SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine (AM) Research Grant 2.0 - HSR-HEARTS

Closes On

17 Oct 2024

Funding Source

Internal

PI Salary Support

ACP/SDDC Affiliation

Funding Per Grant Amount

S$ 65,000

Qualification

Not Specified

Academic Appointment

Funding Period

2 years

Citizenship

Foreigner / S / PR

Call Opens

12 Aug 2024

SMC/SDC Registered

Objective

The SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine (AM) Research Grant 2.0 FY2025 is to provide funding support to deserving translational and clinical research within the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Centre (AMC).

Special Category Grant:

Health Services Research - HEalth Services Research and Analytical Technologies for SingHealth (HEARTS)

The new MOH RIE 2025 continues to emphasize on improving healthcare outcomes for Singapore's population and improving value for money in health services. Clinician scientists with enhanced skills in health services research are also a priority.

This HSR - HEARTS grant round and the funded projects will be managed by the Health Services Research Institute (HSRI). This virtual centre is designed to improve the performance of health services and serves as a bridge between the data science capabilities of SingHealth embodied by Health Services Research Centre (HSRC) and the Duke-NUS Programme in Health Services and System Research (HSSR) groups. It is a place where good ideas for innovation led by SingHealth clinicians can be brought to life with high quality research methods and outputs.

This grant round replaces the previous HEARTS grants that were offered by HSRI and the HSR (Health Outcomes) grants previously opened under the AM Research Grant - Special Category grant.

This funding opportunity will require collaboration with a relevant Duke-NUS faculty member.

HSRI invites any idea for a health services innovation that meets the following four criteria:

The research will demonstrate how improvements to the performance of health services can be achieved. Some examples of improved performance are:

1. Improved patient outcomes
2. Improved use of resources
3. Improved access to services

The idea is relatively simple and has a clear path to impact.

The number of patients who might benefit is reasonably large.

A Duke-NUS faculty member must be a named team member on the application, either as Co-Investigator or Collaborator, whose role it is to provide support for methods and writing publications.

Note:

A certain amount of funding has been set-aside to allow grant applications under this category to be reviewed separately by the respective platform-specific panels.

To apply for the Special Category Grants, please ensure that you meet the relevant guidelines listed under the specific category prior to the application (refer to "SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2025 - Guidelines").

The type of research supported under Special Category is:

Health Services Research - HEARTS (≤ S$65,000)

Funding Details

The grant award is up to S$65,000 over a period of 2 years.

Eligibility Criteria

Only investigators/researchers primarily employed in SingHealth and her member institutions are encouraged to apply provided the following criteria are fulfilled.

Upon award of the grant applied for, applicants must not have received funding to conduct their own research project which cumulatively exceeds $300,000. This can be funding from any source e.g., internal, external, philanthropy or industry (i.e., If applicant has already been awarded $150K in research funding in the past, (s)he can only apply for less than $150K of subsequent internal funding as the ultimate intent is for SingHealth researchers to win national or external funding).
Residents in training programmes under SingHealth - who must obtain the appropriate endorsement from their Residency Programme Directors (*new*), HOD and ACP Vice Chairs, may also apply, subject to all other terms and conditions of the specific grant-type.
Applicants must not have held any national grants or international grants as a PI/Co-PI prior to the award.
Association/Affiliation with an Academic Clinical Programme (ACP):

a) The PI must be under an ACP or contributing to the growth and development of research in/under an ACP through active collaboration. Justifications must be given to support these research contributions and activities. Applicants will need to complete a self-declaration on the ACP to which their research has contributed and obtain acknowledgement from the respective ACP Vice Chair (Research)*.

*Refer to ‘ACP Academic Vice Chair, Research & Administrators Contact list’.

b) If the applicant is unable to fulfil the above condition (i), the applicant should have his/her proposal signed-off by the relevant ACP Vice Chair (Research) and have it endorsed by the ACP’s Academic Chair while keeping the respective ACP Administrators informed. The signing-off in support and as endorsement of the proposal signifies that the applicant is associated to the ACP.
The proposed research project must be conducted within the SingHealth Duke-NUS academic health system and the PI must have an official employment (permanent/contract) in a SingHealth institution throughout the effective grant period.

For proposals involving patients, the PI or Co-I should be Singapore Medical Council (SMC) or Singapore Dental Council (SDC) registered, as appropriate; or be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC or SDC registered collaborators.
Under the Clinical Trial & Clinical Research categories, PI must be at least an SMC registered Associate Consultant or SDC registered (as appropriate; in compliance to HSA standard).
The project’s aims and objectives, and/or the same protocol have not been funded by other funding agencies.
No outstanding reports from previous SHF-Foundation/AM grants.
Applications that do not fulfil the eligibility criteria will be automatically disqualified from the SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Grant Research Committee (AGRC)’s or the respective platform-specific panels’ review.
To apply for the Special Category Grants, please ensure that you meet the relevant guidelines listed under the specific category prior to the application (refer to “SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2025 - Application Guidelines”).

Submission

Each eligible applicant can only submit one application per SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant Call as the PI (i.e. a PI can only apply for either ‘SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2025’ or ‘SingHealth Duke-NUS AM & NHIC Joint MedTech Grant Call FY2025’).
Where an applicant has previously been awarded a SHF-Foundation/AM Research grants, subsequent grant applications from the same PI must differ substantially from previous awarded grants:
- Within any single grant category or sub-category, project submissions from the same PI must be substantially and scientifically different (e.g. a PI may be awarded a Start-Up grant in 2014 and a second Start-Up grant in 2016 only if the research ideas of the two grants differ). Final arbitration will be made by the review committee.

Association/Affiliation with an Academic Clinical Programme (ACP)

1. For PIs who are under an ACP or already contributing to the growth and development of research in/under an ACP through active collaboration, applications must be acknowledged by ACP Vice Chair (Research).
2. If the applicant is unable to fulfil the above condition (a), the applicant should have his/her proposal signed-off by the relevant ACP Vice Chair (Research) and have it endorsed by the ACP's Academic Chair while keeping the respective ACP Administrators informed. The signing-off in support and as endorsement of the proposal signifies that the applicant is associated to the ACP.

Application must be endorsed by the applicant's Head of Department (HOD) and Residency Programme Director (if applicable) (*new*) prior to the submission to SingHealth Office of Research (OoR) through the Research Office of the Principal Investigator (PI)'s Host Institution. Only applications with following submissions received will be accepted:

- 2 soft copies containing all information (e.g. proposal, CVs) in a single file
- (1 in word format without signatures and 1 in PDF format with signatures). Electronic signatures are allowed.

Interested applicants, please refer to the application guidelines and respective application forms.

Please refer to the Annex 1– SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant Funding Guidelines in the application form when doing the budgeting.

Incomplete or late applications will automatically be disqualified from the review

Important Notes:

SingHealth Office of Research will only process completed applications from eligible applicants.
No change of PI once submitted.
All applications must be made using the prescribed form. Failure to comply with all the requirements will result in the grant application being disqualified from review.
Failure to comply will result in applications being disqualified from the review.
SingHealth PIs are to please refer to your respective Institutional Research Administrators for guidance on internal deadlines and submission procedures set by your institutions.

Contact Person

SingHealth Office of Research (OoR)