Application Guidelines

This page provides applicants with guidelines for application submission. Contact a member of JDRF Grant Staff or reference the RMS360 Pre and Post Award FAQs for additional questions or for assistance with the application process.

Table of Contents

Introduction

JDRF International is a leader in setting the agenda for diabetes research worldwide, and is the largest charitable funder of and advocate for type 1 diabetes research. The mission of JDRF is accelerating life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat T1D and its complications.

JDRF is a global funding agency with a substantial proportion of its grants awarded outside the United States. We encourage any and all qualified researchers interested in addressing the scientific and clinical challenges and gaps to cure type 1 diabetes and its complications to apply for funding. Decisions on funding are based on the quality, mission relevance, and priority of the proposed research. JDRF encourages submission of innovative, high-risk/high-reward, field-changing research proposals to accelerate its mission.

JDRF has multiple funding mechanisms to build a diverse research portfolio and to provide the research community with alternative approaches to address the foundation’s mission and to provide research training opportunities to attract new talent to the field. A summary of the key features of each award type is presented below.

General Information for Applicants

Potential applicants should note the following:

  • JDRF partners with various other national research organizations to leverage additional funds for diabetes research. The JDRF research program is intended to complement, and not to replace, funding available from other organizers. Therefore, applicants to JDRF research programs are urged to explore all potential funding sources, including other private organizations, government initiatives and consortia.
  • JDRF advocacy efforts have provided additional resources for type 1 diabetes research through the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH Type 1 Diabetes Special Statutory Funding Program provides research funding opportunities and access to special resources. JDRF welcomes the participation of all investigators in accessing these opportunities and applicants should describe the use of these or other resources in their proposals.
  • JDRF is committed to the publication and dissemination of all information and materials developed using JDRF resources. All recipients of JDRF awards must agree to these principles and must take steps in order to facilitate availability of data and samples.

Applications for funding from JDRF must have relevance to type 1 diabetes and JDRF Research Strategy. Applications are accepted from any country, and there are no citizenship requirements.

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Application Review Process

Generally, applications undergo a pre-review process. For applications receiving a full review, critiques containing the reviewers’ comments will be provided within 3 months of the funding notification date.

The JDRF review process is either conducted internally by JDRF Scientific Staff or externally by a Scientific Review Panel at the discretion of JDRF Scientific Staff and JDRF Senior Management. To assess the scientific merit and validity of any proposal, criteria for review include:

  • Scientific validity and merit of proposed research
  • Technical feasibility of proposed research
  • Significance of the research:
    • Impact on accelerating discovery, development, or evaluation of type 1 diabetes therapeutics
    • Potential translation to human type 1 diabetes
    • Addressing a critical research gap
  • Innovation:
    • Potential for change in a paradigm
    • Potential for a seminal discovery
    • Novel approaches to solving a problem
  • Ability to complete the research in the funding period

For all applications, the JDRF Scientific Team and Senior Management make final decisions regarding a proposal’s scientific merit. Additional criteria for review include:

  • Relevance of the proposed research to the overall JDRF goals
  • Relevance of the proposed research to specific research priorities
  • Relevance of the proposed research in complementing the existing JDRF project portfolio

JDRF places particular importance on research that may be rapidly translated into clinical applications and research deemed to have the greatest impact.

Final approval for applications is determined by either the JDRF Senior Management or by the Research Committee of the JDRF International Board of Directors.

A summary of the general review process is as follows:

  1. Letters of Intent (LOI) are submitted to JDRF, if applicable
  2. LOIs receive Internal or External review, if applicable
  3. LOIs are triaged or approved for full Applications, if applicable
  4. Full proposals are submitted to JDRF
  5. Full proposal receive Internal or External Scientific Review
  6. Reviewers provide qualitative critiques and quantitative scores for the applications
  7. JDRF Scientific Staff make funding recommendation to JDRF Senior Management
  8. JDRF Senior Management and/or the Research Committee of the International Board of Directors make final funding decision

Applications may be eliminated from the review process for administrative reasons (Administrative Triage). An application may be administratively triaged if it does not fall into the JDRF Research Strategy, if it is incomplete, or if it otherwise does not meet JDRF requirements.

Applicants will be notified in writing regarding the status of their application. Note that status of an application will not be given by phone.

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Application Content Requirements

All required information must be submitted online via the RMS360 website (see How to Apply for specific instructions). Failure to submit all required application documents online, failure to submit a budget, biosketches, or any other component of the application, or failure to adhere to the guidelines below will result in administrative triage.


Key Personnel
Applicants must provide contact information for key personnel in the designated section. Key Personnel is defined as participants in a grant or application who contribute substantively to the scientific development or execution of a project. Key personnel contribute a specified level of time whether or not earning a salary. Key personnel include the Principal Investigator as well as any consultants who meet the definition above. Percent effort should be provided for all Key Personnel in the budget section, whether they are claiming salaries or not.


Application Budget
Funding requests must be submitted in US Dollars. Indirect costs must be specified on the budget page and are limited to 10% of direct costs (direct costs do not include equipment costs, fee-for-services, consultants, or subcontract costs). JDRF follows U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) salary guidelines for Principal Investigators and Postdoctoral Fellows. JDRF guidelines are adjusted when the new NIH guidelines go into effect.


Other Sources of Support
Applicants must include accurate and complete information regarding all other sources of grant support from the main PI (current and pending), including title, abstract, annual and total amount of the grant, inclusive funding period, and percent effort of the applicant. For Postdoctoral and Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowships, Other Support information should be provided for the Sponsor/Mentor only.


Biosketch
A Biosketch should be uploaded in the Proposal Attachments section for the PI, Co-PI, Other faculty-level investigators including collaborators and consultants, and Subcontract PI/investigators.

The NIH or other standard biosketch format is acceptable.


Other Application Content Requirements
The application must include a complete mailing, phone, and email address and must include 2 abstracts, one written for a scientific audience and one for a lay audience. The lay audience abstract must be broken out into 6 categories as outlined in the application:

  1. General Audience Summary
  2. Technical Abstract
  3. Objective
  4. Background/Rationale
  5. Anticipated Outcome
  6. Relevance to Type 1 Diabetes

Each abstract category has a 600 word limit.

Please note that if the guidelines outlined above are not followed, the application will be administratively triaged.

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Human Subjects Research Application Requirements

All applications proposing research with human subjects or human fetal tissue, regardless of grant mechanism, must follow the Scientific Guidelines. Human Subject applications without appropriate supplemental information will be administratively triaged.

If you are unsure if your proposed study involves human subjects, please see JDRF Applicant Guidelines for Clinical Classification.

For more information on the Clinical Trial Management group, please click here.

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Resubmissions

JDRF accepts applications resubmitted after rejection by the JDRF review committee(s) discussed above. All resubmitted applications must include:

A copy of the summary statement for the original application
An introduction (limited to two pages) addressing each of the reviewer’s concerns

These documents must be included in the Resubmission section of the Research Plan. Applicants that have not received an electronic copy of their summary statement should contact a member of the JDRF Grant Staff.

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Starting a JDRF Electronic Application

Applicants applying for any JDRF award types must begin their application by registering as a RMS360 user.

RMS360 is JDRF’s web-based grant management service provider. Visit the site to register and apply. If you are a JDRF Peer Reviewer with a preexisting Reviewer account, please use the same login information to apply for a JDRF grant.

Applicants from for-profit entities should refer to the Industry Discovery & Development Partnerships page for information on JDRF funding programs for industry and how to apply.

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Completing an Electronic Application

Begin your application submission process by creating a RMS360Ā account or by logging in with your current account if you had previously been registeredĀ as either a reviewer or an applicant (see above).

  1. Log onto RMS360.
  2. Select the appropriate application from the list of JDRF funding opportunities.
  3. Click the Apply Now link to gain access to the application template.
  4. Complete each of the proposal sections listed in the online application (i.e. Contacts, Application Type, Project Description/Abstracts, etc.)
  5. Remember to select ā€œSave Draftā€ regularly throughout the online application to ensure that your work is saved.
  6. Click on the Additional Attachments link and download the appropriate supplemental template.
  7. To complete the online submission, click the ā€œValidate and Submit Proposal to ROā€ button. Work directly with your RO to ensure the Validation and Submission process, as outlined below, is completed prior to the submission deadline.

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RMS360 Templates

Using Templates
The Proposal Attachments section of the application contains downloadable files. The files include templates and instruction documents. Click the download link to save a template to your computer. You will complete each template offline. Use MS Word or MS Excel (depending on the template) to complete the template documents, then convert each file to PDF and upload the completed attachment files to your online application (see below for more information).

Please note that PDF proposal attachments should not be locked, password encrypted or protected. Please confirm this before uploading to your application.

Some of the files you will download are required attachments. All required attachments will be indicated as such. Once you upload a completed required template, the template name will display in the “Current List of Uploaded Attachments” menu. The “Validate” link, located in the gray navigation menu and available from every online page of the online application, can also serve as a tool for you to check to ensure that at least one of each of the required attachments is included in your application.

Uploading Completed Templates
Once you have converted your application template to PDF, you must then upload the file(s) to your online application. Follow the following steps:

  1. Open your application in RMS360 and navigate to the Additional Attachments section page
  2. Click on the blue button that says upload and then browse for your attachment
  3. Select appropriate attachmentĀ and click start upload and then close the text box

The file is now attached to the application and should now be listed in the Additional Attachments section.

If, for any reason, you wish to modify the file, make the revisions in the original document (offline), convert the updated file to PDF and attached the revised file to the application. Delete previously submitted versions of the file.

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Validation and Final Submission

To submit the final application, you must first validate your application to ensure that all required files are attached and that all required entries on all pages of the application have been completed as required. Click the “Validate and Submit Proposal to ROā€ link to submit your application to your Research Office contact (RO). Following this action, the RO will receive an email notifying them of your submission. In order for your submission to be considered complete, the RO must log into RMS360, approve the project budget, and select the ā€œSubmit to JDRFā€ button. Please work directly with your RO to ensure this process is completed prior to the submission deadline.

Special Note:Ā The final submission of your proposal to JDRF (via RMS360) automatically indicates to JDRF that the PI and his/her administrative and financial officials, sponsors, and/or department heads certify that the statements within their JDRF proposal are true, complete, and accurate to the best of their knowledge, and accept the obligation to comply with JDRF’s non-negotiable terms and conditionsĀ if the grant is awarded as a result ofĀ the application. It further certifies that they are aware that any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statementsĀ or claims may subject the PI and the PI’s officials to criminal, civil, or administrative penalties.

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Application Formatting Requirements

File Size
Limit the file size of each uploaded attachment to 3-4 MB.

Images and Text Formatting
Do not use text boxes.

  1. When incorporating figures into the text of your application document(s), follow these steps:
  2. a.) Save your figures as individual .jpg or .gif files. Make sure your figures are not inserted into a text box. Do not use other graphic file types (e.g., .tif). Ā b.) In your MS Word Research Plan document, select “Insert>Picture>From File” in the “Insert” menu. Select the .jpg file you created, and click on the “Insert” button.
  3. Type size limitations must be observed throughout the application. Use 10-point size font only. Figure legends, footnotes, and aspects of charts and tables may be smaller in font size, but must still be clear and legible.
  4. Margins, in all directions, must be at least 1/2 inch.
  5. Be consistent with font styles and indentation.

Other Requirements
Use English only and avoid jargon and unusual abbreviations.

  1. Do not include your social security number or passport number in your JDRF application.

Please note that if the guidelines outlined above are not followed, the application will be administratively triaged and will not receive a review.

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