Foundation will also consider pilot or feasibility projects to evaluate an
innovative intervention to resolve a bioethics dilemma, with the goal of
obtaining funding from other sources for a larger evaluation or demonstration
project. Some highly promising projects may be funded for an initial phase,
with additional funding contingent on achieving clear milestones.
The research team
needs to have relevant and appropriate expertise to carry out the proposed
project. Successful teams commonly involve a bioethics scholar and persons with
on-the-ground experience with the bioethics dilemma, for example, in clinical
care; biomedical research; biotechnology, pharmaceutical, big data, and
artificial intelligence companies; or public service. Such collaboration can specify
the bioethics problems that clinicians, researchers, policymakers, public
health officials, and others face in their daily work, and facilitate practical
resolutions to these problems. Applicants are also encouraged to engage with
relevant lay or community stakeholders throughout their project.
We expect grantees to disseminate
their research through practical articles in peer-reviewed journals that reach
the appropriate audience for the topic studied, through presentations in
relevant professional meetings, and in other ways that will increase real-world
impact. Applicants should describe, for example, how they will disseminate
their results beyond academic audiences, such as to lay and community groups or
to leaders of institutions who could implement the project’s recommendations or
act upon empirical findings (e.g., leaders of clinical services, research
programs, institutional review boards, or medical education).
In evaluating proposals, the
Foundation will consider:
- The likelihood the project will promote the Foundation’s
vision and mission. Importantly, projects that aim to impact public policy should
not constitute advocacy projects
with predetermined conclusions.
- The innovative nature of the project’s approach and how
it goes beyond previous work on the bioethics issue.
- The appropriateness and rigor of the methods, analysis
plan, strategy, and approach.
- The appropriateness and inclusiveness of the project’s
planned approach to dissemination and implementation, including to stakeholder
audiences beyond academia and key individuals who can change practice or
policy.
- The professional background of the team of
investigators, including the team’s expertise in relevant disciplines, and
their close, practical familiarity and real-world experience with the bioethics
problems to be addressed.
- The previous success of the proposed investigators in
carrying out similar projects. Junior investigators who have not previously
published results from a bioethics project are advised to apply with a mentor who
actively collaborates in all phases of the project.
- The success of the investigators in publishing
practical bioethics articles, similar to what is proposed, in top-tier journals
with a broad audience, and in disseminating the results of their research to
relevant stakeholders.
- The reasonableness of the budget and project timeline.
Projects with smaller budgets and shorter timelines will receive priority.
The Greenwall Foundation will fund
10% indirect costs for salary and benefits only. Salaries for investigators are
capped at 1.5x the current NIH cap for the basis of the percent effort allocation.
What will not be funded under this program?
Projects with the following
characteristics will not be funded
under this program:
- Projects for which bioethics is not the main focus.
- Projects that simply describe or analyze bioethics
issues or provide a conceptual framework, without making practical
recommendations for resolving the issues.
- Projects that implement or make incremental
improvements in established approaches to bioethics problems, build
institutional infrastructure, or provide bioethics education, training, or
coursework.
- Projects that have predetermined conclusions or
advocate for predetermined positions.
- Projects whose main goal is to convene or enhance a
meeting, unless there is a well-developed plan to produce a major peer-reviewed
publication with consensus recommendations, guidelines, or best practices that
have a strong likelihood of real-world implementation. The applicant must have
a strong record in convening similar successful impactful meetings.
- Projects to support or extend ongoing or core
activities of an organization.
- Projects with a principal investigator who does not
have a PhD, JD, MD, or an equivalent doctoral-level degree.
In addition, The Greenwall Foundation
only makes awards to affiliated individuals at institutions with tax-exempt
status in the United States.
Review Process
Working with The Greenwall
Foundation is a collaborative process.
Our goal is to help applicants to develop strong proposals that are positioned
to have the greatest impact in real-world, practical settings. Experienced
bioethics researchers serve as peer reviewers. After reviewing letters of
intent, reviewers typically provide specific
feedback and suggestions for consideration along with invitations to submit
full proposals. Through this feedback, the Foundation seeks to assist
applicants in presenting the best possible proposals and aligning their
research interests with the Foundation’s funding priorities. After review of
full proposals, the Foundation may request additional clarifications, for
example, about the adequacy of human subjects protections or the project’s
budget. More detail about the review process can be found here.
In addition to grants awarded in
response to this RFP, The Greenwall Foundation may directly initiate some
grants.
Please e-mail inquiries about this
program to jbrownell@greenwall.org.
Application Timeline
1/8/2021
Letters of Intent due by January 8, 2021, 11:59 pm ET
3/17/2021
Invited Full Proposals due by March 17, 2021, 11:59 pm ET. Invitations to submit full proposals may contain suggestions from reviewers for strengthening the application, and reviewers may request additional clarifications after full proposals are received. Working with The Greenwall Foundation is a collaborative process. Our goal is to work with applicants to develop strong proposals that are positioned to have the greatest impact in real-world, practical settings.
7/1/2021
Projects to commence on or after July 1, 2021
Directions for Submitting a Letter of Intent
Go to https://www.grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=greenwall.
Once there, please bookmark the site, create an account, and complete your
application. To create an account, you must enter your institution’s EIN,
which you may need to obtain from your Contracts and Grants Office; please do
not input a placeholder or invalid EIN, which may delay consideration of
your application.
If you have any technical questions
or concerns regarding the online application process, please contact support@foundant.com. If you continue
to experience difficulty with the online application process, please contact Johanna Brownell
at jbrownell@greenwall.org.
We will not accept late applications
because of technical issues with the online application portal, so please
try logging in and entering your information in advance of the deadline.
Please note: in order to be fair to
all applicants, the Foundation cannot give feedback on specific proposals or
drafts before a letter of intent is submitted and reviewed.
Letters of intent require the
following information be entered into our online application from:
- Project title
- A one-sentence summary of the project for a lay audience
- Priority topic, if any
- The amount and duration of funding requested (salaries for investigators are capped at 1.5x the current NIH cap for the basis of the percent effort allocation; The Greenwall Foundation will fund 10% indirect costs for salary and benefits only)
- Names of the proposed research team, percent effort for team
members allocating 10% effort or more, and CVs for two key personnel (no more than 5 single-spaced pages each, in NIH biosketch format) that highlight evidence that you have the experience and expertise needed to carry out the proposed project
- A narrative using the following headers:
- The bioethics problem to be addressed, its significance, and how the project will help resolve it
- How the proposed project is innovative and goes beyond the current research on the problem
- How the project will promote the Foundation’s vision of making bioethics integral to decisions in health care, policy, and research and its mission of expanding bioethics knowledge to improve clinical, biomedical, and public health decision-making, policy, and practice
- The specific aims or research questions of the project
- Description of the methods that will be used to achieve these aims
- Team expertise and experience, including the team’s expertise in relevant disciplines, and their close, practical familiarity and real-world experience with the bioethics problems to be addressed
- The nature of peer-reviewed publication(s) expected from the project and other plans to disseminate the project’s findings, including to stakeholder audiences beyond academia and to key individuals who can change practice or policy.
This narrative
should be no longer than three single-spaced pages plus references (which do
not count against the three-page limit), with one-inch margins and in a font no
smaller than 12 point. Please do not submit any additional documents.
Letters of intent for this cycle must be submitted online
by January 8, 2021 at 11:59 pm ET. We strongly
encourage applicants to submit letters of intent earlier, so that they have
time to correct any technical errors that might arise during the application
process. Invited full applications will be due March 17, 2021, with project periods to start on or after July 1, 2021.
Because of the relatively tight deadline for full proposals that include
financial information approved by an appropriate officer, there may be some
allowance for budget deadlines. However, priority will be given to fully
completed proposals.
We will fund another cycle of
grants in Fall 2021. The request for proposals and due date for that cycle will
be announced in Summer 2021.