International Clinical Research Fellows - RFA

This Request For Applications is available for download in Portable Document Format (PDF):

ICRF PA 2007 - 2008

FICRF-RFA-2007.pdf

The NIH/Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars (FICRS) Support Center at Vanderbilt University/ Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is pleased to announce a new one year clinical research training program for US citizens or permanent residents in either post-residency clinical fellowships or in other health-related post-doctoral programs. This new program is sponsored by the Fogarty International Center and several collaborating institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health and managed by Vanderbilt University, with fiscal support from the Office of AIDS Research, National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Eye Institute.

The ICRF Program supports one year of mentored clinical research in a developing country setting. Definitions of developing counties are those designated by the World Bank (http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/classgroups.htm) as low income, lower middle, or upper middle income.  High income nations are not eligible as training sites. Applicants for the fellowship must develop a collaborative research proposal with an eligible institution overseas.

The proposed research must be clinical research related to :
• oncology, including radiation therapy, physiology, and other cancer-related issues;

• diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lung, and blood; blood resources; and sleep disorders ;

• ophthalmology and eye-health related issues;

or

• STDs, HIV/AIDS-related research

The Fellowship is an opportunity designed to immerse medical professionals and health scientists in training in issues of global health and international collaboration.  Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the US.  In addition, each field site will select a local citizen who will be a developing country counterpart Fellow (details below).
                                                             

The ICRF is a post-doctoral program and is analogous to the Fogarty International Scholars program for health science students (pre-doctoral). Information on the Scholars program for health science students (rather than the post-doctoral or clinical Fellow focus of ICRF) can be found through Vanderbilt’s management partner, the Association of American Medical Colleges:  http://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/overseasfellowship/start.htm.

Purpose of the 2008-2009 ICRF

The purpose of this program is to foster members of the next generation of clinical investigators concentrating on diseases in developing countries and to build international health research capacity in the developing world.

Mechanisms of Support

o The stipend for the U.S. Fellow is $45,000/year to be paid monthly by Vanderbilt University.
o Additional funds are provided to the Fellow’s field site to cover miscellaneous project-related costs and travel. This includes:
• overseas travel for the Fellow up to $5000.
• pre-travel costs such as vaccinations and malaria prophylaxis medications up to $1000.
• visa and passport costs up to $300.
• miscellaneous transportation/arrival costs such as taxi up to $200.
• additional project-related costs, with justification
• Expenses and stipend for the in-country Fellow selected by the in-country site mentor, with the concurrence of the administrative leadership of the in-country institution. The stipend for this Fellow will depend on prevailing counterpart salaries in the specific country. The overseas Fellow is selected only after the US Fellow is selected.
o Each overseas field site will receive $5,000 for administration and infrastructure costs. No further administrative costs (i.e., “indirect” costs) are provided to either the site or the American or in-country counterpart Fellow.
o Health insurance reimbursement up to $5,000 or acceptance of the standard Vanderbilt health insurance packages for American Fellows.
o Health insurance reimbursement of the in-country institution for in-country counterpart Fellows while attending the July orientation in the U.S.
o NOTE: Economy-class travel to July orientation will be supported by the Vanderbilt-AAMC Support Center separately for Fellows, as well as for the annual meeting in the year after the fellowship (likely March 2010) for selected Fellows.
 
Program Timeline

I. January 4th- April 30th: Applicants will submit their completed applications on a rolling basis. Finalists will be contacted for a phone interview. Fellows will be selected and all applicants notified by mid-May
II. July 6-22, 2008: Fellows will participate in a 2 ½ week orientation on the NIH campus, followed by 2-3 days at the US academic or government affiliate of the overseas research site, if any.
III. August 1, 2008: ICRF awardees will begin their overseas work on-site and will be there for at least 10 months.
IV. After completion of the research training year: ICRF fellows will return to Bethesda, MD, to present their findings at a Fogarty Trainee Conference in March 2010. In addition, the completion of a brief questionnaire (anticipated to be approximately four questions) about their current career decisions plus a copy of their current curriculum vitae (including training and research experiences, awards, publications, and employment history) will be required every two years for the next 20 years.

Eligibility

• Citizens of the United States or its territories or possessions, or persons lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence. Resident aliens must include their green card number in their application.
• Persons eligible for this award must be residents, physicians now engaged in clinical or research fellowships, or persons with doctoral degrees in other health-related disciplines (human or animal) who are currently post- doctoral fellows and qualified to do clinically-related research.
• Overseas counterpart Fellows need not be selected at this time, but overseas sites must provide a plan within their Site Eligibility Form to select these Fellows through an open and transparent competitive process by May 10, 2008.  Only persons with a prior health science doctoral or professional degree at the doctoral level are eligible.

Eligible Sites

Applicants must partner with an eligible developing country site willing to host and mentor the candidate during their research. The eligible site must further be willing to select a local national to also become a FICRF for the same year. To be eligible to host a fellow, a site must demonstrate US federal government supported research and/or PEPFAR* funding, e.g., the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, or the United States Agency for International Development. This funding support must be extant during the year that a fellow is on-site (i.e., for the 2008-2009 FICRF, US federal funding must extend through June 2009).
*President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: www.pepfar.gov

Eligible sites are expected to provide all the information requested in the Site Eligibility Form. However, any site meeting the eligibility criteria may serve as an overseas host.

Potential Sites

Prospective fellows looking for a site for collaboration should look here for a list of potential sites.

Submitting an Application:

Site application instructions and forms are available for download in Portable Document Format (PDF):

ICRF 2007 Application Instructions

FICRF-2007-application-instructions.pdf

ICRF 2007 Site Application Fillable Form

FICRF-2007-site-application-form.pdf

      * ICRF 2007 Site Application Word Form

    FICRF-2007-site-application-form.doc

Where to Direct Inquiries

Questions about the program, including issues regarding the eligibility of a given individual or suitability of a proposed research topic may be directed to: fellows2008inquiries@fogartyscholars.org. All general-interest queries will be posted to the web site and answered therein. Please read “Frequently Asked Questions for the ICRF Program” to see if a given query has already been addressed