CTSI RFAs

All RFAs released through UCLA CTSI

Community Grant Awards

The CTSI CERP Community Grant Awards are meant to support community organizations that are currently working to address health or social inequities in any one of the following ways: Projects that focus on designing, tailoring, implementing, and/or evaluating health promotion or community health programs and projects that build community capacity or organizational (staff) capacity to participate in health research or health programs. Up to five awards of $10,000 each will support these local projects. Awards will be prioritized for smaller non-profit* organizations.

Community Partnered Research Awards to Improve Health in Los Angeles County

These awards seek applications proposing community partnered research projects that foster a better understanding of health through community engagement. Areas of proposed community partnered research may include interventions or exploratory research on health equity, environmental health or climate change; enhancing engagement of under-represented groups in research, policy, or capacity building; or engaging communities in discussing implications of innovations in health care and research (e.g., Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning).

CTSI Catalyst Awards

Catalyst Grants support team-building activities that advance translational science and promote collaborations across disciplines and UCLA CTSI institutions. Awards range from $100 to $5,000, depending on the nature scope of the project. Typically, there are three award cycles each year.

CTSI Core Voucher

The UCLA CTSI provides the infrastructure to translate scientific discoveries into innovations that improve health in Los Angeles and the nation. To achieve its mission and advance translational research, the CTSI periodically awards vouchers to defray the cost of core services. Under this RFA, the CTSI T1/T2 Accelerator Program (previously known as the Core Voucher Program), will award vouchers worth up to $10,000 in core services to investigators whose primary appointment is at UCLA Westwood, Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA, Cedars-Sinai and Charles R. Drew University.

CTSI / CSORDA Pilot and Feasibility Studies

CSORDA, a NIDA-funded P50 Center at UCLA with support from the UCLA CTSI, invites applications for the 2021-2022 academic year. This call is the second of 3 annual calls for pilot funding in the CSORDA P50 pilot program. Funding is available for high-quality, innovative research that is in opioid-related areas and of relevance to the CSORDA mission. Any approach, from basic to preclinical or clinical research that involves exogenous or endogenous opioid actions, will be considered. Engagement of CSORDA UCLA Cores is encouraged. Up to $20,000/year is available (or $40,000/year with justified clinical translational significance). Four pilot projects will be funded in 2020. Up to two of them will be considered at the $40,000 funding level if strongly justified.

CTSI / CURE Pilot and Feasibility Study

The CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Core Center (CURE: DDRCC) and the UCLA CTSI invite applications (new or second year renewal) for the CTSI/CURE Pilot and Feasibility Study. Funding will be available for high quality and innovative research in the biology, function and diseases of the digestive system, which is of relevance to the overall CURE Research Program, with special emphasis on receptor and signal transduction mechanisms, brain-gut interactions, neurogastroenterology, gastrointestinal and pancreatic physiology, pathophysiology and inflammation, and mechanisms underlying diseases of the digestive system. Proposed projects should lead to peer-reviewed extramural funding such as NIH, VA or related agency research grants in which PFS awardees serve as Principal Investigators. Awards are up to $40,000/year.

CTSI / Iris-Cantor Women's Health Center Awards

Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center / CTSI funds can be used to focus on, expand, or strengthen a research project's applicability to women's health and/or research where exploration of sex and gender-based differences is relevant. Pilot funding is available for UCLA researchers, including researchers at the Westwood/Santa Monica Campus, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, The Lundquist Institute (TLI) at Harbor-UCLA, and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, who perform research on health disparities. Funding categories include:

• augmentation awards
• pilot awards
• young investigator awards (applicants must have a sponsoring, principal, mentor who holds a UCLA faculty appointment)
• funding for research in health disparities

CTSI / RCMAR-CHIME Pilot Award

The UCLA Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME) and UCLA CTSI Pilot Project Award reviews applications for one-year awards. Awards of up to $55,000 are accepted for under-represented minority junior- and mid-level faculty and post-doctoral researchers. Applicants that are funded will conduct a pilot research project that focuses on minority older adult populations. Applicants are required to have a faculty appointment at UCLA or at another academic institution/organization in the greater Los Angeles area. Support will be given to pilot research projects that are consistent with the goal of the RCMAR/CHIME to provide research training and mentoring to under-represented minority junior- and midlevel faculty so they can advance their academic careers by conducting research that contributes to the reduction of health disparities affecting minority elders.

CTSI / UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) Pilot Grant

The UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) and UCLA CTSI invites applications for grants to fund pilot and/or feasibility studies for biomedical, epidemiological, or behavioral research. This funding is made available with departmental “Autism Initiative” funds to CART and matching funds via UCLA CTSI pilot funds. The UCLA CART houses several ACE Networks funded by NIH as part of a nationwide set of research programs. UCLA CART activities are wide-ranging and include the integration of clinical, imaging, genetic, and basic science research to create a synergistic milieu that maximizes the productivity of the participants and attracts other investigators to the field of autism. The purpose of these awards is to foster interactions and interdisciplinary research projects in the basic and clinical areas of autism. Preference will be given to projects that are likely to lead to successful future funding (by R01-type awards, etc). Proposals addressing the mechanism and treatment of autism are encouraged.

Translational Science Pilot Funding Program

UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) invites Pre-Applications for its Translational Science Pilot Funding Program. From among these pre-applications, the CTSI will invite selected finalists to engage in a collaborative process that seeks to develop, refine, and strengthen proposed projects in translational science resulting in up to three (3) 12-month awards of $75,000. The purpose of this pilot funding program is to support innovative projects that have the potential to scale to larger translational science initiatives with the CTSI. The CTSI expects to include in its 2026 grant renewal application one or two translational science projects with funding of $125,000 to $250,000 per year for up to three years.

UCLA / DHS Safety-Net Innovation / Implementation Science Awards

The UCLA CTSI and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS) are partnering to develop and test interventions to enhance quality, efficiency and patient-centeredness of care provided by the LAC DHS. This solicitation requests letters of intent that describe ideas for such programs from which formal applications for funding will be selected. The CTSI and DHS will issue one pilot grant of up to $150,000 total to support the design and small scale implementation of interventions within DHS that will achieve the goals of quality, efficiency and patient centered care. The project will need to be completed within 2 years of notice of award. The DHS will provide additional resources and operational support for the selected projects. When completed, successful pilot projects will serve as a base for sustaining extramural funding to implement and formally evaluate the intervention(s) on a larger scale and longer timeframe within DHS. Acceptable funding mechanisms include but are not limited to NIH R01, R21, R03; PCORI, AHRQ, CDC, and CMS Center for Innovation.

UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Seed Grant Program

The David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) Research Themes, in collaboration with the Institute of Precision Health (IPH), offer the DGSOM Seed Grant Program in an effort to promote the assembly of teams of scientists that are well-positioned to perform innovative, high-impact research and ultimately compete for large team science grants from federal agencies and private foundations.  Applications may include faculty throughout the UCLA campus in any biomedical or medical research area in which groundbreaking advances catalyzed by teams of researchers can be envisioned.