Applications will be solicited for two deadlines each year, on November 1st and May 1st, with scientific review in January and July. Awards will be announced in February and August. Projects will be funded in March and September. An investigator is allowed to apply for one proposal per funding cycle and can receive no more than one pilot project award every 2 years. All applications should be preceded by a one-page letter of intent. The letter may contain the abstract of the application, summarily describing background, significance, specific aims, and experimental design. 

The deadlines for submission of letters of intent are August 1st and February 15th, prior to the deadlines for submission of applications. Responses to these letters will be issued within four weeks and are final. Applications submitted without a prior letter of intent will not be considered. After approval of a letter of intent, the corresponding grant proposal must be submitted at the following proposal submission date. Please include with your submission the biosketch(es) of the investigators involved. Incomplete letters of intent and applications will not be considered. Letters of intent with biosketch(es), and applications should be submitted as two originals and an electronic copy to: tnprc.pilot.program@wave.tulane.edu 

Pyone Pyone Aye, BVS, MS, PhD
Unit of Collaborative Research
Tulane National Primate Research Center
18703 Three Rivers Rd
Covington, LA 70433
Ph: (985) 871 6486
Fax: (985) 871 6405
E-mail: paye@tulane.edu

All application proposals will be reviewed for scientific merit by the TNPRC - Pilot Research Review Committee, appointed by the Center Director and composed of at least one member from each TNPRC Division and two reviewers outside the TNPRC and Tulane University. TNPRC reviewers serve on the Committee for five years, and their appointment may be renewed. The outside reviewers may be affiliate scientists and are appointed for three years, which may be renewed for three years. Committee members will be permitted to seek confidential verbal or written reports from colleagues not belonging to the Committee if they require further assessment. All additional outside assessments received, whether verbal or written, will be reported to the Committee. Ad-hoc members with specific areas of expertise may be appointed as needed. The recommendations of the Committee will be forwarded to the Center Director. It will be the Director’s responsibility to make the final decision as to which proposals are funded and at what budgetary level. Receipt of overlapping funding at any time after a pilot study award is made, funding for the pilot study project will terminate.  An application proposal can be revised and resubmitted in another application period if it is not funded. However, please note that this policy only permits one resubmission per proposal. The resubmission will be treated as a new submission, requiring a new letter of intent submission.

A report of progress on each pilot research project, including manuscripts and grants submitted, must be provided to the Center Director in January for inclusion in the TNPRC’s annual progress report and 5-year renewal.    One or more manuscripts and an NIH grant application or equivalent are expected to be submitted while the pilot project is in progress or shortly after its conclusion. If a manuscript or grant application is not submitted within one year of the conclusion of the pilot project, a written statement must be provided to the TNPRC Director explaining why this omission occurred. Failure to report progress will result in termination of funding.
 

Proposals are reviewed using the following criteria:  

1.    Scientific merit (significance, approach, innovation) 
2.    Complementarity between Goals of the Project and TNPRC's Scientific Program 
3.    Likelihood of moving from the pilot study to an NIH-grant application or equivalent.
4.    Feasibility of the project about the time allotted for the pilot project program.  
5.    Budget
6.    Availability of an approved IACUC protocol 

•    An IACUC protocol may be submitted with the application, which may help prevent delays. 
•    An approved IACUC protocol is required before starting the project.
   

I. Title Page
The title page will include:
•    Title of the project
•    Name and Title of the Investigator
•    Institutional and Departmental Affiliation
•    Period of Proposed Project
•    Amount Requested   

II. Abstract, Performance Sites, and List of Personnel 

Use PHS398 application form, page 2 format

III. Budget Page 

Use PHS398 application form, page 4 and 5 format

The budget period is for up to one year ($75,000 cap). The budget must include all costs for the purchase of animals, per diem, and veterinary technical support. For TNPRC Principal Investigators, the budget may include 2.5 to 5% effort with salary support. Other TNPRC faculty and staff scientists may serve as consultants at no cost to the grant. The principal investigator’s salary at other institutions must show a percentage of effort without salary support. The percent effort for those investigators is unlimited. 

The Pilot Research Project Fund will not fund the following items: 
•    Travel 
•    Publication Costs
•    Salary for Faculty-level Investigators other than TNPRC Principal Investigators.

IV. Biographical Sketch 

Use the biographical sketch form here, with instructions for use

V. Research Plan
The page limit for the Research Plan (NIH format) is eight pages, excluding references. Attachments essential to the application review are permitted but should be kept to a minimum.

The Research Plan should include the following:
1.    Specific Aims
2.    Background and Significance
3.    Preliminary Studies
4.    Research Design and Methods
5.    Literature Cited
6.    Appendix (if necessary)
7.    Vertebrate Animals Section. See VAS guidelines for use.

VI. Abstract of Funded or Submitted Proposals
This section should contain the abstract page or a summary of each grant and contract currently funded or submitted, including those funded or submitted elsewhere for pilot research support. 

VII. Statement About Relationship of Proposed Pilot Study to Funded or Submitted Proposals
This statement should explain the relationship, if any, to funded or submitted proposals. If there is no relationship, a single sentence will suffice.

VIII. List of Previously Awarded Internal Grants
This list should include all internal grants previously awarded at TNPRC during the last five years. For each previously awarded grant, state what external grant or contract applications resulted from the internal grant and whether it was funded for each application.

IX. Feasibility of moving from a Pilot Study to a NIH-grant application or equivalent
Discuss the likelihood that funding of this pilot project will result in a more extensive,  externally funded research program.

•    Synthetic virus-like structures as a new platform for vaccines and understanding for vaccines and understanding B cell biology
•    Autoantibodies against chemokines as novel therapeutics for COVID-19 and PASC
•    Testing a CTL-based HIV vaccine in macaques Autoantibodies against chemokines as novel therapeutics for COVID-19 and PASC Synthetic virus-like structures as a new platform for vaccines and understanding B cell biology
•    Eradication of SIV Reservoirs by Targeting the Autophagy and Survival Mechanisms of SIV-infected Cells Harboring Replication-Competent Virus
•    A Tick-Targeted Vaccine for Preventing the Transmission of Tick-borne Pathogens
•    An animal model to study pathology associated with the novel tick-borne pathogen Borrelia mayonii
•    The role of defective HIV proviral DNA in promoting viral escape
•    Induction of multiple broadly neutralizing antibody lineages with a multivalent HIV nanoparticle vaccine
•    Quantification of Corneal Sensory Nerve Fiber Density to Evaluate ZIKV-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in NHPs
•    Establishing reference values for assays used for diabetes testing
•    Oxidative stress induced neuropathy in the aging rhesus macaque brain
•    Define the impact of early cART in SIV-infected infant macaque
•    Determine the anatomical distribution of SIV/HIV particles in the hours and days after vaginal challenge by correlation of PET and fluorescence imaging approaches
•    NK cell modulation of CMV infection in pregnant rhesus macaque dams
•    The mechanisms of immune protection from re-infection with Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) model
•    CMV Modulation of Natural Killer cell memory
•    Targeted Estrogen Delivery to Improve Pancreatic Islet Transplantation in a NHP Model of Diabetes
•    Impairment of MAIT cell function by SIV contributes to reactivation of latent TB
•    NHP research to study macaque Idiopathic Chronic Enterocolitis (ICE)
•    Development of a Non-human Primate Model of Pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) Infection
•    Genome wide functional analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ABC transporters in a non-human primate model of chronic tuberculosis infections
•    Epigenetic and Immune Consequences of Early Adverse Maternal Care 
•    Novel DNA-Vaccination against Plasmodium Liver Stage Exported Proteins in the presence of prior SIV infection
•    Preclinical Evaluation of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy for Krabbe Disease
•    SIV Vaccine Using Replication Competent BCG and Vaccinia Virus Vectors
•    Safety Analysis of the Mtb:Δ-sigH Mutant in a Model of TB/AIDS Co infection
•    Therapeutic Treatment of Live Attenuated Recombinant Varicella-SIV virus in SIV Infected Rhesus Macaques
•    Nonhuman primate model to study macrophage dysregulation and inflamm-aging
•    Novel Proteins in SIV
•    Universal Adult Stem Cell Vaccine Platform
•    Mechanism of Follicular CD4+ T Cells Impairment in Rhesus Macaques