COBRE Research Project Leader (RPL) CNS-Metabolism

UK's recently funded COBRE Center for CNS-Metabolism (CNS-Met), led by Patrick Sullivan in the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center and Department of Neuroscience, is seeking applicants for a new research project leader.

Project leader criteria:

Potential COBRE Research Project Leaders (RPLs) should be junior faculty members (regular or research title series) from UK, or being currently recruited by UK. RPLs must qualify either as NIH Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) or as New Investigators (NIs) and may not have and have not previously had an external, peer-reviewed research project grant or program project grant from either a federal source (e.g. R01 or VA Merit Award) that names them as the PD/PI.

COBRE project leaders must have six months of available effort annually for the duration of their COBRE appointment.

Proposed research projects should align with the major thematic goal of the CNS-Met, which is to investigate mechanisms and underlying connections between CNS metabolism and disease states (Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, or CNS injury).

Proposed projects need to demonstrate the usage of the CNS-Met core facilities in Metabolomics and Mitochondrial Bioenergetics. 

Each potential project leader will be paired with two to three COBRE scientific mentors, who are established investigators in independent research laboratories.

We propose to support one new RPL with an annual maximum budget per project of $180K/yr (direct costs) for up to three years. Project leaders can initially be supported by the COBRE for two years, with the potential for a third year of funding upon review of progress. If chosen as a COBRE-funded project, the research project leader will be expected to submit an investigator-initiated research project grant application by the end of two years of COBRE support.

Application process:

Phase 1: Interested and qualified potential project leaders should submit 1) a current NIH-style biosketch and 2) a specific aims page for their research project to Mark Schwarcz (Mark.Schwarcz@uky.edu) by April 3.

Phase 2: CNS-Met leadership will review applicants, and three will be selected to give a 20-minute presentation on their research to CNS-Met leaders, mentors, project leaders, and core leaders. Two applicants will then be asked to develop a full proposal (budget and specific aims + research strategy) for evaluation by CNS-Met external advisors, and one of those two will be selected for appointment to the COBRE grant.

Questions on the applicant process and the CNS-Metabolism COBRE can be directed to Patrick Sullivan (patsullivan@uky.edu) or Mark Schwarcz (Mark.Schwarcz@uky.edu).