IBD Plexus: Academic Request for Proposals

About IBD Plexus®

IBD Plexus was founded by the Foundation to advance science, accelerate progress towards precision medicine, and improve the care of patients living with IBD. This first-of-its kind, national-scale, cloud-based platform integrates clinical, patient-reported, genetic, and other molecular data from diverse research study cohorts, real-world clinical care settings, and patients’ experiences. IBD Plexus provides academic and industry researchers with access to research-ready datasets and biosamples to more rapidly perform activities that promise to speed treatment development, optimize existing therapies through development of biomarkers and diagnostics, and improve health outcomes. 

Request for proposals | Key dates | Scope | Eligibility | How to apply

Request for proposals

This RFP was made possible with the support of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation is excited to release an international request for proposals (RFP) for academic researchers to gain access to IBD patients’ biosamples and / or research-ready datasets housed within IBD Plexus®. The Foundation seeks research proposals that would utilize IBD Plexus biosamples and / or data to facilitate efforts in 4 main areas: 1) identification and / or validation of diagnostics / biomarkers, 2) therapeutic development and optimization 3) disease management 4) disease prevention

Key dates

Proposals are reviewed six times a year. Please find review cycles below.

This is a rolling solicitation. The Foundation will continue to accept responses to the RFP until all awards are distributed.

Scope

The goal of IBD Plexus is to accelerate research in high impact areas. The Foundation seeks research proposals that would utilize IBD Plexus biosamples and / or data to drive progress towards precision medicine and / or leverage real world data to produce real world evidence. Priority will be given to proposals that enable answering one or more of the following main areas: 

1) identification and / or validation of diagnostics / biomarkers, 

2) therapeutic development and optimization, 

3) disease management, and

4) disease prevention 

Eligibility 

The lead principal investigator (PI) must be an investigator (e.g. Professor, Head of Research, Associate Professor, or equivalent) with expertise in a relevant field of research. At the time of application, PI and any co-PIs must be employed by an institution (public non-profit, private non-profit, or government) engaged in health care and/or health care related research. Proposals involving multiple institutions are welcome.

How to apply

LOIs and proposals should be submitted to proposalCENTRAL at: https://proposalcentral.com. To submit a LOI / proposal follow the steps below:  

1. Define a research question that addresses areas of priority interest described in Section 3 of this RFP

2. Submit an LOI through proposalCENTRAL

After login in, click on “Grant opportunities” on the far right of the page and select “Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation” under “Filter by Grant Maker” drop down menu on the upper left of the page. Locate “IBD Plexus” announcement and click “Apply now" to submit a LOI. The LOI is mandatory for all applications and will be considered seriously. Not all LOIs will be accepted for full proposal. LOIs with missing fields will not be approved.