Letter of Intent (LOI)
Background | Overview | Letter of Intent | Full Application and Review Criteria | Critical Path
The LOI must be submitted online through proposalCENTRAL https://proposalcentral.altum.com/
The Process:
In order to become approved to submit a full application, a “letter
of intent” must be submitted by October 25, 2011. The “project
outline” document (2-pages) and the PI biosketch/other support will be
evaluated by CBCRP’s Council and a decision reached on whether
a full application will be invited. The LOI is submitted on-line through proposalCENTRAL.
The translational projects described in the LOI must:
- represent a significant leap from incremental knowledge-gathering to a practical application (a translational endpoint)
- involve the study of human subjects or enable a follow-up study in human subjects
- not be fully supported by other funding.
LOI Content (two separate documents must be submitted to complete the LOI):
Part 1. The 2-page (maximum length) project outline must include the following items:
- Project title
- Translational goal (10-20 sentences)– describe the translational leap to be achieved with this award. Identify the specific item of practical value to be produced by the end of this project. What are the barriers to translation, and how will this effort succeed where others might have failed previously? What innovative strategy will be employed to overcome barriers?
- Impact on breast cancer (10-20 sentences)– describe the need for this product, service, intervention, or policy that is specific for breast cancer with respect to risk, prevention, detection, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, or survivorship. Estimate impact at the individual patient level and for overall disease burden, if successful? What population/community will it help? Will it address disparities or the needs of underserved women? What is the expected timeframe for availability of the product/service/ intervention/policy outside the research setting?
- Background and PI qualifications (8-12 sentences)– Describe both the general and specific topic underlying this research. Detail the previous research accomplishments and clinical trial experience by the PI and collaborators that makes the successful pursuit of this topic more realistic. Identify other sources of support and collaboration to increase the likelihood of success.
- Specific Aims – list the proposed aims of the project.
- Describe the involvement of Human Subjects in the project. How will you gain access to human subjects?
- Describe the role of advocates in the project (past, current, and proposed). The CBCRP believes that research projects would benefit by being directly informed by the experiences of patient-survivors, so inclusion of representatives of established advocacy organizations (e.g., Y-ME, Komen, NBCC, patient support groups at medical and cancer cancers, etc.) is encouraged.
Part 2. The 4-page PI biosketch should include a list of relevant publications and current other grant support. Identify existing grants on the proposed research topic, and discuss any overlap issues.
LOI approval and invitations to submit full grant applications will be communicated to PIs by the end of December.
The full application deadline is February 15, 2012.

