Core Funding
Core Coins Program (SOM Only)
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Core Coins Program is a funding mechanism designed to encourage investigators to access core services and facilities. Our goal is to accelerate research by providing rapid, targeted funding to address small but critical gaps in basic, clinical and translational research work currently not funded by other sources. Core Coins will be awarded on a competitive basis to individual PIs and subsequently administered through the iLab program through a distinct account provided to you within an iLab core.
Core Coin Applicant Eligibility
Faculty that have an appointment through School of Medicine are eligible for Core Coins. School of Medicine Core facilities receiving Core Coins funding must have adopted iLab Solutions or have signed up for implementation. For additional information about iLab Solutions, please contact either Shawn Franckowiak or Jeff Smith from the Office for Faculty Research Resources.
Apply for Core Coins Now
Funding and Timing
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (SOM) Core Coins Program has provided over $350,000 in Core Coins to faculty in calendar year 2019. Core Coin funding is awarded directly to individual faculty to complete faculty-generated projects at any of the SOM cores using the iLab core management system. Additional Core Coin funding opportunities for calendar year 2020 and beyond will be communicated through this website and through faculty email distribution.
The Core Coin funding will focus on encouraging faculty to submit individual research project proposals for research not currently supported through sponsored or non-sponsored sources, but require the use of SOM core services and/or the utilization of equipment or technology within SOM cores. Similar to the Core Coin funding offered in previous years, the funding is designed to address small but critical gaps in basic, clinical and translational research currently not funded by other sources, and provide opportunities to fund novel research projects of investigators. The funding amounts requested for individual projects can range from $2,500 to $20,000, with expedited review given to those projects with amounts in the lower range.
To qualify for Core Coin funding, faculty should be aware of the following eligibility criteria listed below:
- Faculty member must have a SOM faculty appointment
- A brief research plan must be submitted through the Core in the Box Website application (link below)
- Feedback to application questions should be brief and is limited to 1 page total for all responses (~500 words)
- For each project, services can only be requested from one research core
- Funding requested can range from $2,500 to $20,000
- Requested funding should include relevant core service pricing and volumes to complete the research project
- Faculty are limited to one application per Core Coin funding offering
Faculty interested in applying can access the application at the link below, and should provide the following information:
If there are questions about the Core Coins Program, please contact Shawn Franckowiak, Director of the Office for Faculty Research Resources at sfrancko@jhmi.edu or 410-614-0484. For a complete listing of iLab cores, please visit the link below and click on the Core Facilities by School tab.
https://johnshopkins.corefacilities.org/landing/42
Past Core Coin Awardees (funds awarded to cores and distributed to faculty)
2018 Core Coin Awardees
- ICTR Center for Clinical Data Analysis (CCDA): To offer preliminary, anonymous data for feasibility assessment and grant applications to unfunded junior investigators. Additionally, the core will expand the capabilities of their new Natural Language Processing (NLP) data extraction projects and offer those services to awardees.
- Genetics Research Core Facility (GRCF): To offer single molecule sequencing on the Oxford Nanopore GridION platform, with a focus on rapid sequence identification, utilizing long reads for improved genome assembly, analysis of full length RNA transcripts from cDNA, direct sequencing of RNA molecules, metagenomic analysis, structural variant detection, copy number detection in complex regions, and support of experimentation where short reads are insufficient.
- Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery (JHDD) Group: To offer chemical synthesis of small molecules when they are not commercially available. The chemical synthesis services include but are not limited to literature compound synthesis, scale-up synthesis (for in vivo studies), and analog synthesis for preliminary structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis.
- SKCCC Analytical Pharmacology Shared Resource Core: To offer quantitation of small molecules (i.e., drugs and metabolites) in biological fluids utilizing any of four chromatographic (UPLC or UHPLC) instruments with a UV/Vis detector, triple stage quadruple mass spectrometer, and a QTrap system with ion trap capabilities.
- SKCCC Experimental and Computational Genomics Core (ECGC): To support projects that integrate measurements across different sequencing modalities, either by collecting multiple data types or using publicly available data to supplement data generated by the ECGC. Measurements supported through core coins include ChIPseq, whole exome or whole genome sequencing, and methylation assessment.
2018 Core Coin Applications and RFAs
2017 Core Coin Awardees
2017 Core Coin Applications and RFAs
2016 Core Coin Awardees
- Center for Proteomics Discovery: To offer comprehensive profiling of post-translational modifications, quantitative analysis of proteomes, and top-down and middle-down proteomics services.
- Genetics Resources Core Facility: For projects utilizing the novel 10x Genomic Single Cell Platform for the isolation of cells from four treatment groups (a maximal 24,000 cells) and downstream RNAseq (100,000 reads per cell), or the utilization of the new Fluidigm C1 for 4 treatment groups (a maximal 384 cells) and downstream RNAseq (100,000 reads per cell).
- Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility: To offer protein quantification and protein modification quantification services using isobaric mass tags as part of this RFA. These services will be offered for global quantitative proteomic experiments as well as quantitative experiments focusing on a specific protein or the protein’s modifications.
- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Core: For projects to receive approximately five hours of cell sorting on the BD Influx or one FLUOROSPOT assay.
2016 Core Coin Applications and RFAs
Contact Information
Please direct questions about the Core Coins Program to Shawn Franckowiack, Barbara Daily or Jeff Smith from the Office for Faculty Research Resources.
Other Funding Opportunities
Instrumentation grants are reviewed centrally by the Johns Hopkins University Research Administration, Research Development - Limited Submissions Programs office. Please contact resapp@jhu.edu with inquiries.
