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Pilot Grant Program
The Pilot Grant Program for Clinical and Translational Studies (PILOTS)
PILOTS encourages innovations in translational science across the UI campus through interdisciplinary awards to generate preliminary data for larger projects or to test novel methods. These grants allow researchers to undertake preliminary and "proof of concept" studies with the goal of developing grant proposals for external funding.
$50,000 pilot grants will be funded for one year. Investigators are encouraged to take advantage of ICTS core resources, which substantially increase the effective value of these awards. Both hypotheses-driven and hypothesis-generating proposals will be considered. It is expected that hypothesis-generating proposals will be either "high-risk/high reward" or will be directed towards establishing methodologies that are necessary to accomplish subsequent research.
Since 2007, PILOTS has awarded 40 grants that have been supported by CTSA funds, individual colleges, and the UI Vice President for Research. The 40 grants were selected from a total of 305 applications submitted by teams led by investigators from 24 different departments from 8 UI colleges and by investigators at Iowa State University.
Moreover, the 40 grants supported projects across the T1–T4 spectrum and were distributed to teams led by faculty from 19 departments and 7 colleges at the UI and faculty from Iowa State. Pilot grant proposals that brought together investigators from two or more colleges or departments were given scoring priority over other proposals; nearly all of the proposals funded during Years 1–4 were at a minimum cross-departmental.
The awards directly led to the submission of 48 new grant proposals to the NIH (n = 23) and to other federal and private entities (n = 25). Of these awards, 16 received funding with annual direct costs of $2,368,854, while 21 are pending funding decisions with total annual direct costs of $5,327,341.
LINCC Grants
Basic scientists are partnering with their clinically active colleagues at the UI to ask some exciting questions, such as the following:
- Can therapeutic high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets be used to enhance radiation and chemotherapy treatments in lung cancer patients?
- How do mutations in a specific protein lead to aneurysms of the aorta?
- Will a new Mismatch EndoNuclease microarray technique accelerate and ease the detection of disease-causing genetic mutations?
These questions, among many others, have emerged from the successful Looking into Clinical Connections (LINCC) pilot grant program. As its acronym suggests the program links together investigators from basic science departments with clinical investigators, introducing new research ideas and fostering long-term productive academic relationships.
Previously available only to investigators within the Carver College of Medicine, $50,000 pilot award opportunities are being introduced by ICTS to the entire UI investigative community.
Contact Information
PILOTS Director
Joseph Zabner, MD, Internal Medicine Vice-Chair of Translational Research & Interim Division Director of Pulmonary & Critical Care
440 EMRB
319.384.5401
LINCC Awardees
Kalpaj R. Parekh, MD—Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
John Engelhardt, PhD, Professor and Head of Anatomy and Cell Biology
LINCC Pilot Grant Awardees
“Science has advanced so much at the molecular level, and I lack formal training in this area. If I were on my own, it would be much more difficult and costly to independently develop my research program. The LINCC grant allowed me to apply John’s ferret model of cystic fibrosis (that he’s been working on for 15 years) to lung transplantation and rejection so I can explore how stem cells and corresponding molecular processes respond in the lung.” —Parekh
“For Kal, it really comes down to having access to the infrastructure of an established lab and the scientific peers with whom to bounce ideas off of, without having to worry about all the hardships associated with creating your own environment.” —Engelhardt
Heather Bartlett, PhD—Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, LINCC Pilot Grant Awardee
“I met a family in clinic with actin mutations and wanted to study how these mutations lead to disease. The LINCC program allowed me to collaborate with Peter Rubenstein, a biochemistry professor, who had developed an experimental system to test how different mutations affect actin behavior. Through LINCC funding I was able to work with Peter and immerse myself in studying actin function. I attended the 2010 American Society for Cell Biology Meeting with Peter and we have published an article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. We have applied for a $250,000/year R01 grant from NIH, and have established collaborations with other local investigators to determine the role of actin in modulating oxidative stress and the contribution of actin to patent ductus arteriosus. Peter and I are also continuing our collaboration to determine the impact of actin mutation on actomysoin function.”
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Please acknowledge NIH when publishing papers, patents, projects,
and presentations resulting from the use of ICTS resources by citing Grant Number UL1RR024979.
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