26 Pilot Awards Totaling $1.3 million Made in 2019

The 2019 ICTR Pilot Awards program continues the tradition of encouraging early stage investigators in pursuit of preliminary data for larger studies, supporting innovative directions in clinical and translational research, and promoting research that addresses health disparities and advances health equity.

This year, the program distributed $1.3 dollars for 11 Translational Basic & Clinical Pilot Awards, six Novel Methods Pilot Grant Awards, four Clinical & Community Outcomes Research (CCOR) Pilot Grant Awards, a Collaborative Health Equity Research (CHER) Pilot Grant Award, two Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) Research Pilot Grant Awards, and a Stakeholder & Patient Engaged Research (SPER) Pilot Grant Award. Also included in this announcement is a UW-Marshfield Pilot Grant Award made earlier in April 2019.

Complete list of the 2019 ICTR Pilot Awards.

Supported studies cover a wide gamut of topics in clinical and translational research, ranging from preclinical studies and computational analysis, to health systems research and health disparities. Christine Sorkness, ICTR Senior Associate Executive Director for the Pilot Awards Program notes,

Our ICTR Pilot Awards Program is really a labor of love! We are proud of our continuous record of making awards. This success is in large part due to our ongoing NIH award from NCATS, funding from the Wisconsin Partnership Program, and our co-funding partners for specific awards.

Many thanks to Peggy Hatfield and Kate Judge for their energy and expertise in managing the annual application process and to the group of cross-campus scientific reviewers and external community advisors who provide each applicant with a critical appraisal.

The Wisconsin Partnership Program provides generous support to fund the CCOR, CHER, D&I, and SPER pilot awards. Other partnering institutes and centers who provided co-funding for select awards include the UW Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center (2), the UW Carbone Cancer Center (2), the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (2), and the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute (1). All funded awards meet rigorous peer review standards and only after approval do co-funding centers step in to collaboratively promote research in their target areas of interest. This approach allows ICTR and its partners to support more meritorious research than would be possible acting alone.