Below are answer to frequently asked questions about our RFA. For more details, please refer to the full RFA document found here.
- Who should apply and what are the evaluation criteria?
- What are the OAIC Cores that scholars are required to utilize?
- What is the research component and how is it evaluated?
- What is included in and required for salary support and training?
- What is the application process?
- When will applicants receive notification of award?
- What are requirements for publications under the Pepper Scholar Program?
- Who should I contact with questions about the RFA?
Who should apply and what are the evaluation criteria?
Early career investigators with a UF appointment as an Assistant Professor or comparable level or more established faculty who are new to the field of aging are eligible. Applicants can originate from a wide range of disciplines spanning cellular, physiological, population-based, or database focused. Faculty from any College at UF or the VA Medical Center are eligible.
Primary Qualifications:
- Early career faculty with a UF appointment as an Assistant Professor or comparable level.
- A proposed research project relevant to Advancing solutions for age-related mobility loss
- Commitment to a research career with focus on aging or age-related conditions
- Not having received, as principal investigator, a major independent award or career development award, e.g. NIH R01 or K award
- Able to provide sufficient protected time (min 50%) to accomplish the proposed career development plan
- A letter of support from the chair or division chief noting appropriate time allocation to develop their research career
- US citizenship not required, foreign nationals are eligible to apply
Selection Process:
- External peer review committee evaluates applicants
- Appointment by the Pepper Center Executive Committee
- Endorsement by External Advisory Board
- Approval from the National Institute on Aging Program Officer
What are the OAIC Cores that scholars are required to utilize?
Projects MUST utilize one or more OAIC Service Cores to support their pilot project. A brief description of each core follows and service information is available from the core leaders upon request.
The Clinical Research Core, led by Stephen Anton, Ph.D. (santon@ufl.edu) provides expertise for conducting and translating clinical research across the spectrum of investigation of both behavioral and pharmaceutical clinical trials. It also engages with observational studies of risk and outcomes related to mobility loss.
The Metabolism and Translational Science Core, led by Christiaan Leeuwenburgh PhD (cleeuwen@ufl.edu), research provides expertise in aging-relevant protein, RNA, and DNA biomarkers, as well as measurements of metabolism in isolated mitochondria and white blood cells.
The Systems Physiology and Multi–Omics Core led by Karyn Esser, PhD (kaesser@ufl.edu) provides expertise in systemic measures of mouse activity and neuromuscular coordination, body composition, metabolic rate and support for design and analysis of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics datasets.
The Biostatistics and Informatics Core, led by Peihua Qiu, PhD (pqiu@ufl.edu) and Yi Guo (yiguo@ufl.edu), creates operational definitions for outcome variables and other covariates and supports analyses of pilot studies. The core also provides pre-study and pre-proposal study design guidance, sample size and power analyses, and develops statistical analysis plans. The core also supports REDCap services for secure data management and facilitates access to harmonized EHR warehouses like OneFl+.
The Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Core, led by Sanjay Ranka, PhD (ranka@cise.ufl.edu) Chris Kaufmann (ckaufmann@ufl.edu), provides a central hub of expertise in computer science, biomedical engineering, data science, software engineering, cloud-based data collection, remote and mHealth technology and wearables.
What is the research component and how is it evaluated?
Basic science, pre-clinical and secondary data analyses projects are allowed up to $25,000 per year in direct costs. Clinical research projects which involve enrollment of human subjects are allowed up to $50,000 per year in direct costs. Each project should be for no more than 2 years (project end date 3/31/2029) and it is the expectation that all funds will be expended within each award year: no carryover of funds and no indirect costs are allowed. The research project is evaluated upon:
- NIH’s Simplified Peer Review Framework. Factor 1: Importance of the Research (Innovation and Significance); Factor 2: Rigor and Feasibility; Factor 3: Expertise and Resources. Each of these are scored on a 1-9 scale.
- Relevance to the RFA theme: Advancing solutions for age-related mobility loss
- Candidates and their project have potential to be competitive for external funding. In the full application, applicants are required to describe the aims of the subsequent project and to outline how the research will provide data that are needed to generate a competitive grant application.
- Quality and Commitment of Primary Mentor and Mentoring Team
- Use of OAIC Service Cores
- Budget and timeline appropriateness
- Candidate qualifications (publications, impact of research, previous training, etc.)
What is included in and required for salary support and training?
- In addition to funding for the research project, salary support of 50% effort, up to $60,000/year is allowable by the OAIC. In the full application, candidates will need to seek approval from their chair or division chief to protect 50% of their time to conduct career development activities.
- One or more highly qualified primary mentors who are willing and able to provide sufficient time to mentor scholars
- Priority access to OAIC research cores
- Applicants will participate in a variety of educational opportunities to enhance their skillset and broaden their knowledge on aging and mobility loss (seminars, coursework, workshops).
Allowable Costs
- Only direct costs that support the advancement of the research proposal are allowed. No indirect costs will be awarded.
- Educational or research training activities
- Awardees must comply with the broad policies governing Cost Accounting Standards.
Provisions Applicable to Direct Costs
- Domestic travel is permitted for project-related scientific meetings to present research. Foreign travel is not allowed.
- Scientific equipment (not to exceed $5000) is allowed if specifically budgeted for and awarded. Upon completion of the project, any equipment purchased utilizing REC funds will remain under the title of the UF Pepper Center.
- General purpose office equipment is not allowed.
- Costs of publications and open access fees are allowable.
- Food is not allowed, except for research purposes for research study participants.
- Principal Investigator and key personnel (Co-Investigators) salaries are not permitted to be budgeted on the pilot research project. Research Education Scholar salary is covered under the scholarship portion of the award. FTE allocation for technicians, staff scientist and general research staff salaries are allowed.
What is the application process?
Submit Letter of Intent (LOI)
A one-page letter of intent is due by September 18, 2026. The following information should be included.
- Your name, title, email, department and college
- Relevance to the OAIC theme as described in this RFA
- Core(s) you plan to utilize for your projectShort summary, specific aims and general research plan
- One page, single spaced, 0.5’’ margins
LOIs can be submitted at the RedCap link and are due by 5PM on September 18, 2026.
Submission of Full Application
Accepted LOIs will receive full application details and instructions by October 1st. Full application due date is Friday, December 4, 2026 at 11:59 PM. All awards are contingent upon the type of project proposed, availability of funds and approval by the OAIC External Advisory Board and the National Institute on Aging.
When will applicants receive notification of award?
Notification of award is projected after February 2027 with a release of funds anticipated in April 2027. These dates are dependent on the sponsor’s timely release of funds. The distribution of awards is contingent upon approval of the project from the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) as appropriate. Applicants must include the IRB/IACUC submission process in their timeline.
What are requirements for publications under the Pepper Scholar Program?
Any publications originating from the work need to follow the NIHMS guidelines, PMCID compliance and acknowledgement of the Pepper Center: “Support was provided by the University of Florida Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center P30AG028740”.
Who should I contact with questions about the RFA?
For additional information or clarification please contact Christiaan Leeuwenburgh (cleeuwen@ufl.edu) or Roger Fillingim (rfilling@ufl.edu), for questions regarding this RFA and guidance in developing relevant research proposals. Please attend the informational workshop if you are interested in applying. For any administrative questions please contact pepper-center@ufl.edu.
Please find details about our information workshops on the RFA for Pepper Scholars page.
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Request for Scholar Applications
The University of Florida Claude D. Pepper Older American’s Independence Center (OAIC) is seeking applications for its Pepper Scholar Program from early-stage investigators conducting research related to the OAIC theme of “Understanding the Multi-complexity of Mobility Loss with Aging”. Download to learn more.