Boilerplate Language for Grants

The Clinician-Scientist Faculty Mentoring (FaMe) Program at Penn State College of Medicine is designed to prepare, mentor and build community among physicians and other clinical health providers working to advance medical knowledge through clinical, translational or basic research.

The two-year program includes weekly protected time for research training, alternating between a lecture one week and scholarly advancement time the following week. Lectures include grant-writing workshops, emerging technology seminars, career development seminars and presentations by trainees.

Learn More About the FaMe Program

Grants Academy is an eight-month, structured non-credit program designed to assist faculty members with the preparation and submission of an investigator-initiated grant proposal. Participation in Grants Academy requires approximately 10 percent release time. Meetings of Grants Academy are held once a month, generally from October through April. Participants are required to complete a considerable amount of out-of-class work and once enrolled, are expected to be active participants. Each Grants Academy meeting is accompanied by the required submission of a component of the final grant application. Class sizes are kept small (10 to 15 participants) to facilitate team-based learning.

On July 23, 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a notice (NOT-OD-13-093) regarding required components of annual progress reports, which are required of institutions that receive research grants or cooperative agreement awards. Annual progress reports, commonly referred to as RPPRs (Research Performance Progress Reports) are a federal mandate. The NIH uses RPPRs to document grantee accomplishments and compliance with the terms of their award. NOT-OD-13-093 modifies the RPPR by requesting a statement from the institution regarding Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for all graduate students and postdoctoral scholars supported by any NIH grant. IDPs are strongly recommended for all graduate students and postdoctoral researchers supported by NIH funding. This new NIH policy does not require IDPs be included within submitted RPPRs, but it does require that the RPPRs include a statement outlining current practices being used by the institution. Institutions were encouraged to begin reporting IDPs in all RPPRs submitted on or after October 1, 2014.

Since Fall 2013, the College of Medicine has implemented a policy that requires all graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to prepare IDPs – regardless of the source of their funding support.

To assist investigators with this new NIH reporting requirement, the Vice Dean for Research & Graduate Studies has made the following boilerplate language available for inclusion in RPPRs:

Each year, all College of Medicine doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars will prepare or update an Individual Development Plan (IDP). This Plan will include at least one activity to be undertaken over the upcoming academic year in support of the trainee’s career development. The trainee is expected to update the IDP and submit for review to his/her advisor prior to the start of the academic year. Thesis advisors and advisors of postdoctoral scholars are expected to review the IDP with the trainee and both parties are expected to agree on a set of career development activities.

The Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) offers a holistic curriculum that serves as a model for faculty professional development programs nationwide. Each year, the program runs from September to May, with two-hour sessions each Friday morning. Sessions are led by senior faculty members or experts from other institutions. The JFDP consists of two components:

• a comprehensive curriculum that includes topics on research, education, clinical practice, and academic/career development, and
• a scholarly project completed under the guidance of a senior faculty mentor assigned by the Program.

Through written agreement, Department chairs must approve the junior faculty member’s participation in the JFDP and must also approve their proposed project.

Participation in JFDP requires approximately four hours per week, including class time.

Learn more about JFDP

Founded in 2007, the Penn State K Seminar Series is a monthly seminars open to KL2 scholars, individual K awardees and mentors.

Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of K scholars and their mentor teams, the seminar series alternates between University Park and the College of Medicine in Hershey. Each session includes a networking lunch and a formal presentation by an internal or external speaker that is selected by the K awardees. These presentations provide an opportunity for K awardees to expand their professional networks by inviting experts in their fields from other universities to visit Penn State.

Seminar sessions are either a scientific talk or a professional development topic. Professional development topics have included strategies for effective time use, preparation of NIH resubmission applications, preparation of PCORI grants, promotion and tenure issues, and internal resources for pilot project funding and grant preparation.

The seminar series also provides an opportunity for K awardees to present their own research and to “workshop” draft manuscripts, posters, or grant applications. In workshop sessions, K awardees receive constructive feedback from their peers on works in progress. These workshop sessions have received overwhelmingly positive evaluations by K awardees due to the benefits of receiving feedback in a supportive, multidisciplinary context.

The Mock Review of Grants (MoRe) program is a faculty-led effort at Penn State College of Medicine that provides peer review of colleagues’ research proposals being prepared for submission to the NIH and other external funding sponsors.

By exposing colleagues to peer review at critical stages in the proposal development process, the Mock Review of Grants program aspires to positively impact both the quality and success rate of externally submitted grants.

Established in June 2018, the program is guided by an interdisciplinary committee comprising faculty members who hold a variety of leadership positions within the College of Medicine, and who also have a great deal of experience as successful applicants and reviewers for the NIH and other funding agencies.

In the interest of cultivating a peer-mentoring culture and cross-disciplinary collaboration at the College of Medicine, the program is open to faculty investigators at all career stages. Each mock review cycle runs concurrent with the NIH’s three annual submission cycles, initiating four months prior to an NIH deadline with the submission of a specific aims page to be given a preliminary review by two content experts (internal and/or external). Approximately two and a half months before each NIH deadline, the Mock Review Committee hosts an open forum for all participating principal investigators, which gives the assigned primary and secondary reviewers time to present their views on the project’s overall impact and alignment with the funding sponsor’s review criteria. Similar to an NIH study section, the open forum is a confidential meeting where principal investigators, in a collegial and supportive atmosphere, receive suggestions on how to strengthen their proposals and/or redirect their specific aims.

Learn more about the Mock Review of Grants Program

Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are committed to becoming a destination for physician-scientists by cultivating a community and infrastructure that fosters a sustainable career development pipeline for physician-scientists at all career stages.

To that end, the College of Medicine launched the Penn State Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) in fall 2017. The mission of the program is to break down departmental/divisional silos and create an institution-wide program with sustainable “on-ramps” at all levels of training – medical school, residency, fellowship and junior faculty levels.

The program features a monthly PSTP Scholar Series that allows trainees and junior faculty to gain the necessary tools to sustain a research career and to engage physician-scientist mentors. During these monthly meetings, time is set aside for PSTP scholars to receive real-time feedback of their specific aims, abstract submissions and/or oral presentations.

The program encourages scholars to form an interdisciplinary mentoring team of three faculty members, one of which is from their own discipline, that meets three to four times a year. Furthermore, PSTP scholars are encouraged to develop SMART goals and Individual Development Plans with input from their mentors.

Learn more about the Physician-Scientist Training Program

A required section of all NIH mentored “K” proposals is a plan to acquire instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).

The RCR plan for a mentored “K” proposal may include career stage-appropriate individualized instruction or independent scholarly activities. Whatever approach is chosen, NIH guideline stipulate that “… the selected RCR plan should enhance the applicant’s understanding of ethical issues related to their specific research activities and the societal impact of that research.”

Because the plan for RCR training should be unique for each individual, prepared within the context of each PI’s plan for career development, boilerplate language is not provided here.

It is important to keep this point in mind: RCR plans will not be well-received by NIH reviewers if an applicant’s RCR plan is limited to a standalone, one-time experience. Applicants should explore opportunities to integrate RCR training throughout all aspects of their career development program. In addition, the role of the mentor in RCR training should be described with a mentored K proposal. When preparing this section of a mentored K proposal, remember that the RCR plan must address the five required instructional components outlined in the NIH Policy on RCR Instruction:

• Format
• Subject matter
• Faculty participation,
• Duration of instruction
• Frequency of instruction

Some of the formats available are:

CITI Course: The CITI course on RCR includes a basic course and a refresher course. The basic course consists of 11 modules covering: authorship, collaborative research, conflicts of interest, data management, financial responsibility, mentoring, peer review, plagiarism, research involving human subjects, research misconduct, and using animals in research. Supplemental modules are also available and include research, ethics and society. This course emphasizes the education of graduate students in RCR. The RCR refresher course reinforces concepts learned during the basic course and other training received from other sources. The same topics are included in the refresher course and the basic course. Students who conduct research with animal or human subjects must obtain additional training in these areas prior to commencing a research project.

Biomedical Research Ethics (BMS 591): The subjects covered by the 20-hour BMS 591 course Biomedical Research Ethics include the nine core instructional areas recognized as essential to RCR instruction: conflict of interest policies regarding human subjects; live vertebrate animal subjects in research and safe laboratory practices; mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships; collaborative research; peer review; data acquisition and laboratory tools, management, sharing and ownership; research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct; responsible authorship and publication; and the scientist as a responsible member of society. These face-to-face sessions complement the online CITI course to ensure that students have an in-depth understanding of RCR-related issues. BMS 591 utilizes team-based learning as the educational approach. The textbook “ORI Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research” (Nicholas H. Steneck) is required reading for the course.

Research Ethics for Clinical Investigators (PHS 500): This is a one credit course offered on the College of Medicine campus through the Department of Public Health Sciences (PHS). It is a required course for all graduate-level students in PHS and addresses the five required instructional components outlined in the NIH Policy on RCR Instruction.

If proposing courses in the RCR plan (e.g. BMS 591), applicants should verify when the course will be offered. In most cases, you can contact the Office of Graduate Student Affairs to obtain a course syllabus to determine if the course you are interested in meets the NIH criteria.

The postdoctoral program at Penn State College of Medicine is designed to support the training and education of postdoctoral scholars and fellows, to promote postdoctoral research accomplishments across the University, and to foster a sense of community among its scholars. The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs helps meet all these goals through a variety of resources and programs, including Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training. The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs coordinates all postdoc RCR training, which incorporates new NIH requirements for formal instruction in rigorous experimental design and transparency to enhance reproducibility.

All postdocs are required to complete RCR training within the first two years of their training period and must repeat the training if their appointment extends beyond four years. The training curriculum consists of online Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) coursework and real-time discussion groups led by trainees and faculty. The CITI training must be completed within three weeks from the first day of employment. Postdocs who have had no prior RCR training must complete CITI’s RCR Basic Course, which addresses the following topics: authorship, collaborative research, conflicts of interest, data management, financial responsibility, mentoring, peer review, plagiarism, human subjects research, research misconduct, and animal research. CITI’s RCR Refresher Course is available to postdocs who have previously completed the Basic Course. In addition to receiving a certificate of completion for one of these CITI modules, postdocs must attend a minimum of eight workshops in the College’s Professional Development Workshop Series: “Lab Management and Research Survival Skills.” This monthly workshop series is intended for a culturally diverse trainee group. Each one-hour workshop is designed to bring focus to the unique roles of postdocs as laboratory personnel. Trainees select and present case studies from laboratory settings; case study presentations are followed by small group discussion between trainees and faculty. Participating faculty include postdoctoral mentors and general research faculty at the College of Medicine. Attendance is recorded and a certificate provided upon completion.

For additional details about RCR training for postdocs, contact the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.

The vision of the Woodward Center for Excellence in Health Sciences Education is to be a community energized to grow together as educators and learners. The mission of the Woodward Center is to cultivate excellence in Health Sciences Education. The Woodward Center offers a variety of programs designed to promote educator development, including monthly lunch-and-learn sessions, workshops focused on educator development, and participation in the Harvard Macy Program for Educators.

Learn more about the Woodward Center

Established in 2019 at Penn State College of Medicine and housed under the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Core (QMMC) is dedicated to the performance of rigorous qualitative and mixed-methods research for Penn State University faculty and external researchers. The Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Core offers three service lines, including (1) study design/consultation, including choosing an appropriate research design and research question, developing analysis plans, and other faculty-led design considerations; (2) education/training, including workshops on interviewing, mixed methods matrix design, qualitative research methods, coding, theming and workshops for a specific research project; and (3) implementation services, including three full-time staff members who can assist with preparing grant applications, budgets, qualitative aspects of IRB preparation, interviewing processes, qualitative software training, and methods sections on manuscripts. The core is co-founded and co-directed by Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD, and Heather L. Stuckey, DEd.

Learn more on the CTSI website

View the College of Medicine’s Diversity, Equity and Belonging website

View Penn State Health’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion website

Penn State College of Medicine is Penn State University’s medical school. It was established in 1963 when the Milton S. Hershey Foundation gave $50 million to the Pennsylvania State University to establish a medical school in Hershey. With this grant and $21.3 million from the U.S. Public Health Service, the University built a medical school, research center and teaching hospital — what is now known as the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

The College of Medicine was the first medical school in the nation to have a dedicated Department of Humanities and a Department of Family and Community Medicine. The focus on humanities remains an essential component in training students to become compassionate physicians. The College of Medicine offers a four-year medical curriculum as well as several 3+ accelerated curriculum tracks for students seeking a concentration in certain medical specialties. Its MD/PhD program integrates the graduate and medical school curricula. Typically completed in eight years, the MD/PhD program prepares students for a successful career in medical research, academic medicine or a related field. In addition to the core campus in Hershey, the University Park Regional Campus offers a 4-year curriculum that focuses on primary care and rural-based medicine. In 2023, the College of Medicine matriculated 145 first-year students – with 12 medical students enrolled in the University Park curriculum and 133 medical students enrolled in the Hershey curriculum.

Penn State College of Medicine strives to be a national leader in pursuing basic, clinical, translational and health services research; developing programs to advance medical and scientific knowledge; and promoting the development of physician scientists. The College employs approximately 1,600 faculty members across 27 academic departments – 8 basic science departments and 19 clinical departments. Physicians employed at the medical center hold academic appointments at the College of Medicine and many faculty members have close working relationships with clinicians at the medical center.

The College of Medicine boasts a diverse research portfolio that includes industry-sponsored research and investigator-initiated research. In FY2023, the College received 685 research awards totaling $159.84 million dollars, securing its position as the top research-funded college at Penn State for the third consecutive year. The $159.84 million dollars represented awards from a wide range of funding sponsors – the federal government (51 percent); state government (18 percent); nonprofit organizations (14.4 percent); industry (7.7 percent) and sub-awards (8.9 percent). Historically, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been the biggest contributor to the College of Medicine’s portfolio of externally-funded research. In FY2023, the NIH awarded $70.2 million to the College of Medicine, which equates to 44 percent of the College’s research portfolio. The second largest contributor to the College of Medicine’s portfolio was the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which awarded $28.8 million to the College in FY2023.

Learn more about the College’s mission and values

See Penn State Health boilerplate language here

Founded in 1963 through a gift from The Milton S. Hershey Foundation, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is one of the country’s leading teaching and research hospitals. Since 2007, the medical center has maintained a Magnet designation – the gold standard for recognizing quality patient care and nursing excellence – a recognition achieved by only 8 percent of U.S. hospitals. The medical center shares its 550-acre campus in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with Penn State Children’s Hospital, the Penn State Cancer Institute and the Penn State College of Medicine – the medical school of Penn State. The Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is the only Level 1 Adult and Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center in Pennsylvania. The trauma center features state-of-the-art resuscitation/trauma bays and a Pediatric Emergency Department and Observation Unit along with Life Lion Flight Critical Care and a Ground EMS Division.

The medical center has 637 licensed beds and draws patients from a 29-county catchment area that includes more than 1.9 million people. In addition, it is a quaternary care referral center for Pennsylvania and neighboring states, with a referral base of more than 2.5 million people. This large referral base provides an ideal platform for researchers to examine novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to treat a diverse range of acute and chronic diseases.

In 2020, the medical center celebrated completion of its Emergency Department expansion to support a long-term phased realignment of the entire Emergency Department to increase overall patient capacity and departmental efficiencies. The 24,000-square-foot expansion included additional care initiation areas, exam bays, treatment rooms, a dedicated sexual assault exam area, an expanded decontamination and infectious disease isolation area, a new ambulance entrance that provides advanced patient privacy and shell space to support a future operating suite expansion. In 2019, the Emergency Department opened a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Department, which is nested within the adult ER. The Pediatric Emergency Department features 12 private treatment rooms for children along with additional family-friendly space. Around 75,000 patients access the Emergency Department every year – and approximately 22,000 of those ED visits involve pediatric patients.

Learn more about Hershey Medical Center

Penn State Children’s Hospital is a nationally ranked pediatric teaching hospital situated on the 550-acre Penn State Health campus in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It is the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in the region and has more than 20 pediatric specialties and over 30 outpatient locations throughout Pennsylvania. Today, the Children’s Hospital is supported by more than 200 pediatric medical and surgical specialists renowned in disciplines such as cancer, cardiology, orthopedics, surgery and critical care.

The children’s hospital dates back to the 1980s. At that time, the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center had a dedicated floor specifically for the care of children. In 2009, the children’s hospital broke ground on a new facility. When completed in 2012, the Penn State Children’s Hospital became the only free-standing children’s hospital in the region. The five-floor, 263,000-square-foot building was designed so that three additional floors could be added in the future. In 2018, the Penn State Board of Trustees approved plans to add the three additional floors to the Children’s Hospital to accommodate growing demand across the region for specialty inpatient services. The $148 million Children’s Hospital expansion, completed in October 2020, added 126,000 square feet to the hospital. The expansion added a new Women and Babies Center, a 56-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and the state’s only Small Baby Unit, created specifically for growth and improved brain development in premature babies.

In addition, the Labor and Delivery Unit and the NICU were relocated from their current locations in the adult portion of the medical center, which allowed vacated space to be renovated and repurposed for adult inpatient needs. In addition, approximately 14,000 square feet of office space located on the fifth floor of the Children’s Hospital was renovated to provide additional pediatric patient rooms, team care stations and support spaces. The Children’s Hospital has been ranked among U.S. News and World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals for 10 consecutive years.

In 2018, Penn State Children’s Hospital earned special recognition from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) for providing excellent surgical care. The hospital is one of eight in the nation — and the only one in Pennsylvania — to be named a Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center as part of the ACS’s Children’s Surgery Verification Program. To achieve Level 1 verification — the highest level awarded by ACS — hospitals must meet criteria related to staffing, training and facility infrastructure, as well as protocols for care. This includes the presence of children’s surgical and medical specialists, pediatric anesthesiologists and pediatric emergency physicians, all of whom are prepared to handle the specific needs of children. Such hospitals also must provide surgical care across multiple specialties, including procedures for complex diseases and major congenital anomalies.

Learn more about the Children’s Hospital

Since its founding in 1855 as the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State has developed well beyond its agricultural roots into a robust enterprise with three missions: teaching, research, and public service. Today, Penn State is Pennsylvania’s largest public university, and its teaching mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education. Its 24-campus system is comprised of 19 Commonwealth campuses and 5 special purpose campuses. Penn State’s extensive campus system places more than 75 percent of Pennsylvania residents within 15 miles of a Penn State campus, putting a world-class Penn State degree within driving distance for most Pennsylvanians.

Penn State’s total annual enrollment exceeds 88,000 students – of which 83 percent are undergraduates. Most Penn State campuses offer the first two years of baccalaureate instruction as well as a limited number of four-year degree programs. University Park is Penn State’s administrative hub and the largest campus in Penn State’s system. All of Penn State’s more than 275 majors are divided among academic colleges, which are the units from which students receive their degrees. In addition to the 12 academic colleges at the University Park campus, Penn State offers 6 other academic colleges across Pennsylvania that allow students to finish their degrees at a campus other than University Park.

The Graduate School at Penn State offers over 300 graduate degree programs, including both research and professional master’s and doctoral degrees, and more than 200 graduate major fields of study. Additionally, the Graduate School offers a multitude of postbaccalaureate and graduate credit certificates.

Penn State is a Research I university, a category employed by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education to indicate universities in the United States that engage in the highest levels of research activity. Penn State has 7 interdisciplinary institutes that promote collaboration across departmental boundaries to focus research strengths on vital scientific questions and pressing societal needs:

• Penn State Cancer Institute
• Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute
• Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
• Institutes of Energy and the Environment
• Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
• Materials Research Institute
• Social Science Research Institute

Penn State reached a record $1.034 billion in research expenditures during fiscal year 2022, an overall 4.1% increase from the previous year. Funding from federal agencies comprised the majority of Penn State’s research expenditures, totaling a record $663.7 million in fiscal year 2022, a $53.7 million increase from the previous year. Nearly 27 percent of overall funding is attributed to the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL), a Department of Defense-designated university affiliated research center, dedicated to conducting research that helps secure the nation while simultaneously preparing students for careers in national security. The ARL oversees $250-$300 million of contract research each year. Expenditures for fiscal year 2022 also included $26 million in industry sponsorships from several hundred companies. These industry partnerships are driving economic development, training the workforce of the future, and facilitating technology transfer in a variety of public-private partnerships. Penn State has long ranked among the nation’s top universities in industry-sponsored research, and typically partners with more than 400 companies each year.

Penn State sits among a select group of research universities nationally and reflects the interdisciplinary strength built over more than three decades. Penn State continues to rank in the top 25 academic institutions by expenditure with 12 disciplines ranked in the top 10. Only three other universities in the nation have more top-10 ranked disciplines.

Penn State is a key driver of economic growth in the Commonwealth. The University has more than 35,000 employees, including over 7,000 faculty members and 11,000 staff. By leveraging its size and research strengths, Penn State drives job creation, economic development, and student career success while contributing more the $11.6 billion annually to the state’s economy. Through the Invent Penn State initiative, the University has made a $30 million investment in economic development that supports entrepreneurs in their communities through partnerships with Penn State campuses.

The University Technology Center (UTC) is a 46,000-square-foot state-of-the-art computer equipment facility that facilitates research discoveries involving the use of large datasets.

Located on the grounds of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the UTC is designed to be both energy efficient and expandable. Operated by Penn State Health, the UTC is monitored by a 24-7-365 operations staff.

Twenty-nine employees work at the facility to provide monitoring and support for the Penn State Health domain. The data center was designed to meet Tier III data center standards and houses data storage, computational servers, and a data backup system. The UTC data is backed up by, and is the data backup site for, University Park, Penn State’s main campus.

The UTC provides centralized administration, support, and security for medical, educational, and research data storage and computational processing. Located on site is a High Performance Computing Cluster, dedicated for research, that provides two Petabytes of storage and the processing power that is needed to solve complex problems. As Penn State University strives to improve education and research, and as the Medical Center strives to improve patient care, the demand for data capacity is increasing due to growth and novel state-of-the-art initiatives. The UTC continues to grow to handle increased data storage needs, computing capacity for research computing, increased resiliency, high-density computing loads, and disaster recovery capabilities.

Established in 2011, the University Park Curriculum trains medical students in State College, Pennsylvania, the home of Penn State University Park. The primary mission of this curriculum is to create an educational environment for training the next generation of healthcare providers and to improve access to patient-centered, high quality, cost-effective health care for local residents in State College. This location is being developed on 165 acres owned by Penn State and Mount Nittany Medical Center, a 260-bed acute-care facility offering medical, surgical, diagnostic, and community services to help patients reach their healthiest potential.

One of the region’s top places to work, Mount Nittany Medical Center employs about 2,200 skilled healthcare professionals and support staff and credentials hundreds of employed and non-employed physicians in more than 60 specialties and subspecialties.

On January 2011, the corporate structure of Mount Nittany Medical Center transitioned from a hospital-based entity into a system organization. It also announced a major renovation and expansion of the Emergency Department, the construction of a comprehensive Cancer Pavilion, and the addition of 51 physicians to its physician group. Today, Mount Nittany Health has emerged as a regional health system that includes a parent organization, Mount Nittany Health, along with Mount Nittany Medical Center and Mount Nittany Physician Group, a practice with more than 120 healthcare providers, across 20 specialties, located in 15 convenient locations throughout the region as well as its fundraising and development entity, The Foundation of Mount Nittany Medical Center.

In July 2012, University Park Curriculum welcomed its first group of 13 College of Medicine medical students to begin their third- and fourth-year core clinical training, in collaboration with local Penn State College of Medicine faculty, Mount Nittany Medical Center faculty and other medical providers in the community.

In 2017, the University Park Curriculum began admitting first-year students.

Learn more about the University Park Curriculum

Penn State Cancer Institute (PSCI) was founded in 2001 and since that time has become a hub for cancer research, care, education, and outreach in Central Pennsylvania. PSCI is one of seven research institutes at Penn State University, with a cancer research portfolio of $14.1 million in annual direct peer-reviewed extramural research funding. Cross-campus and transdisciplinary collaboration are integral to PSCI research, whose investigator base includes more than 225 cancer scientists from nine Penn State Colleges, representing more than 40 academic disciplines on the Hershey, University Park and Harrisburg campuses. Innovative and impactful research is driven through the PSCI’s three cancer-focused scientific programs: Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis, Next Generation Therapies and Cancer Control. Research of PSCI members is supported by five shared research resources: Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Flow Cytometry, Genome Sciences, Metabolomics and Organic Synthesis.

A dedicated PSCI facility opened in 2009 and occupies 178,000 square feet on the Hershey campus. The building encompasses space for both clinical and research operations, simplifying communication between basic and clinical researchers, and ultimately realizing the goal of efficient translation of findings from the lab to the clinic.

The PSCI catchment area is made up of 28 counties, contains more than 30 percent of Pennsylvania residents (4 million people) and is located within and adjacent to the disparate Appalachian region. Pennsylvania is the third largest state in the United States and is ranked 16th in cancer incidence. Factors that contribute to Pennsylvania’s high cancer incidence include racial, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities present in the PSCI catchment area. Importantly, up to 75 percent of new cancer cases among Pennsylvanians are caused by preventable lifestyle factors, including tobacco use, diet, and exercise. This catchment area includes several distinct populations, (i.e., rural, medically underserved), 19 Appalachia counties and majority minority cities such as Harrisburg and Reading.

PSCI’s clinical mission is anchored at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Each year, approximately 24,000 incident cancers arise among the 4 million people who reside in the 28-county PSCI catchment area. PSCI has accreditation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC). As a CoC-accredited cancer program, PSCI demonstrates an important commitment to providing all patients with access to services they need from diagnoses through treatment, rehabilitation, and survivorship care. In addition to care for cancer patients, PSCI has active partnerships with clinical specialties within Penn State Health, especially those that focus upon cancer prevention, early detection, and survivorship. While Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center serves as the hub of clinical care, Penn State Health has been rapidly expanding to include St. Joseph Regional Health Network in 2015 and Physicians’ Alliance LTD in 2017. Penn State Health now encompasses more than 2,000 physicians and direct care providers at more than 100 medical office locations.

The PSCI’s goals, strategies, and mission are to foster innovative cancer discovery, care, education, and outreach to reduce cancer risk and improve cancer outcomes in central Pennsylvania and beyond. PSCI’s scientists aim to:

1. Discover new understandings and approaches to cancer;
2. Translate the most impactful scientific findings into trials;
3. Disseminate best practices in cancer prevention and care; and
4. Train the next generation of cancer scientists and physicians.

PSCI is positioning itself for NCI designation with an upward trajectory of the number of NCI-funded investigators in a broad cross-section of expertise areas. Experienced senior leadership, breadth and depth of its scientific programs, outstanding facilities and strong institutional support, as well as its important focus on medically underserved rural populations provide an important foundation for Center Support Grant application for NCI designation.

Learn more about Penn State Cancer Institute

Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s website contains boilerplate language and specific guidance on how to credit the CTSA grant and the National Institutes of Health when reporting on publications, press releases or other documents that result from the utilization of any CTSI resources.

See CTSI Grant Language

Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute (HVI) participates in both clinical trials and investigator-initiated physiology research experiments that seek to understand neurovascular mechanisms of circulatory control and to determine cause-and-effect pathways relating to heart disease and how exercise impacts the cardiovascular system.

HVI pioneered the total artificial heart in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and continues to be at the cutting edge of cardiovascular device development and implementation.

When Penn State College of Medicine launched Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute in 2005, it brought together specialists and researchers previously housed in the clinical departments of medicine, surgery and radiology. HVI is a national model for comprehensive cardiovascular care that includes a team of more than 40 specialists who treat patients with the most severe heart and vascular conditions. HVI faculty participate in both clinical trials and investigator-initiated physiology research experiments that seek to understand neurovascular mechanisms of circulatory control and to determine cause-and-effect pathways relating to heart disease and how exercise impacts the cardiovascular system.

HVI researchers use Penn State CTSI’s Clinical Research Center to conduct all human studies. Within the last five years, HVI has continued to expand its presence in State College, not only in terms of preventative care and surgical intervention, but also with clinical trials undertaken in collaboration with the Hershey location.

Learn more about the Heart and Vascular Institute

Launched in early 2012, the Institute for Personalized Medicine brings together faculty, resources, and programs devoted to advancing personalized medicine. IPM uses a multifaceted approach to understand the correlation among a person’s biologic framework, the environment in which he or she lives, disease predisposition, and treatment options.

By pursuing translational research — the kind of research that directly applies the latest scientific technologies to a patient’s clinical condition – physicians and scientists can tailor health care to individual patients and help improve medical outcomes.

A major goal of IPM is to establish a large bank of genetic samples from patients and to use those samples for the conduct of research to develop more targeted treatments. IPM works in close collaboration with departments and institutes across the Hershey facilities to translate research into clinical applications.

Learn more about IPM

The Huck Institutes encompass a highly successful group of interdisciplinary institutes at Penn State.

Since inception, The Huck came to be regarded as a national model to share talent, resources and expertise, and to foster truly interdisciplinary collaborations. The Huck Institutes supports several intercollege graduate training experiences designed to provide future scientists from a variety of disciplines interdisciplinary and curricula and mentoring. The Huck encompasses a group of scientists from the Eberly College of Science, the College of Medicine, and the College of Information Sciences and Technology that use innovative tools to study and approach infectious diseases “from protein to pandemic.”

The history of The Huck exemplifies Penn State’s visionary commitment to interdisciplinary team science. The Huck is dedicated to strengthening research in the life sciences, preparing students for successful careers, and encouraging new perspectives across disciplinary boundaries. The institute co-funds many faculty members and graduate students, and provides administrative and technical support for research and teaching.

With completion of the Millennium Science Complex in 2011, the Pennsylvania State University gained an exciting interdisciplinary space inhabited by some of the best researchers in life and materials sciences. The 275,600 square foot facility, which was designed to LEED Gold standards, is shared between The Huck and the Materials Research Institute (MRI). At the Millennium Science Complex, researchers and students work side-by-side in a space designed to put everyone in constant contact with one another.

Detailed Description

The Huck is recognized as a national model to share talent, resources and expertise, and to foster truly interdisciplinary collaborations. The Huck supports several intercollege graduate training experiences designed to provide future scientists from a variety of disciplines interdisciplinary and curricula and mentoring. The Huck co-funds many faculty and graduate students, and provides administrative and technical support for research and teaching. The Huck and the Materials Research Institute (MRI) are housed in the Millennium Science Complex, an exciting interdisciplinary space inhabited by some of the best researchers in life and materials sciences. The 275,600-square-foot facility, which was designed to LEED Gold standards and provides an infrastructure the supports interdisciplinary endeavors. The Huck coordinates many of the shared resources at other centers and institutes and supports the education and research missions of the University by serving as the umbrella for University-wide centers and institutes that support the life sciences. The history of The Huck exemplifies Penn State’s visionary commitment to interdisciplinary team science. Founded in 1996 as the Life Sciences Consortium to encourage greater coordination and interdisciplinary collaboration in the life sciences, the Consortium was renamed in 2002 in recognition of the generosity of support from Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck. The Huck Institutes are one of several interdisciplinary research units supported by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research at Penn State.

The Huck encompasses a highly successful group of interdisciplinary institutes comprised of faculty from colleges and departments across the University system. The four institutes that comprise The Huck are supported by numerous Centers of Excellence, which concentrate on building the institution’s competitive strength within a defined area of research and education. The Huck and corresponding Centers of Excellence are as follows:

Genome Sciences Institute: The Genome Sciences Institute seeks to understand the function and evolution of genomes, how they interact with each other and the environment and the consequences for health and fitness. This mission requires a combination of new high throughput experimental techniques and innovative approaches to handling, analyzing and integrating the massive amounts of data produced by these techniques. This institute brings together researchers from across Penn State in the areas of bioinformatics, computational genomics, evolutionary genomics, functional genomics, and proteomics. The primary aim is to catalyze collaborations between researchers in the fields of genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics.

Projects within the Institute belong to four broad thematic areas:

• algorithms
• computational tools and bioinformatics
• statistics and machine learning for high-throughput data analysis and integration
• functional, evolutionary and ecological genomics, translation and biomedical applications

The Institutes comprise the following Centers of Excellence: Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics; Center for Computational Proteomics; Center for Eukaryotic Gene Regulation; Center for Medical Genomics; Center for RNA Molecular Biology; Center for Statistical Genetics; Center for Systems Genomics; Center for Cellular Dynamics.

Infectious Disease Institute: The Infectious Disease Institutes brings together theoreticians and empirical scientists in a wide variety of disciplines to collaborate and innovate in the area of infectious disease research. Comprising the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) and the Center for Molecular Immunology and Infectious Disease, the Infectious Disease Institute and its faculty are at the leading edge of infectious disease research at Penn State. The Institute and its faculty also support the Huck Institutes’ Immunology and Infectious Diseases emphasis area in the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Biosciences Program graduate program.

Institute of the Neurosciences: Facilitating collaboration and networking between scientists and students in the areas of neuroscience at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State University Park. The Institute also provides oversight and coordination for neuroscience-related activities in education, research, patient care and outreach, while promoting an intellectual environment that enhances the interdisciplinary neuroscience educational experience from the undergraduate to postdoctoral levels. The Institutes comprise the following Centers of Excellence: Center for Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease; Center for Brain, Behavior, and Cognition; Center for Language Science; Center for Molecular Investigation of Neurological Disorders; Center for Motor Control; Center for Neural Engineering; Spine Center; Stroke Center.

Ecology Institute: Building and promoting ecological science and its application through interdisciplinary research. The Institute comprises the following Centers of Excellence: Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD); Center for Pollinator Research; Center for Chemical Ecology; Riparia; Center for Landscape Dynamics; The Polar Center; The Agriculture and Environment Center; Center for Climate Risk Management.

Learn more about the Huck Institutes

This institute was created in 2007 as the Institute for CyberScience (ICS) with the specific objective of coupling computing and information sciences with the core disciplines and exploring how cyberscience could enable connections between disciplines and promote large-scale collaborations. The catalyst for developing the ICS was a major research instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which positioned Penn State to purchase CyberSTAR, a shared system that has computing rates of 20 teraops (1012 operations/sec) and a half petabyte (1015) of storage. Reflecting upon the rapid growth and ever-expanding mission of the organization, Penn State’s Institute for CyberScience (ICS) was renamed the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) in 2019.

Learn more about ICDS

Penn State Institute of Energy and the Environment is the central coordinating structure for energy and environmental research, education, and outreach at Penn State. It is a dynamic, tightly coupled, intercampus network of expertise and infrastructure organized under the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research. The mission of IEE, according to its 2012-2019 strategic plan, is “… to foster and facilitate interdisciplinary scholarship and collaboration to positively impact important energy and environmental challenges.”

IEE is organized around five working research themes:

• Smart energy systems
• Future energy supply
• Health and environment
• Climate and ecosystem change
• Water and biogeochemical cycles

Learn more about IEE

This institute was founded in 1966 as the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) – one of the oldest and most distinctive interdisciplinary centers in the nation. Historically, major American universities created dozens of advanced research institutes in the humanities and/or centers for the fine and performing arts, but because the arts and humanities were almost always housed in different colleges with different administrative structures, most universities kept their arts and humanities centers separate. Penn State, by contrast, was one of a handful of universities who designed their institute from the outset to bring together innovative work in the arts and humanities – under one roof, across two colleges. Fall 2017 marked the Inaugural Year of the Humanities Institute, an outgrowth of the IAH which flourished at Penn State for the previous 50 years (1966-2016). The IAH generated numerous important initiatives and partnerships, successfully developed faculty research projects, and produced the highest quality public events, lectures and performances, all of which gave Penn State international exposure as a premier location for art and scholarship. The Humanities Institute proudly inherited this legacy and continues to build its own unique programs and public presence.

Learn more about the Humanities Institute

The Materials Research Institute (MRI) was established in 1995 to promote, develop and integrate materials science across Penn State University. A university-wide resource, the MRI is focused on facilitating interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration among faculty and researchers within and beyond Penn State through administration of core facilities for materials characterization and nanofabrication and pursuit of strategic research themes based on faculty expertise, grant challenges and funding opportunities, and partnerships with industry. The MRI boasts extensive capabilities across broad areas of materials science that include:

• electronic materials, devices and systems;
• materials characterization and processing;
• optics, photonics and imaging;
• nanoscience, nanomaterials, nanostructures and nanofabrication; and
• biomedical materials and devices.

All of the STEM disciplines are represented in the MRI’s diverse and distinguished faculty. As a centrally administered major research institute, the MRI effectively supports the research of faculty across several departments and colleges while pursuing joint initiatives with other major Penn State institutes, including, the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences (co-located with the MRI in the Millennium Science Complex), Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment and the Institute for Cyberscience.

The MRI is located in the Millennium Science Complex, a 297,000 square foot research building located in the heart of the science corridor at the University Park campus. The LEED Gold-certified building features 16,000 square feet of materials characterization space, 16,000 square feet of cleanroom, and 2,800 square feet of collaboration spaces. The building is shared with the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

Learn more about MRI

Penn State Neuroscience Institute fosters collaboration among the neuroscience-related departments and divisions within Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine.

Learn more about Neuroscience Institute research

The Rock Ethics Institute was established in 2001 and is focused on developing tools to identify and deal with ethical challenges.

The Institute sponsors a bioethics lecture series that addresses research ethics, including the impact of industry and government funding on biomedical research. The multiple intersecting, yet often incongruent interests of scientists, individuals, communities, and industry engaged in biomedical research create complex conflicts of interest that can cause physical, emotional and economical harm to individuals and society. Open-minded, prospective and sensible consideration of ethical concerns is critical to take full advantage of new discoveries and knowledge.

Learn more about the Rock Ethics Institute

The mission of Penn State Social Science Research Institute is to foster novel, interdisciplinary research that addresses critical human and social problems at the local, national, and international levels.

In addition to its strong collaborative ties with CTSI, SSRI is made up of nine core units:

• Population Research Institute (PRI), which aims to advance the scientific understanding of human population dynamics and is one of only 24 NIH funded population research centers in the nation
• Children, Youth and Families Consortium (CYFC), which promotes research on behavior, health, and development in diverse populations of children and families
• Research Data Center (RDC), which provides researchers with a secure connection to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics
• Social, Life and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center (SLEIC), which provides equipment and support for human and animal MRI and EEG studies for researchers across the university
• Survey Research Center (SRC), which provides high-quality, cost-effective survey research services to faculty around the University
• Network on Child Protection and Well-Being, which is an interdisciplinary group of faculty dedicated to identifying the causes of child maltreatment and developing evidence-based approaches that will promote prevention, detection, and treatment
• Quantitative Development Systems Methodology core (QuantDev), which provides consultation on measurement, study design, and analysis techniques for social scientists
• Geographic Information Analysis Core (GIA), which provides services to facilitate the use of geospatial data and a spatial perspective in social science research
• Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, which provides expertise in the science of program implementation and evaluation and is a comprehensive resource for professionals working with military families

Learn more about SSRI

The mission of Penn State Center for Women’s Health Research is to promote research on women’s health – and on sex/gender differences related to health – by supporting a network of faculty members in multiple disciplines who are interested in research collaborations to study various aspects of women’s health. The Center maintains information about active projects, datasets and funding opportunities; promotes the development of interdisciplinary research teams around specific topics; provides mentoring opportunities for junior faculty members; and facilitates preparation of grant applications. The goal is to advance the science and contribute to the development of health promotion, disease prevention, health services delivery, and health policy approaches to improving women’s health and well-being across the life span.

The Center was founded in 2004 as the Central Pennsylvania Center of Excellence for Research on Pregnancy Outcomes, with a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health (nonformula tobacco settlement funds). The Center was re-named Penn State Center for Women’s Health Research in 2011 to reflect the expanded research and training agenda in women’s health.

The Center coordinates with Penn State BIRCWH Program, a KL2 training program funded by NIH that provides mentored research career development for junior faculty members interested in women’s health or sex/gender differences related to health.

Administratively based in the Department of Public Health Sciences of Penn State College of Medicine, the Center welcomes participation by Penn State faculty members and students interested in research on women’s health and sex/gender issues related to health. The Center offers opportunities for research collaboration, mentoring, datasets and measures, and other resources for developing and conducting women’s health research projects.

Penn State Center for Women’s Health Research has developed boilerplate language that describes institutional resources in women’s health. This language could be used in any grant application on a women’s health topic.

Learn more about the Center for Women’s Health Research

Penn State Center for Medical Innovation serves Penn State Health and the College of Medicine with a mission to deliver optimal economic and social value from Penn State medical innovations.

This mission is accomplished by positively influencing the research enterprise and moving innovative technologies along a development path through the commercialization pipeline.

CMI provides educational programming focused on entrepreneurship to support new ventures, fully engages the regional economic ecosystem, and has created strong partnerships within industry to encourage greater collaboration and licensing opportunities. Successful deployment of Penn State innovative technologies into the marketplace will ultimately improve human health and have a positive impact on economic development.

Learn more about CMI

The Office of Research Affairs at Penn State College of Medicine works with investigators to promote, foster, and sustain excellence in basic and clinical research.

Major services include assisting researchers and staff with all pre and post-award activities, including budget and grant development, cost recovery, compliance, institutional reporting, and training mandates.

Learn more about ORA

Research Development catalyzes excellence in the research mission at Penn State College of Medicine by undertaking strategic and capacity–building activities that increase institutional competitiveness. The team identifies and disseminates funding opportunities to faculty and research support staff and uses its communication platforms (e.g., newsletter, website, email) to raise awareness of seminars, scientific meetings, and other educational events that might be of interest to faculty members, trainees, and staff. In addition, Research Development manages several internal award programs that are designed to support the career development of early stage investigators and to sustain the research programs of productive investigators, while lending its competition management expertise to other business units at the College of Medicine who need support administering their own internal award programs. Research Development routinely consults with researchers at all career stages who are seeking support and guidance on research strategy, funding strategy, research collaboration/mentorship, and career development. And Research Development supports numerous strategic initiatives designed to facilitate interdisciplinary research throughout the Penn State system while maintaining a robust website that provides virtual grant-seeking support to investigators.

The Department of Comparative Medicine prepared text that may be used in grant proposals to describe the resources and veterinary care provided at Penn State College of Medicine.

Learn more about animal resources
(internal access only; login required)

Established in 2004, the Penn State Health Biorepository offers investigators a resource to enhance research into cancer and other disease processes.

Tissue, associated blood, urine, buccal cell swabs and epidemiological data are available to conduct clinical and translational research studies that include genetic studies.

All Penn State University researchers can request tissue from the Biorepository with an approved Institutional Review Board protocol. Informed consent from donors is obtained through the Penn State Health Biorepository, thereby freeing investigators from that process.

The Biorepository collects a wide variety of tumor tissue as well as adjacent normal tissue from surgical resections done at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Additionally, select normal control tissue is available.

The Biorepository is a member in good standing with the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories.

The Penn State College of Medicine considers cybersecurity and privacy a critical cross-cutting enterprise function that is foundational to the achievement of the College’s mission and research practices. The Penn State Health Office of Cybersecurity and Privacy (OCSP) mission is to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information systems, medical devices, and data for the College of Medicine. The OCSP is administered by the Senior Vice President Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer (CISPO), who is empowered to establish and enforce policies, standards, and procedures to safeguard the organization from cybersecurity threats and privacy breaches.

The College of Medicine is committed to the protection of confidential information, including research health information (RHI), protected health information (PHI), that is created, accessed, used, disclosed, and transmitted by the College of Medicine. The OCSP has adopted the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and NIST Privacy Framework as the governance foundation for its cybersecurity and privacy programs. The OCSP has developed and published policies, standards, baselines, and procedures that align to the NIST CSF and Privacy Framework functions, categories, and subcategories. The OCSP administers a cybersecurity risk management program that is built upon the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) approach of: Preparation, Categorization, Selection and Implementation of Controls, Assessment of Controls, Authorization to Operate, and Control Monitoring.

The OCSP has developed and implemented an integrated incident management program modeled after NIST Special Publication 800-61 Computer Security Incident Handling Guide. The OCSP maintains an Incident Response Plan that establishes how OCSP and the College of Medicine will respond through each phase of an incident. Annual mandatory cybersecurity and privacy awareness training includes reinforcing with the workforce how to detect and report suspected cybersecurity and privacy incidents. The OCSP conducts regular testing of the incident response plan procedures to reinforce the actions taken by incident responders as well as conducting post-incident and post-testing lessons learned to identify opportunities to improve the incident response capability.

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center utilizes the Cerner Corporation’s Millennium electronic medical record system.

This system is CCHITsm-certified and meets the inpatient electronic health record (EHR) criteria. PowerChart, the viewing window for Millennium, allows physicians to access full inpatient and outpatient data, complete orders, and check test results all within one computer program.

Electronic medical records help to improve efficiency, safety, and coordination of medical care while reducing costs and errors. Staff enters all orders electronically except for chemotherapy.

Physicians at the University Park location and those who practice in the joint venture with the Mount Nittany Cancer Center have access to Mount Nittany’s EMR, which is provided by MediTech.

Harrell Health Sciences Library – Research and Learning Commons collections and services support the informational needs of Penn State users engaged in patient care, research and education, including interlibrary loan, search services and instruction. The library currently employs approximately 10 faculty librarians who hold, at minimum, a master’s degree from an American Library Association-accrediting library program. Full-time and part-time staff are also employed. Library faculty members teach literature searching, information literacy, basic database search skills, evidence-based medicine and bibliographic software programs (e.g., Endnote) in course-integrated instruction or workshops to all members of the Penn State community. A suite of services and training opportunities are available as requested or on a recurring basis. The library provides members with access to an audio and video recording studio, 3-D printing options and multimedia services.

Harrell Library is part of Penn State University Libraries, allowing member access to more than 6.8 million books and ebooks, approximately 180,000 online full-text journals and more than 850 databases. Penn State University Libraries are increasingly electronic, allowing 24-hour access from anywhere. Most digital platforms are compatible with mobile devices. Penn State provides access to many of the major scientific journals, highly used scholarly databases and point-of-care clinical tools.

Learn more about the Harrell Health Sciences Library

The Investigational Drug Service (IDS) at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is charged with the control and management of investigational (research) drugs used in clinical (human) research trials throughout the institution. IDS currently controls the procurement, storage, blinding, and dispensing of study medications in over 250 studies.

Current practice areas for study involvement include, but are not limited to, pediatric and adult oncology, cardiology, asthma and allergy, neurology, rheumatology, dermatology, and biologics.

The IDS also provides pharmacy services for multiple national cooperative investigating groups including the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ECOG-ACRIN), Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), PrECOG, NRG-Oncology, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

The Penn State University Institutional Review Board reviews and approves protocols for use in the facility. Pharmacists serve on the IRB. The IDS only dispenses medications for protocols that have undergone IRB review and approval. The IDS can assist investigators with the development of drug blinding/dispensing plans for investigator-initiated trials within the institution.

The IDS pharmacy is a 1,008-square-foot pharmacy. Access is limited to pharmacy personnel via badge swipe access. The drug storage areas within the IDS pharmacy are locked with a key. Only investigational medications and study-related supplies are stored in the IDS pharmacy drug storage areas. The drug storage areas are comprised of both a non-hazardous drug storage workroom and a hazardous (USP800-compliant) negative pressure drug storage room. The IDS pharmacy maintains the following critical equipment: medication refrigerators (2 to 8 ^oC), -20^oC freezer (-15 to -25^oC), -80^oC freezers (< 60^oC), and controlled room temperature storage (20 to 25^oC).

Access to laminar airflow hoods and biosafety cabinets is provided by the inpatient pharmacy and the chemotherapy pharmacy. Critical equipment is plugged into red outlets that are connected to the back-up generator.

Temperature monitoring of study medications is accomplished using a system called SensoScientific for continuous, wireless, electronic temperature monitoring. Each area (refrigerator, freezer or room temperature space) where investigational medications are stored has its own temperature probe. Temperature readings are monitored continuously, and a recording is made every 5 minutes. Monthly, IDS pharmacy prints a graph of the temperature readings from each temperature probe. If an excursion occurs, a detailed list report of the time of the incident is printed for review. Temperature probes are calibrated yearly. When temperatures reach a pre-alarm or alarm level, the system begins contacting pharmacy personnel via phone, email and pager, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Current staffing is provided by pharmacists, certified pharmacy technicians and a lead pharmacist.

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has approximately 1,150 laboratories in eight basic science departments and 16 clinical departments that total more than 371,000 square feet of assignable laboratory and research space.

At University Park, there is 1,303,240 square feet of assignable laboratory and research space.

Note: The following guidance is not boilerplate language and should not be used as such.

The Office of Cybersecurity and Privacy for Penn State Health and the Penn State College of Medicine no longer provides detailed technical information regarding the architecture of our computer networks.

If during grant proposal preparation, there is specific technical information needed, please coordinate with their office to request support by sending an email to Cyber Security Governance.

REDCap is a secure, web-based application that supports data capture and management for research studies. The system was developed by Vanderbilt University in collaboration with a multi-institutional consortium which includes Penn State University.

REDCap is maintained by a consortium composed of 1,875 active institutional partners in 100 countries who utilize and support REDCap in various ways. REDCap is made available to the Penn State community through Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Penn State University’s license of REDCap is hosted at and validated within the data center of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine. REDCap allows real-time data entry, post data collection data entry, importing data from other sources, or the administration of web-based surveys or questionnaires to participants via manual or automated e-mail invitations.

REDCap incorporates all the features of a secure, web-based data entry system: data encryption on a secure server located behind an application firewall with reverse proxy; processes to eliminate breach attacks; HIPAA-compliant; user and password authentication; role-based access; logging of all user activities; and a data audit trail.

Any participant protected health information (PHI) that needs to be stored in REDCap can be protected using role-based permissions incorporated within REDCap that prevent the viewing or exporting of these identifiers. Source documents can be uploaded into REDCap for effective remote data monitoring. Performance reports can also be created and executed in REDCap to monitor study accrual, protocol implementation, protocol violations or deviations, participant safety, and data quality.

The Penn State CTSI website provides drop-in text for investigators to include in Institutional Review Board (IRB) submissions.

See CTSI IRB drop-in text

The REDCap Consortium maintains a website that provides a detailed discussion of the software and technical overview – both of which can be utilized as drop-in text for funding proposals.

Learn more about the REDCap Consortium

Zoom is a secure, user-friendly, cloud-based enterprise videoconferencing service that Penn State implemented in July 2017. Zoom is accessible to faculty and staff at all Penn State campuses via psu.zoom.us.

This multifaceted video and audio conferencing system supports video and audio conferencing across multiple platforms, including room systems, mobile devices, desktops and telephones.

The Zoom platform at Penn State has two main features: Zoom meetings and Zoom webinars.

Designed to support collaboration, Zoom meetings support up to 500 video participants. By default, any participant in a meeting can share their video and audio and utilize the chat feature to exchange messages with participants. The meeting host controls all meeting features, which include mute/unmute participants, screen sharing, recording options, video sharing, remote screen control and participant annotation. Annotation allows participants to draw and highlight on the screenshare. Zoom webinar provides access for up to 500 view-only attendees and features live question-and-answer, polling, registration and post-webinar reporting.

Penn State Zoom offers both local recording and cloud recording and has a storage capacity of 0.5 GB per user. Cloud recording includes an option to produce an audio transcript for a meeting or webinar. The transcript is saved to the cloud as a separate .vtt text file, and the host can elect to display the transcript text within the video itself, similar to a closed-caption display.

Zoom is accessed via Penn State’s single sign-on solution, which provides an environment in which users can authenticate/log in at one time to a central server and connect with web-based services via Penn State WebAccess, which features two-factor authentication.

Effective Jan. 18, 2019, Penn State Health implemented a HIPAA-compliant Zoom platform at pshealth.zoom.us, which includes encryption and recording settings that are fully compliant with HIPAA regulations. The Penn State Health Zoom instance is the only approved video/web conferencing solution for all Penn State Health and College of Medicine faculty, staff and students.

Note: The actual boilerplate language can be found under the heading “Boilerplate language,” below.

Applicants for NIH research grants must include a Multi-PD/PI Leadership Plan in any application that proposes a multiple PD/PI approach. The Multi-PD/PI model is most appropriate for complex research projects that require collaborative or multidisciplinary team approaches to address a scientific problem. Effective Multi-PD/PI plans have a clear scientific rationale. Each PI’s contribution is well defined, represents substantial percent effort, and calls upon unique expertise that does not overlap with other PIs named to the project. Multi-PD/PI plans document how the participating PIs will work collectively to provide project oversight, determine the scientific direction of the project, and ensure that systems are in place to manage institutional compliance and conflict resolution.

The Multi-PD/PI plan is an option available for most research grant applications. If you are considering a Multi-PD/PI model for your proposal, verify that this approach is permitted by referring to the specific Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Multi-PD/PI plans have no page limit. The NIH website maintains a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs). It is always appropriate to contact the NIH program official prior to planning your proposal to discuss the appropriateness of the Multi-PD/PI model for the research and funding mechanism in question.

The following boilerplate language is a representative EXAMPLE of a Multi-PD/PI plan. Please feel free to utilize this boilerplate language as a starting point for your own Multi-PD/PI plan.

Boilerplate language

The goal of this project is to determine [Insert Text]. The project will first, determine [Insert Text] and second, determine [Insert Text relevant to specific aims]

The PIs and the collaborators on this project have broad experience in all areas [list examples], necessary for successfully undertaking this project.  Each PI will contribute unique expertise. Since the application proposes studies that transcend an individual PI’s expertise, their contributions are uniquely complementary and necessitates a multi-PI leadership approach.

Luke Skywalker, Ph.D., Professor of [Insert Text] will serve as the contact Principal Investigator.  He is a nationally recognized expert in [Insert Text]. He is trained in [Insert Text]. For this project, he will be intimately involved in [refer to relevant aims], bringing unique and complementary expertise to the project. [Speak to the specific expertise the contact PI brings to the project]. He leads the [Insert Text] effort at Penn State University serving as [Insert Text]; thereby having access to the models and other essential material necessary to accomplish this project.  He has [Insert Text] high quality peer reviewed publications focusing on this disease.  Second, he brings the [Insert Text] biology research expertise involving [list aspects relevant to the project] to the team and has publications related to this [Insert Text]. Third, he brings [Insert Text] expertise to the project, with a substantial publication record documenting the [Insert Text]. For this project, he developed the [Insert Text].  He also has experience with all the [Insert Text/Example: animal/human subject models] required for this project. Thus, Dr. Skywalker is uniquely qualified to serve as the contact PI of this project based on his expertise as well as leadership in [Insert Text].

Lara Croft, Ph.D., Professor of [Insert Text] will serve as a Principal Investigator, and is a recognized leaders in [Insert Text]. She has extensive expertise in [Insert Text]. For this project, she will be intimately involved in [refer to relevant aims], bringing unique expertise to the project which is complementary to Dr. Skywalker’s expertise and important for the successful completion of this project. She is the [Insert Title] at Penn State University and has [reference years of experience in the field]. For this project she will provide the [Insert Text].  She will also provide the [Insert Text/Example: drug metabolism expertise].  Dr. Croft’s research program is recognized for [Insert Text]. She has authored/co-authored nearly [Insert Text] papers in this research space.  She has a long-term, ongoing and successful collaboration with Dr. Skywalker, which has resulted in [Insert Text] co-authored publications, joint grants, and patents in this area of research.  Thus, Dr. Croft is uniquely qualified to serve as a PI of this grant due to her extensive expertise in [Insert Text].

Unique Qualifications of the PIs Justifying Multi-PI Leadership of this Project: For this project Drs. Skywalker and Croft will work closely together to [speak to project goals]. The PIs will determine [reference specific aims of the proposed project]. Preliminary data developed by Drs. Croft and Skywalker show [Insert Text]. The PIs have contributed equally to these discoveries, combining Dr. Skywalker’s expertise in [Insert Text] with that of Dr. Croft’s expertise in [Insert Text].

(If applicable) Unique Team Assembled by the PIs to Accomplish the Proposed Project: Drs. Skywalker and Croft have assembled a unique multidisciplinary team to undertake this project, which demonstrates their leadership and also gives the project a high likelihood of success. Drs. Skywalker and Croft will convene monthly meetings with their multidisciplinary team to discuss the overall progress of the project and to actively incorporate the team’s expertise into project execution. In addition to the expertise of the PIs, which is key to the execution of the project as outlined above, the multidisciplinary team also brings significant additional expertise in [Insert Text/Example: animal models of XYZ, drug development, clinical surgical oncology, clinical medical oncology, patient-derived XYZ models and statistics].

Another significant contributor is Katniss Everdeen, M.D., Ph.D., who will provide [Insert Text] expertise for the project, ensuring the [Insert Text] relevance of the project for the treatment of [Insert Text].

Project Oversight: Drs. Skywalker and Croft will provide oversight for the entire program, the development and implementation of all policies, procedures and processes. They will co-lead the monthly multidisciplinary team meetings to discuss progress and to move the project forward to accomplish its overarching objectives.  In these roles, Drs. Skywalker and Croft will be responsible for undertaking the research related to this project and to ensure that systems are in place to guarantee institutional compliance with U.S. laws and DHHS and NIH policies including biosafety, human and animal research, data and facilities.  Dr. Skywalker will be responsible for all animal and biosafety research approvals.  Dr. Croft will be responsible for all chemistry related aspects of the project.  Dr. Skywalker will serve as contact PI and will assume fiscal as well as administrative management including maintaining communication among PIs and key personnel through weekly or monthly meetings, as deemed necessary by the PIs. He will also be responsible for communication with the NIH and submission of annual progress reports.

PI Communication: The PIs will communicate weekly, either by phone, email, or in person, to discuss experimental design, data analysis, and all administrative responsibilities.  Monthly meetings, led by the PIs, will be held for the entire team to discuss the overall progress of the project and to incorporate the expertise of the team into project execution.  The PIs will share their respective research results with other personnel working on the project. They will work together to discuss any changes in the direction of the research project and the reprogramming of funds, if necessary.

Authorship: Publication authorship will be based on the relative scientific contributions of the PIs and personnel from each laboratory. Joint first co-authorship will be held by scientists from each group who have contributed most to the study as decided by the PIs. Senior last authorship will be agreed upon by the PIs and they will decide whether a single PI or multiple PIs will serve as co-corresponding authors, depending on the contributions of each lab to the publication. Should disagreement arise regarding senior corresponding authorship, all PIs will be listed as equal co-corresponding authors.

Intellectual Property:  The Technology Transfer Office at Penn State University will be responsible for protecting the intellectual property generated from this project.  The PIs will share in the IP based on their respective contributions to its development.  This will be decided upon by an “Intellectual Property Committee” comprised of the PIs and a member from the Penn State Technology Transfer Office. The committee will work to ensure that the intellectually property developed by the PIs is protected according to the policies established by the University.

Conflict Resolution:  Based on the long term successful collaboration between the two PIs, no conflict is expected to arise during this study. However, if a potential conflict develops, the appropriate Departmental administrators representing the PIs shall meet and attempt in good faith to settle any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to the interpretation, performance, or breach of this disagreement. However, if the Departmental administrators fail to resolve the disagreement within thirty business days, then such disagreement shall be referred for arbitration to a designated senior executive who has authority to settle the disagreement, but who is not directly involved in the disagreement. [In the case of the Penn State College of Medicine, the senior executive with authority is the Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Studies]

NIH has issued a new Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy, effective January 25, 2023. This new policy requires all grant applications or renewals that generate scientific data include a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP) and budget requests for data management activities, when applicable. Additionally, the policy sets an expectation for researchers to share data to the maximum extent possible.

Penn State offers online tools for determining appropriate data storage options. In addition, University Libraries offers resources and tools for creating data management plans, including one-to-one consultations and DMSP reviews.

Learn more on the Office of the Senior Vice President’s website.

Federal Tax Identification Number (TIN): 246000376

Tax Exemption Date: Date of most recent Internal Revenue Service determination letter recognizing the organization’s tax-exempt status:

January 3, 2024

Tax Exemption Comments: The Pennsylvania State University is tax-exempt under Section 115 of the Internal Revenue Code. This tax-exempt status granted under Section 115 precludes any requirement of obtaining any additional specific exemption under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). (1000 characters max)

Non-Verifiable Explanation: Please explain why the organization cannot be verified with IRS (e.g., organization is a church or other religious organization). The University is a State-related Institution of Higher Education and is tax-exempt under Section 115 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Organization Name: The Pennsylvania State University – College of Medicine

Also Known As/Doing Business As: Leave this field blank

Organization Country:  United States

Organization Address:  The common application accommodates three lines of text. Please use the mailing address below:

Line 1: Office of Research Affairs
Line 2: Penn State College of Medicine
Line 3: 500 University Drive, Mail Code H138

Organization City: Hershey
Organization State: Pennsylvania
Organization ZIP/Postal Code: 17033-0850

Physical Address:
Penn State College of Medicine
700 HMC Crescent Road
Hershey, PA 17033

Website Address: https://med.psu.edu/research-proposals

Organization Type: Health

Applicants at the College of Medicine are directed to choose “Health” as the organization type from the drop-down menu.

Mission Statement (1,000 character max.):
The Pennsylvania State University is a multi-campus, land-grant, public research University that educates students from around the world, and supports individuals and communities through integrated programs of teaching, research, and service. Its discovery-oriented, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research and scholarship promote human and economic development, global understanding, and advancement in professional practice through the expansion of knowledge and its applications in the natural and applied sciences, social and behavioral sciences, engineering, technology, arts and humanities, and myriad professions. As Pennsylvania’s land-grant university, Penn State provides unparalleled access to education and public service to support the citizens of the Commonwealth and beyond. Penn State engages in collaborative activities with private sector, educational, and governmental partners worldwide to generate, integrate, apply, and disseminate knowledge that is valuable to society.

Fiscal Agent/Sponsor:
The online application includes a drop-down menu of options for answering this question. Applicants from the College of Medicine should select the last option in the drop-down menu – “Not Applicable.”

Overview

Note to Applicants:
The Board of Trustees of the University is the corporate body established by the University’s Charter with overall responsibility for the governance and welfare of the University and all the interests pertaining thereto. In the exercise of its responsibilities, the Board of Trustees delegates day-to-day management and control of the University to the President, with certain reserved powers as set forth in the University’s Bylaws. Trustees are separated into three groups of substantially equal numbers so that the terms of one third of the Board of Trustees expires each year. The current composition of the Board of Trustees is listed below.

Organization Leadership

Number of Paid Staff, Full-Time Staff: 20,912

Number of Paid Staff, Part-Time Staff: 15,213

Number of Volunteers: 16,900

Staffing data was obtained from the Penn State University Data Digest for the Fall 2023 semester.

Regarding volunteers, each year, more than 16,500 Penn State student volunteers participate in fundraising efforts to support THON, whose sole beneficiary is Four Diamonds at Penn State Children’s Hospital. THON is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, both in terms of revenue and volunteer participation. In addition, there are approximately 400 adults who actively volunteer at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Note to Applicants: The budget detail was obtained from the FY 2023-24 operating budget for The Pennsylvania State University, which was approved by the University’s full board of trustees in July 2023. Budget information can be accessed online through the University’s Budget Office. The budget encompasses the entire Penn State system, including the main campus at University Park, the Commonwealth campuses, the Penn State Law School, The Pennsylvania College of Technology, the Penn State College of Medicine, and Penn State Health. The Penn State Health System is a subsidiary corporation within Penn State.

Total Annual Budget: $5,521,365,000 (enter the amount as shown)

Organizational Budget Detail:

Note to Applicants:
If you enter the budget amounts with a dollar sign ($), commas, or periods (.), you will get an error message when you attempt to ‘Add a New Row.’

Example of Correct Data Entry: 686609000

Budget Changes:
Summarize any significant changes in your current year budget since initially established (1,000 character max.)

The University is operating under a new budgeting model that develops fiscal plans for two years as a means of enhancing predictability, improving the strategic allocation of University resources, and better controlling costs in support of access and affordability. Advances have been made toward a balanced budget, including a University-wide hiring freeze, reduced health care costs, and increased investment income. The University also received a one-time $12.1 million COVID relief grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, deferred spending on capital projects and saw savings on contracts for equipment and services.

Administrative expenses / % of Budget:
What percentage of your budget is allocated to administrative expenses?

12 percent

These data were obtained from Penn State University’s Right-to-Know Law Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, which was released on May 31, 2023.

Fiscal Year End Date: 06/30/2022     

Tax Return Filed – Did your organization file a tax return for the prior fiscal year?
Select “No” as the answer from the drop-down menu

No Tax Return Explanation – Explain why your organization did not file a tax return for the prior fiscal year.

The IRS Form 990 is used by the University as a convenient instrument to report select information required by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, the University is not required to, and does not file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service.

Note to Applicants: Research Development found that data entry works best for the tables that auto-calculate when submitters omit the dollar sign ($) and commas, manually entering each amount. Based on our experience, when a user tries to copy/paste amounts from the boilerplate language into the online application, error messages may be generated.

Contributions and Grants: $581,697,000

Program Service Revenue: $7,032,900,984

Investment Income: $572,116,000

Other Revenue: $56,221,016

TOTAL REVENUE: $8,242,935,000 (this number gets auto-calculated)

Note to Applicants: Research Development found that data entry works best for the tables that auto-calculate when submitters omit the dollar sign ($) and commas, manually entering each amount. Based on our experience, when a user tries to copy/paste amounts from the boilerplate language into the online application, error messages may be generated.

Program Services: $3,418,917,634

Administration:  $868,210,017

Fundraising: $34,604,439

Other Expenses: $2,892,606,910

TOTAL EXPENSES: $7,214,339,000 (this number gets auto-calculated)

Revenue Less Expenses:  $1,028,596,000 (enter the amount as shown)

Note to Applicants: Research Development found that data entry works best for the tables that auto-calculate when submitters omit the dollar sign ($) and commas, manually entering each amount. Based on our experience, when a user tries to copy/paste amounts from the boilerplate language into the online application, error messages may be generated.

Total Assets:  $19,439,689,000

Total Liabilities: $7,047,069,000

Net Assets or Fund Balances: $12,392,620,000

Endowment Net Assets: -$237,719,919

Additional Finance-Related Comments: The aforementioned data reflects end-of-year numbers from the University’s Form 990 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.

This section is to be completed by the PI.

Requested Amount: Enter requested amount. Direct costs only. The H.G. Barsumian, M.D. Memorial Fund does NOT pay indirect costs.

Support Type: College of Medicine applicants should select “Project/Program Support” from the drop-down menu

Project Title: Enter project title

Project/Program Description: Describe specific purposes for which any grant funds awarded from this foundation will be used (e.g., specific equipment, overall project funding, etc.). (1,000 character maximum)

Common Goals: Describe how a grant to your organization would further the foundation’s mission and the priorities of the foundation. (1,000 character maximum)

This section is to be completed by the PI.

Primary Program Area Served: College of Medicine applicants should select “Health” from the drop-down menu

Primary Geographical Area Served: Select the primary geographic region served by this request from the drop-down menu.

Primary Population Served: Select from drop-down menu

Primary Age Group Served Select from drop-down menu

Demographics Comments (optional): This field is optional (1,000 characters max.)

Contact Salutation: Mr.

Contact First Name: Thomas

Contact Middle Name/Initial: J.

Contact Last Name: Brydebell

Contact Suffix: Leave this field blank

Contact Title: Director of Grants Administration

Contact Phone Number: 717-531-8495

Contact Email Address: e-Grants@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

This section is to be completed by the PI.

Project/Program Objectives: Describe the objectives of the project or program to be funded.
(4,000 character maximum)

Implementation Plan: Describe the implementation plan for the project or program. Include at least three specific actions your organization will take in order to achieve results. (4,000 character maximum)

Measuring Success: What criteria does (or will) your organization use to measure the success of the project or program? (4,000 character maximum)

Collaboration: Briefly describe any formal or informal collaborative ventures your organization has established (or will establish) with other entities serving similar purposes that may be relevant to this grant request. (4,000 character maximum)

Project/Program Background: If this grant request relates to an ongoing project or program, how long has the project or program been operating? (4,000 character maximum)

Project/Program Start Date: If a grant is awarded, when does your organization anticipate being able to begin using the funds for the requested purpose? (Date format: MM/DD/YYYY)
College of Medicine applicants should identify 09/01/2024 as the Start Date

Project/Program End Date: If a grant is awarded, when would the requested funds likely be exhausted? (Date format: MM/DD/YYYY) College of Medicine applicants should identify 08/31/2025 as the End Date

Project/Program Timeline: Provide any other relevant dates relating to the project or program for which grant funds would be used (milestones, interim check-ins, etc.). (1,500-character maximum)

This section is to be completed by the PI. Project Budget should only include direct costs. The H.G. Barsumian, M.D. Memorial Fund does NOT pay indirect costs.

Total Project Budget: Provide a total project budget

Project Budget Detail Worksheet: Provide concise budget detail for the project listing major expense categories. This worksheet will auto-calculate a total, which should match the Total Project Budget entered in the previous field.

Other Project Funding: List other sources that may fund this project. Include other pending grant requests, providing entity name, amount requested, and current status of each. If these sources do not fully fund the project, what other sources of funding will your organization pursue? (3,500-character maximum)

• Penn State University’s Audited Financial Statements – Right-to-Know Law Report for Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2022 (released May 31, 2023)
• College of Medicine Office of Research Affairs (ORA)
• General Counsel’s letter of opinion regarding the University’s tax-exempt status