Faculty Research Grant

Any faculty or house officer (intern, resident) of veterinary, veterinary social work, veterinary technician, or veterinary nursing program may apply for the research grant. Applicants must be in the US, Canada, or their territories. 

The Faculty Research grant will be available from May 6, 2020 at 12am EST- June 3, 2020 at 5pm EST. Each applicant must login to Cybergrants (PetSmart Charities’ grants management system) and create a user profile. The applicant will create a login, then select the appropriate university and complete the application questions, including verification of a Dean notification.

Funding will be provided to the school, college, university or university foundation to pay the faculty and applicable expenses. The Dean must be notified of the research application and potential for funding of the research, to allow funding transfer.

The average grant term is 1 year. Some 2 year grants may be awarded based on type of research and longitudinal nature of research.

While there is no cap placed on the application request, a budget with clearly defined requirements will need to be included with the application. Most grants will be $10,000- $25,000 with outliers on either end. Collaborative research projects should include all aspects of the project/program into a single budget and application. Travel to present research finding is an admissible expense and can be included in the research budget; additionally a stipend to support travel to a national research networking event to be hosted by PCI, at either VMX January 2022 or WVC February 2022 may be included. Publication fees are permissible in open source, peer reviewed journals (ex. PLOS ONE).

• Spectrum of Care: A phrase describing a variety of diagnostics, treatment options, and outcomes at a wide variety of price points.
• Access to Care: A phrase describing barriers to seeking or accessing veterinary care, which may include (but are not limited to): language, financial, socioeconomic, transportation, or cultural.
• Incremental Care: A phrase describing starting with basic/ most urgent/ most influential diagnostic or treatment options available for a veterinary case, and then increasing the number of options added to the treatment plan, based on time, response to treatment, and financial ability to pay for options. This method is opposite to what is currently the most common method of providing treatment plans, whereby the veterinarian provides a Plan A and removes diagnostics and/or treatments to meet the client’s ability to pay for services.
• Community Medicine: Primary care veterinary services, including basic preventative care, provided within the community, via mobile clinic, pop up clinic, utilizing community space, or other methodology.
• Community of need: The human community experiencing the barrier to veterinary care. This community can be identifies and described by a variety of means, including (but not limited to): zip codes, demographics of humans living in the community, range of services available within the community, number of veterinary clinics and/or veterinarians within a community, number of non-equine pets, or other means.
• Platinum Care: A type of veterinary service at a university or specialty level of care, including advanced diagnostics, advanced treatments, advanced surgery, or other aspects of care which may be cost or culturally prohibitive.

Examples of research include (but are not limited to):

• Longitudinal study of success rates with different outpatient treatment protocols
• Study of successful business models and economics for a community of need
• Evaluation of mental and physical health markers in humans in a community of need, with healthy, sick treated, and sick untreated pets
• Determinants of success in building relationships between veterinarians and social workers
• Most requested services in communities of need with variable (sliding scale) service pricing
• Review of state board regulations and complaints related to Accessible Veterinary Care and Incremental Care
• Evaluation of mental and physical health markers in veterinary team members who practice in a community of need, when able or not able to provide preventative or medical/surgical care
• Telemedicine business models in remote communities
• High volume, low cost veterinary business modeling
• Best practices for outpatient treatment of acute vomiting
• Best practices for outpatient treatment of chronic cough
• Longitudinal study of illnesses and outcomes within a community of need
• Identification of the most common veterinary complaints and diagnoses in a community of need
• Identification of challenges faced by low cost clinics
• Identification of challenges faced when providing veterinary care to housing-insecure populations
• Exploration of veterinary social work services in a population of need
• Population assessment of preventative care in indigenous communities

All pets must be owned by private individuals; homeless animals or shelter animals are excluded. Non-equine companion animals, such as dogs, cats, non-poultry birds, reptiles or pocket pets are admissible to the study. No animal included can be for commercial use.

Due to the volume of applications, applications cannot be evaluated by the review team prior to close of the application period.

Applications are reviewed on a competitive basis. All applications in the United States and Caribbean schools compete against each other, and all applications in Canada compete against other Canadian applications. The application pools can be very competitive and are evaluated based on the quality of the proposal, feasibility, importance of research, and alignment with the mission of PCI. Collaborative applications, involving multiple researchers, different schools of study, or areas of expertise are welcomed but at least one veterinarian shall be among the research team. Involvement of the community or population of study is highly desirable.

All projects shall abide by state and national laws and board regulations. Appropriate research protocols and IRBs (if required by applicant's institution) shall be identified and documented.

Yes, multiple applications from a university can be considered. All applications will be evaluated competitively, and the top projects will be funded. Multiple projects from an institution/college/university may receive a grant. Applications from the same institution will compete against each other.

Yes, you can apply for the grant.

Unused funds may be returned to PetSmart Charities.

No.