Background

When Oscar Boonshoft, a local philanthropist and long-time supporter, gave Wright State University School of Medicine a gift of $28.5 million dollars in 2005, his goal was to provide new resources to spur innovative ideas and programs that would propel the school to national leadership in medical education, patient care and research. "In a global community," he explained at the press conference held to announce the gift, "we must advance science, improve health care delivery and provide it to all the people. I expect the Boonshoft School of Medicine to be an international leader working to solve these challenges."

Strategic Resources

Rarely does such an opportunity come to an institution, and the support of the Boonshoft family promises to transform the medical school. This is an exciting time to be part of the Boonshoft School of Medicine. New resources are available to support faculty innovation, advance our mission, address challenges and create long-term, positive change. To meet the goals outlined by Mr. Boonshoft, the Dean's Office has established a new school-wide resource — the Boonshoft Innovation Fund. This dynamic new resource is available to all Boonshoft School of Medicine fully affiliated faculty members through a simple internal review process, described below.

Proposals

The proposals are intended to generate innovative and collaborative programs/projects, and are left open to the applicants' imagination and creativity. Two useful guidelines are that the projects should be in line with the Boonshoft School of Medicine's Strategic Plan and must become financially self-sustaining. The Boonshoft Innovation Fund is intended to support collaborative groups, rather than single individuals, and comprehensive projects, as opposed to research projects by individual investigators, i.e., it is not intended for the sort of projects supported by Research Challenge Funds. There is no limit to the amount of funds requested in a well-justified plan, although we presume that funding levels will generally range from $200,000-$600,000 over a two-year period.

Process

A Strategic Resource Committee (SRC) comprising members listed below was appointed by the dean to provide review, recommendation and oversight of the application and award process. The committee will meet to review Letters of Interest and Full Proposals twice per year. The deadline for materials for either Letters of Interest or requested Full Proposals will be March 1 and September 1. Application and assessment will proceed as follows:

• Submission of a Letter of Interest (see description below) to the SRC by September 1. (Letters of interest should be sent in PDF format as an email attachment to kym.koester@wright.edu.)
• The SRC will review each Letter of Interest and make recommendation to the dean whether to invite a Full Proposal (see below). The SRC will transmit invitations for Full Proposals to applicants.
• Submission of the Full Proposal to the SRC for review. (Full Proposals should be sent in PDF format as an email attachment to kym.koester@wright.edu.) Proposals will be evaluated for their merit and fit with the Boonshoft School of Medicine's Strategic Plan. Preference will be given to proposals most likely to produce the greatest return on investment. The SRC may engage additional expert opinion or advice from other internal or external sources. Members of the SRC who are in any way associated with a proposal will recuse themselves from discussion or deliberation on that proposal.
• The chair of the SRC will forward a written evaluation and recommendation to the dean, who will make a final decision on the acceptability and funding level of each proposal and will transmit this information to the applicant.
• Directors of awarded proposals will submit a yearly and/or final progress report that will be evaluated by the SRC and the dean.

Each Letter of Interest should include (limited to five pages):

• A brief statement of the project's broad objectives and benefits to the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
• An outline of the proposed project.
• A list of key participants.
• A time line for the project.
• An estimate of budget.

Each Full Proposal must include (no page limit):

• Elaboration of items in the Letter of Interest, including addressing the following criteria:
• What is the significance of the proposal to the Boonshoft School of Medicine, and is it in line with the school's strategic plan?
• Do objectives promote innovative and collaborative programs/projects?
• Are the key participants qualified to achieve the objectives?
• Is the plan for meeting objectives feasible?
• Is the budget appropriate and well justified?
• Is there a realistic plan for making the project financially self-sustaining and producing a return on investment?
• Are there other strengths or weaknesses that have important impact on the proposal's success?
• A detailed letter from the chair(s) of the lead applicant(s) certifying that the chair(s) have read and discussed the merits of the proposal with the applicants. The chair's letter should provide evidence of strategic need, past investments and any additional investment that will be provided at the departmental level, and should indicate the chair's level of enthusiasm and support for the project.

Letters of Interest and Full Proposals should be sent in PDF format as email attachments to kym.koester@wright.edu. For more information, contact Kym Koester, administrative assistant in the Dean's Office, at kym.koester@wright.edu or (937) 775-2933.

Strategic Resource Committee