Duke-UNC CTSA Pilot Grant Expands to Include Population Health Research

Duke-UNC CTSA Collaborative Pilot Grants now looking for projects that fall anywhere on the spectrum of translational research, from laboratory bench to population health.

The Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill CTSA programs are once again joining forces to offer up to $50,000 for research projects that include investigators from both ends of Tobacco Road. But this year’s request for applications has expanded the scope of the projects.

Rather than focusing only on laboratory science and early clinical trials work, the door has been thrown open to include projects that cover the full spectrum of translational research, from nascent discoveries at the laboratory bench to investigations of how medical practices affect policy and population health. The deadline for applications is Oct. 2, 2015.

The new Request for Applications (RFA) lists four areas of particular interest:

• Research that generates initial or basic discoveries relevant to human health or disease regardless of whether the context of the discovery is in the laboratory or the field
• Research that applies or accelerates discovery into testing in clinical or population settings
• Development and/or evaluation of the evidence base that changes practice
• Research that investigates how practice improves health policy, health outcomes, and the health of populations.

Victoria Christian, chief operating officer of the Duke Translational Research Institute, says the expansion of the Duke-UNC Collaborative Pilot Grant is a response to the NIH’s call for academic medicine to continuously refine engagement with the communities it serves – from inventors and investigators to patients and students.

“Duke’s CTSA Pilot Program is an intentional work in progress,” she said. “The collaboration with UNC is one of several ways our PIs reflect the mission to address any barrier encountered on the tortuous path between the bench and demonstrable population health improvement. To be successful in this field, we must serve a diverse and inclusive team of talents, contributors, and stakeholders.”

The 2016-2017 pilot grant will fund up to $25,000 per institution for a total of $50,000 per collaborative project. Proposed projects must involve a lead investigator from Duke and a lead investigator from UNC-CH. Proposals are encouraged from new teams of investigators from different disciplines.

“To answer today’s most pressing research questions, we need to encourage strong and innovative collaborations across institutions and disciplines,” said John Buse, MD, PhD, director of the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute, UNC’s CTSA. “Such collaborations can help accelerate the pace of research by granting more investigators expanded access to resources, expertise, and patient populations.”

Faculty members may submit more than one proposal as a principal investigator, but a faculty member is only eligible to receive one award as PI during a given funding cycle. Duke faculty members may not serve as PI on more than one concurrently funded Duke CTSA Collaborative or Transformative pilot award.

Duke/UNC-CH teams whose proposals for the Duke-UNC CTSA Collaborative Grant were not selected for funding in the October 2014 round may submit a revised application.

For more information, download the full RFA.

For information on the recipients of the 2015-16 Duke-UNC Collaborative Award, read this series of articles.