Introduction
The SASS Foundation for Medical Research, a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization, is committed to education, research, and education in various hematological and malignant diseases. As a part of research commitment, the SASS Foundation offers Post-doctoral Fellowship Research Grants, Transitional Research Grants and/or Physician Scientist grants. For the research fellowship award is awarded to bright young post-doctoral fellows to pursue innovative ideas that have the potential to develop into independent investigators with sustained extramural NIH type funding. The amount of funding is $50,000 for one year, which can be renewed for a second year after a satisfactory progress report. The Transitional Research Grants is to provide support to senior post-doctoral fellows (3rd year), who progress to Junior Faculty. The amount of funding is $55,000 for 3rd year fellowship and $70,000 for 1st and 2nd year Junior faculty appointment (Assistant Professor. Finally, the Foundation supports Junior faculty Physician Scientists during their first three year of Assistant Professorship ($70,000-$75,000).

Renewal of Grant
Grant may be renewed on an annual basis after submitting a satisfactory progress report to the Director of Scientific Development of the Foundation Dr. Sudhir Gupta (sgupta@uci.edu). Progress report must be submitted by June 1.

Goal and Scope of Program

The goal of The SASS Foundation Fellowship award is provide salary stipend for novel research projects in cancer to be conducted by Postdoctoral fellows under the guidance of an able mentor (NOT AN EXTENSION OF MENTOR’S RESEARCH), senior fellow transitioning in to faculty, and newly appointed physician scientists. The Foundation is especially interested in hypothesis driven novel research, which will help these individuals to obtain meaningful data to seek and be successful in obtaining competitive extramural funding, including from NIH, NSF, ACS etc. and other extramural funding agencies in order to become independent/established investigators.

Eligibility
The Post-doctoral Fellowship grant is open to any postdoctoral fellow with MD, Ph.D. or both degrees who is associated with an academic non-profit institution. The mentor should have established record as an established independent investigator. Applicant from a mentor’ laboratory whose fellow has previously received award from the Foundation are ineligible. The Transitional grant is open to any postdoctoral fellow with MD, Ph.D., or MD/Ph.D who has completed 2 year of postdoctoral training (in their 3rd year fellowship) and likely to be appointed to junior faculty following completion of 3rd fellowship. The Physician Scientist grant is provided to a newly appointed Assistant Professor with a novel proposal, which after obtaining meaningful data from support of the Sass Foundation, has high probability of securing extramural competitive funding (NIH, NSF, ACS etc) and becoming an independent and established investigator. Candidate with MD or MD/Ph.D degree are eligible. Candidates with Ph.D. degree are ineligible for this award.

Type of Research
Preference will be given for the translational research for both post-doctoral and transitional grants. No grants are provided for clinical studies or drug trials. Grant period will start from July 1.

Conditions of Award
Awards are for the salary support only. Funded candidates must present their work at the Sass Foundation Research Day in Spring. NO FUNDS MAY BE USED FOR EQUIPMENT, COMPUTER ETC. The Foundation does not provide any overhead/indirect cost.

Application Deadline and Review Process

A Letter of Intent should be sent VIA E-MAIL to Director of Director of Scientific Development Dr. Sudhir Gupta (sgupta@uci.edu) by March 1, 2012 at 5:00 PM. The deadline for submission of full proposal is April 15, 2012 at 5:00 PM. Late proposals will not be accepted. Applications are reviewed and scored (NIH style) by an ad hoc Scientific Peer Review Committee. Awards are approved by Board of Directors. Awards will be made strictly by the assigned priority score. Applicants will be notified of the status of funding by June 25, 2012. The funding will start from July 1, 2012.

General Length and Format
Proposals must not exceed five single-spaced; one-sided pages in addition to an abstract, program cover sheet, and references (two-page limit for references). Application for Physician Scientist award may not exceed seven single-spaced one-sided pages. Preliminary data may be presented as an Appendix. Margin should be 1 inch blank space on top, bottom and side of each page, excepting applicant’s identification headers (NIH style). Text font may not be smaller than 11 point in Arial or Time Roman, 15 characters per horizontal inch. No more than six lines per vertical inch of text are permitted. Grant may be submitted as both pdf and Word documents via e-mail.

Research Plan
Proposal should include a cover page with title of project, providing applicant’s name, mentor’s name and title (for fellowship and transitional grants), address for correspondence, including telephone and FAX numbers and e-mail address. Application must be signed by the candidate, mentor (where applicable) and Grants and Contracts of the institution. An abstract of 350 words should be provided. The research plan of the proposal outlines the proposed research project, and should include the following sections [1] Specific aims, including statement of testable hypotheses; [2] Background and significance, including preliminary data [3] Research design and methods, including appropriate control studies, statistical methods, timeline, and justification of the number of subjects or animal to be used (if any); and [4] Expected results, potential problems, and alternative hypotheses.

Bio-Bibliographical sketch of the applicant and the mentor
Two page limit for each applicant and the mentor (where applicable), using NIH style.

Other Supports
List of all currently funded research projects and pending research grants for both applicant and the mentor. A copy of the abstract of funded and pending grants must be included.

Financial Report

An annual financial report by the Contracts and Grant office is required to be submitted by June 30. Any unused funds must be returned to the Foundation.