The Department of Surgery Small Grants Program, established in 2011, aims to provide funding to support preliminary data capture as "seed funding" for future grant applications submitted by faculty members. Up to three grants of $15,000 will be funded annually to Department of Surgery faculty under this program. To date, 21 grants have been awarded (see below).
Eligibility
All Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Surgery Department faculty members are eligible to apply. The priority for funding will be placed upon junior faculty members (e.g., assistant professors) who have not yet achieved peer-reviewed funding.
If there are not adequate numbers of grant applications received from junior faculty, then a funding consideration will be given to mid-career faculty (e.g., Associate Professors) as the second funding priority.
Senior faculty with research experience (e.g., Professors) are encouraged to serve as mentors for the junior faculty submitting small grant proposals.
Department of Surgery residents, fellows, and/or medical students are encouraged to participate as co-investigators, research residents, research fellows, medical student workers, and/or research staff as appropriate.
For all applications, at least one co-principal investigator must meet the following criteria:
- FULL-TIME STATUS: Appointment as a full-time SBU SOM Department of Surgery faculty member; and
- DOCTORAL LEVEL DEGREE: Possession of a doctoral degree (DO, MD, and/or PhD); and
- MENTOR(S): All grant applications by an assistant or associate professor faculty member must identify at least one senior faculty mentor with substantial research experience, who should be actively involved in the preparation of the grant and serve (in most cases) as a co-investigator.
Collaborative projects across different clinical sites (e.g., VA, Mount Sinai, and/or other institutions) are strongly encouraged.
Application Process
The application process is intended to provide experience in the preparation of a grant proposal. Submissions are due Sunday, June 16, 2019, and should be emailed to Dr. Laurie Shroyer (e-mail) or Dr. Margaret McNurlan (e-mail). Proposals will be in the historical NIH format which is 6 pages consisting of specific aims (1 page), research strategy (½ - 1 page significance, ½ - 1 page innovation, 4 pages of research approach including any preliminary data). Click here for the application template; see scoring review instructions.
Prior to submission, applicants should work with his/her mentor and are also encouraged to work with Dr. Margaret McNurlan and with the Biostatical Core, Dr. Jie Yang (e-mail).* If a small grant proposal is submitted for this upcoming 2019-2020 application cycle, these biostatistical core lab costs may be covered by the Department of Surgery or a supplemental core lab request submitted to Dean Obeid’s office. As the peer-review process utilized, all proposals received will be judged by faculty from outside the Department of Surgery.
Expectations of Funded Projects
Funded principal investigators will be expected to:
- Provide a two-page progress report six months after initiation of the project (to be posted on the Departmental website).
- Provide a final report (or manuscript) two months after completion of the project (to be posted on the Departmental website).
- Present their funded research project results at:
1. A Department of Surgery Research Committee meeting or Department of Surgery Chairman’s Research Conference and
2. The annual Department of Surgery Research Day and
3. A regional or national professional society meeting.
At a minimum, Department of Surgery Small Grant recipients must submit a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal within 6 months of their project's funding being completed in order to successfully fulfill this program's final reporting requirements.
A copy of their manuscript's abstract will be placed on the website, as a metric of success. As the longer-term goal, grant recipients are expected to apply for peer-reviewed funding at the regional or national level; such as a professional society grant or Stony Brook Medicine Dean’s office grant application.
Limitations
Only one active small grant will be funded to a faculty member (as PI) at one time. Following successful post-grant manuscript or grant submission, junior faculty investigators are welcome to reapply for a second small grant project.
Budgetary Issues
- Direct costs allowed will be up to $15,000.
- Up to 12 months of research will be funded. A no-cost extension (up to an additional 12 months) will be considered with adequate justification.
- Allowable costs include research animal(s) and/or specimen-related costs; research assistant costs; costs of data collection (e.g., chart abstraction), data entry and/or analysis; and essential supplies.
- Costs that are not allowable (without special justification) include faculty member and/or resident/fellow salaries, most equipment over $1,000 (including computer hardware or software), and basic office supplies.
- Travel funding will not generally be an allowable small grant expense. Meeting-related travel costs should be submitted to the Chairman's office for separate funding consideration, according to DoS travel policy. Any PI requiring additional travel funding to support his or her research (e.g., travel to another site to learn a new laboratory technique) should obtain pre-approval through the Chairman's office appropriately.
Grants started December 2018
- Mohsen Bannazadeh, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Spatial and Temporal Characterization of Fibrin as It Pertains to Deep Vein Thrombosis and Its Resolution."
- Duc T. Bui, MD, associate professor of surgery, together with Jocellie Marquez, MD, assistant instructor of surgery, and Sami U. Khan, MD, associate professor of surgery, of our Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Division, for their research project titled "Changes in the Attitudes and Practices of Plastic Surgeons Regarding Antibiotic Prophylaxis, Acellular Dermal Matrix Use and Closed-Suction Drains in Immediate Breast Reconstruction."
- Georgios V. Georgakis, MD, PhD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Surgical Oncology Division, for his research project titled "Activity of HSP 90 Inhibitor with Surgery + Heat-Activated Chemotherapy for Colorectal Cancer."
- Melissa M. Mortensen, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Division, for her research project titled "A Cohort Study Investigating Postoperative Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR) in Bariatric Patients Following Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy (LSG) and Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB)."
Grants started July 2017
- Helen Hsieh, MD, PhD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Pediatric Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Chronic Midazolam Exposure Hippocamal Synaptic Development."
- Tara L. Huston, MD, assistant professor of surgery and dermatology, of our Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Role of Primary Cilia in Melanoma Metastasis."
- Gurtej Singh, PhD, research assistant professor of surgery, of our Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts for Use in Vascular and Reconstructive Surgeries."
Grants started July 2016
- Andrew T. Bates, MD, instructor of surgery, of our Bariatric, Foregut, and Advanced Gastrointestinal Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Comparison of Hypercoagulability after Minor vs. Major Surgery."
- Lukasz Czerwonka, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping and Biopsy for Oral Cavity and Oropharynx Squamous Cell Carcinoma."
Grants started August/September 2015
- Angela A. Kokkosis, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Peripheral Arterial Disease in Women."
- Elliot Regenbogen, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Characterizing Epidemiological Trends Including Factors Related to Readmission among Preterm Infants with Apnea of Prematurity."
Grants started July 2014
- Randeep S. Jawa, MD, associate professor of surgery, of our Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care Division, for his research project titled "The Role of Cytokines and Vitamin D Binding Protein-Actin Complexes in Acute Muscle Injury."
- Sami U. Khan, MD, associate professor of surgery, of our Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Multi-Institutional Evaluation of Predictors of Readmission after Post-Mastectomy Breast Reconstruction."
- Allison J. McLarty, MD, associate professor of surgery, of our Cardiothoracic Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Management of Moderate-Size Aneurysms of the Thoracic Aorta."
Grants started January 2013
- Colette R.J. Pameijer, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Breast and Oncologic Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Novel 3-D ICG Fluorescence Device for Sentinel Lymph Node Targeting."
- Ghassan J. Samara, MD, associate professor of surgery, of our Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Division, for his research project titled "The Influence of Ethanol in the Tumor Microenvironment during Squamous Oral Mucosa Carcinogenesis."
- Dana A. Telem, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Bariatric, Foregut, and Advanced Gastrointestinal Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Sleeve Gastrectomy for Morbid Obesity and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease: Determining a Correlation."
Grants started January 2012
- Giuseppe Caso, MD, PhD, research assistant professor of surgery, of our Research Division, for his research project titled "Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Human Colon Cancer Treatment."
- Philip Q. Bao, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Upper Gastrointestinal and General Oncologic Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Therapeutic Effects of Irreversible Electroporation in an In Situ Pancreatic Cancer Mouse Model."
- Duc T. Bui, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Division, for his research project titled "Antibiotics in Breast Reconstruction: A Randomized Trial."
- Christine R. Rizk, MD, assistant professor of surgery, of our Breast and Oncologic Surgery Division, for her research project titled "Do Breast Cancer Patients Who Smoke Have Worse Outcomes Compared to Nonsmokers?"
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* Use of any alternative biostatistical support services for your grant preparation activities must by pre-approved by Dr. Laurie Shroyer or Mr. John Hutter.
