Examples of Funded ICTR Novel Methods Pilot Awards
Uploaded 9/26/23
File: Summaries-of-R11-NM-Pilots-2023.docPilot Awards Program
Applications Open for 2024 Pilot Awards
ICTR has opened Requests for Application for AHEAD, CCOR, CHER and SPER pilot awards. Grants would begin as early as March 1, 2024. Applicants must submit a letter of intent by Oct. 20, 2023. Completed applications are due Dec. 4, 2023. Visit ICTR’s Funding Opportunities page for resources and more information on how to apply.
ICTR will also host an optional question and answer session on Oct. 2, 2023, at noon. Attendees should register in advance at this link.
Potential applicants are also encouraged to view informational video sessions about the pilot awards; those can be accessed via Canvas at this link.
Funding for the pilot awards is provided by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program, which supports research, education, and community engagement with the goal of improving health and advancing health equity among Wisconsinites.
Read more about the individual pilot awards:
The Advancing Health Equity and Diversity (AHEAD) pilot awards are a mechanism for University of Wisconsin-Madison postdoctoral scholars to conduct health equity research. The awards provide up to $10,000 for 12 months of direct support as well as training sessions to further the awardees’ career development. ICTR particularly encourages applications from scholars who embrace an interdisciplinary approach to research including genuine engagement of community partners and stakeholders.
The Clinical & Community Outcomes Research (CCOR) pilot awards support community-partnered health research. The awards provide up to $75,000 for 12 months of direct support. CCOR-funded projects should engage in community-partnered health research that addresses the translation of knowledge into improvements in clinical practice, community programs and health policy. This award may also support the development of interventions that require individual, organizational, or system behavior change.
The Collaborative Health Equity Research (CHER) pilot awards support early-stage investigators focused on health disparities and inequities to gain experience in clinical and translational research in support of future career development and acquisition of preliminary data for subsequent funding mechanisms. The awards provide up to $75,000 for 12 months of direct support. This award program prioritizes support for assistant professors who embrace an interdisciplinary approach to research. All applications must include a mentored junior-senior collaboration to connect the research team to relevant community partners and stakeholders.
The Stakeholder & Patient Engaged Research (SPER) pilot award supports community-partnered health research that will strengthen a competitive application for external funding for research requiring strong stakeholder engagement methodology as a foundation for a successful application. The awards provide up to $100,000 for 12 months of direct support. New or previously unsuccessful applicants to Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) funders are encouraged to apply.
All awards include a Collaboration Planning Workshop and an Intellectual Property Workshop through ICTR. The CCOR, CHER, and SPER awards also include a Design for Equitable Dissemination Workshop to help researchers identify potential adopters for proposed interventions.
Questions about AHEAD pilots may be directed to Amy Filut at filut@wisc.edu. Questions about CCOR, CHER and SPER pilots may be directed to Melinda Verdone at verdone@wisc.edu.
ICTR Awards Funding for Nine Community-Engaged Pilot Studies
The UW–Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) has given nine pilot awards to UW investigators for community-engaged health research. The awards will allow researchers to conduct small-scale studies over the course of 12 to 18 months that may prove fruitful for further, large-scale investigation. Funding for the pilot awards was provided by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program, which supports research, education and community engagement with the goal of improving health and advancing health equity among Wisconsinites.
Three UW-Madison postdoctoral fellows received Advancing Health Equity and Diversity (AHEAD) pilot awards, a mechanism for postdoctoral scholars to conduct health equity research. These pilot awards are granted in conjunction with ICTR’s AHEAD mentored career development program and give postdoctoral scholars translational research experience with a focus on future career development.
The 2023-24 AHEAD pilot awardees are:
- Asma Ali, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, for the project “Developing the RAMADAN Instrument: Recognizing Access and Management Associated Diabetes Adversities in Nationwide Muslims in the US (RAMADAN)”
- David Mallinson, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, for the project “Racial and Geographic Disparities of Prenatal Care Coordination in Wisconsin”
- Clayton Marcinak, Department of Surgery, for the project “Identifying Mechanisms Underlying Neighborhood Disadvantage-Associated Disparities in Outcomes After Complex Cancer Surgery”
ICTR provided two Clinical & Community Outcomes Research (CCOR) pilot awards to support community-partnered health research. CCOR-funded projects focus on translating knowledge into improvements in clinical practice, community programs and health policy. These awards may also support the development of interventions that require individual, organizational, or system behavior change.
The 2023-24 CCOR pilot awardees are:
- Michael Koenigs, professor of psychiatry, for the project “Peer-Led Trauma Therapy for Re-entry” in partnership with the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, an organization that offers programs for men re-entering the community after incarceration
- Aurora Pop-Vicas, associate professor of internal medicine, for the project “Cognitive Rehabilitation for Long COVID patients with Brain Fog – the First Step” in partnership with Access Community Health Center–Madison, the UW Health Long COVID outpatient clinic, and the All of Us Research Program
Daniel Grupe, associate scientist at the UW Center for Healthy Minds, received the 2023-24 Collaborative Health Equity Research (CHER) pilot award, which supports a new community-engaged research project by an early-career investigator. While conducting his project, “Community-Engaged Adaptation of a Well-Being Intervention to Support Successful Reentry Following Incarceration” with the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, Grupe will receive mentorship from Dr. Michael Koenings, who will serve as co-investigator.
ICTR provided two Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) pilot awards to support research addressing the effective delivery and implementation of evidence-based strategies, interventions, and programs for policy and in clinical and community health practice settings.
The 2023-24 D&I pilot awardees are:
- Shivani Garg, assistant professor of rheumatology, for the project “Clarifying Misbeliefs About Hydroxychloroquine: Developing an Individualized Decision Aid for Diverse Patients with Lupus”
- Olayinka Shiyanbola, associate professor of pharmacy, for the project “Culturally Tailoring the Delivery of an Evidence-Based Diabetes Self-Management Program for Black Adults to Enhance its Reach, Adoption, and Implementation”
Megan Piper, professor of internal medicine and co-director of research at the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, received the 2023-24 Stakeholder & Patient Engaged Research (SPER) pilot award, which supports activities around stakeholder engagement methodology in service of strengthening a competitive application for external research funding. Piper’s project, “Reducing Racial Disparities in Smoking: The Milwaukee Collaboration,” involves a collaboration with the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, Jump at the Sun Consultants, and the Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation.
Verdone, Melinda
ICTR Pilot Award Project: Black Fathers, Equal Partners in Advancing Maternal and Infant Health
Uploaded 10/24/22
This internal document describes the outcomes and impact of the 2021 ICTR Clinical and Community Outcomes Research pilot award to Drs. Tova Walsh and Alvin Thomas. In collaboration with the African American Breastfeeding Network in Milwaukee, they completed a needs assessment among Black expectant fathers and mothers in Milwaukee, followed by a series of focus groups to gather community input to develop father-inclusive programming to support Black maternal and infant health.
ICTR Celebrates Grant Renewals with Ongoing Pilot Awards Program for 2022
With renewed grant support from the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award and the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP), ICTR will fund 21 awards totaling $1.3 million to support clinical and translational research in Wisconsin. Christine Sorkness, PharmD, ICTR Senior Executive Director, notes,
ICTR is proud to celebrate renewal of our competitive grants from NIH and WPP by extending our uninterrupted record of funding awards that catalyze clinical and translational research and engage UW and Marshfield investigators, collaborators, and community partners. Importantly, the Pilot Awards Program continues to emphasize innovative research methods, team science, health equity, and impact.
As in previous years, we are partnering with UW departments and centers to sponsor specific awards, via our co-funding model. This approach allow both us and our partners to leverage scarce research funds to assist as many investigators as possible.
Co-funded awards are subject to an identical rigorous scientific review process, but post-review, institutional partners have the opportunity to select projects for co-funding that strategically align with their individual research priorities. The 2022 co-funding partnerships include the UW Carbone Cancer Center and the Department of Medicine’s Division of Geriatrics.
This year’s pilot portfolio includes Translational Basic & Clinical Pilot Awards (10), Novel Methods in Translational Science Pilot Grant Awards (4), Clinical & Community Outcomes Research Awards (4), Dissemination & Implementation Research Awards (2), and a Stakeholder & Patient Engaged Research Award. Awardees and their home departments span the entire UW campus, not just the schools and college that comprise the ICTR partnership (Engineering, Medicine & Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine).
2022 Pilot Award Summaries
An 11-page list of Pilot Awards announced August 2022 (Uploaded 082922)
File: 2022-Pilot-Award-Summaries.docxE2I Scoring Criteria
E2I Scoring Criteria
File: E2I-Scoring-Tool.pdfLaunchpad Program Offers Evidence to Implementation Award for 2022
Pre-proposals due July 15, 2022
Required Workshop (Virtual or Recording): June 15, 2022 – Register
The 2022 Evidence to Implementation (E2I) RFA has been released! The purpose of the E2I award is to facilitate and expedite the transfer or commercialization of evidence-based or evidence-informed practices, interventions, and innovations to appropriate end-users using the D&I Launchpad™. These include self-management or other health promotion workshops and interventions, and health services innovations that improve delivery of care in the health care or community setting. Previous awards are described here. Jane Mahoney, Director of the ICTR D&I Launchpad, notes,
The Launchpad team’s expertise will help with the future growth and sustainability of these healthcare innovations. These programs have incredible potential to make a significant impact on the health of Wisconsin and beyond
These awards will support creation of a Launchpad Package to support the dissemination and implementation of the evidence-based intervention or innovation. The elements of the Launchpad Package will be unique to each project, but may include a business plan – value proposition, marketing, sales, financials, intellectual property review, and any necessary tools and supporting materials.
The Evidence to Implementation Award (E2I) is funded by UW ICTR Pilots Awards Program, which is made possible by the UW SMPH Wisconsin Partnership Program through a Strategic Grant to the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
All of Us Researcher Workbench Offers Data Access for Precision Medicine Studies
Based in the cloud, the All of Us Researcher Workbench contains an integrated dataset that includes nearly 100,000 whole genome sequences, survey responses from nearly 330,000 participants, and information from 214,000 electronic health records, alongside physical measurements and wearable device data. The participants mirror the rich diversity of our country. Local and national efforts are underway to accelerate researcher use of this resource to deliver innovations in precision health to individuals across the U.S.
Vouchers offered by ICTR. This April, ICTR offered vouchers to support workbench use for UW research projects that could be finished by the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2022). Five vouchers have been issued to research teams from different clinical departments. They include:
- Post-Acute Sequelae SARS Cov-2 (PASC): Can Physical Activity and Select Genomic Markers Predict Long-COVID Risk?
Dane Cook, PhD (Department of Kinesiology) - Assessing Weight Trends in the All of Us Research Program Dataset
Luke Funk, MD, MPH (Department of Surgery) - Producing Polygenic Risk Scores for Hundreds of Human Complex Traits Using All of Us
Qiongshi Lu, PhD (Department of Biostatistics & Medical Informatics) - Characterizing Genetic and Clinical Variable Interactions and Their Importance in Estimating Risk of Developing Breast or Ovarian Cancers in Women
Irene Ong, PhD (Departments of Biostatistics & Medical Informatics, Obstetrics & Gynecology) - Idiopathic Hypersomnia in All of Us: Prevalence, Comorbidities and Genetic Polymorphism
David Plante, MD, PhD (Department of Psychiatry)
Our local All of Us (AoU) program at UW is nested within ICTR and is led by Co-PIs Elizabeth Burnside, ICTR Deputy Executive Director, and Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, Faculty Director of the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity. Burnside comments,
We are so pleased to support this group of innovators in clinical and translational science from diverse departments as they undertake novel projects in the All of Us Workbench. As All of Us-Wisconsin enters year five of our NIH funding, our team remains laser-focused on participant engagement, enrollment, and retention activities. Simultaneously, UW is growing a strong scientific community and building momentum for advancing precision health by taking advantage of All of Us data. Congratulations to voucher awardees!
Administrative Supplements Offered by NIH. On May 20, the NIH released an additional, larger mechanism to support use of the workbench for precision medicine research by investigators with current active funding from NIH. The initiative will fund up to 20 supplemental awards in FY2022 and is due July 5, 2022. More details can be found here: Notice of Special Interest: Administrative Supplements to Advance Precision Medicine Using the All of Us Research Program’s Data (NOT-PM-22-002). Read More.
About 80% of the data in the Researcher Workbench is contributed by participants who represent communities that are historically underrepresented in research, including people from racial and ethnic minority groups, people from sexual and gender minority groups, and residents of rural areas. This diversity of participants is what makes the database such a valuable resource for research. Farrar-Edwards notes,
The Workbench provides data that have never been available before. The All of Us Program is committed to accelerating precision medicine – and enhancing health equity – particularly for those groups that have never been adequately represented in biomedical research.
