Academy Research Grant

Purpose:

Originally created in 1995, the Academy of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Physical Therapy Research Grant is designed to stimulate well-defined research studies that are related to cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapy. The grant is supported through Academy fund raising activities as well as through donations by individuals or Academy business partners.

The current call for 2024 includes 3 funding categories:

  1. Student Grants: up to $1,000 plus CSM registration for the Principal Investigator.
  2. Resource Grants: up to $1,000 for minor research-related expenses (e.g. minor piece of equipment, statistical support, etc.)
  3. Regular Grants: up to $5,000. Travel costs and registration to CSM can be included in the budget but cannot exceed $1,000.

Timeline:

  • Grant Proposal Call goes out Oct 15 
  • Grant Applications due Dec 15
  • Grant Review will happen the between Jan 2- Jan 15
  • Notification will be Jan 31, 2024
  • Feb 1, 2024 – Feb 1, 2025 is funding period

Eligibility:

There are two eligibility requirements for the Academy research grants:

  1. The principal investigator must be a member in good standing of the Academy of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Physical Therapy at the time of application and receipt of the grant. 
  2. If the principal investigator is a student who is not a member of the Academy of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Physical Therapy, his/her mentor must be a member in good standing of the Academy of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Physical Therapy; and,
  3. The proposed study must be related to cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapy. 

Guidelines:

Student Grants are focused on Doctor of Physical Therapy students completing their capstone or terminal research experience. PhD, EdD, and DSc students can also apply to student grants; however, it is encouraged to apply for the Regular Grants category.

Resource Grants are focused on graduate physical therapists who need some minor research-related support (e.g. minor piece of equipment, statistical support, etc.) to move their research agenda.

Regular Grants are focused on licensed graduate physical therapist who would like to advance their research career. This includes physical therapists working on their thesis or dissertation for their PhD, EdD, or DSc.

Students submitting as primary investigators, either in the Student or Regular Grants, must submit an NIH-biosketch of mentor(s) that will be assisting the student on the project.

This grant does not allow the inclusion of any indirect cost.

Recipient Responsibilities:

Grant recipients are required to complete the following items:

  1. Grant recipient must have IRB approval by February 15, 2025 in order to receive any funding.
  2. A progress report must be submitted to the Research Chair every six months after the grant was awarded
  3. Upon completion of the study, a manuscript must be submitted for publication to Physical Therapy Journal or the Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal.
  4. If there is any necessary adjustments to the timeline to complete the project or the budget the primary investigator is required to submit changes for approval to the Research Chair
  5. Grant recipients will submit a proposal and present at the CSM conference the year following the grant period.

Failure to fulfill these requirements will cause the applicant to be ineligible for future funding from the Academy.

Selection Committee:

Members of the Academy of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Physical Therapy Research Committee will review applications and select a grant recipient based on the criteria outlined below.

Selection Criteria:

Evaluators will rate from 1 to 5 (1=outstanding, 5=poor) each proposal on the following criteria:

  1. Potential contribution to physical therapy, including relevance and significance;
  2. Appropriateness of research design and methodology, including statistical power and sample size analyses;
  3. Study Environment, including training and experience of investigators in relation to proposed research and available infrastructure;
  4. Logic, organization and clarity of the proposal.
  5. If the project provides good value for the money (e.g. generates pilot data which will be used in a larger grant proposal);

The score given to a proposal is an average of the ratings from all evaluators.

Proposal averaging lower than 3 will not be considered for funding (meritorious applications).

The Research Chair and/or a designee from the committee will serve as a second juror if there is any questions regarding the scoring of an application, as in the case of a tie or in any other circumstances that the Chair deems necessary to correctly award the grant. During this process, the Chair would notify and obtain approval from the Academy President and or Executive Board.

Application Process:

  1. Research proposal
    1. Student Grants (not to exceed 4 pages). The committee will not score material after the 4th page
    2. Resource Grants (not to exceed 2 pages). The committee will not score material after the 2nd page
    3. Regular Grants(not to exceed 5 pages). The committee will not score material after the 5th page
  2. Abbreviated curriculum vitae/resume(s) (not to exceed 2 pages per investigator)
  3. Available Resources/Research Environment
  4. Proposed budget and proper justification
  5. Project timeline for completion
  6. Biosketches of mentors (for Student Grants and Regular Grants submitted by DPT, PhD, EdD, and ScD students) 

Single PDF file of the application should be named with PI’s last name and date of grant, example: Doe_J_2024.pdf 

The research proposal should be formatted with 0.5-inch margins, single-spaced, font size no smaller than 11 point, and include:

  1. A title page (1 page) including investigators’ names, contact information for primary investigator, and proposal abstract (not included in page count);
  2. Specific aims (1 page max);
  3. Background, including relevance, significance, and summary of relevant literature,
  4. Research strategy, including study design, methods, description of subjects, instrumentation, procedures, and proposed statistical analysis.
  5. References (not included in page count)

All of the application materials need to be submitted electronically to Chair of the Evidence Based Practice Committee of the APTA Academy of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Physical Therapy: Please title email CVP Grant 2024:

Submit Here to: Aaron Thrush PT, DPT, MPH