The Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology (SVIN) is pleased to offer the SVIN Pilot Research Grant.

SVIN recognizes the need to stimulate investigator-initiated research programs in the field of vascular and interventional neurology. The SVIN Pilot Research Grant provides a one-year source of funding to help investigators generate preliminary data that will lead to additional funding from other national agencies or foundations. All new or innovative projects with sound medical/scientific justification will be considered under this call for proposals.

This pilot program provides up to $15,000 in grant support dependent on training level and anticipates funding up to 5 projects every year. The scientific review panel reserves the right to limit the number of awards based on the priorities of the society. Priority will be given to research proposals that have a high probability of generating preliminary data for future substantial grant applications. A scientific panel will review the applications, and the final award will be subject to approval by the SVIN Board.

Pilot Research Grant Timeline

• August 12, 2024: full grant submission deadline
• November 20-22, 2024: award announcement at SVIN 2024 Annual Meeting
• January 1, 2025: anticipated funding start date

Submit Your Pilot Grant Application Here!

Grant Eligibility

• Each applicant must be a current member of SVIN at the time of application. Join or renew prior to submitting your grant proposal online (click here for SVIN membership). Membership processing may take up to 5 days; please do not wait until the grant deadline to join or renew.
• Applicants may submit their proposal as a trainee (defined as a medical student, resident, or fellow) or junior (defined as ≤5 years after fellowship) investigator. Senior investigators are not eligible to apply for the SVIN Pilot Research Grant.

Grant Submission

• Upload your proposal with required documents through the SVIN Portal. Proposals must adhere to the guidelines and must be submitted by Monday, August 12, 2024 4:59 CT.
• Only complete proposals will be considered. A complete proposal is comprised of the following sections:
  • Title
  • Applicant Information
  • Project Summary
  • Specific Aims
  • Research Design/Strategy
  • References Cited
  • Study Timeline
  • Budget
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Letter of Support (if trainee applicant only)
• To submit your proposal, please click the 'Submit' button. You will be unable to submit if you have not provided all the required information. Any missing information will be listed on the screen. If your submission is successful, you will receive a confirmation message on the screen, and a confirmation email will be sent to the applicant.
• Once the proposal is submitted to SVIN, no changes can be made.
• After the proposal deadline, no supplementary material (preliminary data, new publications, etc.) will be accepted.
• If human subjects are to be enrolled, the candidate must submit a copy of the IRB letter of approval prior to receiving the funds. However, such letter is not required with the initial proposal application.

Application Preparation

• Required documents may be prepared prior to submitting the application in the SVIN Portal. Adherence is mandatory to the page limits and format requirements below. No applicant should have an advantage over other applicants by providing more content in his/her application by using smaller, denser type.
• Font: Prepare the proposal using Arial or Helvetica typeface in black font color. Font size in each final document must be at least 11 points (or larger).
• Paper Size and Page Margins: Final documents should be formatted to be no larger than standard U.S. letter paper size (8 ½" x 11’). The final proposal should have at least one-half inch margins (top, bottom, left, right) for all pages.
• Page Formatting: Please use a standard, single-column, single-spaced format for the text.
• Page Numbers: All pages should be numbered in sequential order. Page numbers should appear at the bottom center part of the page.
• Figures, Graphs, Diagrams, and Tables: You may use a smaller type size but all text must be in a black font color, clear and readily legible. Color can be used in figures.
• General Grantsmanship Style: Use Standard American English and avoid jargon. If terms are not universally known, spell out the term the first time it is used and note the appropriate abbreviation in parentheses.

Application Sections

Project Title

• You must create a title of up to 120 characters.

Applicant Information

• The person who creates the application is the default Applicant/Principal Investigator. Contact information from this person’s professional profile, including primary institution affiliation and contact information, is pre-loaded to this section of the application.
• SVIN membership status and level is required. Gender, race, ethnicity information is also required but will not be used as part of the review process.

Project Summary (500-word limit)

• Write a concise description or abstract describing the proposed work. The project summary is a brief synopsis of the proposal and NOT the detailed Research Strategy.
• Address the following points:
  • What is the major problem being addressed by this proposal?
  • What specific questions are you asking and how will you attempt to answer them? Please do not list your specific aims.
  • What is the potential overall impact of this work on the mission of SVIN?
• The field will not accept special characters or keystrokes (such as superscript or subscripts, special characters, Greek symbols, quotation marks, italics, underlining, bolding, etc.) into this form field.

Proposal Files

Specific Aims (1 page limit)

• Provide a clear, concise summary of the aims of the work proposed and the project’s relationship to your long-term goals.
• Note the significance and innovation of your research and then list two to three concrete objectives.
• State the hypothesis to be tested.

Research Design/Strategy (3 page limit)

• A sound research project that is consistent with the candidate’s level of research development and objectives of his/her career development plan must be provided.
• The research design should demonstrate not only the quality of the candidate’s research thus far but also the significance, novelty and approach, as well as the ability of the candidate to carry out the proposed research.
• The application must also describe the relationship between the mentor’s research and the candidate’s proposed research plan if applicable.
• This section of the grant proposal should be structured as follows: Significance, Innovation, Approach, and Preliminary Studies if applicable.
  • Significance: Describe the background leading to this proposal. Summarize key findings from other researchers in the field while critically evaluating existing knowledge. Identify gaps that this project aims to address. State clearly the importance and relevance of the research to cerebrovascular disease and management. The significance section will be evaluated based on its potential impact on the SVIN mission.
  • Innovation: Describe the novelty of the research rationale and/or methodology and its advantage over existing studies. Discuss the likelihood of advancing future cerebrovascular science.
  • Approach: Ensure that your proposed methods or procedures are well-defined and sufficiently detailed to allow thorough evaluation of your approach to the problem. Provide a clear overview of the study design, with careful consideration to the statistical approach, adequacy of controls, number of observations, as well as how the results will be analyzed. Include details of any collaborative arrangements that have been made. For research involving vertebrate animals or human subjects, explain how relevant biological variables, such as sex, are factored into the research design, analysis and reporting. Discuss potential challenges and limitations to the proposed research and alternative approaches to achieve the aims.
  • Preliminary Studies: Describe previous work related to the proposed research by the applicant that will help to establish the experience and competence of the investigator to pursue the proposed project.

References Cited (no page limit)

• Provide a numerated list of all literature citations within the research proposal.
• Citation references should be limited to relevant and current literature; be concise and select only those references used within research proposal.
• This section is intended only for your citations, and no other materials.
• Literature citations should be marked in the text of the research proposal. The mark may be a number or letter. You may use superscript, such as 1 or a bracket [1].
• Each reference must list:
  • Corresponding mark in the research proposal
  • Authors in the same order as they appear on the paper; list all or up to 15
  • Full Title
  • Name of the book or journal
  • Volume number
  • Page numbers
  • Year of publication

Study Timeline (1 page limit)

• Include a timeline showing that the proposed work is feasible within the funding period.

Budget (1 page limit)

• A line itemized budget is required. If the proposal is funded, the budget will be reviewed prior to award activation to confirm compliance with SVIN guidelines and allowable expenditures.
• Salary support for the PI is generally not allowed in the pilot grant program. The grant can support the salary for research personnel including statistician(s), research assistant(s), and/or other research team member(s). However, for specific circumstances the PI may request an exception with appropriate justification.
• No indirect costs allowed.
• Funds for supplies can be included in this grant. Funds for equipment purchase are generally excluded except through significant justification.
• Proposals with overt commercial value are excluded from this pilot program.

Curriculum Vitae (no page limit)

• Please provide a CV of the applicant, including all grants received in the preceding 5 years and publications that resulted from those grants.

Letter of Support (if trainee applicant only; 3 page limit)

• LOS from the applicant’s mentor or senior principal investigator providing oversight to the project is required if the applicant is submitting as a trainee.
• LOS should include why the applicant should receive the SVIN Pilot Research Grant, the applicant’s qualifications and specific role in the submitted project.

Questions

If you have any questions on grant eligibility or criteria, please do not hesitate to contact the SVIN Office at research@svin.org. If you have any questions during the application or submission process, please contact svin@support.ctimeetingtech.com or (217)-389-1792.

Testimonials from Past Pilot Research Grant Recipients

“I have been able compose an R01 proposal for a national anesthesia trial, incorporating the SEACOAST protocol. The proposal has been included in the STEP program.”
– Radoslav Raychev, MD

“I was able to obtain preliminary data for a randomized trial on BP management after thrombectomy (BEST-II).”
– Eva Mistry, MD

“The SVIN grant was very useful in advancing my research and developing the pipeline for analysis of brain aneurysms. It has led to establishing our research as a national reference.”
– Edgar Samaniego, MD, MS