Charles and Margaret Roberts Fund

Mr. and Mrs. Charles J. Roberts, patients and longtime friends of the late physician, George W. Stuppy, MD, directed a generous bequest to establish the Charles J. and Margaret Roberts Fund for Preventive Medicine. This trust is held at the Northern Trust. Each year since the 10th anniversary of Margaret Roberts’s death, the Roberts Fund provides Rush with four percent of the principal (totaling $186,049) as valued as of the date of the bequest. This represents a discretionary payment for the advancement of disease prevention initiatives. 

Funding amounts and availability 

• This pilot funding program awards one grant of $186,000 or two grants of $90,000 each. For this funding cycle, we are funding two grants of $90,000 each. 
• The period of support is one year.
• Faculty salary support is limited to 20%.
• No Cost Extensions (NCE) will not be allowed. 

Eligible Investigators

• Applicants can be early-career or established investigators.
• The principal investigator of the proposal must hold an active faculty appointment at Rush University at the rank of assistant professor level or higher.
• There are no citizenship or residency requirements. 

Criteria

• Proposals must be for patient-oriented clinical or community health-focused research. Interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged.
• Applicants may submit only one application as a principal investigator/multiple PIs per award cycle. 

How to apply 

Submit your proposal using the online application form. The submission link will be emailed to PIs who submit an RSVP. 

Your proposal should consist of 1 PDF file: 

• A cover page, containing the following: 
  • Grant proposal title
  • MPIs names, highest degree, position title, department/division, phone number, and email
  • Funding amount requesting
  • A statement of whether the proposal research overlaps in whole or part with any ongoing efforts or any submitted proposals
  • Conflict of Interest list for multiple PIs: Please list current RUSH collaborators with whom you have published or written grants in the past three years (no more than 1 page)
• Budget in NIH PHS398 forms
  • Allowable: Faculty salary support is limited to 20%, fringe benefits 22%, Rush non-faculty/student salary support, and publication costs
  • Not allowable: indirect costs or capital expenses
• Biographical sketches in current NIH format for MPIs only   
• Body of application
  • Formatting: 11-point Arial font with at least 1/2-inch margins
  • Project summary/abstract in layman’s terms (1 page)
  • Specific aims (1 page)
  • Research Strategy
    • Significance, innovation, and approach (6 pages)
    • Plan for Future Funding (1 page)
  • Literature Cited (no limit)
  • A form for the Department Chair/Division to acknowledge support of the application will be sent to the PI upon complete submission of the application. 

Review Process 

• A panel of non-competing researchers will review applications based on the new NIH simplified peer review framework.
• Applications that demonstrate potential for future funding will be prioritized.

Award Timeline

• Internal decision Friday, October 31, 2025.
• Final approval from The Charles and Margaret Roberts Foundation and release of grant funds in early 2026.