Family Medicine

Community Engagement and Inclusive Excellence Research Seed Grant Program

The Department of Family Medicine, with support from the Office of Inclusive Excellence, is pleased to announce the Community Engagement and Inclusive Excellence Research Seed Grant Program. This initiative aims to support new researchers in developing innovative projects that address community engagement and inclusive excellence principles within family medicine.

Request for Applications

Please review the Request for Applications (RFA) for detailed information about eligibility and submission requirements. All applicants must review the RFA prior to submission. 

Proposals are due by September 1, 2025 and must be submitted via the Seed Grant Submission Portal. If you have any questions, please reach out to Laura W. Sheehan at [email protected]. 

Additional Guidelines and Resources for Applicants

Looking for guidance on your proposal? Feel free to explore these resources, which can support you in developing a compelling research application.

Title

A strong title can help you stay focused while crafting your research plan. Your title should be specific, indicating the area of research and major goal(s). You want to convince the reviewers that the topic is important, relevant, and innovative. Language should be simple and straightforward.  The title should be in title case (do not use all caps). There is no character limit for this RFA, but typically titles are 100 characters or less, and almost never longer than 200 characters. Your title should only be as long as it needs to be while still reflecting the problem your project addresses and your project’s goals, and perhaps your approach to studying it. 

Introduction

Start with a compelling opening that immediately establishes the clinical problem and your proposed solution in 2-3 sentences. Clearly state your research question and briefly preview your approach. End with a sentence that highlights the potential impact on patient care or health outcomes. Keep this section concise—aim for one paragraph that hooks the reader and sets up the entire proposal.

Background and Significance

Begin by establishing the scope and burden of the health disparity you're addressing, using current statistics and evidence. Identify specific gaps in knowledge or care that your research will fill, citing recent literature to demonstrate your understanding of the field. Explain why this disparity matters from both clinical and public health perspectives. Connect your research to broader health equity goals and explain the potential consequences of not addressing this issue.

Innovation

Clearly articulate what makes your approach novel—whether it's a new methodology, population studied, intervention tested, or perspective applied. Avoid overstating novelty; instead, focus on how your work builds upon or diverges from existing research in meaningful ways. Explain why traditional approaches have been insufficient and how your innovation could overcome these limitations. If applicable, mention any novel technologies, frameworks, or collaborations that enhance your project's innovative potential.

Specific Aims

Write 1-3 concrete, measurable objectives using action verbs like "determine," "evaluate," or "compare." Each aim should be achievable within your timeline and budget. Structure aims logically. Include brief hypotheses for each aim when appropriate, ensuring they are testable and specific.

Methods

Describe your study design clearly and justify why it's the most appropriate approach for your research question. If applicable, detail your participant recruitment strategy, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and sample size calculations with statistical justification. Outline your data collection procedures, outcome measures, and analytical plan, ensuring each aligns with your specific aims. Address potential limitations and your strategies for mitigating bias or confounding factors.

Timeline

Create a realistic schedule that accounts for IRB approval, recruitment challenges (if applicable), and data analysis time. Include key milestones. Align your timeline with the funding period and demonstrate that you can feasibly complete the proposed work within the allocated timeframe.

Future Directions

Describe how your pilot findings could support a larger project, or explain the broader research program this work could launch. Discuss how your results might influence clinical practice, policy, or further research in the field. Conclude by reiterating the long-term vision for addressing the health disparity and your role in advancing this important work.

Budget

There is no required budget format or template, so you can organize your budget and budget justification in the way that makes the most sense for your project. You may want to consider building your budget in Excel to ensure that dollar figures are correctly calculated.

All budgeted items must be project-specific (e.g. purchasing a tablet for general use would not be allowable, but purchasing a tablet to gather participant data on-site would be allowable). Since this is an internal award, you do not need to include indirect costs (also known as Facilities and Administrative Costs or overhead).

Please do not include any buy-out of clinical time. Due to current DGSOM restrictions, do not include any catering/food costs. It is also not recommended that you include travel costs, although you may budget for travel to a conference to present study data/findings (but we cannot guarantee these will be approved).

As previously mentioned, there is no required template for the budget. However, here is a budget template sample that you can use.

More Resources

The following resources are not specific to this funding opportunity, but contain useful tips about writing research proposals in general.