Lever Award

(Updated 03.03.11)

Application Guidelines:

• Page 1: Title page
  • Project Title
  • For each Principal Investigator (one at each of the three CBC Universities): Name; Academic title; Mailing address; Telephone; Email address
  • Lever funding: Dollars requested of CBC; Dollars (approximate total of direct and indirect costs) requested of external agency
  • External Agency & Specific Program being approached; Date of program announcement; Date of submission to external agency; Date of expected decision by external agency; Dates of proposed project
• Pages 2-4: Project Description
  • 3 pages maximum length, using 1 inch margins and 12-point font. Statement must include description of the award that the Lever will match; summary of the proposed research or other activity; specification of how additional Lever funds will be used to enhance the mission and efforts of the CBC as well as the proposed research; and nature of the inter-institutional collaboration. If extensive references are required, ONLY one extra page may be added at the end of the proposal (see below).
• Pages 5-10: Project Budgets
  • 2-page budget from each of the participating institutions. All expenses from a single institution should be entered on a budget form available from here (printed and scanned pdf of the budget form is also acceptable.)
• Page 11: Budget justification
• Page 12 and beyond:
  • Biosketches (NIH format) of Principal Investigator for each involved institution.
• Final page:
• Optional extra references, if needed.
• Draft NIH project budget may be included as an appendix.
• Additional information:
  • By previous agreement with Sponsored Research administration offices at Northwestern, UIC, and U Chicago, it is not necessary to have sponsored research approval prior to submission of Lever applications for consideration by the CBC Scientific Review Board. However, once an application is approved for funding by the CBC Board, it is the responsibility of principal investigators to obtain and provide the CBC with all necessary institutional approvals before funding will be initiated.
  • If the CBC Scientific Review Board approves an application for a Lever Award, a letter of commitment for inclusion as part of the application to the external funding agency will be provided. Actual funding of a CBC Lever award is dependent upon receipt of a copy of an award letter from the external agency and on approval by the research administration offices of the appropriate institutions.