Discovery Research Grant

Discovery Research Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Society Of Critical Care Medicine
Amount: US $100,000
Last Updated: June 20, 2025

Summary

The Discovery Research Grant, offered by the Society of Critical Care Medicine, provides $100,000 for innovative research in critical care. It seeks projects focused on critical illness survivorship, education, and health service delivery. Eligible applicants must be SCCM members, and both junior and established researchers are encouraged to apply. Successful projects will demonstrate broad relevance and community engagement, ideally involving multi-institutional collaboration and junior investigator engagement.

Overview

The Society of Critical Care Medicine’s research grants are awarded each year to critical care professionals seeking funding to advance critical care and offer opportunities for established and junior researchers. SCCM's Research Priorities General Principles: Developing and applying rigorous methodology to basic, clinical, health services and translational research experimental design and to the evaluation of evidence. Developing better models of critical illness and incorporating novel approaches in bench research to account for variations in patients, care strategies, and therapeutic interventions. Integrating new areas of research, scientific disciplines, and technology into the study of critical illness.Basic Science/Cellular Research: Investigating the role of the host response in initiation, transition, and resolution of critical illnesses. Defining the normal microbiome and investigating its role and transitions in critical illness. Integrating research in the biology of tissue repair with investigation into mechanisms that underlie critical illness.Translational Research: Integration of studies of critical care mechanisms and interventions and application of rigorous, standardized methodology to study design. Investigating the reasons for treatment effects and management of disease progression.Clinical Research: Developing methods for the rapid, early recognition of acute, severe disease in patients at high risk for imminent deterioration. Developing minimally invasive, biocompatible organ support, focusing on therapeutic manipulation of the neuroinflammatory state and exploring new approaches that enhance patient comfort while reducing the need to manipulate consciousness. Identifying the best process and outcome measurements for critical illness research and palliative and end-of-life care.Health Service and Delivery Research: Identifying variables that affect outcomes and developing meaningful and reproducible performance metrics and improvement processes, including those related to quality improvement and patient safety. Measuring the effectiveness of interventions to measure and treat prevalent and/or distressing patient and family symptoms. Identifying strategies to improve communication and coordination of care delivery and determining which tools, processes, and programs (e.g., checklists and multidisciplinary rounds) most effectively promote knowledge transfer and implementation. Examining factors related to establishing a positive learning environment (e.g., technological advances, minimizing cognitive overload, and avoidance of burnout), strategies for preventing errors and facilitating error reporting and assessing the effects on patient outcomes.Education Research: Incorporating cognitive psychology, systems engineering, social science, and simulations into critical care education and training. Refining team-based learning, including examining differences between high- and low-performing units and determining in which scenarios team-based learning has the greatest value.Patients and Families (Survivorship and recovery): Investigator-initiated research to help advance and improve understanding of survivorship from critical illness, as well as support and improve the experiences of survivors and their families. Clinical interventions to improve patient experiences or outcomes, identification of modifiable mechanisms or testing of innovations that promote recovery, or explorations of cultural and educational factors among survivors to facilitate networks and improve support. The Discovery Research Grant funds one grant of $100,000, which requires the following: Research areas: Translational or clinical; patients and families (survivorship and recovery); health services and delivery; educationResearch completed within 12 monthsMulti-institutional study (collaboration between at least two institutions)Plan for engagement of junior investigators, if applicable

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. The principal investigator must be a current SCCM Professional or Select member and must maintain SCCM membership throughout the life of the grant.Applications are encouraged from both junior and established investigators.Junior investigators (defined as those having no prior independent National Institutes of Health [NIH] funding of R01 or equivalent within 10 years of finishing their training) may request independent support or may include a research mentor who is also an SCCM member who can demonstrate strong research credentials in the areas of clinical and outcomes research. SCCM policy states that committee members who are mentioned in an application as an applicant’s mentor or who have written a letter of support or work in the same institution as the applicant must excuse themselves from the deliberations.Only one application may be submitted by each investigator. You must be a member of this organization to apply for this award - become a member. Must maintain SCCM membership throughout the life of the grant.

Ineligibility

Incomplete applications will not be processed.