Penn State Strategic Initiatives, via the thematic priority of Enhancing Health, has provided funding for an exchange fellowship to stimulate partnerships among faculty clinicians and non-clinician faculty researchers and engineers, bridging interests, resources and expertise to unite patient care with other scholarly disciplines.
The Stimulating Partnerships among Researchers and Clinicians, or SPARC, exchange fellowship will allow each partner to immerse in the other partner’s realm. Clinical faculty members will spend time in scholarly contexts across the University, and non-clinician faculty members will spend time in the clinical environment.
The goal of the SPARC program is to initiate and nurture interdisciplinary collaborations as a powerful way to address unmet medical needs while simultaneously expanding health sciences research at Penn State. Applications in response to this RFA may initially request up to $7,500 per partner for teaching or clinical buyout (minimum 5 percent effort, maximum 10 percent effort) for a six-month period (Level 1 Funding). Additional competitive funds for $40,000 (Level 2) to $100,000 (Level 3) will be available for collaborations yielding projects on a trajectory to attract external funding.
An info session on the program will be held 4 to 5 p.m. Dec. 4.
Application deadline for the next round of funding is noon Jan. 6, 2020.