The Pediatric Sedation Research Consortium (PSRC) Research Support Grant provides funding to investigators who require support to conduct research using data from the PSRC database. This support will be provided through a collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Clinical Research Unit (CRU). The funding will allow the investigator to work with PhD and MSc statisticians from CRU to design and carry out the study conceived and initiated by the investigator.
The role of the CRU team members will be to work with the investigator to refine the proposed research question, select statistical methods, prepare the study protocol, formulate a statistical analysis plan, and perform the statistical analysis. They will assist with data cleaning and wrangling, prepare and maintain documentation such as analysis plans, project reports and other technical documents. They will also participate in writing/reviewing manuscripts for publication in partnership with the investigator.
Eligibility: Applicants must be a current member of the Society for Pediatric Sedation (SPS) (https://pedsedation.org/membership/). Members from any specialty/discipline/level of training may apply. We strongly encourage applications from investigators working in collaborative groups across more than one institution, as well as investigators at the Instructor or Assistant Professor level.
Duration of Funding: 1 year
Grant Requirements:
- Once the grant has been awarded to the investigator, the grantee will meet with the CRU team to prepare the PSRC Research Study Proposal (https://bit.ly/3qx2M2E). The proposal must be submitted to the SPS Research Committee within two months of the grant being awarded and approved prior to receipt of any data.
- The grantee will submit a progress report to the SPS Research Committee once every 4 months after the grant is awarded. The progress report should include work completed to date, anticipated next steps and timeline for completion of proposed next steps.
- The grantee will be assigned a liaison from the SPS Research Committee who will assist with maintaining timelines and information regarding the PSRC database.
- The grantee must submit a manuscript to a journal for peer-review PRIOR to one year after the grant is awarded. The manuscript does not have to be accepted within this time frame. Please remember to take into account the time required for the SPS Research Committee to review and approve your study prior to journal submission as per standard PSRC policy (est. 4-6 weeks). (https://bit.ly/3qx2M2E).
- The grantee will submit their study findings for presentation at the annual SPS meeting immediately following completion of the grant period, or sooner (i.e. before completion of grant period) if presentable results are available.
Application Requirements:
- Submit a 1-page cover letter signed by the principal investigator (PI) that includes:
- Project title
- PI’s name, degree(s), title(s), institution, department, and email address
- Name(s) of any co-investigator(s)
- The following statement:
“As the principal investigator for the proposed project, I certify that I am a member of the Society for Pediatric Sedation, and the information submitted within this application is true, complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge. If this proposal is funded, I agree to accept responsibility for the scientific conduct of the project, to conduct the project in accordance with all applicable guidelines and requirements, and to provide progress reports as specified.”
- Submit a 1 to 2-page proposal that includes the following:
- Background
- Include relevant context and information necessary for the reviewer to understand your clinical question, stated objectives and methods; include data from preliminary studies as needed. Any references cited will not be included in the two-page limit.
- State the clinical significance and relevance of your study proposal, the “gap in knowledge” that you wish to address. Why is your question important?
- State your objectives as specific aims (typically between 1 to 3 aims) and, if applicable, the hypothesis that each aim will test.
- Preliminary methods
- State the anticipated study design.
- Describe the anticipated study population (e.g. age, setting or provider type, sedative administered, etc.). State the anticipated inclusion and exclusion criteria.
- State the anticipated time frame of data you wish to analyze.
- State the anticipated outcomes of interest.
- It is not required to include additional details regarding your methods at this stage. However, you may include elements such as planned descriptive statistics, comparative testing, association/prediction analyses, etc. if desired. These elements can be finalized after the grant is awarded in collaboration with the CRU.
It is required that variables used in writing the preliminary methods should match the same variables, wording, and category labels that currently exist in the PSRC database. Do not request or include variables that do not currently exist in the PSRC database.
We recognize that elements of your proposal may change after working with the CRU. However, the main study question should remain in line with that originally proposed and for which the grant was awarded.
- NIH biosketch for PI and all co-investigators (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm)
PSRC Research Support Grant Timeline (2024):
Deadline for applications: Friday April 26, 2024, 5:00pm EST
Application review: May to July 2024
Grant award recipients notified: July 2024
Presentation at SPS Annual Conference: September 2025 (or as per grant requirements above)
Submit complete application as a PDF by email to Joye Stewart ([email protected]).
Please direct any questions to Dr. Daniel Tsze, SPS Research Committee Chair ([email protected]) and Dr. Juan Boriosi, SPS Research Committee Vice Chair ([email protected]).