Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems

Background
The Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) program was designed in the early 1970s to provide a multidisciplinary system of rehabilitation care specifically to meet the needs of individuals with SCI. The system of rehabilitation care that was developed through this program encompasses a continuum of services that include emergency medical services, acute care services, acute medical rehabilitation services, and post-acute services.

The SCIMS program is the largest network of research centers devoted to SCI in the world, creating opportunities for critical collaboration between SCI clinicians and researchers from around the U.S.

Grant Details
The SCIMS Centers must provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary services to people with spinal cord injury (SCI) as a prerequisite and basis for conducting research that contributes to evidence-based rehabilitation interventions and clinical and practice guidelines. Each SCIMS Center must contribute by enrolling at least 30 participants per year into the SCIMS database, proposing and conducting one site-specific research project, proposing one module research project on SCI rehabilitation, demonstrating inclusion of people with SCI from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds in study samples, coordinating with the NIDILRR-funded Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) for dissemination of scientific results and information, and ensuring that the input of people with SCI is used to shape SCIMS research.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include states; public or private agencies, including for-profit agencies; public or private organizations, including for-profit organizations; IHEs; and Indian tribes and tribal organizations.

To be eligible for a SCIMS grant an applicant institution must provide a multidisciplinary continuum of care for people with SCI, including emergency medical services, acute care services, acute medical rehabilitation services, and post-acute services.

Period of Performance
60-month project period with five 12-month budget periods. SCIMS Centers will be funded at varying amounts up to the maximum award based on the numbers of subjects eligible for follow-up in the existing SCIMS longitudinal database.

Existing centers with significantly larger numbers of subjects will receive higher funding within the specified range.

Grant Value
$6,500,000 total funding with an expected number of 14 awards. Award ceiling is $490,000 per budget period and award floor is $440,000 per budget period.