Program: AATE Foundation RFP 2026
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The AATE anticipates annual funding to incentivize and support research projects for athletic training educators.
This competitive funding opportunity provides awards for research partnerships involving faculty members from one or more AATE member institutions.
Chosen projects will address pressing research questions that impact athletic training education, foster new partnerships, and/or provide a platform for future scholarship.
PRELIMINARY SUMMARY SUBMISSION
Applicants applying for an AATE Foundation Research Grant must first submit a Preliminary Summary.
All Preliminary Summaries will be reviewed, and feedback will be provided to the researchers to inform the full application.
While Preliminary Summaries are required, researchers do not require approval of the Preliminary Summary to be eligible to submit a full proposal.
Preliminary Summaries are due: November 1, 2025.
Feedback on Preliminary Summaries will be provided by: December 15, 2025.
PRELIMINARY SUMMARY FORMAT:
The Preliminary Summary includes 3 pages:
Preliminary Summary (page 1) [margins at least 0.5 inch; 12-point font size]
● a concise summary of the literature pertaining to the related gap or problem in athletic training education
● the purpose
● the specific aim(s) accompanied by hypotheses, if applicable
● the general approach to be taken to achieve the aim(s)
● the project’s potential impact on athletic training education
● the long-term goal of the application or investigator(s)
References (AMA formatting) from Preliminary Summary (page 2) [margins at least 0.5 inch; 12-point font size]
ANTICIPATED BUDGET PLANNING FORM:
The anticipated budget planning form is used to guide researchers to sufficiently plan for the grant within the confines of the available funding, to show cost-sharing, or to show how the grant funding is being complemented by other funding sources.
Please submit using this form.
PROPOSAL TIMELINES:
Preliminary Summary: November 1, 2025 (due by 5 pm EST)
Feedback: December 15, 2025
Submission: March 1, 2026 (Due by 5 pm EST)
Decisions: May 1, 2026
AWARD INFORMATION:
A. Estimated Number of Awards: Various awards will be distributed and are contingent upon the availability of funds ($10,000 maximum available).
B. Period of Award: The work may begin as early as June 1, 2026, and expenditures will need to be completed by no later than May 31, 2027.
C. Eligible Expenses: Justified expenses may include investigator and research assistant salaries, materials, travel, and supplies. If courses are bought out, only the amount for the adjunct hire should be accounted for.
Ineligible Expenses: Overhead, computers, laptops, and common software are ineligible expenses.
E. No overhead is allowable.
ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:
A. Eligible applicants: Faculty in an AATE member institution are eligible to apply as principal investigators (PIs). Co-PIs may be from non-AATE member institutions. Members of the AATE Research Network Committee are eligible to apply but will be excluded from any review responsibilities within the same funding cycle. The Chairs of the AATE Research Network and members of the AATE Research Advisory Council are not eligible to apply. The PI must be a BOC-certified athletic trainer in good standing. Early career PIs are strongly encouraged to apply; however, the RFP is open to all educational researchers.
Limit on Number of Applications per PI: PIs are permitted to submit one proposal per funding cycle, as PI. Those submitting as PI are eligible to be on an unlimited number of grant proposals as a Co-PI.
Additional Eligibility Requirements: The funds may not be used to fund research for which any applicant already is or will be receiving funding support.
PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:
Procedure: A full proposal should be submitted electronically in one single PDF document by the deadline. Late and/or non-compliant applications will not be considered for funding. While changes may occur to the project relative to the feedback
from the Preliminary Summary, the full application must be directly connected to the initial project proposed.
Format: Total page length of 7 pages maximum (1-page Specific Aims + 6 pages Research Strategy) with no less than 0.5 inch margins and a font size of 12 (single-spaced allowed).
Proposal Package
Summary (1 page limit)
Investigators should include:
● a concise summary of the literature pertaining to the related gap or problem in athletic training education related problem or gap in the literature
● the purpose
● the specific aim(s) accompanied by hypotheses, if applicable
● the general approach to be taken to achieve the aim(s)
● the project’s potential impact on athletic training education
● the long-term goal of the application or investigator(s)
Preliminary summaries should reflect the adaptations made to the project as a result of
the feedback.
Research Strategy (6 page limit)
The Research Strategy should include sections on Significance, Innovation, and Approach. Evaluators will consider the questions outlined below to determine scientific and technical merit and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have a major scientific impact. For example, a project that, by its nature, is not innovative may be essential to advancing the field.
Significance. Does the project address a significant problem or a critical barrier to progress in athletic training education? Is there a strong scientific premise for the project? If the project aims are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical
capability, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successfully completing the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions driving this field?
Investigator(s). Are the PIs, collaborators, and other researchers well suited to the project? Do novice investigators have appropriate experience and training? Do established investigator(s) have an ongoing record of accomplishments that have
advanced their field(s)? If the project is collaborative or multi-PI, do the investigators have complementary and integrated expertise? Are their leadership approach, governance, and organizational structure appropriate for the project?
Innovation. Does the application challenge and seek to shift current research or athletic training education paradigms by using novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions? Is a refinement, improvement, or new application of theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions proposed? Is the proposed idea a new and creative approach to a problem in athletic training education? How so? Does the project have the potential to produce a transformative effect on the field?
Proposals that demonstrate a significant departure from current thinking and a high level of creative risk are highly encouraged. The AATE Foundation seeks to support groundbreaking research that has the potential to redefine what is possible in the field. Applicants should clearly articulate how their project's innovative elements move beyond incremental advancements to create a new paradigm for research and practice.
Approach. Are the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project? Have the investigators presented strategies to ensure a robust and unbiased approach, as appropriate for the work proposed? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and a timeline for success presented? If the project is in the early stages of development, will the strategy establish feasibility and will particularly risky aspects be managed? Have the
investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex, for studies in human subjects? Are the statistical approaches well explained and adequately powered?
PIs are encouraged to use the space within the Research Strategy to summarize and communicate the approach effectively, but should maximize the use of the Appendices to expound upon the necessary details of instruments and interventions.
Environment. Will the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success? Are the institutional support, equipment and other physical resources available to the investigators adequate for the project proposed? Will the project benefit from unique features of the scientific environment, subject populations, or collaborative arrangements?
Appendices
Beyond the Research Strategy, the additional information outlined below should be uploaded as appendices. These pages do not count against the Research Strategy 6-page limit. Additional content addressing the research approach that is included in an appendix will not be considered.
Appendix A: Timeline
Should clearly identify a progressive timeline (including specific dates) for completion of the project. At the time of submission, the timeline should clearly show that the study has NOT already started (i.e. data collection begun). The only exception is that the IRB process may have been initiated, but no subject recruitment or actual data collection
should be underway.
Appendix B: Additional Materials
Appendix B should contain materials that support the Research Approach. When available and applicable, the following materials should be presented in this appendix:
1. Informed consent form
2. Additional methods, such as but not limited to:
1. Survey instrument(s) - the measurement capabilities (reliability and validity), the ways in which the tools will be or have been validated, and if/how the tool(s) have been used in prior research (if at all)
2. Interview script(s) - the measurement capabilities (validity and reflexivity), the ways in which the script(s) will be or have been validated, and if/how the script(s) have been used in prior research (if at all)
3. Educational resource(s) - the materials that will be used as part of an intervention including how the resources will be or have been developed, validated, and if/how the resource(s) have been previously used (it at all)
4. Multi-PI and/or multi-site plan (if one exists)
5. Power Analysis and Power Calculation methods and rationale for proposed
sample size
Appendix C: Budget and Budget Justification
This appendix must include the overall budget for the complete project. Specific notations should be made as to which items will be covered by the funds requested from the AATE Foundation. Following the itemization of the budget, a justification for
each budgeted item must be included. Other sponsors (i.e. sources of funding, in-kind or donated items, etc.) and the nature of their support must also be indicated. Grant monies may not be used to pay indirect (overhead) costs.
The following must be specifically addressed:
Salaries/Wages: All monies that will be used to provide salaries, hourly wages or assistantships for this project. If salary is requested, identify the percentage of effort and base salary used for the calculation. For example: 10% effort and a salary of $40,000 per year = $4,000 requested for salary support. If salary support will be donated, this must be stated along with the effort percentage.
Fringe Benefits: The current percentages and amounts of money that will be used to pay fringe benefits and other payroll expenses for those persons receiving salaries, hourly wages or assistantships.
Equipment & Supplies: This includes all purchases necessary to complete the project that will be acquired through funds provided as part of the grant. Specify the company, model and cost of individual equipment items in the justification. General supplies do not need to be itemized.
Travel Costs: The principal investigator (PI) or a pre-approved individual will be obligated to present the results of the study at a future AATE Event. Therefore, if travel is required then the presenter’s travel cost to and from the event, for one member of the research team, is a bona fide budget item. Two nights lodging and per diem expense for two days are allowed, in addition to transportation costs. Travel expenses for data collection are also allowable.
Appendix D: Personnel
This appendix must include a biographical sketch for each individual (key personnel) involved with the project, formatted using the standard NIH biosketch format. Key personnel typically include all individuals with doctoral or other professional degrees. However, in some projects, this will include individuals at the master's or baccalaureate level, provided they contribute in a substantive way to the project’s scientific development or execution. Each completed sketch must not exceed two pages and must include: name; position title; role in proposed project; chronological summaries of educational background and employment history (years, degrees, institutions, departments, positions); chronological listing of all publications of the past three years and representative earlier publications pertinent to the proposed project; research
funding history.
Appendix E: Facilities
This appendix will contain a description of the facilities that are currently available for the completion of the project. If a facility (e.g., laboratory, high school, clinic, etc.) will be used that is not controlled directly by the unit employing the Principal Investigator, a letter from the facility’s director, indicating that the facility will be available for the duration of the study, must be included.
Appendix F: Articles and/or additional information (optional)
This appendix may include copies of published or in-press manuscripts (maximum of three) that support the work proposed in this application. This section may include additional information or materials that the Principal Investigator wishes to provide in support of the grant proposal.
Appendix G: References
Provide complete bibliographic information for references cited in this proposal. The use of AMA style is recommended.
Appendix H. Use of Generative AI and AI Use Disclosure
Use of generative AI should be transparent and documented. All use, including use in the creation of the Preliminary Summary or Full Proposals and potential use in executing the project must be disclosed.This includes dissemination of findings. If no AI
is used, this must be stated directly in this appendix.
Authors should specify who used the system, the time and date of the use, the prompt(s) used to generate the text, the sections(s) containing the text; and/or ideas in the Preliminary Summary or Full Proposal resulting from AI use.
Any errors produced as the result of using generative AI is the responsibility of the PI.
Any undocumented or unverified work product of the Preliminary Summary or Full Proposal that is not properly cited and documented lacks integrity and will not be reviewed.
Submission Instructions: Save the components as a single Adobe PDF document and name the document with the lead PI’s last name. Submit via email to admin@aated.org with subject “AATE Research Funding Proposal Submission.”
REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS:
Proposal Review: RFPs are reviewed by the review panel comprised of research trained faculty with peer-reviewed publication records and expertise in athletic training education. The committee membership will be published. While the overall panel
membership will be public, applicants will be blinded to specific reviewers’ identities (such as the standard NIH process). Scientific/technical reviews may be shared with respective applicants. The final decision will be strongly informed by the reviews/ranking provided by the reviewers.
Proposal Review Criteria: Proposals will be ranked according to the NIH scoring system, a 9-point rating scale (1 = exceptional, 9 = poor) in whole numbers (no decimals) for each section (i.e., Significance, Innovation) and Overall Impact for all
applications. Scores of 1 or 9 will be used less frequently than the other scores, while 5 is for a good medium-impact application and considered an average score. The Overall Impact score is based on the reviewer’s overall impression of the application as they see fit. Note that an application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact and thus, deserve a high impact score. See the figure below for an explanation of scoring.
AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION:
Notification of the Award: Notice of awards will be made May 1, 2026
Obligations of Award Recipients:
By accepting the award, the applicant team agrees to complete the research project described within the prescribed project period.
Recipients are expected to acknowledge the support of the AATE when making publications as a result of this award. The following statement should be used: This research was supported by the AATE.
Reporting Requirements:
a) A Reporting Form will be e-mailed to the recipient approximately 2 months after the end of the funding period.
b) Recipients are expected to comply with the program requirements for submission and reporting.