Internal Funding Opportunities

The Catalyst's Spark Award is a one-year award for up to $100,000 to support novel population health, implementation science, or community engaged research. It was created in 2022 through the generous support of numerous donors, all of whom are committed to the promise of dramatically improving children's lives through cutting-edge 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 that engages diverse stakeholders inculding communities, patients, and families.
• Proposal that clearly articulates planned engagement with SCHORE Catalyst. 
  • Interested investigators should contact Michelle Macy, MD, for consultation on Catalyst's expertise and resources. 
• Investigators without significant pre-existing funding.
• Investigators without evidence of long-standing research effort in direct line of the proposed area of study.

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The Digital Healthcare Innovation Grant Awards are part of the new Health@Home strategic research initiative at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. The goal of Health@Home is to catalyze science that equitably transforms how digital healthcare is developed and delivered outside of hospital and clinic walls. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago faculty and research scientists are invited to submit proposals that advance the understanding of how digital tools and methods can improve the health of children and the wellbeing of their families at home and in the community.

Available Opportunities

• The Health@Home Today Grant is a $10,000 grant designed to assess how existing digital health interventions are impacting a healthcare process or health outcome. This mechanism is ideal for secondary analysis of existing data but could include prospective data collection with current users (e.g., clinicians, family caregivers, youth, etc.) to understand how an existing digital healthcare intervention is functioning.
• The Health@Home for Tomorrow Grant is a $30,000 grant designed for a project aimed at developing a new digital healthcare intervention not yet in clinical practice or furthering an existing program that is hypothesized to improve a specific healthcare process or outcome. The scope of the work may include user-design prototyping for early-stage ideas or scientific work to enhance existing interventions as a step towards external research funding. 
• The Health@Home Activation Grant is a $5,000 grant designed to activate new research protocols for data collection and/or healthcare techniques in the home and community. This mechanism is intended to create pilot data or prototype tools that can be included in future grant submissions that support larger studies. Examples might include testing the feasibility of collecting or sharing of new type of data in the home or piloting a new healthcare process in an existing cohort.  

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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. 

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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.

All concepts will be weighted using the following priority criteria: 

• 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. 

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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. 

All concepts will be weighted using the following priority criteria: 

• 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). 

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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. 

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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. 

All concepts will be weighted using the following priority criteria: 

• 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.

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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 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.
• 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.
• Cultivate Award: up to $25,000 for a one-year project period to engage family or community members to establish or enhance research partnerships. 

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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. 

All concepts will be weighted using the following priority criteria: 

• 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. 

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