Funding Opportunities
PACCRI currently offers a funding opportunity dedicated to advancing research in pediatric acute and critical care.
PACCRI Spark Challenge Grants
Award amount: Up to $100,000 per team ($75,000 in direct funding and $25,000 in PACCRI services)
Deadline to submit letters of intent: Monday, February 16, 2026
Purpose
The PACCRI Spark Challenge Grants are designed to ignite high-risk, high-reward, multidisciplinary research that can revolutionize care for acutely ill and injured children. These awards support innovative projects that challenge conventional paradigms and accelerate solutions with real-world impact.
The diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of acutely ill and injured children is complex and unique. Addressing these challenges requires a new approach to bring together teams from multiple disciplines. The PACCRI Spark Challenge Grants aim to catalyze high-risk, high-reward multidisciplinary research that can transform outcomes for acutely ill and injured children. These grants are designed to support bold ideas that challenge conventional paradigms and accelerate the development of impactful solutions in pediatric acute and critical care. This may include, but is not limited to, developing and/or testing a new medical device, validating the clinical utility of a novel biomarker or diagnostic platform, or developing new computational models for prediction or precision problems. Basic science proposals with a clear and near-term translational pathway or proposals that include both basic science (e.g., cellular or animal models) with a clinical translational component (e.g., clinical validation in human biospecimens) will be considered.
Key Features
- High-risk, high-reward: Projects should think inside and outside the box.
- No preliminary data required: Early-stage concepts are welcome and encouraged.
- Multidisciplinary collaboration: Teams must include members from at least two distinct disciplines. Projects that include one or more clinician(s) and one or more collaborator(s) outside Lurie Children's/Feinberg (e.g., McCormick, industry partner, etc.) are strongly encouraged. If the project has an important current or future implementation component, including an implementation scientist in the team is also encouraged.
- Acceleration potential: Preference for projects with viable plans to move rapidly toward clinical applications. Small incremental steps will not be viewed favorably.
- Translational focus: Must propose a product, method, or process, not just basic science discovery.
- No IP required: intellectual property is not a prerequisite.
View the request for application for additional details on the application requirements, budget guidelines, and award conditions.
Have an idea to transform pediatric acute or critical care? If you are a scientist or innovator with bold ideas who wants to collaborate with a clinician-scientist partner at Lurie Children's and Manne Research Institute, email the PACCRI team.
Application Cycle
We are now accepting letters of intent through Monday, February 16, 2026.
