Apply

Expand your possibilities with the FOCIS Centers of Excellence.

Apply to become part of the FCE community of researchers and clinicians accelerating multidisciplinary scientific and clinical innovation and education worldwide.

The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) is devoted to advancing the science and medicine of clinical immunology through multidisciplinary educational programs. Towards this aim, FOCIS created the FOCIS Centers of Excellence (FCE), which aims to accelerate multidisciplinary scientific and clinical innovation and education, worldwide.

FOCIS designates a Center of Excellence as a multidisciplinary group that operates within an academic institution and conducts research in three or more areas relevant to clinical immunology.

Join over 85 leading academic medical centers worldwide by formalizing your local network of clinical immunology researchers and clinicians into an FCE.

Application Requirements & Submission Procedures 

Proposed FCE Leadership 

• Identify leadership for the proposed FCE, including an FCE Director and Associate Director. The proposed individuals must be agreeable to filling the leadership role for at least three (3) years.
• Identify a minimum of three (3) other key faculty members who will be involved with the FCE.
• Attach NIH biosketches, or brief summaries of research interests, for all of the faculty above.

Application Components 

• (1) Summary of how your center works towards advancing clinical immunology research and application as a multidisciplinary field and how designation as an FCE would benefit these activities
• (2) Describe your center’s resources that enable collaboration to advance clinical immunology research (examples could include unique expertise and/or infrastructure, patient registries, biobanks, and clinical trial activities).
• (3) Highlight examples of ongoing and potential future collaborative research activities within the FCE, as well as with other FCEs where appropriate.
• (4) Describe the educational programs for graduate students and fellows that currently exist and state how FCE designation would enhance these activities
• (5) Outline the strategies that will be used to promote and track trainee and faculty participation in the annual FOCIS meeting, including the process that will be used to select recipients of travel awards.

Supporting Documentation 

• (1) A supporting letter from a member of the FOCIS Board, Executive or Steering Committee, or an FCE Director. The selected sponsor should ideally have personal knowledge of the proposed center and Director.
• (2) Append NIH biosketches (or an equivalent format no more than 5 pages) of the proposed FCE Director, Associate Director, and Trainee representative, as well as a minimum of 3 additional key FCE Faculty members.

Submission

Compile the information above and complete the online FCE designation application form. The FCE Committee reviews applications twice per year. Annual submission deadlines are:

• May 15
• November 15

Notification 

The FCE Committee will email the decision to the proposed Center Director and Associate Director within four (4) weeks of submission.

Please contact the FOCIS Executive Office at info@focisnet.org with any questions.

FOCIS expects the FCE Director and/or Associate Director to regularly attend the Annual FOCIS Meeting and the FCE Directors Meeting, and to ensure trainee participation at the Annual FOCIS Meeting. There is no term limit for an FCE Director.

FCEs based in the United States or Canada must be represented at the Directors Meeting at least once every two years. International FCEs must be represented at least once every three years. If a U.S. or Canadian FCE misses four consecutive meetings, or an international FCE misses six, FOCIS will designate the center as inactive.

Each FCE must submit a renewal application every five years. Renewals are evaluated using the point system below:

• U.S. and Canadian FCEs are expected to earn 12 points every five years.
• International FCEs are expected to earn 8 points every five years.
• Each center must earn at least 1 point annually to maintain active status.

If a center is below this point threshold, the FCE is considered inactive. The FCE Directory may elect to disband the FCE or to make changes so that the activity expectations are met within two years. At least one point must be generated annually to maintain active status. FOCIS staff will monitor participation on an annual basis and provide an annual summary to each FCE Director.

Annual Participation Point System

(1 point per activity per attendee)

• FCE Directory and/or Associate Directory attend the Annual FCE Directors Meeting
• FCE trainees* attend the annual FCE Fusion event at the FOCIS Annual Meeting
• FCE members submit abstracts to the FOCIS Annual Meeting
• One or more FCE trainees* attend the Advanced Course in Basic & Clinical Immunology
• FCE representatives attend a FOCISed Course or FOCIS-affiliated educational activities, such as the Basic Immunology in Medicine course; Cancer Immunity & Immunotherapy course; Interventional Immunology course; Systems Immunology course; European Advanced Course
• Contribute to FOCIS publications
• Collaborated with another FCE in a research or educational activity, this may include activities such as co-submission of grants, co-authorship on publication, participation in multi-center clinical trials
• Other collaborative research activities that provide evidence of engagement in the overall FCE spirit such as sample sharing, fundraising for FOCIS events, or participating in organization and/or teaching in FOCIS-sponsored events

*Trainees include graduate students, postdoctoral fellows (post-PhD), and post-health professional fellows (e.g., medicine, dentistry) conducting research at an academic institution.