Ignite Award

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) – 2025

WVUCI Ignite Awards support the formation of new interdisciplinary teams to promote the collection of preliminary data to catalyze a cancer-related NIH grant application.

Purpose

• Encourage cross-disciplinary translational cancer research at WVU
• Enhance competitiveness of cancer-related NIH research grants (R01 equivalent) at WVU through strategic investment

Eligibility

• The MPIs must all be full-time WVU members in good standing
• Intramural application must have at least two principal investigators (MPIs; subsequent NIH application can be PI or MPI).
• At least one MPI must be a WVUCI member in good standing at the time of application and all investigators must be full-time WVU faculty in good standing.
• At least one MPI must be research active, full-time WVU faculty in good standing who has not published a first or last author cancer-related experimental publication in the past ten years.
• A PI may only submit one Ignite Award application per year, but they can also serve as Co-I, consultant, collaborator or mentor on an unlimited number of applications.
• An investigator may only serve as PI on one funded WVUCI intramural award at a time.
• All key personnel must have active ORCID numbers

Application and Submission Guidelines

Ignite Award general features

• Award duration: 12 months, with the option for renewal consisting of an additional 6 months if sufficient progress is being made.
• Award amount: up to $150K; $75K for Year 1 with option for renewal for an additional $75,000 for subsequent 6 months
• Budget requests must be justified and there is no minimum budget amount.
• No-cost extensions are not allowed
• The Ignite Award is intended to support the pursuit of NCI/cancer focused NIH grant funding that is at least an R01 equivalent (>$250k/year DC)
• Ignite Award applications should be hypothesis driven and thus awards focused on training or career development will not be eligible (e.g. F31, F32, T32, etc).
• Letters of Intent are required and used to select which individuals will be invited to submit a full application
• Not intended to support data collection for research projects (or closely related research projects) that have previously been submitted for peer-review (please consider the Near-Miss program instead)

Letter of Intent (LOI)

• Required; used to determine eligibility and alignment with program goals
• Research Plan (1 page).
• Briefly describes overarching goals, significance, and innovation of the project, as well as the general approach to be taken and the qualifications and roles of the research team. Also indicates NIH funding mechanism that will be pursued and proposed date of submission.
• Current and Prior (within past 36 months) WVUCI-provided funding (1 page) to MPIs o Includes research awards, “bridge funding”, and “start-up” funding provided by WVUCI
• Include nature of the funding (e.g., Near-Miss Award, bridge funding of graduate student stipend, etc), the total dollar amount provided by WVUCI, and the associated dates.
• List outcomes of funding in bullet points (e.g., papers published, conference abstracts/presentations, grant applications submitted)
• NIH-like Just-In-Time list of funded applications for MPIs (including grant number and title, role, effort, dates, $, and budgetary or conceptual overlap with Ignite proposal) and all pending grant applications.
• WVUCI Executive Leadership team will review each LOI and determine those that align best with the WVUCI's strategic priorities. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of this review (selected/not selected for full application submission).

Full Application is required by deadline

• NIH Formatting: 11 Arial font, single spaced, 0.5 inch margins
• Required components.
• Page 1: Fillable Ignite Award cover page (website)
• Page 2: Abstract/Summary: 30 lines or less.
• Pages 3 & 4: Budget form (downloaded from website; see allowed expenditures below)
• Page 5: NIH-style Specific Aims (1 page maximum)
• Pages 6-8: NIH-style Research Strategy (3 page maximum; follows NIH format of Significance, Innovation, Approach and describes how data from the Ignite Award will be used to support the Specific Aims).
• Unlimited pages: cited literature
• Multi-PI leadership plan (1 page maximum)
• Plan for NIH grant mechanism that will be pursued (e.g. R01, R21, P01, etc) and timeline for NIH application submission (0.5 pages)
• NIH-formatted Biosketches for all key personnel

Budget

• Up to $150, 000 for 18 months (maximum of $75,000 per year; Year 2 funding is contingent on sufficient progress)
• Requested funds must be directly related data collection.
• Not eligible for no-cost extension (NCE)

Expenditures allowed

• Research supplies
• Consultant costs
• Computers, but only if directly required for data collection and not otherwise already available to the research team (must provide detailed justification)
• Shared resource fees at WVU or partner sites
• Animal Per diem
• Travel only if related to data collection
• Equipment/software/technology costing less than $5000
• Equipment/software/technology costing > $5001, but requires detailed justification which includes statement regarding whether it is already available on campus and if so, why using the existing equipment/software/technology is not feasible for the project
• Publication costs up to $3000 total for associated proposed research
• Professional grant editing services for the ensuing NIH R01 (or equivalent) application; up to $3,000

Expenditures NOT allowed

• Indirect costs or anything typically covered by indirect costs
• Faculty salary and related expenses
• Administrative or secretarial support
• Office supplies or computers
• Tuition
• Travel to conferences
• Subcontracts to other institutions (other than for use of a shared resource not available at WVU)
• Pre- or post-award management costs
• Non-medical or personnel services to patients
• Other expenses not mentioned above that are not typically allowed by NIH for research grants

Review Process

• A WVUCI Study Section will review the applications and provide a recommendation for funding order o Each submission will be reviewed based on scientific rigor, plan for NIH application submission, likelihood of NIH funding success, and suitability of research team for proposed pilot project
• WVUCI Executive Committee will review Study Section recommendations of Ignite applications during the standing monthly meeting and will vote on funding decisions o If there is a cluster of similarly scored applications, an additional criterion may be alignment of application with WVUCI strategic plans
• Each submission will be reviewed based on scientific rigor, plan for NIH application submission, likelihood of NIH funding success, suitability of research team for proposed pilot project, and alignment with WVUCI strategic plans
• Written feedback on the revision plan will be provided

Award Information & Terms

• The number of Ignite Awards made will depend upon (1) available funding for the given budget year and (2) the scientific merit of the applications.
• For projects requiring IRB/IACUC approval, the funds will not be available until the IRB/IACUC approval is issued; compliance approvals must be issued within 90 days of Ignite Notice of Award (NOA), otherwise the Award may be rescinded.
• Projects are expected to be completed within 18 months of NOA and NIH grant application submission to occur within 24 months of NOA.
• Awardees agree to provide the mid-year progress and final reports by the indicated deadlines in NOA.
• Continued funding will be dependent on sufficient progress reported at the 6-month and 12-month progress reports.
• Awardees will cite support provided by the WVUCI Ignite Award Program when publishing any data collected using these funds.
• Awardees agree to provide information needed for tracking of return on investment for the Ignite Awards (e.g. associated manuscript and grant application submissions and outcomes) beyond the project completion data.

Ignite Deadlines

Contact Information

For any questions, please contact:
Ms. Annie Prestrud
WVUCI Grants Administrator
Email: ann.prestrud@hsc.wvu.edu