Pilot Funds
Pilot funds may be available in order to assist faculty in preparing the most competitive new federal grant applications. This initiative is intended to facilitate collaborations amongst faculty and is geared toward strengthening new center, team science, or other complex grant proposals (e.g., NIH P’s, U’s, RM1’s, NSF STCs, etc.). Pilot funds can be used to generate reagents for key preliminary data, and/or for short-term funding for personnel or supplies to perform the experiments to strengthen proposals.
You can send a funding request or any questions to Connie Lee (cmlee@bsd.uchicago.edu).
Requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis - please see below for what details should be included.
If you are interested in competing for these funds, please submit a one-to-two-page (maximum) proposal, that contains the following information:
- Title of Proposal
- Proposed PI (and Co-Investigators if a collaborative proposal)
- Targeted grant mechanism & link to call for proposals, or target date of submission to standard NIH cycle
- One to two paragraphs outlining the scientific theme, rationale, and overall goals for the proposal
- Total funding requested and breakdown of the budget
- Justification for the requested amount and a description of what the pilot funding will enable that you couldn’t do without the funding (e.g., detail the key experiments, equipment, personnel, etc., required to strengthen the proposal)
Bridge Funding
Generally, bridge funding should be used to support critical personnel in an investigator’s lab and to support research goals for the resubmission of a grant application. Bridge funding should not be viewed as “incentive” funding with which to initiate a new program.
Eligible faculty must not have other R01- level funding or access to other University funds (for example startup or gift funding).
As a general guideline, requests in the range of $20,000-100,000 will be considered. PI salary, equipment and travel are not allowable costs.
To apply for bridge funding, please submit as a single PDF document of the following materials to Connie Lee (cmlee@bsd.uchicago.edu) in the Office of the Dean for Basic Science.
- Brief response to reviewer’s comments (i.e., pink sheets for NIH applications, or equivalent for NSF)
- Description of proposed research, including how the bridge funds will increase the likelihood of future funding (1-3 pages)
- CV including funding record and publications related to the unfunded grant marked with an asterisk
- A statement demonstrating evidence of attempts to secure funding (which must include summary statement and score for the unfunded grant and may also include abstracts of submitted grants, panel reviews or other evaluations)
- Budget, with justification of necessity of projected costs
- A signed letter of support from the applicant’s department chair
Dean's letters
Submit your request to deansletter@bsd.uchicago.edu
For letters that do not request a financial commitment we request that the draft is submitted to deansletter@bsd.uchicago.edu 2 weeks prior to the grant deadline.
For letters that request a financial commitment we request that a draft letter, draft budget and the target award information are submitted to deansletter@bsd.uchicago.edu 5 weeks prior to the grant deadline.