ResearchMatch Joint Project Application Call
To realize the potential of Computational Medicine at McGill, there is a need to better connect researchers in life sciences and clinical domains with colleagues from data sciences (e.g., statistics, bioinformatics, medical informatics, computer science, epidemiology). The former has interesting datasets and questions, while the latter can apply or develop quantitative methods to look for solutions to these questions. However, biologists and clinician researchers don’t necessarily know where to find people with the right quantitative skills and who would like to collaborate and, conversely, data scientists don’t necessarily know who has interesting questions that they could help with.
We are very proud to launch the second version of ResearchMatch with help from the McGill Faculty of Medicine, Mi4 (McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity) and other partners soon to be announced.
Steps of the ResearchMatch Program
To facilitate this type of matchmaking, the MiCM ResearchMatch Program will be accomplished through the following three steps:
Step 1: The McGill life science and clinical research communities will be consulted to ask for initial project submissions Keywords along with a high-level summary will be displayed on the MiCM website.
Step 2: The McGill data science community will be asked to look through the list of projects via the MiCM website, contact project leads and, if there is a shared interest, develop a joint MiCM project proposal.
Step 3: Joint project proposals will be submitted and a number of projects will be selected for funding.
Key dates
· Call for initial project submission: January 15, 2020
· Date to receive initial project submission: March 6, 2020
· Date to receive full joint project proposals: April 24, 2020
· Announcement of funded projects: May 2020
Eligibility
The researchers submitting the application must be from the McGill community, spanning the downtown campus Macdonald campus, the McGill academic hospitals and their affiliated research institutes.
Selection criteria for full proposals will include:
· One biological or clinical researcher and one data scientist who haven’t worked together before
· Scientific excellence
· Feasibility
· Evidence of synergy in the proposed collaboration
· Potential of the proposed work to progress to other funding competitions
· Relevance to other McGill initiatives will also be considered
Joint project proposal application instructions
* The faculty member that created the initial project is responsible for submitting the finalized project.
The application package will consist of:
1. 2020 MiCM ResearchMatch Joint Proposal Application Form, Filled and attach in Relevant Documents on the ResearchMatch portal. Click here to access the form.
2. Update the initial project creation. Things that change:
· Abstract (0.5 pages maximum)
· Project Description (3 pages maximum including figures) (Note: length should be longer than initial description)
- Division of the project description can be organized around the selection criteria and include the following sections but not limited to: i) Background ii) Project Objectives & Aims iii) Project Implications iv) Future directions
- Figures can be uploaded in Relevant Documents
· Description of datasets to be used
· Explain why you see this as a collaborative research project and what you hope to gain from the collaboration. Highlight any potential of the proposed work to progress to a competitive funding application. Precise whether this is a new project for which you have no funding yet or a large project that is already funded, in this case, indicate what this funding will allow you to achieve.
3. Attach CV of collaborator in the ResearchMatch portal
When do I apply?
The initial project submission was due on March 6, 2020. The date to receive the full joint project proposals is April 3, 2020 by 5 PM Eastern standard time.
For any inquiries and/or assistance, please contact info-micm [at] mcgill.ca.