Trainee Pilot Award
These awards provide up to $25,000 over one year to support research trainees as they build a solid research foundation that will help them obtain the most prestigious fellowship or grant possible following the project. The pilot project should be part of a long-term plan to become an independent investigator and should focus on translational science, which aims to understand a scientific or operational principle underlying a step of the translational process with the goal of developing generalizable principles to accelerate translational research.
Eligibility
All University of Rochester predoctoral students, fellows, postdocs, and residents are eligible to apply. Faculty members are not eligible to serve as principal investigators for Trainee Pilot awards.
Funding Amount
These awards provide up to $25,000 over one year.
Important Dates
The following dates apply to the most recent solicitation:
- Release date – July 24, 2023
- Abstracts due – September 11, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.
- Notification of full proposal invitations – November 6, 2023
- Full proposals due – January 8, 2024 at 5:00 p.m.
- Notifications of award – March 1, 2024
- Anticipated start date – July 1, 2024
The Pilot Studies Funding Attestation must be submitted with the initial abstract and full proposal.
Note: All animal and human subject protocols must be approved by NCATS, the NIH institute funding the UR CTSI, prior to the start date. No funds for research project costs may be released until all required human subjects and animal welfare approvals have been received.
Apply
Solicitation and Review Process
Phase 1: Applicants submit one-page abstracts summarizing their proposals. A UR CTSI Review Committee composed of selected experts will evaluate, score and discuss the abstracts.
Phase 2: A subset of applicants will be invited to submit full proposals. The UR CTSI Review Committee will engage in a formal study section-style discussion and scoring meeting for trainee proposals. Funding recommendations go to the UR CTSI Executive Team for final approval.
View the 2023-2024 RFA for the Trainee Pilot Award
CTSI Cost Sharing Information
CTSI Signoff Form 11/202
Awardees and Projects
Current Projects
Building a Better Roadmap: Creating a Foundation for Anticipatory Guidance in Parkinson's Disease
Jennifer Corcoran, MD, Instructor, Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders
Mentor: Benzi M. Kluger, MD, MS
Diabetes Screening in Dental offices: the feasibility of the DIA-DENT Program
Harold Nii-Aponsah, DDS, MPH, MS, Resident Dentist, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, Community Dentistry and Oral Disease Preventions
Mentor: Sangeeta Gajendra, DDS, MPH, MS
Past Projects
Identifying Biomarkers Predictive of Right Heart Failure in Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients
Alan Brooks, M.D., Ph.D.
Mentors: Eric Small, Ph.D., Jeffrey Alexis, M.D., and Ilan Goldenberg, M.D.
Transcriptional regulation of neural circuit formation in Intellectual Disabilities
Carlos Diaz-Balzac, M.D., Ph.D.
Mentor: Douglas Portman, Ph.D.
Fingerprinting the most curable leukemia: a step toward de-escalation of therapy
Carol Fries Simpson, M.D.
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Platelet dysregulation by antiretroviral drugs and HIV-comorbid disease
Shannon Loelius
Graduate student in the Department of Immunology, Microbiology and Virology
The influence of brain food reward system on the development of obesity
Ying Meng, Ph.D., R.N., A.C.N.P.
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Visual cortex plasticity and white matter changes associated with GH and IGFI
David Paul, M.D.
Neurology Resident