Grace Woodward Grants for Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine

• All proposals must include two Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) that are substantially invested in the project and who work together to draft and revise the proposal. Requirements:
  • One of the two Co-PIs must have a primary academic appointment in the College of Medicine as an assistant professor, associate professor or professor.
  • One of the two Co-PIs must have a primary academic appointment and tenure home in the College of Engineering at the University Park campus. College of Engineering faculty members from other Penn State campuses will also be eligible to serve as a Co-PI of an application to this program if the resources to support their participation are provided by their local campus unit.
  • Additional investigators from these and other campuses/colleges are eligible to participate as Co-Investigators (Co-Is).
• Investigators who are currently serving as a PI/Co-PI of an active Grace Woodward Grant or Center for Biodevices Seed Grant are not eligible.
• An investigator may only serve as a PI/Co-PI on one Grace Woodward Grant or Center for Biodevices Seed Grant application each cycle.

• Applicants together may request up to $80,000 total direct costs ($40k College of Medicine/$40k College of Engineering) to be spent over a period of up to 2 years to fund either:
  • Fundamental Research that aims to generate preliminary data for co-authored publications in a new line of research leading to external grant submissions; or
  • Applied Research that aims to demonstrate feasibility or develop a prototype of a new medical device, instrument or other diagnostic or therapeutic modality that will become attractive for commercial development.
• Each Co-PI may charge the grant for a maximum of 10% effort.
• Funds may be requested for student stipends and tuition, research staff, postdoctoral fellows, small equipment, materials/supplies, and expenses related to the involvement of human subjects.
• Funds may not be requested for publication expenses or travel to conferences; however, travel expenses necessary for the conduct of the research project are allowable.
• Each application must include separate budgets for the portions of the project that will be conducted in the College of Engineering and in the College of Medicine. Co-PIs are encouraged to develop proposals requesting approximately equal funding to support the activities in each college.
• Co-PIs of Grace Woodward Grants must agree to: 1) present a progress report for their project at the Center for Biodevices Outcomes Day; 2) submit a final written progress report within 60 days of completing the project; 3) report periodically on the impact of the award on subsequent sponsored research activities, upon request; and 4) serve as a member of the joint College of Medicine/College of Engineering Collaborative Research Review Committee in future years, upon request.

Applications will undergo a review for scientific and technical merit by non-conflicted members of a joint College of Medicine/College of Engineering Collaborative Research Review Committee. Reviewers will use a scoring system adapted from the NIH to evaluate proposals. In addition, the Collaborative Research Review Committee will be asked to comment on compliance and identify changes in study design and/or methodology that would strengthen each proposal. These recommendations will be returned to the applicant with the reviewer’s critiques at the conclusion of the review process. The Review Committee will make its recommendations to the Directors of the Center for Biodevices and the office of Research Development at the College of Medicine, to the Associate Dean for Innovation at the College of Engineering, and to the Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the College of Medicine, who with the Deans of the College of Engineering and the College of Medicine will make all final decisions regarding awards.

Previous recipients of funding from the Grace Woodward Grant For Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine are listed here.