Mission Statement: To provide funding that will promote innovative research in human reproduction both clinical and basic that will expand the body of knowledge essential to the care and health of women throughout their lives.

Background:  The Charles Hammond Research Fund is established to further the mission of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University School of Medicine for the purpose of granting financial assistance to members of the department to conduct basic, translational, clinical and community and other appropriate research in women’s reproductive health. 

 

Grants for research endeavors will be awarded two times per year on January 15 and July 15.

Application deadlines will be June 1 and December 1 annually. Funding for the awards will be obtained from the interest earned from the principal account of the Charles Hammond Research Fund. The amount available will vary yearly. 

 

Up to $30,000 per project will be awarded to faculty members and $5,000-$10,000 will be awarded to residents and fellows for the following:

 

          1.          Research conducted by residents and fellows with appropriate faculty mentors 

          2.          Research conducted by faculty designed to provide the necessary preliminary
             data for research applications to federal agencies, especially NIH, AHRQ, NSF
             as well as nationally and internationally recognized private foundations and  
             investigator initiated pharmaceutical foundations

          3.          Bridge funding for faculty in order to provide necessary research data to

                       resubmit an application to federal agencies (either as a prime awardee or as a               
             federal subcontract)

Applications should be emailed to Beverly Thorpe ( thorp027@mc.duke.edu ) and are required to be submitted in NIH format and on NIH forms:  http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html . Forms required with application include: Budget Detail Page, Budget Justification, Biosketch, Research Plan (should not exceed 5 pages), and a Cover Letter to the Charles Hammond Fund Review Committee. In the case of resident’s research, the mentor’s biosketch must be submitted. Budget pages must conform to the NIH format to include relevant information to justify the costs of the proposed research project.  The modular format will not be used for this application. 

 

Applications for bridge grants must include the comments of the NIH Study Section and the faculty investigator’s detailed response to the reviewers. 

 

Applications will be reviewed by the Department’s Peer Review Committee consisting of all tenured full Professors with a primary appointment in the department and one selected member of the Carter Society. Each member of the committee shall have one vote for each individual application. Voting will be done by written blind ballot following an open discussion of the merits of the research proposal. Scoring will be on a scale of 100-500 with 100 being the highest score.  Applications will be judged on innovation, scientific significance, impact on public health, the investigator’s ability to conduct the proposed research and in the case of resident or fellow, the expertise and experience of the proposed mentor, and the value of the proposed research to the department.  The committee will meet in full session not later than one month following submission of applications.   Investigators will be informed in writing immediately following the meeting.

 

The notice of grant award shall contain the following: “All research published as a result of this award shall state that the study was funded by the Charles Hammond Research Fund of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University School of Medicine.”

 

The Charles Hammond Research Fund Review Committee for CY 2007 consists of:

 

Haywood Brown, MD, Chair of the Department

Phyllis Leppert, MD, PhD, Vice Chair of the Department

Charles Hammond, MD, Professor

Andrew Berchuck, MD, Professor

Amy Murtha, MD, Assistant Professor

Evan Myers, MD, MPH, Professor

David Schomberg, PhD, Professor

Robert Yowell, MD, Carter Society

 

Beverly Thorpe, MPA, Research Administrator, Ex officio