Healthy Idaho Inaugural Request for Applications
As Boise State continues to demonstrate a commitment to addressing our state’s grand challenges, the Healthy Idaho Grand Challenge initiative is beginning this important work by offering funding to two solution-focused teams. Each team will be awarded up to $200,000, for projects to begin in January 2023. Projects may continue for up to 18 months and will be asked to provide interim deliverables in May 2023 and final results by June 2024. Applications are due by December 5, 2022. Additional details about this request for applications is provided below:
Background: What is Healthy Idaho?
Healthy Idaho is the second grand challenge initiative to emerge from Boise State University’s commitment to solution-oriented work to address challenging issues facing our state. This grand challenge has a broad focus on improving physical and social conditions to foster healthy and thriving communities throughout Idaho.
We invite applicants to submit a proposal for projects that show clear potential for improving the health of Idahoans, which demonstrate a plan with specific and measurable outcomes/goals that can be accomplished within the 18-month project cycle. The team must be multidisciplinary and include community and/or industry partnership.
Funding Requirements:
The lead researcher must be a Boise State University faculty member or senior research staff with the eligibility to serve as principal investigator on sponsored projects.
Projects must include multiple disciplines from within the Boise State Community.
Project aims must be accomplishable within an18-month period (by June 30, 2024).
Proposals must identify at least one community partner to be involved throughout the duration of the project (e.g., city or county partner, government partner, non-profit organization, business, etc.). The proposal should describe the roles and responsibilities of each community partner. The project director (principal investigator) must obtain and submit a letter of support for the project from each community partner.
Teams are required to meet the following deliverables:
- Interim reporting by May 2023, and at other times as requested by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.
- A final report in June 2024.
- Presentations as requested by the university during and at the end of the project period.
While not required, preference will be given to projects that:
- Include clear opportunities for student involvement.
- Demonstrate potential to improve the health of Idahoans in rural and/or underserved communities.
- Involve collaboration with industry partners, as well as other partners.
- Leverage current Boise State University research and/or community programs to capitalize on existing infrastructure, relationships, and momentum.
Proposal Guidelines:
Proposals should be in 12-point font single-spaced with 1-inch margins. Please include:
1) Executive Summary (limit: 300 words)
Summary of the project in plain language which is understandable for someone outside of the field. Summarize the aims, significance, and expected real-world outcomes of the project, and how they align with the Healthy Idaho Grand Challenge.
2) Project Team (limit: 1 page)
List names and affiliations of the project director/principal investigator (PI), co-investigators, staff, students, consultants, and other key personnel including the required external community/industry partners. Summarize the roles and responsibilities of each team member throughout the project.
3) Project Narrative (limit: 6 pages)
Background and Rationale. Describe the background and societal need that motivates the project, including how the proposed work:
- Meets a high-prevalence and high-priority health-related need for residents of Idaho; and
- Has evidence of promise for improving health or health-related factors.
Project Aims and Objectives. What are the goals of the project? What impact will result from achieving these goals?
Project Design. Discuss the design, procedures, activities, protocols, programs, etc. Identify members of the team who will lead specific aspects of the project.
Implications. Please address the broader impacts of this project. Include a brief statement describing the potential of the proposed project to improve the health of Idahoans. How will you translate your work to the larger community?
Dissemination Plan. How will data be disseminated or made accessible, and to which audiences?
Timeline and Major Milestones. Provide a timeline of the project execution. The timeline should include major project activities and milestones.
Future Directions. Describe what it would mean if this project were successful, and what next steps might build upon, scale up, or translate the lessons of this project to new contexts, as well as potential for obtaining future funding to sustain the work.
4) References Cited
(no limit)
5) Budget and Budget Narrative (limit: 2 pages)
Provide detailed information for your budgetary needs and how the budget will be used. Funding may be used for faculty course buyouts, salary/fringe for hiring students or staff, within-state travel, and other research expenses. Please use the Office of Sponsored Programs internal budget template . Project periods will begin January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
6) Community/Industry Partner Letters of Support
(no limit)
7) Principal Investigator’s CV or biosketch
(NIH, NSF, or other formats are acceptable).
Review Procedure and Criteria:
Applications will be reviewed by The Implementation Group (TIG), an external consulting group, and the highly-ranked applications will be reviewed by the Office of the Vice President of Research and Economic Development for final decisions. The faculty members who are part of the Healthy Idaho Grand Challenges Coordinating Committee will neither apply for this opportunity, nor will they review and score the applications.
Review criteria include the following:
Overall Impact: Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to improve the health of Idahoans.
Specific Criteria: Reviewers will consider each of the criteria below and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be considered fundable. For example, work that is significant but not innovative is appropriate, and work that has promise to improve outcomes for some but not all Idahoans could be considered impactful.
- 1) Significance: Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? Is the merit well justified and explained? If the aims of the project are achieved, how will knowledge, capacity, treatment/services/prevention, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successful completion of the aims improve health outcomes for Idahoans?
- 2) Approach: Is the overall plan for activities well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project? Is the proposed project SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)? Does the application clearly describe the activities to occur during the project period, as well as what, how, and by whom each activity will occur? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented? Are the broader impacts achievable? If the project builds on existing work, what evidence exists for feasibility? If the work is in earlier stages of development, what is the likelihood of feasibility and how will any risky aspects be managed? Is there clear promise for the work to build upon, scale up, or translate the project to new contexts? If the project involves human subjects, are there plans to address the protection of human subjects from research risks? Can the research be translated to practice? Is there a dissemination plan? Is it likely that the project will produce measurable outcomes that can show sustainable progress by June 2024?
- 3) Innovation: Does the application challenge and seek to shift current paradigms through novel concepts, approaches, or interventions? Are the concepts, approaches or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense?
- 4) Team: Are the principal investigator/project director and collaborators well positioned to lead and implement the project? If in the early stage of an independent career, do they have appropriate experience and training? If established, have they demonstrated an ongoing record of accomplishments and collaborative work? Is the team multidisciplinary? Do the investigators have complementary and integrated expertise from appropriate fields? Are the proposed leadership approach and organizational structure appropriate for the project? Is there strong evidence of collaborative arrangements with important community partners? Are students (undergraduate or graduate) included in the work?
Submission Information:
Proposals are due by 5:00 PM on Monday, December 5, 2022. Funding decisions will be announced by Wednesday, January 11, 2023.
Please submit your proposal via email to Jana LaRosa at janalarosa@boisestate.edu. Include the following documents compiled in one PDF, in the order listed above.
Inquiries:
Applicants are encouraged to discuss project concepts and/or direct any proposal-related questions to the co-chairs of the Healthy Idaho Grand Challenges Coordinating Committee, Cynnie Curl (cynthiacurl@boisestate.edu) and Lindsey Turner (lindseyturner1@boisestate.edu).