Internal Funding Opportunities

The Accelerator Award: Innovate2Impact Commercialization Fund is dedicated to identifying and accelerating early-stage Lurie Children’s innovations toward market entry. This fund is open to any Lurie Children’s employee and will support medical device, therapeutic/diagnostic, or digital health technologies developed at Lurie Children’s with awards ranging from $20,000 to $100,000. This investment aims to rapidly bridge the gap between innovative ideas and successful commercialization, ultimately enhancing outcomes for children and families.

The award can be used for: 1) medical device prototype development, refinement, and benchtop validation; 2) drug screening, target validation, and medicinal chemistry; 3) digital health wireframe development, prototyping, iterative testing and refinement; 4) pre-clinical studies, including pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic or animal efficacy studies; 5) human data collection and clinical studies; 6) market assessment, regulatory assessment, or voice of customer data; and/or 7) reaching another pre-clinical or clinical milestone which significantly de-risks the medical device, therapeutic/diagnostic, or digital health technology in its path toward commercialization. 

The Catalyst's Spark Award a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support novel population health, implementation science, or community-engaged research. This should be an innovative research project that results in pilot data to support a competitive future extramural funding application with a community, population health, or outcomes focus.

All concepts will be weighted using the following priority criteria:

• Proposal engages diverse stakeholders including communities, patients, and families.
• Proposal clearly articulates planned engagement with SCHORE Catalyst.
• Interested investigators should contact Catalyst, for consultation on Catalyst’s expertise. 
  and resources. Please note that any other general questions related to application eligibility, budget development etc. should continue to be routed to manneresearchinstituteiga@luriechildrens.org.
• Investigators without significant pre-existing funding.
• Investigators without evidence of long-standing research effort in direct line of the proposed 
  area of study.

The Health@Home Healthcare Innovation Grant Awards are part of the Health@Home strategic 
research initiative at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. Health@Home’s goal is to 
catalyze science that equitably transforms how digital healthcare is developed and delivered
outside of hospital and clinic walls. Lurie Children’s faculty and research scientists are invited to 
submit proposals that advance our understanding of how we can improve the health of children and the wellbeing of their families at home and in the community (including advances in technology and devices).

Available Opportunities 

• Activation Grant: Up to $5,000. Designed to activate new research data collection protocols and/or healthcare techniques in the home and community. 
• Today Grant: Up to $10,000. Designed to assess how existing health interventions are impacting a healthcare process or health outcome. 
• Tomorrow Grant: Up to $30,000. Designed for a project aimed at developing a new healthcare intervention not yet in clinical practice or further mature an existing program that is hypothesized to improve a specific healthcare process or outcome. 

The Interdisciplinary Colloquia Award is a one-year award for up to $5,000 to bring together multi-disciplinary investigators from Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Northwestern University to share scientific knowledge and envision future research related to children’s health. Support may be justified for recurring group meetings with food, visiting faculty costs relevant to the group's area of interest and mission, and/or mini-symposium costs designed to bring together the working group and scientists in the area of focus. 

The Kenneth C. Griffin Research Catalyst Award is a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support novel preclinical and translational research. This award supports early-career researchers to pursue translational discoveries, which will ultimately lead to significant, long-term grant funding from federal agencies and the private sector.

Priority Criteria for Award Selection 

• Investigators without significant pre-existing funding
• Investigators without evidence of long-standing research effort in direct line of the proposed area of study
• Well-articulated translational scientific potential 
• Distinction from other areas of funded investigation

The Proposal Revision Award is a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support the preparation of a revision and resubmission of an application for federal research support. The prior extramural application must have received a priority score and full review by the sponsor within the past two years. Training grants (e.g., K08, K23, TL2) and R03 submissions do not qualify for this award. This award will accept applications through December 13, 2024.

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The Program Accelerator Award is a one-year award for up to $75,000 to support planning and development of program project-related applications expected to lead to a submission within 18-24 months of the start of funding. Support justification may include administrative and grant writing support, material support for preliminary data generation, and personnel support. 

Priority Criteria for Award Selection 

• Novel clinical, translational, and basic scientific synergy (does not need to be a new line of scientific inquiry to the principal investigator or research team). 

The Scientific Advocacy Award provides up to $1,000 per year to advocate for children's health research at the regional and national level and raise the stature of Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago investigators in scientific advocacy. 

Priority Criteria for Award Selection 

• Evidence that the proposed role and engagement by the awardee will have influence on children's health research
• National level advocacy
• A sustained advocacy plan 

The Schreiber Family Center for Early Childhood Health and Wellness is excited to announce our Generating Research on Outcomes of exposures and experiences from Womb to age 5 (GROW to 5) Planning Grant initiative. The Center will support up to three one-year grant awards, allowing for the collection of pilot data, that will increase the competitiveness of extramural proposals for career development (K), R, P, and U-series awards. 

We encourage submission of grant planning and pilot data collection proposals in the following areas of research emphasis:

• Providing evidence for effective strategies to break cycles of health and racial inequities or promote safe, stable, and nurturing relationships during early childhood.
• Exploring how Positive Childhood Experiences modify the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences, stress (positive, tolerable, and toxic), and structural racism on the brain, biology, and behavior of parents and their children, from conception to age 5.
• Investigating the physical, developmental, and behavioral health impacts of the exposome (including physical and social environments) in which children younger than 5 are conceived, grow, live, learn, and play.
• Advancing evidence-based practices for promoting physical health, mental health, and wellbeing 
  in clinical and community settings among children before birth to age 5.
• Establishing partnerships to engage families and communities in research that advance evidence-based practices that promote physical health, mental health, and wellbeing in clinical and community settings among children before birth to age 5.

Available Opportunities

• Flourish Award: up to $75,000 for a one-year project period to develop a multi-project research program or cooperative agreement proposal.
• Thrive Award: up to $50,000 for a one-year project period to collect pilot data for an R-series proposal.
• Nourish Award: up to $50,000 for a one-year project to support the advancement of junior faculty pursuing mentored career development awards (K or equivalent)
• Cultivate Award: up to $25,000 for a one-year project period to engage family or community members to establish or enhance research partnerships. 

The Visionary Award is a one-year award for up to $75,000 to support potentially paradigm shifting research. This should be a visionary idea with a new, multi-institutional team supporting it. 

Priority Criteria for Award Selection 

• A new line of research for the investigators without significant pre-existing funding or evidence of long-standing research effort in direct line of the proposed area of study 
• Distinction from other areas of funded investigation 
• Clearly articulates the translational nature of the research area