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Clinical & Translational Science Institute / Funding / Community-Based Participatory Research Pathway-to-Pilot Award / Request for Applications for the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Pathway-to-Pilot Awar

Request for Applications for the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Pathway-to-Pilot Award

This funding program is an activity of the UR CTSI Population Health Branch. Applicants should note that this pathway-to-pilot program is contingent upon the availability of funds.

The UR CTSI CBPR Pathway-to-Pilot grant opportunity offers an award of up to $16,500. This award is intended for academic and community partners who have completed a UR CTSI CBPR Training Program or who have demonstrated experience in CBPR. Research teams must consist of one faculty member or trainee (defined as a graduate student, medical student, resident, postdoc, or fellow in a training program) or a staff member with a faculty mentor from the University of Rochester and at least one community partner of the greater Rochester area.

For the purposes of these pathway-to-pilot (P2P) awards, “community” refers to community members, persons affected by a condition/issue being addressed or studied, and other key community stakeholders, including community-based health practitioners and community-based organizations. The focus of the application should be on a planning grant or a pilot research project leading to a UR CTSI pilot funding application, or to independent external funding.

Award Duration: Ten (10) months
Monetary Award Amount: Up to $16,500
Number of Awards: A minimum of one (1) will be funded, with the possibility of funding an additional meritorious application depending on the availability of funds.
Application Deadline: Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.
Award Notification: June 22, 2026
Earliest Start Date: August 1, 2026
End Date: May 31, 2027 (all project activities and spending must be completed by this date – because of fiscal limitations, extensions cannot be granted)

Goals

The main goal of this program is to stimulate research partnerships between University of Rochester researchers and community-based organizations in the greater Rochester area, facilitating their ability to address a local health issue using CBPR as the research approach. Applicants must clearly demonstrate how the program or pilot generated from this award will be used to develop a pilot grant and/or a larger, independently funded study.

If applicable, reference the community-identified health research priorities listed below to provide background and justification. Describe how this research fits into the community priorities.

  1. Housing: Improve access to safe, affordable housing.
  2. Mental Health & Substance Use: Promote well-being and resilience. 
  3. Violence: Prevent violence.
  4. Incarceration: Decrease reincarceration rates through policy.
  5. Chronic Disease: Improve chronic disease prevention and management.

The focus of the application should be on a planning grant or a pilot research project leading to a UR CTSI pilot funding application, or to independent external funding. This award is not meant to supplement ongoing funded research.

Eligibility

Academic applicants must be a University of Rochester trainee or have a primary faculty appointment at the University of Rochester, or a University of Rochester staff member who has identified a faculty mentor to serve as collaborator (both the staff and faculty mentor must have either completed the CBPR training or have demonstrated experience in CBPR). The academic applicant will serve as the contact PI for the project.

To qualify for this CBPR P2P award, applicants with little or no demonstrated experience in CBPR must have participated in at least six of eight modules in the UR CTSI’s Introduction to Community-Based Participatory Research program between 2017 – Spring 2023, or eight of eleven modules in the 2023-2024 or 2025-2026 cohort. If you have questions about the course, please contact Laura Sugarwala.

For individuals who have not completed the CBPR training program, please use the criteria below for determining eligibility to apply. The application portal contains questions to demonstrate examples for these areas, and requires a letter of support:

  • More than one year of experience with forming, maintaining, and sustaining community/academic partnerships for research that prioritizes collaboration and mutual respect.
  • Commitment to shared decision-making, particularly in areas such as resource allocation.
  • Demonstrated values-based approach that emphasizes community partnerships, including sharing research findings and mutual benefit.

Individuals may participate as PI, MPI, or mentor on only one submission, but may participate in multiple submissions as a co-investigator. Any individual who has a current grant with overlapping aims is not eligible to apply.

Individuals who have received a CTSI CBPR Pathway-to-Pilot award in the prior two years are not eligible to apply.

If this project is an add-on to, or an extension of, a parent project supported by another funding source, you are required to provide the application for the currently funded project and a statement addressing any overlap.

Projects or research activities that involve a foreign component, as defined by NIH, are not permitted.

Only one resubmission of a previously submitted proposal is allowed. New proposals need to be changed substantively to address prior review concerns.

Allowable Costs

The program will support costs normally allowed for NIH-funded research projects, including salaries. Facilities and administrative costs or “indirects” will be paid from the direct costs of the award for subawards. Recipient institutions may request to waive facility and administrative costs.

Review Process

Proposals are reviewed by a UR CTSI review committee that includes both University of Rochester and community researchers. Reviewers will use the NIH review process based on a 9-point scale (1=Excellent – 9=poor). All applications are judged on the following criteria:

  1. Application of CBPR principles (please reference the list of CBPR principles below).
  2. Clearly identified and appropriate partnership with the potential for ongoing collaboration.
  3. Scientific merit.
  4. Impact of findings.
  5. Explanation of how these findings could be applied to another community group or project, if applicable.
  6. Activities described are appropriate to achieve their purpose in the time proposed.
  7. Budget is reasonable in meeting goals with estimates of itemized expenses.

Community Based Participatory Research Principles include:

  1. Collaborative, equitable partnership in all phases of research.
  2. Community is the unit of identity.
  3. CBPR builds on strengths and resources of community.
  4. CBPR fosters co-learning and capacity building.
  5. Balance between knowledge generation and benefit for community partners.
  6. CBPR focuses on problems of local relevance.
  7. CBPR disseminates results to all partners and involves all partners in wider dissemination.
  8. CBPR involves a long-term process and commitment to sustainability.

Israel, Eng, Schulz, & Parker (2005). Introduction to Methods in Community-Based Participatory Research for Health. In Methods in Community-Based Participatory Research for Health.

What is not considered CBPR:

  1. “Community-placed” research.
  2. Sporadic or symbolic inclusion of communities.
  3. A specific method or research design.Pri

Successful CBPR strives to achieve:

  1. Solutions for problems in accord with concrete community concerns and priorities.
  2. Community capacity-building.
  3. Community empowerment.
  4. Local community ownership.
  5. Sustainable programs – beyond the initial grant period.
  6. Radical changes – screening and/or therapeutic strategies, health outcomes, policies.

Following the review process and a discussion and scoring meeting, a funding recommendation will be made to the UR CTSI Executive Team for funding of the most meritorious project(s).

About the UR CTSI’s Population Health Branch

The Population Health Branch fosters community-engaged research between University of Rochester researchers, multi-sector stakeholders, and the community at large, with the goal of accelerating the application of scientific findings to clinical and community practice. The Population Health Branch provides capacity-building opportunities for community-based participatory research and offers opportunities for engaging communities in research.

Application Instructions

Online Submission

  1. Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Application Portal by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
  2. Via the online submission system, provide the title of the proposal and contact information for the principal investigator (PI) and each co-principal investigator (co-PI), co-investigator, collaborator, and consultant. Contact information must also be provided for the University of Rochester PI’s department administrator or grants administrator.
    1. For staff applicants, please list yourself as a co-PI. Please list the faculty mentor as a “collaborator” under “additional contact information.”
  3. In the online submission system, you will be asked to upload the components below (a-g) as one document in PDF format, in the order listed.
    1. NIH PHS 398 Form Page 1: Face Page (items 1-7 only).
    2. Proposal title and synopsis (500 words maximum, 11-point font [minimum]). No acronyms are permitted in the title. Please note that, if funded, the project title will be posted on the UR CTSI website.
    3. Project Description: The project description may not exceed two (2) single-spaced, typed pages (11 or 12-point font required; Arial typeface preferred; ½ inch margins allowed). The project description must include:
      1. Specific Aims/Goals: What are you planning to do?
      2. Rationale and Significance: Why is this project worth doing? If applicable, please reference the community-identified health research priorities listed on page 1 to provide background and justification. Describe how this research fits into the community priorities.
      3. Methods: Describe how the project will be conducted.
        1. For applicants new to CBPR, we strongly encourage applicants to seek consultation with CBPR course instructors and CTSI Population Health Branch personnel prior to submission of this proposal to review feasibility and to develop the budget. Laura Sugarwala can provide contact information for CBPR course instructors and Population Health Branch personnel.
      4. Subsequent Planned Research Activity: The applicants should describe planned next steps for seeking additional UR CTSI or external funding.
        1. Under what specific grant mechanism(s) do you plan to submit and when? Provide a plan and timeline for grant applications to the UR CTSI Pilot Awards, NIH, private foundations, or other external funding sources.
      5. Study Timeline: Include a study timeline that outlines the various stages of your research from start date to final product.
      6. Potential Application across other groups/projects (optional): write a paragraph about how the outcomes, if successful, could be applied to other community groups or projects.
    4. List of references (limited to no more than 15)
    5. Budget and Budget Justification:
      1. The budget must be placed on the NIH PHS 398 Form Page 4: Detailed Budget for Initial Budget Period, and on an additional page, each line item of the budget must be justified. The budget justification must indicate why the requested funds are needed for the project.
      2. This is a one-time award in the sum of up to $16,500.
      3. The budget must directly support the proposed research. Expenses may include salary, scientific equipment, research-related costs, meeting-related costs, travel, etc., but the justification must be clearly stated.
      4. Clearly indicate which personnel are investigators and which are other significant contributors. Definitions are as follows:
        1. Investigators are those whose contribution to the CTSI-funded project will be consistent and routine.
        2. Other Significant Contributors are those whose contribution to the CTSI-funded project will occur on an as-needed basis or infrequent basis.
      5. This program will not pay requested salary above the annual NIH salary cap.
      6. Budget Considerations
        1. If a University of Rochester employee is working on your project outside the employee’s assigned University of Rochester job, see HR Policy #211, Additional Work and Additional Compensation.
        2. If you will be directly paying an individual who is not a University of Rochester employee, then that individual is considered to be an independent contractor. Information about using independent contractors is available.
        3. If you will be paying an agency or institution, you will need to use the following information to determine whether this is a subaward or vendor relationship:
          1. Below are helpful questions to determine whether a third party entity is a subrecipient. If the answers are “yes” the relationship is probably a subrecipient relationship.
            1. Is there an identified investigator at the third-party entity? If yes, is he or she a co-investigator on the primary award?
            2. Is the third party free to decide how to carry out the activities requested of it?
            3. Will there be potentially patentable or copyrightable technology created or reduced to practice from the activities of the third party? If yes, does the third party have rights to or the right to file for protection of its technology?
            4. Are publications anticipated from the third party? Will individuals at the third party be co-authors on articles?
          2. Below is a key question to help determine whether the third party is a vendor. If the answer is “yes” the relationship is most likely a vendor relationship.
            1. Is the activity to be performed a series of repetitive tests or activities requiring little or no discretionary judgment by the third party?
              1. If this is a subaward relationship, see #5 below.
              2. If this is a vendor relationship and the project is awarded, then the appropriate purchase order will need to be prepared in conjunction with Corporate Purchasing.
    6. CV or Biosketch: NIH-style biosketch for each researcher and/or a curriculum vitae (CV) for each community-based organization (CBO) partner. For this year, the NIH-style biosketch may be submitted in either the Common Form or the previous NIH biosketch format.
    7. Letter(s) of Commitment/Support: Applications must include letters from the academic applicant’s home department chair and the community applicant’s executive director (if the applicant does not hold the position of executive director), agreeing to the use of the necessary space, personnel, and facilities needed in support of this proposal.
      1. For staff applicants, a Letter of Support (LOS) from the faculty mentor will be required in addition to the LOS from the department chair.
    8. Attestation: A signed attestation statement from the PI that the project is not funded through another mechanism. (Attestation Template)
    9. Subaward (if appropriate): The following information for the subaward will need to be included in the proposal PDF after the Attestation:
      1. Scope of Work
      2. NIH PHS 398 Form Page 1: Face Page with Authorized Signatures
      3. NIH PHS 398 Form Page 4: Detailed Budget for Initial Budget Period and budget justification page
      4. NIH PHS 398 Checklist Page
      5. Attachment 3B
  4. Upload the UR CTSI signoff form with all necessary signatures. Please note that this form is UR CTSI-specific and does not get submitted to the Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA).

Requirements if Funds Are Awarded

Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval

IRB approval is not required at the time of application. However, documentation of IRB protocol approval or exemption must be submitted to the UR CTSI before grant-funded activities may proceed, including enrolling and engaging participants (human subjects).

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval

IACUC approval is not required at the time of application. However, if a research team is awarded funding and the project includes vertebrate animal activities, documentation of IACUC protocol approval must be forwarded to the UR CTSI before vertebrate animals can be used in the research. The IACUC at the University of Rochester is known as University Committee on Animal Resources (UCAR).

2 CFR 200 Procurement Principles Training

All University of Rochester principal investigators on the project and each person that will initiate purchases must provide documentation that they have completed the 2 CFR 200 Procurement Principles training available in MyPath.

Publications

All publications that benefit in whole or in part from support provided by the UR CTSI must:

  1. Comply with the NIH Public Access Policy: Assistance with the compliance process is available through the Miner Library. Information regarding the Public Access Policy is located on the Miner Library website at NIH Public Access Policy. Authors are required to make their articles available in PMC, with no embargo period, as soon as their work is published. 
  2. Acknowledge UR CTSI grant funding. We recommend use of the following language: “The project described in this publication was supported, in part, by the University of Rochester CTSA award number UM1 TR005451 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”

Presentation to URMC Population Health Coordinating Collaborative

Upon completion of the funding cycle, awardees will present research findings to the Population Health Coordinating Collaborative.

ORCID IDs

All key personnel on the project must obtain an ORCID ID which provides a persistent digital identifier that the investigator owns and controls, and that distinguishes the investigator from every other researcher.

Proposals that fail to follow these instructions will be returned without review. Do not include appendicies.

Contacts

If you have questions regarding this RFA, please contact one of the following:

Pathway-to-Pilot Process inquires
Rebecca Laird rebecca_laird@urmc.rochester.edu, (315) 717-8235

CBPR related inquiries
Laura Sugarwala laura_sugarwala@urmc.rochester.edu, (585) 602-0808

Financial contact
Mary Lyons mary_lyons@urmc.rochester.edu