Request a Letter of Support

<< Back to ECHO Cohort Ancillary Studies

Preparing your request for a Letter of Support

Requesting a Letter of Support from the ECHO Cohort Steering Committee is a required step in the ECHO Cohort ancillary studies process. Find instructions below.

Preparing your team

In addition to your principal investigators, and any co-investigators or staff that you require on your team, you will need to have at least one analyst to undergo training and certification by the ECHO Data Analysis Center before the analyst(s) can access the ECHO Cohort Data Platform to conduct your ancillary study analysis.

This training involves

  • Attending 2 hours of trainings, or watching previously recorded videos about how to use data on the ECHO Data Platform.
  • Then, completion of certification activities that simulate completing an analysis using ECHO Cohort data

What you need to prepare to request a Letter of Support

Since ECHO’s online request form does not allow saving and returning after closing your browser, we are providing a fillable pdf of the webform that you can use to draft your request for a Letter of Support from the ECHO Cohort Steering Committee.

Alternatively, you may prefer to copy and paste the information below into a document to draft your request.

Download the sample request form.

NOTE, you cannot email this sample pdf form or your word document to ECHO as your official request for a Letter of Support. You will need to copy and paste your responses to each item into the official webform using the link provided near the bottom of this webpage.

 

Questions?

See frequently asked questions here.

Contact the ECHO Cohort Coordinating Center with any other questions.

The Request Form requires the following:

  1. Ancillary Study Title
  2. Names and affiliations of PIs and other investigators
  3. Whether your project includes the use of ECHO biospecimens
  4. Name(s) and qualifications of analyst(s) that will undergo certification by the ECHO Data Analysis Center to conduct the analysis on ECHO’s cloud environment. If you will need to hire an analyst, please note that and the desired qualifications for which you plan to hire.
  5. Overview of the proposed study, including your primary hypothesis or research question, specific aims, and exposures, pathways, and/or outcomes of interest, a statement of the study’s potential impact, including references from interested parties supporting the potential impact. (1 page, limit 5500 characters)
  6. Rationale supporting your request for the data and biospecimens, including a brief description of the sample size, demographics, and time point data needed to address your scientific question (1 page, limit 2500 characters)
  7. Brief description of the proposed analytic plan (1 page, limit 2500 characters)
  8. Screenshot or export of your PlatIPUS query that indicates the data +/- biospecimens you are requesting access to for the ancillary study. For querying genetics data or biospecimens, you may need to contact support at the ECHO Data Analysis Center by emailing echo-help@rti.org.
  9. If you are requesting biospecimens, you will need to provide information on the numbers of specimens you are requesting, any specific collection timepoints needed.
  10. If you are requesting biospecimens, you will need to describe the proposed assays or methods, list the laboratory you propose to use, and address quality control or assurance. (1 page, limit 5500 characters)
  11. You will need to provide approximate budgets that you will provide to the ECHO Cores and Centers, depending on your needs: The ECHO Data Analysis Center, ECHO Coordinating Center, ECHO Measurement Core, and ECHO Laboratory Core. You can find information about approximating budgets for the ECHO Cores and Centers at the bottom of this page.
  12. Description of the funder, funding source, and how these funds would support the proposed ancillary study, e.g., does the ancillary study address one aim of the funding application, multiple aims, or all aims. (1 page, limit 2500 characters)
  13. You will need to attest that you will provide the ECHO Coordinating Center with documentation from your local Institutional Review Board (IRB) of having approved or exempted your project as it relates to human subjects research protections. The official webform will let you upload any supporting documentation you already have.
  14. You will also need to attest that you will cooperate with the ECHO Cohort Cores and Centers to develop final budgets and pay them to support your ancillary study.

Download

Download example request.

How to project your approximate budget for funding the ECHO Cohort Cores and Centers

1. ECHO Data Analysis Center

All ancillary studies must fund the ECHO Data Analysis Center. To request an approximate budget for funding the ECHO Data Analysis Center to support your ancillary study, please download and complete a budget request form at this link.

Email your completed budget request and any questions about budgeting to fund the ECHO Data Analysis Center to support your ancillary study to echo-help@rti.org.

Please allow two business days for a response.

2. ECHO Coordinating Center

Projects Using
Data Only		 Projects Using
Data and Biospecimens
Coordinating Center PI Calendar Months 0.12 0.12
Project Leader Calendar Months 0.6 0.96
Total Annual Budget $21,927 $32,555

All ancillary studies must fund the ECHO Coordinating Center at one of the costs indicated above. The Coordinating Center provides support for ancillary studies like activities including but not limited to facilitating Publications Committee reviews, abbreviated study team/writing team support including tracking proposals/manuscripts, assistance with navigating ECHO processes, setting up and troubleshooting SharePoint access, facilitation of contracts and invoices where applicable, administrative tasks associated with tracking ancillary studies, indirect costs associated with executing contracts, tracking finances, maintaining electronic systems, increased complexity of all tasks with addition of use of biospecimens.

Coordinating Center fees are paid via a subcontract structure and will renew annually. The amount will be effort based and initiate when an Analysis Proposal related to an approved Ancillary Study is submitted.

For any questions about budgeting to fund the ECHO Coordinating Center to support your ancillary study, please send an email to: echocc-ancillarystudy@duke.edu

3. ECHO Laboratory Core

Assay and Shipping Cost Estimates

Assays

ECHO Laboratory Core Assay Per Sample Max Cost
Non-targeted Exposomic Assay $245 per sample with 80-sample minimum
Targeted Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Quantitative Assay $275 per sample with 80-sample minimum
Non-targeted Nutrition Assay $245 per sample with 80-sample minimum
Non-targeted Metabolomic Assay $245 per sample with 80-sample minimum
Non-targeted Lipidomic Assay $245 per sample with 80-sample minimum

Use this link to download a more detailed description of the ECHO Laboratory Core’s assay platforms.

Note: ECHO does not require that you use the ECHO Laboratory Core for your assays. If you are proposing to use another laboratory, you will need to pay for biospecimen shipping. You can estimate the shipping cost with the information below.

 

Shipping

For information on shipping estimates for different types of biospecimens, please use this link.

The costs provided here reflect pulling specimens, aliquoting in some cases, and shipping under different scenarios. The pricing does not include budgeting for assays of biospecimens. You are welcome to contact the ECHO Laboratory Core to inquire about the types of assays they can provide and the associated pricing.

For any questions about budgeting to fund the ECHO Laboratory Core to support your ancillary study, including inquiries about biospecimen assay and prices for smaller sample sizes than N = 80, please send an email to: elvis_pub@vumc.org.

 

4. ECHO Measurement Core

The Measurement Core is available for consultation about data elements collected in the ECHO Cohort, including the meaning, complexity, and best use of specific measurements, at the following rate

Cost Projection:                                $114/hour

For any questions about budgeting to fund the ECHO Measurement Core to support your ancillary study, please send an email to: echomeasurement@northwestern.edu

Request a Letter of Support

To Request a Letter of Support you must first contact the ECHO Program Office to send them a summary of your project. Use the link on the previous page under Contact the Program Office, or click here to get started.

If you have already contacted the Program Office, they will email you as soon as they can with next steps.