New Funding Mechanism Available for Translational Research at VCU

By Frances Dumenci

In an effort to bolster faculty collaboration within Virginia Commonwealth University’s research enterprise, the VCU Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) and the Office of the Vice President for Health Sciences announce the creation of the CCTR Endowment Fund. This new funding mechanism will support meritorious pilot and feasibility research and replaces the existing CCTR Pilot Awards and the AD Williams’ Awards.

“Translational research seeks to find answers that will improve the quality of life through the betterment of human health,” said Sheldon Retchin, M.D., vice president for Health Sciences at VCU and CEO of the VCU Health System. “It focuses on the collaboration among our researchers to accelerate laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients. This new funding award will encourage faculty members from across VCU to work together to discover better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illness and disease.”

Sources of the funds include the A.D. Williams Trust Fund, endowment funds designated for specific health sciences research and additional monies from the Office of the Vice President for Health sciences.

Under this new mechanism, investigators may apply for up to $50,000 to support clinical and translational research that applies discoveries generated in the laboratory and preclinical studies to the development of clinical trials, seeks to understand the biological basis for clinical manifestations or enhances the adoption of best practices in the community.

“This is very exciting,” said John N. Clore, M.D., director of the CCTR and associate vice president for clinical research. “The most important part of this new funding award is that it is available to VCU faculty from both the MCV and Monroe Park campuses who are working on translational research projects. One of the major goals of this new funding mechanism is to enhance the transdisciplinary collaboration among faculty across the university. Applications including researchers from multiple disciplines are not only encouraged, but are highly desirable.”

Eligible faculty include those with new investigator status with the National Institutions of Health, senior faculty members who are changing the focus of their research and need pilot data before submitting an application for external funding, or senior faculty researchers who are between externally funded research projects who need funding to maintain their research programs. Funds will support preliminary studies that enable researchers to develop hypotheses, preliminary data and methods necessary for submission of highly competitive applications to extramural funding sources.

Submission deadlines for CCTR Endowment Fund Award applications are Nov. 1, Feb. 1, May 1 and Aug. 1. For more information, including eligibility requirements, instructions and checklist for the application and the application itself, visit www.cctr.vcu.edu/resources/funding.

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