Funding Opportunities

Who is eligible: MD, DO, PhD, DDS, PharmDs at the time of application. Research candidates appointed under this program award must be US citizens or non-citizen nationals, or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-551), or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident. Eligible candidates must also be an employee of the University of Colorado or a university affiliate hospital or institution.

• Title page:   K12Program.aspx
• Biosketch of investigator template can be found here:  NIH Biosketch
• Biosketch from each mentor
• Letter of support from TWO mentors including a detailed outline of a specific mentoring plan, and that each mentor will participate in all K12-related mentoring activities. This can be one letter that is signed by the two mentors.
• Letter of support from division chief or department chair stating:
• At least 75% of the full professional effort of the applicant will be protected for the research career for the duration of the award, or 50% for applicants from the department of surgery and
• The division of the department will provide at least an additional $25,000 per year to help support research costs for the K12 scholar
• 10 page scientific proposal, including information about (A) prior research experience, (B) a career development plan stating how this award will help further the applicant's career, and (C) a specific research plan.  As a general guideline:
• Previous research experience: 1 page
• Career development plan: 1-2 pages
• Specific research plan: 8-9 pages, including a specific aims page, background and significance, preliminary data (if available), research designs and methods, and data analysis. Preliminary data is NOT required.
• Human subjects section: 1-2 pages (NOT counted in the 10 page limit) related to protection of human subjects in research.  This should include items related to subjects' involvement and characteristics, sources of marerials, recruitment and informed consent, potential risks, protection against risks, and benefits to subjects.  Follow this linktree_glossary.pdf, under "human subjects risk and protection issues" for full details.
• References: NOT counted in the 10 page limit
• Optional: additional letters of support (up to three), other than those specifically requested above.
• Font needs to be Arial 11 or larger, single spaces. Page margins can be no less than 0.5 inches on all four sides.

For this application, the applicant must identify two mentors. Examples of a dual mentor system are listed below. Both mentors need to be physically located at the University of Colorado Denver or Boulder or a university affiliate hospital or other institution. All mentors will work with the CCTSI training committee to ensure optimal mentoring of their mentee and become involved with the full set of CCTSI KL2 (K12) awardees. The following are two examples of mentoring models for this award.  These are not meant to be exclusive, and other models may be acceptable.

1. Senior and Junior Mentors: In this model, one of the mentors will be a senior investigator with extensive experience and expertise in the KL2 (K12) scholar’s research area of interest. The second mentor will be a junior to mid-level investigator with independent funding who has had less mentorship experience.  In this model, the junior mentor will be responsible for the daily mentoring of the scholar.  The senior mentor will serve as an advisor about mentorship strategies for the junior mentor and about the research and career development issues for the KL2 (K12) Scholar. This system will allow scholar to gain the expertise of two mentors at different stages in career development.  It will also provide the junior mentor experience in mentoring with oversight and feedback from the senior mentor.
   
2. Clinical and Methodological Mentors: Many KL2 (K12) scholars will require co-mentors who have different skills and areas of expertise. For example, a translational project may require one mentor to be skilled at epidemiology and study design while the second mentor has expertise in the processing and analysis of samples obtained from human subjects.  This model will result in a unique skill set for the KL2 (K12) scholar and will encourage collaborative efforts between senior clinical and translational investigators. 

*These positions are filled for 2009. New RFAs will be issued when positions become available.

For questions or additional information, contact Ellen Burnham, MD, 303.315.1365.

Please submit one application copy electronically in PDF format to Ellen Burnham, MD and one paper copy to:

Ellen Burnham, MD
Associate Program Director, CTSI KL2 (K12) Program
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
4100 E Ninth Ave, C272, Suite 5525 Bldg 1
Denver, CO 80262
Phone: 303.315.1365 | Fax: 303.315.1356