New Research Award Categories

ACG Institute Invests in GI Career Development

The ACG Institute considers the Junior Faculty Development Award the “jewel in the crown” of the College’s research initiatives. This award provides three years of support at a level of $100,000 annually for a $300,000 total investment in GI clinical investigation. At this level of funding, the Institute is able to attract the best-qualified candidates and provide them with the protected research time when funding is increasingly scarce.

Smaller Programs Clinical Research Award

For the purposes of this award, “smaller” GI programs are defined as programs with 15 or fewer full-time faculty across the program’s sites (pediatric programs with seven or fewer full-time faculty within the pediatric department may also apply). The Smaller Programs Clinical Research Award includes a requirement for a clearly defined mentoring plan, including e-mentoring, if necessary. The Institute finds it worthwhile to continue investing in excellent clinical research from a more varied group of institutions and to make this support meaningful and productive by specifically investing in mentoring.

Medical Resident Clinical Research Award

This new award category supports original clinical research performed by trainees at the resident level. The

purpose of this one-year resident research project is to recognize and support promising trainees as they develop careers in clinical research in gastroenterology and hepatology. The project is performed under the mentorship of an ACG member, and covers travel to the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.

Medical Student Research Award

This new award for medical students supports short-term summer research experiences in gastroenterology and hepatology for our junior colleagues in schools of medicine or osteopathy, The purpose of this award is to defray living expenses associated with the research. The project is performed under the mentorship of an ACG member, and may include case series, quality improvement projects, retrospective cohort studies, meta-analyses, etc. Successful applicants are also eligible for reimbursement of travel expenses to attend the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.

Rigorous Review of Clinical Research Applicants by ACG Research Committee

In January 2020, the ACG Research Committee, under the leadership of Millie D. Long, MD, MPH, FACG, convened in Las Vegas, NV to review the submissions for the ACG 2020 Clinical Research Awards. The hard-working committee members encompass a wide range of research expertise in gastroenterology and hepatology. Each

2021 Clinical Research Awards

year, over 100 applications for grant funding are reviewed, spread among the categories of Junior Faculty Development Awards, Clinical Research Awards, Pilot Programs, and Smaller Programs. This year, there were two new categories for junior colleagues—Medical Resident Clinical Research Awards and Medical Student Research Awards. Both of these new award types include a travel component for participation in the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting. The Committee reviewed these two categories separately by phone conference.

The Research Committee members thoroughly review each grant application, with three reviewers assigned to score each grant, utilizing a scoring scale modeled on the NIH scoring system. At the committee’s in-person review in January, applications are discussed in detail with a presentation by each of the three assigned reviewers, followed by an open discussion and final scoring by all committee members. Once the review process is completed, a recommendation regarding which grants should be funded is made to the ACG Institute’s Director, Nicholas J. Shaheen, MD, MPH, FACG, who then presents those funding decisions to the ACG Board of Trustees for final approval.

The dedicated members of the Research Committee take part in the labor-intensive review process to ensure that the process is fair and that the best science is selected for funding. In order to assist applicants in their grantsmanship and future applications, all grant applicants also receive written critiques from the reviewers. The ACG Institute is expanding clinical research award opportunities to our mid-career and senior colleagues, as well as research in data systems. In 2021, two new research awards will be available:

Mid-Career/Senior Clinical Scientist Bridge Award

Up to $300,000 for 2-years to bridge senior or mid-career clinical investigators in the U.S. or Canada.

ACG/ASGE Epidemiologic Research Award in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Up to $50,000 for one or two years, to support research in GI endoscopy using the GI Quality Improvement Consortium (GIQuIC) data registry.