Call for Proposals: Physician Wellness Culture Awards

UC San Diego Health and Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion Join Forces to Support Physician Wellness

About the Physician Wellness Culture Awards

This Call for Proposals is intended to solicit applications for investigations that will advance the UC San Diego physician wellness culture.  

In an effort to enhance empathy and compassion in healthcare, the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion has generously committed funding to support UC San Diego Health’s research and education on physician wellness. This commitment supports initiatives that foster empathy, compassion, and burnout prevention in healthcare, and promotes a culture of wellness aligned with the Sanford Institute’s mission and goals. 

Eligibility

• Open to healthcare professionals, educators, researchers, and teams affiliated with UCSD. 
• At least one investigator must be a clinically-active UCSD physician. 
• Projects must directly address empathy, compassion, or burnout prevention in the physician workplace. 

Award Types & Details

Allowable Costs:

• These funds are intended for support of impactful initiatives, salary support should not be a majority portion of the proposed budget. 
• Personnel, materials, participant support, dissemination
• No office supllies, equipment, furniture, or electronics unless explicitly, pre-approved in the awarded budget.

Application Process and Timeline 

Submit proposals and queries to: physicianwellnessadm@health.ucsd.edu 

Application Requirements

Principal Investigator: At least one must be a UCSD physician

Co-investigators: Not required to be physicians

Proposal Must Include: 

• Goals and alignment with institutional priorities
• Deliverables and measurable outcomes
• Timeline and feasability
• Budget justification
• Supporting documents (e.g., letters of collaboration, IRB approval)
  • Investigators proposing changes to workplacesl, purchasing of equipment, or other interventions requiring collaboration must provide letters of collaboration intent from th necessary logistical partners. 

*FOR GME PHYSICIAN APPLICANTS:

• Must have a faculty member on the research team as a research mentor. The faculty research mentor will be your point of contact for research design. 
• Must have connected with their Department's Business Officer to faciliate the transfer of funds upon a successful grant application. 
• May apply only for the GME Pilot grant. 

Review Process

Turnaround Time 

The turnaround time on reviews and funding decisions is variable, generally ranging from 6-12 weeks. We recommend considering this if you're interested in an intervention that includes a fixed-date external event. 

Preliminary Review by the UCSD Physician Wellness Steering Committee

The UC San Diego Physician Wellness Steering Committee (without conflict for the application under consideration) will review and score applications based on both sets of criteria below: 

• Sanford Institute Criteria detailed below 
• Physician Wellness Steering Committee Criteria: 
• Local impact on UC San Diego physician wellness culture - this includes scalability and affordability (if successful, could be expanded across UC San Diego Health) 
• Novelty 
• Feasibility and pragmatics – preceding discussion with operational teams who will be impacted or who may be working in the same focus area.   

Proposals may be returned by the Steering Committee to the investigator if they: 

• do not meet the criteria above,  
• require revision before preliminary approval by the Steering Committee,  
• or require investigation of operational dependencies or implications. 

Final Review by the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion 

If a proposal is reviewed favorably by the Physician Wellness Steering Committee, they will recommend the proposal for review by the Sanford Institute’s grant reviewers. The Sanford Institute’s reviewers will communicate directly with the investigators once they’ve received a proposal from the Steering Committee. 

Evaluation Process: 

• Review Committee: Multidisciplinary panel assessing applications against the rubric. 
• Scoring (see rubric): Each criterion rated 1–5 (1 = weak, 5 = outstanding); weighted scores determine ranking. 
• Decision Timeline: 4–6 weeks  

Awardee Expectations: 

• Submit interim/final reports on outcomes and impact. 
• Participate in institutional dissemination (e.g., presentations, newsletters). 
• Acknowledge funding in publications/presentations. 

Wellness and Culture Award Evaluation Rubric 

Mission of the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

The Institute represents an unprecedented blending of two parallel themes: employing the unyielding rigor and tools of science to establish the neurological basis for empathy in the brain to identify the mechanisms that transform compassion from biology to behavior, and experimenting with and developing new ways to teach and instill empathy and compassion in clinicians currently practicing and in the teaching of future generations of health professionals.  

The Institute aims to:  

• Bridge those who explore the neurobiology of empathy and compassion with educators to create curricula aimed at enhancing and sustaining empathy and compassion in students and physicians for both self and others.  

• Develop and disseminate validated curricula for empathy and compassion to inform medical education at UC San Diego, across the U.S., and internationally.  

• Through these efforts, mark the Institute as an international thought leader and motivator of system change in enhancing empathy and compassion in healthcare.  

• Invent and adapt curricula for empathy and compassion to educate others, including professionals and the population at large.  

• Pursue research and develop curricula that advance empathy and compassion in support of social justice, especially in the context of human healthcare. 

Examples of Funded Projects

• Empathy workshops for medical students
• Mentorship or peer-support initiatives
• Resilience training, mindfulness programs
• Research or evaluation components (encouraged but not required)

Exclusions: 

• Projects unrelated to healthcare wellness/culture
• Projects lacking measurable outcomes
• Proposals focused on general faculty development, academic mentorship or research that does not inform physician wellness practices. 

Previous Grant Recipients

Contacts

Proposal Submission & Steering Committee Review: physicianwellnessadm@health.ucsd.edu

Sanford Institute Review: Cindy Chwa, MPH,  cchwa@health.ucsd.edu