Junior Investigator Neuroscience Research Award

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Purpose

The Junior Investigator Neuroscience Research Award is a competitive award that provides funding for Albert Einstein College of Medicine PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows performing neuroscience-related research. This award provides resources for a neuroscience-related research project that complements the applicant’s current research. An additional purpose is to promote scientific communication, grantsmanship and engagement in a peer-review process among neuroscience students and postdocs.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this award:

  1. You must currently be an Einstein PhD student or postdoctoral fellow conducting neuroscience-related research, in good standing with your department.
  2. The proposed project should not contain materials from any of you or your mentor’s current, previous, or pending grants.
  3. You should not be a previous recipient of this award.
  4. A Letter of Intent must have been provided by the deadline listed below for your application to be considered. Applicants should briefly describe their project in two to three sentences and include the names and departments of all applicants.

Timeline for 2023 submission (review dates subject to change)

Award Term Round 2
Request for applications January 30th, 2023
Letter of Intent Deadline February 24th, 2023
Study Section Training Session (Reviewers) March 6th, 2023
Review Invite Email February 16th, 2023
Final Submission Deadline April 7th, 2023
Scientific Merit Review May 2023
Study Section (Reviewers) May 8th, 2023
Notification of Award By June 2023
Amount of Award 1st place ($6,000), 2nd place ($4,000) and 3rd place ($2,000) Prizes
  • Award Stipulations: The initiative will fund the top three proposals submitted by students and/or postdocs (from any department) conducting neuroscience-related research at Einstein. Awards will be given as 1st ($6,000), 2nd ($4,000) and 3rd ($2,000) Prizes. Laboratory equipment, reagents, or shared facility costs constitute appropriate use of this fund. Items such as personal computers do not. The funds are not to be used for defraying costs of attending a scientific conference.

Guidelines

  1. Applicants should follow the instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
  2. The application must be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to neurosciencedept@einsteinmed.edu by the posted deadline.
  3. Email subject must include "Neuroaward" to be forwarded properly to the review committee.
  4. The application must include the following items (note links for specific files/formats):
    • Cover Page
    • Specific Aims (1 page)
    • Research Strategy (3 pages)
    • Updated NIH biosketch (5 page limit)
    • Budget (1 page - see FAQ)
    • Facilities & Other Resources (1 page)
    • Bibliography & References Cited

Information for Reviewers

  • TBD - Study Section Training Session
  • TBD - Study Section

Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: For the budget, should we fill out the PHS398 budget form, or just have a text page within the grant listing the planned costs?

A: The PHS398 Budget page asks for a lot of information not applicable to this grant application. While it is an essential part of your training as a future PI to familiarize yourself with these NIH applications and forms, for the JINRA application, a page within the application listing the planned costs with justification should do. You can fill out the budget form linked here.

Q: I did not submit a letter of intent. Can I still submit a grant application?

A: No. A letter of intent must be submitted by the deadline indicated for the current round in order for your application to be considered.

Q: I submitted an application for JINRA in a previous round that was not funded. Can I resubmit the application?

A: Yes. One resubmission of an application is allowed. Refer to NIH guidelines on resubmission here. You must include an introduction for all resubmission that:

  • summarizes substantial additions, deletions, and changes to the application
    • individual changes do not need to be identified within other application attachments (e.g. do not need to bold or italicize changes in Research Strategy)
  • responds to the issues and criticism raised in the previous application
  • is one page or less in length

Past Awardees

Past JINRA awardees are:
Coralie Berthoux (Castillo Lab)
Hayden Hatch (Secombe Lab)
Hannah Monday (Castillo Lab) and Mathieu Bordenx (Cuervo Lab)
Laura Cheney (Berman Lab)
Todd Rubin (Lipton Lab)
Randy Stout (Spray Lab)
Steven Cook & Leo Tang (Emmons and Buelow Labs, respectively)
Ali Zahalka from the Frenette Lab.

Contact Information

Additional questions or concerns? Email neurosciencedept@einsteinmed.edu.