CS-IRG New Investigator Grant (CS-IRG-NIG)

CS-IRG New Investigator Grant (CS-IRG-NIG) is a sub category of the CS-IRG to cater for new clinical investigators. The CS-IRG-NIG is a step for the new investigator to a first independent national level grant. Applicants with substantial research experience will not be accepted under this category.

To be eligible for the CS-IRG-NIG, the following requirements apply:

(i) Applicants cannot apply to other funding sources as PI or Co-PI for the same evaluation period.

(ii) Applicants must not have held any national  grants (e.g., NMRC, A*STAR, NRF, MOE AcRF Tier II, etc) or international grants (e.g., MRC, NIH,NHMRC, etc) as a PI/Co-PI.

(iii) Applicants must not have held any grants cumulatively exceeding $300,000 from any other agencies

Applicants who are applying as new investigators category (CS-IRG-NIG) have to work with a mentor for guidance in their research. This mentoring will provide support for a period of supervised research leading eventually to the clinical investigators conducting larger scale research projects independently.

Eligibility:

Each CS-IRG-NIG application must be led by a Clinical PI  who has to fulfill the requirements and eligibility criteria for new investigators. Only one Principal Investigator (PI) is allowed per application.The Clinical PI should be clinically qualified (i.e. with MD/MBBS/BDS) and preferably with post-graduate clinical training and experience. For proposals involving patients, the clinical PI or co-I should be SMC registered; or should be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC registered collaborators. For some CS-IRG-NIG proposals, it is recognized that some studies may be pre-clinical and not require the PI to be SMC registered.

Note: Exceptions will Note: Exceptions will be made on a case by case basis for applicants who are not clinically qualified as defined above, such as PhD holders or equivalent. To be considered under the exception as Clinical PI, applicant should fall within the list of professions shown in Table 1, provided that they fulfill the eligibility criteria listed below. Such exceptions on the eligibility to apply as the Clinical PI should be made at the point of application and once approved the individual can only apply as a clinical PI (e.g. CS-IRG/CSA/TA), and not in another investigator-led research grant for the non-clinical PI/basic scientists (e.g. B&B/CBRG); and vice versa. However, this does not restrict the individual to participate as co-investigators/collaborator in other grant programmes. However, the individual is allowed to switch from clinical PI to non-Clinical PI at certain point of time, provided he is not holding two different grant types concurrently as a Clinical PI and a non-Clinical PI. Please fill up this declaration form only if you would like to be considered as Clinical PI under the exception case.

Additional eligibility criteria include:

(a)  Hold a primary appointment in a local public hospital/public health institutions/national specialty centre/public universities/Academic Medical Centres and salaried by the institution.

(b)  Have a laboratory or clinical research program that carries out research in Singapore.

(c)  Hold a minimum of 9 months employment with a local Singapore institution. Upon award, the PI must agree to fulfill at least 6 months of residency in Singapore for each calendar year^[1] over the duration of the grant award.

Funding Quantum:

The CS-IRG-NIG will provide a funding quantum of up to S$200,000 per project for 2 years with additional 20% indirect costs provided to the host institution of the lead PI. Grant calls will be made on 6-monthly basis along with NMRC grant calls in May and November.

Submission:

It is mandatory for all applications to be submitted online via nGager by 3 June 2013, 5pm. Please ensure that all submissions are endorsed by the corresponding host institution's Research Director. We will not entertain any late submissions or submissions from individual applicants without HI RD endorsement.

Please download the Guide and Application Form for more information.

^[1] CREATE campus PIs are expected to fulfill the residency and other requirements as stipulated by the NRF and the above criteria (b)