ASNR Member-Centric Strategic Initiative Request for Proposals

Submit a strategic initiatve proposal application
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INTRODUCTION
The American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) is thrilled to announce a new Member-Centric Strategic Initiative request for proposals (RFP). This RFP is designed to encourage and support innovative ideas proposed by ASNR members including volunteer committee members. The ASNR desires to engage with its members to develop new programs, ideas, and/or task forces to improve the ASNR member experience, our profession, and our neuroradiology community. The scope of ideas permitted is intentionally broad, but a main requisite is for the proposals to directly benefit ASNR members (see evaluation criteria below).

Each year, a budget will be allocated to fund selected projects. The budget will be determined based on available resources. We expect to support multiple projects annually, though the funding amounts and resources may vary. 

ELIGIBILITY QUALIFICATION
Applicants (project leads) who propose these strategic initiatives must be ASNR members in good standing with an MD/DO or PhD degree. Trainees (medical students, imaging research fellows, radiology residents, and neuroradiology fellows) are encouraged to participate, but must collaborate with a project lead who is an ASNR member. 

Group applications are encouraged. For example, an application could be submitted by a committee/study group chair or co-chair on behalf of an ASNR committee or study group.

An applicant or group of applicants can only submit one application per cycle.

APPLICATION SCHEDULE

  1. The deadline for receipt of submissions is 9:00 AM Central Standard Time (CST), Monday, January 27, 2025. Full proposals should be submitted via the Smartsheet application form. Please use the ASNR Strategic Initiative Proposal Application to submit your application.
  2. Selection of the awardees will occur in the early spring, with the official announcement of the recipients during the ASNR Annual meeting.
  3. The duration of funding will be one year (from annual meeting to annual meeting). There will be no no-cost extension. Awardees will be expected to present their project, result(s), and outcome(s) at the annual meeting at the end of the award period.

SELECTION METHOD

  1. The proposal must have a clearly stated mission with detailed description of execution and how it could benefit the ASNR and its membership. Details and well-developed plans with tangible outcomes are highly encouraged. Alignment with the ASNR Strategic Plan is encouraged.
  2. The proposal needs to include a budget. The budget needs to be detailed and justified. Any involvement of the ASNR staff needs to be appropriately budgeted. The budget cannot include any salary support for ASNR members or any faculty. Any application not including a detailed budget and budget justification will not be considered.
  3. Each proposal will be reviewed by at least 2 members of the Advisory Council (using review criteria detailed below. Advisory Council members will not be able to review applications they submitted, applications submitted by colleagues from their institution, or committees on which they serve.
  4. Based on the evaluation of the proposals by the Advisory Council, a grade will be calculated for each proposal. The proposals will be ranked based on their grade.
  5. The Board of Directors of the ASNR will review the ranked list and define the funding line. Typically, proposals requesting less than $10,000 will be considered separately from proposals asking more than $10,000. Funding lines may be different in the two categories, in order for proposals involving both smaller and larger budgets to have similar chances of getting funded. The final selection of the funded projects is at the discretion of the ASNR Board of Directors.

QUESTIONS
If you have any questions, please contact Amber Liset at aliset@asnr.org.

CONDITION OF AWARD

  1. The total funding amount for the Member-Centric Strategic Initiative request for proposals will be determined by the Board of Directors annually, based on available resources and proposed project budgets. The funding will be designated and administered by the ASNR staff.
  2. Typically, the funding allocated to an awarded proposal will not be paid to the project lead’s institution but rather, expenses listed in the budget will be paid directly by the ASNR. No indirect costs should be included in the budget.
  3. Any portion of the award not utilized by the end of the award period will be retained by the ASNR. There will be no no-cost extension. The project lead will need to submit a new application if continued funding is desired and such an application will be reviewed and will compete with all other applications. There is no guarantee that an application for continued funding will be approved, and therefore every effort should be made to complete the work proposed in the allocated time frame.
  4. Funds may not be allocated for individual ASNR member or faculty salary support but may be used for ASNR staff, other support staff, or 3rd party vendor support/activities. Any ASNR staff involvement needs to be budgeted accurately. Required resources should be specified in the detailed line-item budget submitted with the full proposal.
  5. A progress report is due on December 1st of the award year and a final report is due by the Annual Meeting. These are not to exceed one page. These reports should summarize the specific aim(s), progress achieved, explain any significant changes to the specific aim(s), new direction(s) to be undertaken owing to those changes, and expenditure(s) to date. Any publication(s) or other material related to the funded project should be included on a separate page. The final report should describe the impact of the project on the ASNR and its members, and the role that the ASNR had, has, or might have in the future pertaining to this project
  6. If the project lead is no longer able to lead and support the project, another ASNR member (typically another member of the group that submitted the proposal) could replace them, based on the approval of the ASNR president or their delegate.

APPLICATION FORMAT
The application should include the following sections:

General Info
Title of Proposed Initiative:
Today’s Date mm/dd/yyyy:
Project Lead:
Project Lead’s Email:
Key stakeholders involved: Please provide a concise description of the proposed initiative, addressing each of the following areas:

  • Description of problem or opportunity that supports ASNR members
  • Describe the impact to ASNR members and the organization
  • Briefly describe the feasibility of carrying out this initiative (eg. capability of being done within the identified constraints – time frame, allocated funds, available resources).
  • Please describe the return on investment (ROI) to ASNR members (financial and/or non-financial) and identify length of the proposed initiative

Achievability and Measurability
In this section you will be asked to share the desired outcomes of the initiative and information regarding the performance metrics. Please complete in the below format with # demoting each projected outcome.

Outcome #1: Briefly describe outcome.

Action Step #1: Action steps needed to reach outcome. In order to implement initiatives and achieve outcomes, there are usually several tasks that have to be performed such as gathering a committee together or purchasing equipment. In this section, please describe the major action step(s) needed to move this initiative along as it relates to this outcome. Include timeframe for completing action step.

Measure #1: Describe the form of assessment that will be used to measure success of this outcome (eg., collected data points, trend data, survey results, milestone checklist, focus group, participation numbers, etc):

Budget and Resource Needs Section
Please provide overall proposed budget and the answer the below questions.

Equipment & Resources Needs

  1. Does the initiative require any special equipment or physical resources? Please explain:
  2. Can the equipment/resource needs be addressed with existing equipment/resources? Please describe:
  3. If the equipment/resource needs cannot be addressed with existing equipment/resources, what are your suggestions for meeting these equipment/resource needs?

Personnel Needs

  1. Does the initiative require any special personnel? Please explain:
  2. Can the personnel needs be addressed with existing personnel? Please describe:
  3. Approximately how many hours of personnel are needed?
  4. If the personnel needs cannot be addressed with existing personnel, what are your suggestions for meeting these personnel needs?

Annual Meeting Physical Space Needs

  1. Does the initiative require any physical space needs (eg. A room to meet during the annual meeting?) Please explain.

Other Needs

  1. Does the initiative require any other needs? Please explain:
  2. Can the needs be addressed with existing resources? Please describe:
  3. If the needs cannot be addressed with existing resources, what are your suggestions for meeting these needs?

The maximum length for the application, including the fields above is 2 pages, with one additional page for the budget, for a total of 3 pages. Font should be 12, margins should be 1 inch. These formatting guidelines will be strictly enforced; any application not conforming to the specified limits may be disqualified from consideration.

APPLICATION REVIEW
The reviewers from the Advisory Council will assess the merit and quality of the proposed projects, and their overall importance and potential to maximize the benefits to all members of the ASNR using this criteria. Please click here to view the application review scale.