Community Grant Awards

CTSI CERP

Community partnered awards to foster a better understanding of health through community engagement

The UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) includes team members at Cedars-Sinai, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, the Lundquist Institute, and UCLA. Within the CTSI, the Community Engagement Research Program (CERP) partners with community members, organizations, service providers, policymakers, academic researchers, government and local health systems to identify and research public health priorities towards the goal of improving health equity and reducing health disparities in Los Angeles County.

Timeline
September 22, 2023	Request for applications released
October 3, 2023, 2:00-3:00pm October 12, 2023, 9:30-10:30am	Office Hours (staff will answer questions about the application)
November 3, 2023	Applications Due (11:59pm PT)
December 2023	Awardees Announced
January 2024	Estimated Project Start Date
June 2024	Six-Month Check in with Awardees
January 2025	Project Completion Date
January 2025	Brief Final Report Due (template to be provided)

Purpose

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

For example, projects or programs promoting healthy eating, reducing risk of heat or fire dangers, mental health, etc.

Projects that build community capacity or organizational (staff) capacity to participate in health research or health programs

For example, offering community trainings to improve literacy or health literacy, offering community workshops to improve awareness or understanding of health topics, certifications or staff training for specific skills such as motivational interviewing or data collection, etc.

We will make up to five awards of $10,000 each to support these local projects. Awards will be prioritized for smaller non-profit* organizations (for example, organizations with annual operating budgets between $10,000-$500,000 per year). Larger non-profit organizations are encouraged to proposed activities that include the mentorship of smaller organizations in their work.

*Non-profit organizations who do not have 501(c)3 status can name a fiscal sponsor to receive their funds. If this is the case, please put both organization’s names in the application.

Eligibility

ELIGIBILITY/ REQUIREMENTS

Who is eligible to apply?
Community-based organizations that work with diverse populations in greater Los Angeles County and surrounding areas that are disproportionately affected by health and/or social inequities.

What are the project requirements?

Awardees will be asked to share their work at a CERP meeting with community partners, staff, and faculty. This will include a brief presentation and time for questions and answers.
Funds may be used to support adaptations or scaling up and evaluation of ongoing projects and/or new projects related to promoting health, building community capacity or building organizational capacity
Awardees will have approximately one year to spend the funds after receiving the funds
Participate in 6-month check-in call with CERP on project progress and complete a written final report (short survey)

What are reviewers looking for in a successful application?

The reviewers will include trained community and academic reviewers. They will be looking for applications that meet one of the following:

Addresses programmatic or capacity building efforts
Engages with local communit(ies) experiencing health disparities in Los Angeles County
Project goals are feasible for one year
Project budget is appropriate for proposed work
Likelihood of impact on community

How to Apply

TO APPLY

Please complete the following two documents and email them Dale Slaughter at daslaughter@mednet.ucla.edu by 11:59pm PT on November 3, 2023.

Application form (Word document)
Budget form (Excel document)

For your convenience, we also provide examples for the application and the budget. If you or your organization are unable to access the application templates, please contact Dale Slaughter at daslaughter@mednet.ucla.edu.

Sample application and budget

FAQs

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

Do organizations need to have 501(c)3 status to apply for this award?
No, organizations are not required to have 501(c)3 status to apply for the CTSI CERP Community Grant Awards. However, you should identify an organization with 501(c)3 status to serve as a fiscal sponsor (they will receive and distribute the funds to the non-501(c)3 organization). Both organizations should be listed in your application with a note as to which organization is the fiscal sponsor.
Are the awardees expected to work together?
The awardees will have an opportunity to meet each other and learn from each other, including at the 6-month progress check in meeting. They are not expected to work together for this specific project, but we hope they will network and potentially find opportunities to work together in the future.
How should awardees address any potential unexpected changes to their projects?
If circumstances change and will directly impact the awardee’s ability to carry out the proposed project, please notify program staff as soon as possible to discuss the best way to approach this.
Do we need to identify a Principal Investigator (PI) for our proposal?
The proposals should include a Project Director who plans to oversee the project and serve as the main contact person. This person may also be the Principal Investigator if the proposal is a research project.
Will the award cover indirect costs?
The award amount ($10,000) is inclusive of indirect costs (facilities and administrative costs), meaning the total of direct plus indirect costs should not exceed ($10,000). Organizations without a federally negotiated indirect cost rate may use a 10% de minimus rate. Please contact us if you have additional questions.
Are there any requirements about how much of the budget goes to program staff salary versus other program resources?
There are no requirements about how the budget is allocated; in general, the budget should be appropriate to carry out the proposed project.
What are allowable costs in this budget?
The budget can include items that are reasonable to carry out and complete this project. This includes staff members to help manage administrative or financial aspects of the project. The budget can also include food if they are part of the project (for example, demonstrations of healthy food preparation). The total of these costs may not exceed $10,000. Please contact us if you have additional questions.
If funded, what kind of paperwork or other expectations are there for awardees?
Once the award is made, awardees will need to complete paperwork to establish their organization as an official vendor and set up a subcontract with UCLA. The contract will be deliverable-based, with two opportunities to invoice for funds: the first invoice will take place upon completion of the contract paperwork to provide project start-up funds. The second invoice will take place upon completion of the six-month check in. Program staff can help to provide guidance with these processes.

Q&A presentation slides are listed here.

Questions?

There will be an applicant Q&A session where you can ask staff members questions about the application process or the application itself.

October 3, 2023 – 2:00-3:00pm
October 12, 2023 - 9:30-10:30am

For more information, please email us at daslaughter@mednet.ucla.edu.

Questions about content, scope, or eligibility?

About UCLA CTSI

The UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is a research partnership of UCLA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Its mission is to bring biomedical innovations to bear on the greatest health needs of Los Angeles—one of the most ethnically and economically diverse counties in the United States. Our vision is to catalyze research that translates discoveries into tangible improvements in health care, disease prevention and health in our community. The UCLA CTSI is one of more than 50 research hubs supported by the Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (CTSA) program of National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). NCATS—one of 27 Institutes and Centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—was established to transform the translational process so that new treatments and cures for disease can be delivered to patients faster.