We are here to work with Georgetown investigators. We can support your grant applications at three different levels:
- Letter of Support: We can work with both clinical and scientific researchers at Georgetown-Lombardi to provide a letter for inclusion on grant applications. The letter would indicate our availability and willingness to meet with you to discuss your project throughout your research. This letter would not provide our endorsement of your proposal, but rather our availability to consult with you should you request it. Please notify the scientific advisor that you wish to have a letter and allow at least two weeks before the grant application deadline for letter preparation.
- Provide feedback: We can meet with you early in your project design and provide you with the patient’s perspective after you give us a brief presentation and discussion of your proposal. If the group agrees, we will provide a letter of endorsement of your project, indicating your desire to work with patient advocates and our commitment to work with you for the duration of your project. Please notify the scientific advisor of your desire to be placed on our meeting schedule at least six weeks in advance.
- Advocate Involvement: Several grant mechanisms require a higher level of involvement from advocates throughout the entire life cycle of a grant. In that case, the group will discuss your project and assess interest from individual advocates after an initial presentation at our meeting. We will then recommend a candidate to you; please note that we are not able to honor requests to work with specific advocates. Because these mechanisms require advocate involvement during the preparation of the proposal, it is critical that the scientific advisor is notified as soon as a decision to apply has been made.
Not writing a proposal but still want to chat? Come to a meeting and bounce an idea off us. We are here to speak with researchers at any stage of a research project, even when you aren’t quite ready to put together a grant. We assure you that we will not suggest specific experiments, but we excel at talking about big picture questions and helping researchers think of ways to expand the impact of their ideas. Talk with our scientific advisor to be placed on the schedule for an upcoming meeting.
