Applications are now open for an exchange fellowship to stimulate partnerships among faculty clinicians and nonclinician faculty researchers. The SPARC program, Stimulating Partnerships Among Researchers and Clinicians, is a clinical research exchange fellowship providing up to $7,500 per partner for teaching or clinical buyout (5% to 10% effort) for six months.
"Under this exchange fellowship, basic research faculty will be able to spend time in the patient care environment and clinical faculty will join the team in the laboratory,” Dr. Leslie Parent, vice dean for research and graduate studies, Penn State College of Medicine, said. “SPARC will allow partnerships to be made so each can understand critical aspects of each other’s work to advance medical discovery."
Clinicians can be any practicing health professional at Penn State Health or the College of Nursing, with a Penn State faculty appointment. Researchers can be anyone with a full-time faculty appointment in any Penn State college and on any campus.
"This program encourages clinicians and basic scientists to work together to solve a problem, using interdisciplinary collaborations to address unmet medical needs," Parent said. "By better understanding each other's fields, we can bridge interests and resources to expand Penn State health sciences research. Both patient care and scholarly endeavors will benefit.”
Applications are due Jan. 6. The exchange will happen either July 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, or Jan. 1 to June 30, 2021. An application for a project development phase (up to $40,000) to continue face-to-face interactions to advance projects that are candidates for external funding is expected to be released in the future. A third phase is expected to award up to $100,000.
For the full request for application, visit: https://www.research.psu.edu/node/3783.