UW Momentum Fund 2024

THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOW CLOSED.

Congratulations to the following teams for their successful proposals:

  1. “Improving the Quality of Cartilage Through Exercise to Prevent Knee Osteoarthritis”
    • Principal Investigator: Monica Maly, Kinesiology and Health Sciences, University of Waterloo
    • Principal Knowledge User: Janet Gunderson, Arthritis Patient Advocate, Steering Committee of the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance
    • Co-applicants:
      • Dawn Bowdish, McMaster University
      • Anthony Gatti, NeuralSeg Radiology / Stanford University
      • Marina Mourtzakis, Kinesiology and Health Sciences, University of Waterloo
      • Michael Noseworthy, McMaster University
      • Paul Stratford, McMaster University                       
  2. “Closed-Loop Control of Vancomycin Concentration in vivo”
    • Principal Investigator: Mahla Poudineh, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo
    • Co-Principal Investigator and Principal Knowledge User: Kevin Watt, Professor & Clinical Pharmacologist, University of Utah
    • Co-Principal Investigator: Andrea Edginton, School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo
    • Co-applicant and Principal Knowledge User: Jamie Dwyer, Nephrologist, University of Utah

Updated 24-Apr-2024

The content of this funding opportunity has been updated

Date updated: 25-Mar-2024

Section(s) updated: Application Guidelines

Date updated: 07-Mar-2024

Section(s) updated: Overview, Application Guidelines

Date updated: 28-Feb-2024

Section(s) updated: NOI Guideline vii and Application Guideline vii

Date updated: 26-Jan-2024

Section(s) updated: NOI Guidelines, Application Guidelines

Overview

Notice of intent to apply deadline

March 1, 2024

Full application deadline

April 2, 2024 [updated 07-Mar-2024]

Value

Up to $100,000
Competition budget $200,000

Anticipated date results announced

By April 29, 2024

Anticipate grant start date

By April 29, 2024

Duration

No later than CIHR's Spring 2026 full application submission date
For more information uwcihr@uwaterloo.ca

Description and Goal

The goal of the Momentum Fund is to provide internal grant support to University of Waterloo (UW)-led research teams developing/strengthening large grant applications to external sponsors that align with UW’s strategic plan. This round of Momentum is focused on the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant, given its challenging success rate, need for pilot data/prototypes, and requirement for knowledge mobilization.

The Momentum Fund will support developing/strengthening large scale applications for submission to the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant competition in either Spring 2025, Fall 2025, or Spring 2026. Momentum grants will support projects that:

  1. Align with the University of Waterloo Strategic Plan
  2. Are developing a CIHR Project Grant application that:
    1. is led by a Principal Investigator (PI) with a track record of securing funding from CIHR or other health-related sponsors (e.g. National Institutes of Health, non-profits);
    2. has a minimum budget of $1,000,000; and
    3. takes an integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach, and include at least one Principal Knowledge User (PKU). iKT is a form of knowledge translation “where researchers and knowledge users (e.g. policymakers, clinicians, persons with lived/living experience, patient partners) work together to determine research questions, decide on methodology, collect data, develop tools, interpret findings, and disseminate research results. This approach is intended to produce research findings that are more likely to be relevant to, and used by, the end users than studies designed and conducted by researchers alone.” From https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/48952.html#k..
  3. Clearly describe the planned activities to develop/strengthen the CIHR Project Grant application that will be addressed using Momentum funds.

Eligibility

To reflect an iKT approach, Momentum proposals must be submitted by teams of at least two – a PI and a principal KU. More team members may be added to ensure the project has the necessary expertise to accomplish the proposed objectives.

Principal Investigator

Teams must include a Principal Investigator (PI) who will be responsible for the following:

  • coordination of the proposed Momentum activities; and
  • administrative and financial accountability of both the Momentum grant and the subsequent CIHR Project Grant application (i.e. will be the NPI on the CIHR Project grant application).

To ensure that teams awarded a Momentum grant have sufficient time to dedicate to the development of the strategic, large-scale grant proposal supported by the Momentum Fund, individuals may serve as PI on only one Momentum application or grant at a time.

The PI must meet the following eligibility criteria:

  • Meet CIHR’s Nominated Principal Applicant criteria
  • Demonstrate a track record of successful health-related funding (greater than $500K), which includes having secured and led at least one grant from CIHR or another health-related sponsor (e.g. NIH, non-profits).
  • NOT have submitted the proposal to the CIHR Spring 2024 Project Grant competition.

Other Team Members

In alignment with CIHR Project Grant eligibility, team members may include co-PIs, co-applicants, and collaborators. Co-PIs may only serve as co-PI on one Momentum application or grant at a time. Teams must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Subject Matter (fit to program)

The proposal must demonstrate alignment with the University’s Strategic Plan.

Round 2 Momentum applications must also meet the guidelines for eligibility of subject matter at CIHR.

Guidelines

Allowable Costs

Momentum Funds may be used to cover proposal development-related expenses until the Spring 2026 CIHR PG full application submission date. Eligible expenses include the following:

  • Research operating expenses
  • Project management
  • Writer support
  • Networking (including travel; external team members can have travel reimbursed through Waterloo)
  • Workshops
  • Trainee salaries and benefits

NOTE: Funds may NOT be transferred to other institutions.

Conditions of Funding

  1. Funded teams are required to submit a CIHR Project Grant application to either the Spring 2025, Fall 2025, or Spring 2026 competition.
  2. Funded teams are required to submit a final report no later than three months after the Momentum grant end date.

NOI Guidelines

The mandatory NOI is for administrative purposes only. It will be used to help establish the review panel for the full application. The following must be submitted by email to uwcihr@uwaterloo.ca by 4:30pm on the deadline day:

  1. A single PDF that includes the following information:
    1. Project title
    2. Name of the PI
    3. Title and department of the PI
    4. Estimated total budget for future CIHR Project Grant [updated 26-Jan-2024]
    5. Project keywords (3-7 keywords)
    6. List of team members including their department, Institution, role (co-PI, co-applicant, collaborator) and type (Independent Researcher, PKU, other KU, Trainee, Other).
      • For KUs, include sub-type (practitioners, patients, caregivers, persons with lived/living experience, decision makers, policy makers, etc.)
    7. Project abstract (max. 3500 characters, including spaces; additional guidance can be found under Task 3 of the Project Grant Instructions) [updated 28-Feb-2024]:
      • Include the Background and importance, Goals/Research Aims, Methods/Approaches/Expertise, and Expected Outcomes.

Application Guidelines

The following must be submitted by email to uwcihr@uwaterloo.ca by 4:30pm on the deadline day:

  1. Office of Research Electronic Cover Sheet for Sponsored Research Activities
    1. approved by your academic unit and Faculty, must be available on the electronic cover sheet system.
  2. One electronic copy (PDF) of the application package outlined below. The single PDF file containing all documents (except the cover sheet) should be submitted via e-mail to uwcihr@uwaterloo.ca. All files must be combined into one PDF; applications not presented in this format will be rejected.
    1. Application Summary. This is the same content provided at the NOI stage –only update if needed:
      1. Project title
      2. Name of the PI
      3. Title and department of the PI
      4. Estimated total budget for future CIHR Project Grant [updated 26-Jan-2024]
      5. Project keywords (3-7 keywords)
      6. List of team members including their department, Institution, role (co-PI, co-applicant, collaborator) and type (Independent Researcher, PKU, other KU, Trainee, Other For KUs, include sub-type (practitioners, patients, caregivers, persons with lived/living experience, decision makers, policy makers, etc.)
      7. Project abstract (max. 3500 characters, including spaces; additional guidance can be found under Task 3 of the Project Grant instructions)[updated 28-Feb-2024]:
        • Include the Background and importance, Goals/Research Aims, Methods/Approaches/Expertise, and Expected Outcomes.
    2. Detailed description of proposal (7 pages maximum, including tables, charts, graphs, diagrams, and illustrations).
      1. Use language that can be understood by a multidisciplinary review panel.
      2. The proposal should follow CIHR’s formatting requirements.
      3. Include information to address the external Sponsor’s evaluation criteria.
      4. Include a timeline with related deliverables and indicate the team member responsible for each.
      5. The iKT approach should be clearly articulated throughout the proposal.
      6. Sex and gender considerations should be integrated into the research design, methods, analysis and interpretation, and/or dissemination of findings within the research proposal, when appropriate.
    3. List of references (2 page maximum 4 page maximum). [updated 25-Mar-2024]
    4. Budget justification (1 page maximum).
    5. CV for the PI and the PKU (Any format, including CIHR Biosketch, is allowed. Please only include recent information and/or that relevant to the current proposal. PKU may provide a CIHR Applicant Profile CV or other). We do not require a CV from co-PIs. If you have more than one PKU, you may select one to be the "lead" PKU who provides a CV or you may provide a CV for all of your PKUs if you so choose. [updated 07-Mar-2024]

Review Process

Administrative Review

The Office of Research will perform an administrative pre-screening to ensure Eligibility requirements have been met. Applications that do not meet these requirements will be withdrawn from the competition.

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be reviewed by a qualified review committee and scored based on the following criteria:

  1. Alignment with the University’s Strategic Plan
  2. Strength of the proposed project concept relative to the external Sponsor’s mandate and evaluation criteria. All of CIHR’s Adjudication Criteria and Interpretation Guidelines should be addressed, as appropriate:
    1. Criterion 1. Concept
      1. Significance and Impact of Research.
    2. Criterion 2. Feasibility
      1. Approaches and Methods, including the strength of the iKT.
      2. Expertise, Experience, and Resources.
  3. Strength of Momentum plan
    1. Appropriate use of the requested funds (i.e. dollar amount requested matches the scale of activities planned, and the budget outlined should clearly explain how funds will be used).
    2. Use of funds clearly demonstrates a path for success in the CIHR Project Grant competition.

Contact Us

General inquires can be sent to uwcihr@uwaterloo.ca.