Imlay Innovation Fund

Pediatric Technology Center (PTC) Request for Proposals

Imlay Innovation Fund

Program Purpose: The Imlay Innovation Fund is intended solely to support collaborative activities and pediatric innovation and discovery efforts between Georgia Tech and Children’s, focusing on practical steps that will lead to clinical impact as well as potential commercial opportunities.

We are now accepting pre-proposals until 5pm, Friday, February 11th.

Key Dates for 2022 - CLOSED for 2022

February 11, 2022: Pre-Proposal Deadline
March 7, 2022: Invitation for Full Proposal
April 9, 2022: Full Proposals Due
May 25, 2022: Oral Pitch Sessions
June 13, 2022: Notification of Funding

Proposals:

Proposals should focus on solving a problem that will impact care delivery and/or has the potential to positively impact child health. Approaches may include human factors engineering, predictive modeling, development of devices and technologies, and other novel approaches to address healthcare problems.

Two types of projects are eligible for funding:

Quick Wins: Quick Wins (QW) allows Children’s clinicians and clinical administrative leaders to bring problems that impact care delivery to the attention of scientists and engineers at Georgia Tech to help develop innovative solutions. Successful projects have ranged from pediatric specific surgical device development in partnership with a surgeon and biomedical engineer to improvement of workflow in a busy outpatient clinic in partnership with physicians, clinical administrative leadership, architectural researchers, and industrial engineer.

Quick Wins supports projects that can be accomplished in 12-18 months and can be quickly translated into practice. It is possible, but not guaranteed, that a Quick Wins award could help to position an investigator for a successful Innovation Investment application (described below) within the 2 years following the QW award. Quick Wins awards will be funded up to $125K.

Innovation Investment: Innovation Investment is intended to help bridge the funding gap that often blocks the next phase of implementation or commercialization after initial proof of concept. Innovation Investment awards should allow investigators to collect much-needed data, complete further proof-of-concept studies, or to produce prototypes for testing in order to effectively compete for extramural or investment funding. Previous Imlay awardees may apply for funding towards commercialization in this category.

Innovation Investment projects will typically be funded for a one-year period. Applications for multi-year awards will be accepted only with prior approval, and can receive a total of no more than $250K. An important part of the proposal is a potential for commercialization and/or implementation, as well as potential to positively impact child health.

To apply

All applicants should submit a pre-proposal no later than 5pm on Friday, February 11, 2022.
The pre-proposal is limited to 2 pages and must follow the format of Exhibit 2. The pre-proposal should be emailed to erin.henderson@ptc.gatech.edu.
As mentioned in the purpose statement, each project must be a collaborative effort involving both Children’s clinicians or DoP affiliate, and Georgia Tech faculty. For assistance in identifying suitable collaborators for your project, contact one of the following advisors:
- Leanne West, Chief Engineer, Pediatric Technologies: lwest@gatech.edu or 404-431-9894
- Stacy Stephans Heilman, Director for Pediatric Research Operations, Grants Education & Cores, Emory University Dept. of Pediatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: sheilma@emory.edu or 404-727-4819
- M.G. Finn, Chief Scientific Officer: mgfinn@gatech.edu or 404-385-0906
Please note that even if a collaborative, cross-institutional team has already been formed, applicants are encouraged to contact one of the above advisors to discuss the project prior to submission.

Pre-proposal review

Pre-proposal review will be conducted on February 28, 2022, by a team of subject matter experts to identify the proposals with the highest likelihood of being funded. Selected will be invited to submit a full proposal by March 7, 2022. ALL proposals will receive feedback from the initial review.

Full proposal and oral pitch

Full proposals will be due by 5pm on April 9, 2022.
Specific quarterly milestones must be defined in the full (five-page) application.
Applicants must give a brief oral presentation to the Leadership Team/SME Panel on May 25, 2022.
Review panels will follow scoring guidelines based on those used by National Institutes of Health, modified for the more practical and focused nature of The Imlay Innovation Fund.
The Leadership Team will make final funding decisions regarding each project.

Project selection

Applicants will be notified of the evaluation of their proposal status on June 13, 2022.

Estimated Start Date

Proposals selected for funding can expect to begin work in July 1, 2022, provided that all compliance requirements, including IRB approvals, where applicable, have been met.

Eligibility

All applications must involve two or more investigators, at least one from Georgia Tech faculty and at least one of whom:
- has a primary faculty appointment in the Emory Department of Pediatrics OR
- is on the professional staff at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. This includes Emory faculty outside of the Department of Pediatrics who are on the Children’s medical staff and all non-faculty clinicians who are on the Children’s medical staff.

Requirements

The principal investigator(s) must submit a mid-term progress report.
Proposal budgets must include administrative support and data support as needed.
If PHI data support is needed please contact Richard Starr via email at rstarr7@gatech.edu.
If this is a medical device, please contact Evan Goldberg via email at evan.goldberg@t3labs.org.

Contact

Erin Henderson, Research Project and Grants Manager
erin.henderson@ptc.gatech.edu or 404-894-9785.