Arthritis Society Strategic Operating Grant

The Strategic Operating Grant (SOG) program provides funding to support research proposals aligned with the Arthritis Society's priorities. The Arthritis Society’s new Strategic Plan 2020-2025: Accelerating Impact - Research Strategy aims to identify research avenues that focus on areas of highest priority to patients and achieve the highest levels of scientific excellence and rigour. Applications must focus on innovative research efforts in the following priority areas.

Full list of Research Areas

Value

• $150,000 annually for up to three years ($450,000 total)
• These grants are non-renewable

Eligibility

• Application must be submitted by an eligible Principle Investigator (PI) an eligible Canadian Host Institution as defined by the Arthritis Society
• The roles and responsibilities of the Principal Investigator and Host Institution in the management of the Arthritis Society’s research and training funds are defined on the Arthritis Society’s website.

Criteria

Quality of PI and the research team

• Qualifications of the applicant(s), including training, experience and independence (i.e., relative to career stage)
• Experience of the applicant(s) in the proposed area of research and with the proposed methodology
• Expertise of the applicant(s), as demonstrated by scientific productivity over the past five years (e.g. publications, books, grants held, etc.). Productivity should be considered in the context of the norms for the research area, applicant experience and total research funding of the applicant
• Evidence that the personnel, facilities and infrastructure required to conduct the research are available

Quality of project

• Scientific merit of the project and its potential to create new knowledge, significantly advance our understanding of arthritis and/or improve care or support for people affected by arthritis
• Importance and novelty of the research question, proposed project and objectives
• Strength of the rationale for the research approach and methodology
• Knowledge translation plan
• Consumer Engagement plan, as appropriate
• Sex and/or gender considerations within the project
• Appropriateness of term and support requested

Relevance of the proposal to the 2020-2025 Arthritis Society's Research Strategy

• It is the applicant’s responsibility to make convincing arguments supporting the relevance of their proposals to the Arthritis Society’s Research Strategy, specifically one or more of the five research priority areas (arthritis pain, OA, IA, childhood and work). More details can be found in the Accelerating Impact: Research Strategy.
• The role of the consumer is to assess the feasibility, relevance to the strategic priorities and potential impact of the research to address an important problem, to have a significant and broad impact and its contribution to the understanding of arthritis and/or how to treat or improve outcomes for people who live with arthritis. Consumer reviewers will also assess the quality of the lay sections.
• Applicants will be notified of the results by mid-December 2022.

Application

The Letter of Intent (LOI) must be submitted through the Arthritis Society’s online research grants portal and include the following:

• Project team description: PI, Co-PIs, co-applicants, additional authors, collaborators and partners, consumers, as applicable (Max. 400 words)
• Scientific abstract (Max. 500 words)
• Project proposal (Max. 1500 words)
• References
• Relevance of the proposal to one or more of the Arthritis Society’s priority areas (Max. 250 words)
• Lay summary sections (Max. 100 -150 words each)
• Appendices (Max. 5MB per PDF document)
• Names of suggested reviewers and exclusions

Please note that no HI signatures are required at this stage.

Only the strongest applications will be invited to submit full applications. All applicants will be notified of the results of the LOI review by the end of July 2022.