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Regeneraon Prize for Creative Innovation

General Information

Program Description

The Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation recognizes and honors excellence in biomedical science conducted by postdoctoral fellows. One postdoctoral fellow will be selected to receive the Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation each year.

Limitation

Schools may submit two (2) applications for Penn’s internal competition.

Eligibility

  • Must be a Postdoctoral trainee at the University of Pennsylvania 
  • Must be conducting biomedical research. 
  • Must certify that the project proposal submitted is their original idea and does not appear in any publication or grant application where they are not the principal investigator. 
  • Joint/team proposals are not eligible to be submitted for the Regeneron Prize.
  • For any sponsored research projects, the applicant must be eligible to serve as Principal Investigator for the project, unless otherwise noted in the LSO. Please see Penn’s PI Eligibility requirements to ensure you are eligible. 

Award Information

  • An unrestricted research award of $50K to be used in any way the winner chooses. 
  • Finalists are each awarded $5,000. 
  • The home institution of the winners will each receive a $5,000 donation to support the institution’s seminar series. 
  • The research that is proposed is not necessarily meant to be conducted, nor is the prize meant as a funding mechanism for research. 
  • Finalists may be invited to visit Regeneron for the onsite competition, travel expenses paid.  

Review Process

Selection Criteria

One of Regeneron’s primary criteria for selecting Regeneron Prize awardees is research productivity. As such, the CVs and publications of the applicants will be very important components of the selection process. However, Regeneron recognizes that two trainees with similar records of productivity may not be equivalent in scientific caliber. A trainee’s mentor plays a big role in the development of a high-profile publication record. The “dream” project component of the Regeneron Prize application is designed to be a differentiating exercise that allows Regeneron’s Selection Committee to distinguish between applicants who have excellent research records because of their mentors and those who have excellent research records because of their own scientific merits. 

OVPR Internal Review Process 

Applications must include the following:

  1. Cover Page which includes:
    • Project title
    • Candidate name, department, address, phone, email
    • Name of faculty mentor, title, department, address, phone, email 
  2. A “Dream Project” proposal (maximum 2 pages not including references, no smaller than 10-point font. (Figures MUST fit within the 2-page limit).
    • The research proposed must be within the field of biomedicine, broadly defined.  
    • Preliminary data is not necessary.  
    • The proposal should clearly define a specific experiment or series of experiments, and include a rationale, basic methodology/design (citing literature is fine), and discussion of how the experiment’s results would advance the field.  
    • IMPORTANT: Read carefully the attached document which describes the Dream Project format. 
  3. A CV (maximum 4 pages), which includes a full academic and publication history including clearly identified corresponding authors and undergraduate coauthors of all publications.
  4. All materials must be submitted in a single pdf document in the above order to vprgrant@upenn.edu 
  5. Subject line of the email should be, REGENERON_applicant LAST name_ applicant FIRST name.