Pilot Programs & Awards

Basic Science Collaboration Pilots

YCCI invites applications from faculty from any basic science program or department for new initiatives in translational and interdisciplinary research that focus on important aspects of human disease. The goal is to foster new collaborations between basic scientists and other disciplines to study important problems in clinical medicine. Funds should be used to assemble teams and generate preliminary data that will result in programs that are competitive for extramural funding.

Translational and Interdisciplinary Research Pilots

YCCI invites applications from Yale faculty for new initiatives in translational and interdisciplinary research that focus on important aspects of human disease. Translational research includes:

• Applying discoveries generated during research in the laboratory and in preclinical studies to the development of trials and studies in humans.
• Research aimed at enhancing the adoption of best practices in the community, including cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment strategies.

The goal is to foster new projects that bring together investigators from diverse disciplines to study important problems in clinical medicine. Funds should be used to assemble teams and generate preliminary data that will result in programs that are competitive for extramural funding.

Pilots to Promote T2 and T3 Research

YCCI invites faculty to submit applications for the promotion of T2 and T3 research.

• T2 research is defined as the translation of initial research findings to test initial hypotheses and/or approaches in clinical trials, including the development of evidence-based guidelines.
• T3 research is defined as research aimed at enhancing the adoption of best practices in the community, including research focused on cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment strategies. Research in these categories could include but is not limited to comparative effectiveness, research to improve the quality of patient care, enhancing patient safety, improving health outcomes process improvement, health policy, community-based projects, research on new outreach approaches, and mathematical modeling of disease.

These research projects should be directed at accumulating preliminary research data that can be used to support larger, longer-term applications to NIH and other peer-reviewed funding agencies.

Pilots to Develop Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies

Yale faculty may request funds to develop new technologies with the strong promise of being introduced for use with humans in the short term (less than five years).

Funds may be used to develop methods that could be applied in humans to improve the phenotyping of human subjects, or the diagnosis or treatment of human diseases (such as the use of mass spectrometry in biomarker development, novel imaging approaches or the development or refinement of devices).

Methodologies that are not technologically based are also eligible for funding. These could include new methodological approaches to problems in research ethics, biostatistics, clinical trials design, biomedical informatics, or novel approaches to implementing community-based research/outcomes studies.

Just-In-Time Pilots Utilizing Core Technologies

The Just-In-Time Core Pilot Funding Program is designed to provide quick access to funding to use any institutional core for research advancing medical knowledge that can improve human health.

This is an ongoing funding opportunity for which researchers may apply at any time. Applications are reviewed periodically several times each year. For specific dates, see the JIT RFA.

• JIT RFA
• JIT Core Pilot application form
• Pilot Budget Template

Pilots Utilizing Imaging Core Technologies

YCCI recognizes that the cost of obtaining preliminary data using the services of the human and animal imaging cores can be prohibitive for investigators performing pilot studies. To provide greater access to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, MRS, fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) cores, YCCI offers pilot funds to support work needed for clinical and translational research projects, particularly projects that are likely to lead to extramural support if preliminary imaging data is available.

Child Health Innovation Fund Grants

Beginning in 2003, the Children’s Fund has awarded Child Health Innovation Grants for local primary and preventive pediatric health and mental initiatives that have a sound theoretical and evidence base and, if proven effective, can be disseminated and lead to sustainable improvements in direct practice and service systems throughout Connecticut. In 2011, YCCI partnered with the Children’s Fund of Connecticut (CFC) to offer up to three Children’s Health Innovation Grants. Proposals were solicited to address one or more of four priority areas to:

• Promote and enhance comprehensive, community-based, quality mental health care services for all children and families.
• Advance the integration of health and mental health at the policy, systems, and practice levels.
• Strengthen the link between child health/child mental health systems and other child-serving systems (e.g. early care and education, schools, family support programs).