Grant Information
In 2008, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund launched an institutional award program supporting five-year institutional training awards providing $500,000 a year to bridge the gap between the population and computational sciences and the laboratory-based biological sciences. The Institutional Program Unifying Population and Laboratory-Based Sciences (PUP) award supported the training of researchers between existing concentrations of research strength in population approaches to human health and in basic biomedical sciences.
No future grants will be offered in this program. Ongoing awardees are required to provide Progress Reports.
The goal is to establish training programs by partnering researchers working in schools of medicine and schools (or academic divisions) of public health. With those required institutional partners in place, programs have the freedom to involve a diverse range of other potential partners including those working in international settings, industrial settings, national laboratories, laboratories of federal agencies, quantitative population research groups outside of the life sciences (examples include but are not limited to econometrics, demographics, applied mathematics, anthropology, and other fields not typically represented by departments within medical centers.)
The programs supported by these awards will develop young researchers who will be equally at home with the ideas, approaches, and insights generated at the molecular scale and at the population scale. Such programs may be free-standing graduate programs or newly defined tracks within existing programs. Trainees of such programs may bring new approaches to combining genomics with phenomics, addressing questions of population genetics, understanding molecular and environmental epidemiology, and a range of other issues important to understanding human health and its disruptors.
A list of programs funded in the three previous rounds show that only a few grants have been made.
Advisory Committee
Mark Boguski, M.D., Ph.D. Professor Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School
Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D. Dean Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Timothy Hughes, Ph.D. Professor University of Toronto
Mark Lathrop, Ph.D. Scientific Director McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre
H. Steven Wiley, Ph.D. Director, Biomolecular Systems Pacific Northwest National Laboratories
Lynn Zechiedrich, Ph.D. Associate Professor Baylor College of Medicine
Additional members may be added to the committee.
Progress Reporting
Progress and financial reports are required for all BWF grants, and are due on the date specified in the award letter or contract. Advisory Committee and staff depend heavily upon progress and financial reports to evaluate progress. Late reports inconvenience advisory committee reviewers and impede the Fund's evaluation of its programs. Failure to submit progress or financial reports in a timely fashion will result in termination of funding.
BWF has provided progress report guidelines to assist in the preparation and submission of Progress Reports in an acceptable manner. Institutions must provide BWF with an annual progress report detailing program progress and must also provide an annual financial report. Both reports must be submitted by the due date on forms that will be provided and according to the instructions below. All PDF on-line forms and instructions referenced on this page can be accessed below.
Each progress report will be read and evaluated by members of BWF's Scientific Advisory Committee. Evaluation criteria include:
- Scientific rigor of training provided
- Addressing interdisciplinary "language/culture barrier"
- Trainee qualifications/selection
- Trainee accomplishments
- Cross-departmental faculty involvement
- Creating community for trainees
- Use of BWF funds (primarily should be used for trainees)
- Institutional impact
- Contribution to BWF program goals
Please prepare the report with these criteria in mind.
Progress Reporting for Awardees
Sections of the Progress Report
I. Progress Report Cover Page
The Cover Page for your Progress Report must be completed on-line and should contain the following information:
- Institution
- Program name
- Program web site
- BWF request ID number for your grant
- Progress report period dates
- Program directors' name
- Program Administrator's name
- BWF Trainee information
II. Program Report (to be completed by the Program Directors)
A. In a maximum of three pages, briefly review the original plan and describe program accomplishments and all training activities supported by the BWF award during the reporting period. An online Program Report form is provided. Include descriptions of the following where applicable:
- trainee selection
- program activities
- any curriculum developments or changes
- any changes in administration of the program
- plans for the coming year
- any other sources of support for this program
- dissemination on the internet of course materials or workshop proceedings, with links
B. Using the on-line Trainee Chart provided, list the names of all BWF trainees during the reporting period, indicating the inclusive dates of their fellowships. Indicate whether trainees are "Fellows" (receiving stipend support from BWF) or "Associates" (not receiving stipend support but may be training related to this support, for example, participating in courses or seminar series.) Indicate the total annual stipend (before taxes and not including benefits) for each trainee. Also indicate the total amount of funds provided by BWF. The number of names in each training level should match the numbers entered on the Progress Report Cover Page corresponding category. Each trainee listed will complete the Trainee Report and Survey.
C. Trainee Report and Survey
Each trainee must complete a Trainee Report and a Confidential Trainee Survey. It is the responsibility of the Program Director/Administrators to make sure that this is completed by each trainee. The report and survey will be accessed via Survey Monkey for a limited time thru a link to be provided.
Trainee: Before beginning the Trainee Report, please prepare the following items based on your activities during the current reporting period. This information can be copied and pasted into the appropriate fields on the report.
- A paragraph outlining your activities, summarizing work in progress and highlighting any significant findings. Please do not use more the 2,000 characters.
- A list of the titles of presentations you gave, as well as the venue (i.e., local seminar, national meeting) and type of presentation (i.e., poster, talk)
- A list of complete citations of your publications.
- A list of complete citations of your manuscripts submitted for publication.
III. Program Evaluation (to be completed by the Program Directors)
A. Program Evaluation Plans (on-line form provided). In one page or less, briefly describe specific efforts to evaluate the success of the program, including what kind of data has been collected, and names of any internal or external program reviewers. What cluster of outcomes should be used to measure the success of your program? To what should your program be compared?B. Program Evaluation (on-line form provided). Briefly summarize in one page or less, how your program is doing according to the measures identified in (A) above.
C. Institutional Changes (on-line form provided). Summarize any institutional changes that have been made as a result of the award, as well as the impact of the program on trainees not receiving BWF stipend support.
D. New Faculty Collaborations (on-line form provided). Provide a chart listing names & departments of any new faculty collaborations that have arisen as a result of the program, along with project title, publications, and funding source if any.
E. Former Trainees (on-line form provided). For all trainees who have completed or left the program to date, list current positions and institutional affiliations, and contact information where known. Please indicate the inclusive dates of their involvement in the program, and their training level. Where possible, describe the extent of their current involvement in research, including research grant support and representative recent publications.
IV. Curriculum Vitae
Include a current Curriculum Vitae of all NEW directors and faculty involved in the program since the last reporting period, using the NIH biographical form.
V. Financial Report
The Financial Report must be completed on-line by the institutional financial officer. The report should contain the typed name of the program and of the institutional official completing the report. The Financial Report may be submitted under separate cover, by the deadline.
Submission of the Progress Report
Submit the completed Progress Report Cover Page with your entire Progress Report by the due date. Use 12-point font size. Combine all subsections into one PDF file, including the cover page. The Financial Report may be submitted as a separate PDF file.
Submit your entire Progress and Financial Report as PDF files to pup.progress@bwfund.org by April 1.
Note to the following when completing the Financial Report:
If you submitted a Financial Report last year, the information provided in that report should be used to calculate the Cumulative to Date figures.
The subtotal fields will automatically calculate as you enter the relevant numerical data. The "Balance" should be the same in both the Current Reporting Period and Cumulative to Date columns.
Forms
There is currently no FAQ for this funding opportunity.
2014
Dartmouth College Carmen J. Marsit, Ph.D. Scott M. Williams, Ph.D. Big data in the life sciences training program
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor Betsy Foxman, Ph.D. Tom Schmidt, Ph.D. Integrated training in epidemiology and microbiome sciences (ITEMS)
University of Rochester Nancy M. Bennett, M.D. Stephen Dewhurst, Ph.D. Infection and immunity from molecules to populations
Washington University St. Louis Graham A. Colditz, M.D. Susan K. Dutcher, Ph.D. Transdisciplinary training in laboratory and population sciences at Washington University
2013
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Paul R. Marantz, M.D., Ph.D. Louis M. Weiss, M.D. Education Connecting Laboratory Investigation and Population Science at Einstein (eCLIPSE)
Boston University Lindsay A. Farrer, Ph.D. Timothy Heeren, Ph.D. Boston University's Transformative Training Program in Addiction Science (TTPAS)
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health M. Daniele, Fallin, Ph.D. David Valle, M.D. MD-GEM: The Maryland Genetic, Epidemiology, and Medicine Training Program
2009
Emory University Kenneth L Brigham, Ph.D. Michele Marcus, Ph.D. Human health: molecules to mankind (M2M)
University of California-Los Angeles Simin Liu, M.D., ScD. Thomas Drake, M.D. University of California-Los Angeles inter-school program in metabolic diseases
University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., F.A.C.P. Eric Boerwinkle, Ph.D. The Houston laboratory and population science
Award Timeline
Program Contacts
