LEXINGTON, Ky. — The UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science aims to improve the process of turning valuable research findings into marketable business operations. It is now accepting applications for two pilot funding programs focused on translational science.
While translational research focuses on advancing a step of the translational process for a specific target/disease, translational science seeks to develop, demonstrate, and disseminate generalizable innovations and strategies to improve the process of translational research.
Translational science projects seek to:
- identify and understand barriers that delay progress or limit the quality, impact, or equity of translational research (e.g., clinical trial recruitment, data interoperability, implementation, etc.), and
- develop innovative solutions (e.g., methods, best practices, tools, technologies) to overcome these barriers.
Addressing critical barriers will allow subsequent translational research to accelerate the time from discovery to improved human health. The innovative solutions will have broad applicability to multiple research projects, increasing capacity and efficiency.
Details about the both translational science pilot funding opportunities are below.
Projects for Translational Science
The UK CCTS is funded through a CTSA award offered by the National Center for the Advancement of Transitional Science (NCATS). NCATS’ mission is to advance the science of translation, with the goal of both accelerating the process of turning observations into real world interventions as well as to break down barriers to translational research. As part of the new CTSA Funding Opportunity Announcement [PAR -21- 293], NCATS has introduced several different types of grant awards. It is anticipated that the overall CTSA application, when submitted in late 2025, will include several different types of translational science projects.
Therefore, this pilot funding opportunity is intended to help UK researchers with team building, obtaining preliminary data and other activities that will make the 2025 CTSA submission competitive. The types of projects that will be considered with this funding mechanisms include projects that have a focus on translational science with a high likelihood to lead to future grants.
This pilot award is expected to be a 12-month project period and $50,000 in direct costs. A second year of equal funding will be available for projects that demonstrate sufficient progress.
- Letters of intent due Jan. 17, 2024 by 11:59 p.m. EST.
- Download the full RFA. »
Rural States Multi-institutional Projects
The CTSA program supports a national network of medical research institutions that work together to speed the translation of research discovery into improved patient care. Eight CTSA institutions have joined together to form the Consortium of Rural States (CORES): The University of Utah Health, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, University of Kentucky, the Translational Research Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Iowa, Dartmouth College and Penn State University.
The purpose of this CORES request for applications is to promote multi-institutional collaboration across the CTSA consortium by funding innovative translational science research projects that involve two or more of these eight CTSA institutions. This pilot program is soliciting applications from faculty members at all career levels for translational science pilot projects that will exemplify the CTSA mission of “understanding a scientific or operational principle underlying a step of the translational process with the goal of developing generalizable principles to accelerate translational research.”
The research activities at each participating site will be funded by that institution’s CTSA. Because each institution participating in this program decides how much funding will be devoted to the program, the amount of funding available will vary depending on the institutions of the investigators involved in a proposal. It is anticipated that funds up to $25,000 direct costs per project per participating institution may be available for these collaborative projects.
- Letters of intent due Jan. 19, 2024 by 5 p.m. EST.
- Download the full RFA. »
