The Ellison Medical Foundation has invited Cornell University, including Weill Cornell Medical College, to submit two nominees to the New Scholar Program in Aging. The program supports new investigators of outstanding promise in the basic biological and clinical sciences relevant to understanding lifespan development processes and age-related diseases and disabilities. The award is intended to provide new faculty with support during the especially critical first three years of their independent research career.
Up to 25 awards will be made. The award provides $100,000 per year for four years. As of March 1, 2011, nominees must hold regular full time appointments (tenure or non-tenure) and must not have been in such an appointment for more than three years as of July 15, 2011. Time spent in clinical internships, postdoctoral training, residencies, or in work toward board certification does not count as part of the three year limit.
Applicants may hold one career development award from a private source concurrently for up to one year. The limitation is with regard to overlap of funding type, even in the absence of scientific overlap. These sources include, but are not limited to: Beckman Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Dana Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trust. Before considering to apply nominees are encouraged to check the Foundation’s Web site for the complete list: http://www.ellisonfoundation.org/adsp.jsp?key=nsa_over). New Scholar Awards will only be made for the full four-year term. If a conflicting award is accepted prior to the New Scholar Award, this must be resolved by either declining the Ellison award or arranging to terminate the conflicting award within one year.
Significant factors in Ellison’s evaluation process will include the nominee’s research proposal, scientific contributions to date, references, and quality and relevance of publications.
Cornell University Internal Selection Process
Cornell University, including Weill Cornell Medical College, is limited to submitting two nominees. Due to this limit an internal selection process will be coordinated. Chairpersons may submit no more than two nominations from their department. Note: Chairs submitting more than one nomination must comment on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two nominees. The same comment should be repeated in both nomination letters and located after the chair’s signature block. Submissions should contain the following information:
1. One-two page letter detailing why the candidate should be considered;
2. One-two page description of the candidate’s proposed research;
3. One-page budget outline showing major categories for each year of the project and detailing how the funds would be utilized; (The scholar’s salary costs may not exceed $20,000 per year including employee benefits. No more than 8 percent can be budgeted for F&A costs); and
4. Curriculum vitae. The CV should include the nominee’s appointment date (month/day/year). List all active and pending research support (internal and external), including dollar amounts and start/end dates.
Instructions for Electronic Submission of Nominations:
Submit the above items in the order listed in one PDF file using this naming convention: PI last name-first initial_Aging-2011.pdf (see example below). Margins must be one inch and font size not less than 11. Email this PDF file to rac@med.cornell.edu, no later than November 15. Extensions to this deadline will not be made.
Example: Smith-J_Aging-2011.pdf
Note: Please follow the internal selection guidelines carefully. Proposals not following the guidelines provided above and/or not responsive to the programmic interests of the sponsor may be rejected from the internal competition without review.