How to Apply

The deadline for Letter of Intent (LOI) submission is Friday, June 5, 2020, 5:00 PM Eastern Time

The prospective Collaboration Director (CD; see definition below) will submit one LOI on behalf of the entire investigative team.

Accessing the Letter of Intent Application in proposalCENTRAL:4

Prospective applicants must submit a letter of intent (LOI) using the LOI application via proposalCENTRAL (pC). To start an application in pC, users must first log in to their pC account.

If You Need to Create a New Account in pC

To create a new account, go to https://proposalcentral.com/ (pC) and click create one now under need an account? Fill in the required fields, check the boxes to agree to pC’s “Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy” and then click “Save.” For the next steps, see the “If You Have an Existing Account in pC” section below.

If You Have an Existing Account in pC

For all users with a pC account, log in under “Application Login” at https://proposalcentral.com/ and select create new proposal or click on the grant opportunities tab. Scroll down to “Simons Foundation” and then click apply now for the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative-Collaborations Award program in order to start the proposal and access the templates. After all sections are completed, you will be able to click on the submit button.

LOI Requirements and Submission Instructions

To submit a letter of intent (LOI), the following proposalCENTRAL sections must be completed:

1. Title Page: Please provide the following information
   1. Project title
   2. Estimated annual budget, inclusive of all subprojects
   3. Indicate use of SSC, Simons Searchlight or SPARK samples/phenotypic data.
   4. Select a primary category. Please note a secondary category is not required.
2. Download Templates & Instructions: The following templates are available for download:
   1. Letter of Intent (LOI) Instructions
   2. SFARI Policies
   3. Request for Applications (RFA)
   4. LOI Proposal Narrative Template
   5. Team Summary Template
   6. Biosketch Template
   7. Budget Overview Template
3. Enable Other Users to Access This Proposal: Complete this section to give administrators or collaborators access and to allow other users to submit the LOI on your behalf.
4. Applicant/Principal Investigator (PI): The collaboration director (CD) should be listed here.
5. Organization/Institution: The CD’s affiliated academic institution will be the lead institution. Contact information for the signing official and financial/fiscal officer from this institution is required; select the correct person or enter new names in this
6. Key Personnel: A Collaboration will consist of one Collaboration director, and a minimum of two (2) additional principal investigators (PIs). Each subproject must have a designated PI. Given the complexity of activities, the Foundation strongly encourages the inclusion of a project manager/coordinator who will work closely with the CD and the PIs to facilitate activities across the Collaboration. Additional key personnel may include but not be limited to: co-investigators, consultants, postdoctoral research associates and others. For more information on the personnel definitions, please refer to the SFARI RFA FAQ.
7. Attach Letter of Intent: The following documents are to be uploaded in the “Attach Letter of Intent” section, where they are also available for download:
   1. LOI Proposal Narrative: The LOI narrative should not exceed four (4) pages of single-spaced, 11-point text, 0.5 margins. Please describe specific aims and how the results of the Collaboration will uniquely and synergistically contribute to our understanding of sex differences in autism. Collaboration objectives must be justified as major scientific milestones, and a timeline of activities should also be included. The project should have clearly defined initial activities and goals by which progress and success can be measured. Support from the Foundation should be seen as critical to achieving the objectives of the Collaboration. Applicants should include a brief description of how the project will be managed, including explicit efforts to facilitate collaboration among its members and how data will be shared within and beyond the Collaboration. Applicants are encouraged to utilize SFARI-generated resources, when appropriate, to advance the research goals.

      Figures, figure legends and tables are not included in the page limits and should be included in the narrative PDF document. References (formatted as in the Journal of Neuroscience, including full author list, title and link to PubMed) should be included at the end of the Proposal Narrative but will not count towards the page limit.

   2. Team Summary: For the director, principal investigators and other key personnel, a description of their roles in the Collaboration, as well as a summary of the expertise, resources, collaboration history and the open-science practices they bring to the Collaboration should be provided.
   3. Biosketches: Biosketches for each key personnel listed in the overview should be included.
   4. Budget Overview: Summary of major budgetary categories, including personnel, equipment and other essential resources
8. PI Data Sheet: Required: the Collaboration director’s ORCID identifier.
9. Validate: You must click the validate button below to check for any missing required information or files. All missing required information will be listed on the screen. Please correct any missing information before proceeding to the next step.
10. Submit: You will be unable to submit if you have not provided all the required information. Any missing information will be listed on the screen. If your submission is successful, you will receive a confirmation message on the screen, and a confirmation email will be sent to your email address.

Please note that LOIs exceeding the four (4) page limit, excluding references, figures and figure legends, will not be reviewed.

Review of applications

Each LOI is evaluated by the SFARI science team, with additional advice from outside advisers as needed. A subset of LOI applicants will be invited to submit full applications. Detailed instructions for full applications will be provided accordingly but, in brief, will include expanded descriptions of all subprojects, along with detailed budgetary information. Full applications will be evaluated by an external review panel, and a subset of investigative teams will be invited to present their Collaboration proposal to the SFARI science team and invited scientists.

Contacts

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