Grant Opportunities

The ABMS REF welcomes applications from health systems, universities, or other organizations with missions that intersect meaningfully with the ABMS mission. The principal investigator’s primary position must be at a United States institution. Current and former ABMS Visiting Scholars are encouraged to apply.

The principal investigator must not be affiliated with ABMS, which means they satisfy the following criteria:

• They or a family member do not receive compensation, benefits, or any form of renumeration from ABMS or an ABMS Member Board.
• They work for an organization that is not affiliated with ABMS or ABMS Member Boards, as grant funds are paid to the unaffiliated organization.

ABMS Member Boards may apply for funding only in collaboration with a principal investigator who is not ABMS-affiliated.

If you have any questions about eligibility, please email REF-grants@abms.org to discuss.

The ABMS REF grant aims to stimulate research collaborations with and among the ABMS Member Boards. At the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage, the investigators should notify a representative from the most relevant ABMS Member Board(s) of their intended proposal. If needed, a list of primary contacts from each Member Board is included in the appendices of the application materials.  

Projects that are relevant to more than one Member Board are encouraged. The investigators can incorporate feedback from this conversation into the LOI at their discretion.    

The optimal timing for the Member Board consultation is after the research team is assembled and draft research objectives are developed but before completing the LOI. At the full proposal stage, the Member Board may continue to play a consultative role. This arrangement allows full independence for the investigator to put forth novel and ground-breaking ideas while benefiting from the Member Board’s deep experience with certification.  

The applications will be peer-reviewed by an advisory group of senior researchers drawn from the broader health profession education-research community and will have patient representation. Conflict of interest will be managed to ensure unbiased adjudication.

Applications will be reviewed and assessed according to the following areas:

• Relevance to the ABMS Mission
• Novelty and importance of the research conceptualization and question
• Research methods
• Research team
• Potential significance

Priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate relevance to more than one of the ABMS Member Boards. Applicants should outline this relevance in the “Significance” portion of the Abstract (see the Application Formats section below).

There are two phases to the application process. First, applicants should submit a Letter of Intent (LOI). From that pool, the Adjudication Committee will select applications eligible to submit a Full Proposal for consideration.

• The LOI will be no more than three pages plus supplementary materials.
• The Full Proposal, for those invited to submit one, should be no more than 10 pages plus supplementary materials.

Details can be found in the application materials.

At the onset, the grant recipient must submit proof of Internal Review Board approval (if necessary) within three months after the start of the grant. Additionally, the recipient must:

• Be a responsible steward of ABMS funding
• Be in full compliance with institutional ethics and conflict of interest procedures
• Attend a virtual meeting of grantees held annually
• Submit a final report to ABMS
• Present study findings at the ABMS Conference in September, following the end of the grant period
• Submit findings for peer-reviewed publication in a timely fashion

In addition to the research insights achieved by the individual grantees, another key objective of the grant program is to facilitate a community of research practice around the mechanism of certification. This community will be achieved through a judicious number of grantee interactions with each other, with ABMS Member Boards, and with current ABMS Visiting Scholars Program participants.

When prioritizing applications, does the grant program distinguish between “Program Evaluation” and “Research”?   

Although similar in many aspects, program evaluation and research serve different purposes and follow different guidelines. Research, in the context of social sciences, is a systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. It aims to establish facts, reach new conclusions, or discover and develop theories by analyzing patterns within a population or phenomenon. The main objective is to create new, generalizable knowledge that contributes to a broader understanding of some phenomenon or structure.

On the other hand, program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about specific projects, policies, and programs, particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency. In contrast to research, its primary goal is not to generalize findings to other populations or settings, but to improve the specific program under scrutiny. Evaluations are often used to guide local decision-making, policy formation, and program improvement.

From the point of view of the ABMS REF grant program, we will evaluate the degree to which a program evaluation is limited by its context-specificity in informing broader conclusions. A well-done program evaluation that convinces the reviewer that it can rise above the local context to make a significant contribution to existing scholarship will be well received.

Are particular research methods preferred?

No. The emphasis is on the research question and how the methods allow the investigators to answer the question. We anticipate a broad range of research methods in the grant portfolio and will have assembled the adjudication committee in consequence.

Are indirect costs reimbursed?   

The grant program allows up to 10% indirect costs for institutional grant administration. This is to be included in the overall grant request, meaning that for a grant request of $75,000 the investigator can provide a budget for ~$68,000 direct costs and $6800 indirect costs.

Will investigators have access to ABMS and ABMS Member Board Data?

Access to ABMS data will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Each of the individual boards also holds diplomate data. (A diplomate is a physician or medical specialist who is board certified by one or more of the 24 ABMS Member Boards for demonstrated knowledge in a particular medical specialty or subspecialty.) The intent of having investigator teams consult with individual boards is to explore collaborative opportunities for leveraging existing data in research initiatives.

Institutional Data Use Agreements govern the sharing of this data. ABMS Member Boards may have their own internal policies and processes regarding research using their data that require a separate approval process. If conducting the research is dependent on access to Member Board data, approvals from the board(s) should be obtained before submission of the grant application to ABMS. If not obtained before submission, approval from the Member Board(s) to have access to their data will be required before distribution of funds, if the grant is approved.

Can the research funds be used for the development of commercial products or services?

No. This program is intended to further research in support of the ABMS mission, and not for product development. A successful grant project outcome would support a research program that might eventually lead to successful educational applications.

Why is ABMS REF seeking research from “independent investigators”?   

ABMS convened the “Vision for the Future Commission” to make recommendations for how we should move forward on continuing certification; the final report was released in 2019. One of the key recommendations was for the ABMS community to promote independent research on the value of continuing certification. Independence ensures trust in the findings of the research.