SAGES Disparities in Healthcare Grant
Submit an application: CLICK HERE
Applications Open: July 1, 2023
Applications Close: September 22, 2023
Purposes & Guidelines
The pandemic has exposed many disparities in access to healthcare. In our own field of surgery, disparities in advance techniques including MIS have been identified; however, there is very little evidence to guide strategies in these disparities. This call for research would prioritize grants or quality improvement projects to potentially reduce disparities in access to MIS and robotic surgery that could be adopted more widely to address this healthcare need. This awards is open to any principal investigator who is a current SAGES member, including Candidate Members. Please read all the guidelines carefully. Awards are conferred on a competitive basis by submission of a grant application, which is reviewed and evaluated by the SAGES Research & Career Development Committee and approved by the Governing Board. If your SAGES membership application is currently under review, please contact [email protected].
Eligibility Criteria
The SAGES Disparity in Healthcare Grants are open to any principal investigator who is a current SAGES member, including Candidate Members at the time of the application submission deadline. If your SAGES membership application is currently under review, please contact [email protected].
Please read all the guidelines carefully. SAGES would like to especially encourage grant funding to young investigators/candidate members in the hopes that funding through SAGES will lead to additional extramural funding.
SAGES considers a young investigator as someone who has not practiced surgery independently for more than 5 years.
Awards are conferred on a competitive basis by submission of a grant application, which is assessed by the SAGES Research and Career Development Committee, in a blinded fashion, free of conflict of interest. Ultimately the recommended grantees are approved by the governing board*
Available Research Grants
The purpose of these grants is to stimulate original research in healthcare access disparities. The study may be either “bench” research or clinical.
Grants are limited to no more than $20,000 each and are made out to the institution.
In the spirit of supporting the goals of our membership, applicants are encouraged to review: 2014 Surgical Endoscopy- SAGES Research Priorities for a recent review of key research questions. Part of the grant review process includes an evaluation of the importance of the research question. The review committee will incorporate these published rankings to determine the importance of submitted topics.
PLEASE NOTE: the committee will only fund grants that involve commercially available products.
Please see the grant recipients from 1992-Present. We encourage applicants to review the project titles to avoid duplicate studies.
Grant Guidelines
It is assumed that some of the resources required to conduct the project are available through the investigator’s institution. The research grant serves to provide supplemental support for personnel (not including the salary of the principal investigator), equipment, or services required to complete the research.
The principal evaluation criteria are (1) scientific merit, (2) experimental design, (3) potential of the proposed topic, (4) qualifications of the applicant(s), (5) facilities, and (6) grantsmanship.
Awards are based on the scientific merit of the project as well as the investigator’s capability and the likelihood that the project will be completed successfully. Considerations include the investigator’s experience, background, availability of patient material, and other resources. In the case of a junior investigator, the experience and background of the Co-PI mentor will be considered. SAGES considers a Young Investigator as someone who has not practiced surgery independently for more than 5 years; funding for young investigators are viewed favorably and encouraged to apply for these grants.
Applicants must ensure that the team of investigators has the appropriate expertise to carry out the proposed research with high methodologic standards. For example, proposals that include cost analyses should include collaborators with expertise in economic or cost-effectiveness analysis and should use rigorous methods for costing and analysis. Comparative clinical studies must account for selection bias and expertise bias in the performance of surgical procedures; studies, where the technical skill of surgeons differs between comparison groups, are unlikely to provide valid estimates of relative treatment effects. It is the responsibility of the applicants to demonstrate how they will minimize bias in their proposals.
Requirements of Grantees
The following requirements must be met by the Investigator:
- Investigators are required to submit semi-annual updates to the SAGES Research Committee during the course of the research, starting six months after the grant has been awarded.
- At the conclusion of the project, the investigator is required to submit a final update report to the Research Committee
- An abstract must be submitted for the SAGES Scientific Session which immediately follows the successful completion of the work
- If the updates are not sent, SAGES may need to recover the monies awarded.
- A manuscript on the study and your findings must be sent to Surgical Endoscopy. A copy of the final manuscript must be sent to the SAGES Office in order for the grant to be considered complete. SAGES must be acknowledged as a funding source
If these requirements are not met, subsequent applications from the PI and co-PI will be viewed unfavorably for future funding through the SAGES research grant program.
Since research facilities are factored into funding decisions by the Research and Career Development Committee, the primary investigator must inform the SAGES office if he or she leaves his or her institution during the course of completing this research. The SAGES Research and Career Development Committee chair will work with the investigator to determine if the research funds will stay with the initial institution or move with the investigator. SAGES reserves the right to make this final decision.
SAGES Research Committee understands that studies may need modification during the execution phase. If a study design is modified, the primary investigator MUST notify the committee. The committee will then review the suggested changes and decide whether they will continue to fund the new study.
Conflict of Interest Guidelines
As part of the submission process, disclosures from all known authors must be provided at the time of submission. Because we are interested in funding a diverse pool of applications, we also ask if anyone listed in your grant has received prior funding from SAGES.
Indirect Cost Policy
- The monies SAGES awards for research grants are intended for use as seed money only and no indirect costs may be charged against these awards.
Important Guidelines & Instructions
- SAGES grants must be submitted online and you must be logged in as a member to submit a grant application.
- If the page limits and guidelines are not followed, the application will be not be reviewed.
- Appendices will not necessarily be reviewed. Add appendices at your own risk.
Follow these instructions when submitting your final grant application:
INSTRUCTIONS_DEI Disparities-Research-Grant-File-Instructions
You may use this template for your application:
TEMPLATE_DEI-Research-Grant-App_LastNameFirstInitial_DayMonthYear
Need Advice on Grant Writing?
For more questions about this award and/or any other SAGES Research grants, please email [email protected].
The SAGES Research and Career Development Committee oversees the responsible use of the funds awarded to investigators, and the Committee takes this responsibility seriously. In the event that grantees do not provide reports that are satisfactory to the committee, SAGES may undertake one or more of the following actions as appropriate: request further detailed financial reports; send a written expression of concern to the grantee’s hospital, department or university; deny eligibility to the grantee or grantee’s institution for future funding through the SAGES Research Grant program; and/or request the return of unaccounted research funds to SAGES.