Tufts CTSI begins application process for Pilot Studies Program

The TuftsClinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is wrapping up the preliminary stage of its application process for its sixth annual Pilot Studies Program, with the deadline for Letters of Intent today. The program,  founded in 2009, selects qualified applicants to receive one year of funding for CTSI-oriented research projects.

The Pilot Studies Program generally grants up to $30,000 to selected projects. Although this funding only covers a one-year period, the CTSI projects are expected to be seed projects for future and more extensive research, according to Manager of Communications and Media at Tufts CTSI Amy West.

“[The funding] will allow applicants to generate sufficient preliminary data to secure future extramural funding, or to develop new methods that will significantly advance translational science,” she told the Daily in an email.

Applications for the program are due on Nov. 21, with the grant recipients to be announced on Feb. 6.

Although there is no specific theme for the types of projects that applicants can submit, the program has decided to emphasize four kinds of proposals this year, according to Aviva Must, Morton A. Madoff professor and chair of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine, as well as director of the Pilot Studies Program.

“[Proposals that] focus on community and stakeholder engagement, clinical comparative effectiveness research … One Health, which is the intersection of animal health, human health and the environment and methods development: those are the four things that we are emphasizing this year through the program,” she said.

Must added that the proposals should reflect the mission of the CTSI, which seeks to advance human health by translating research into clinical practice and health policy, according to the website. 

Applications for the Pilot Studies Program are solicited once per year, she said. Typically the program receives 70 to 80 Letters of Intent from researchers who are planning to apply and 50 to 60 full proposals. However, this year may see an increase in applicants.

“We have stepped up our outreach to our partners this year, and one of the changes is that there are more people who are eligible to apply as principal investigators,” Must said. “We’ve opened it up to most of our partners, so it’s possible that … we will have a big spike in the number of applications, which would be challenging for us internally, but would be very good for the program.”

The only specific requirement for an applicant this year is that the Primary Principal Investigator must be affiliated with Tufts CTSI, according to West.

“The Principal Investigator ... on the study must have a primary appointment or position at a Tufts CTSI academic, medical or nonprofit research partner institution,” she said.

The applicants usually consist of faculty members at academic institutions, clinicians at affiliated hospitals, veterinarians from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine or affiliated institutions and community partners, according to Must.

Must added that out of the usual pool of 60 applicants, approximately nine proposals are accepted each year through a thorough review process.

“The grants are reviewed by at least two reviewers individually, and then we come together in a review committee meeting and the grants that are approximately in the top half get discussed by the full committee … we have full-bodied discussion of the proposal,” she said.

The selected projects will begin on May 1. Once the accepted projects have completed their work and research, a final symposium will be held for the investigators to present the results of their research, Must explained.

Tufts CTSI receives its funding from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health, according to West.

“[NCATS] is a relatively new entity in Washington that exists for the purpose of trying to accelerate the translation of [a] basic science to applications that will improve the health of human populations,” Must  said.

Must explained that the future appears to be promising for CTSI and the Pilot Studies Program. She noted that a critical ingredient of CTSI’s success depends on its continued funding from NCATS.

“I feel confident that if we continue to do a good job, we can have NCATS continuing to fund us for the next five year period … one of the ways that we will be evaluated [for NCATS funding] is on how effective our pilot program has been,” she said.