BRIDGE Pilot Award

Purpose

Examples of projects that might fit this opportunity include:

• Using a large genomic data set to identify patients with differential response to a therapy or drug in order to guide future prescribing.
• Identify patterns of internet use that presage a particular illness or syndrome.
• Determine if consumer wearable sensor data like smart watches can predict who will develop a specific disease or who will respond to a treatment.
• Relating regional patterns of consumption or purchases to risk of developing a disease.

Projects that are not suitable are those that look at the effect of individual patient (or personal condition) on large data. Examples would include examining the genetics of a disease or examining the effect of having a condition on wearable data. Instead, we want to emphasize the use of a large dataset, that might already exist or that might be acquired for other reasons in a broad population, to bring new information to benefit the individual within the population.

Award funding of up to $30,000 is available to cover direct costs; no indirect support will be provided. The award period will last for 12 months, beginning when all regulatory and administrative approvals have been received. The BRIDGE Pilots do not have any mechanism for no-cost extensions; any funds that are not spent during the award period will be forfeited. Awards must start within three months of notification.

Bonus Awards are eligible for Community Partnerships and Early-Career Underrepresented Investigators. Please see the full RFP for more details.

Before any funding can begin, awardees must provide documentation of all necessary regulatory approvals (IRB, IACUC, hSCRO, IBC, CORID, etc.). Once regulatory documentation is provided, awarded projects will undergo an administrative review from NCATS, which may take up to 30 days. Funding cannot begin until projects have been approved by NCATS. Because of this, all applicants are strongly encouraged to have the necessary regulatory documents ready for submission.

The Principal Investigator must be a University of Pittsburgh faculty member; postdoctoral trainees and trainees in clinical training programs are not eligible to serve as PI. Faculty members on early-career training awards or clinical research scholars (i.e. recipients of K-series or similar career development grants) are eligible. New PIs are strongly encouraged, but submissions from established investigators will be accepted if there is clear evidence that the pilot project represents a distinctly new direction from their previously funded work. Cross-disciplinary collaborations are strongly encouraged.

Co-Investigators (Co-Is) may be from other universities; however, CTSI’s primary mission is to promote research at the University of Pittsburgh, so applicants should justify extensive off-campus collaboration. Partnerships with non-academic community partners are also acceptable.