Find Pilot Funding

C-STAR will fund four projects per year. Each project may receive up to $25,000 in direct costs that must be expended within 12-months of study start date. Awardees will also receive mentorship from top leaders in engineering, clinical, outcomes and implementation science research.

Provides funding for pilot/exploratory projects that explore an important emerging or unanswered bioethics problem in clinical care, biomedical research, public health or healthcare policy.

Supports the development of partnerships and projects that engage communities and stakeholders most impacted by health inequities in research collaboration.

Offers competitive funding for clinical and basic science pilot projects related to chronic pain and drug abuse.

Third Coast CFAR pilot awards are intended for preliminary studies in HIV-related basic, clinical, social, or behavioral research that will lead to new NIH grant submissions.

Supports new areas of inquiry in diabetes translation research, with a special focus on improving the care and outcomes of vulnerable populations

Supports pilot work and collaborative efforts to enhance the competitiveness of extramural grant submissions in the developmental sciences.

Provides funding for pilot/exploratory projects that explore bioethics problems associated with any type of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

Builds on the rich resources and collaborative culture of Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (Lurie) to accelerate outstanding innovative projects in clinical genetics and genomics to improve patient health and quality of life.

Provides support to Northwestern faculty for non-research projects, including, but not limited to, events, education, community engagement or implementation projects.

Encourage exploratory and cutting-edge research by providing support for early and conceptual stages of project development geared towards addressing healthcare needs worldwide.

Provides support for faculty who have either submitted and received a score on an RO1 grant to the NCI for the first time in their career or have submitted a competing renewal of NCI-sponsored R01 research that missed the payline.

Provides recipients the lab services to develop a single, small proof-of-concept physical model.

Seeking proposals for highly innovative, lab-based basic or lab-based translational research projects that expand the knowledgebase in the field of child health.

The institute receives charitable funding to support brain and spine tumor-related research and projects aimed at improving the care and well-being of its patients.

Supports innovative, investigator-initiated trials and novel translational research that may serve as the foundation for larger, nationally funded studies.

Supports two years of funding for development projects in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease research. Proposed research projects must be relevant to clinical or basic research on Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, or cognitive aging.

Provides seed funding for application preparation to initiate new multi-investigator program project or center grant applications.

An initiative to help less-established investigators jump-start unfunded research projects by providing feasibility or early pilot data so they may seek sustained funding. 

The Northwestern Medicine (NM) Clinical Innovation Awards Initiative is seeking proposals that advance translational research projects or support early, novel scientific ideas that have the potential to transform the practice of medicine. Applicants should propose projects that challenge existing paradigms or clinical practice, explore innovative hypotheses, and/or address critical barriers to progress.

Supports partnerships between university scientists and their primary care partners who are working to address an issue of importance to primary care

Supports cross-disciplinary translational research for the identification and successful implementation of novel therapeutics for kidney disease.

Designed to accelerate research by providing rapid, targeted funding to address small but critical gaps in clinical and translational research work.

Offers pilot project awards to support aging-related research.

Aims to increase understanding of urologic cancers and enable novel approaches to the prevention, detection and treatment of these cancers.

Designed to fund research in areas important to the advancement of radiology and patient care within the department.

The purpose of the Global Health Research Catalyzer grant is to provide research support to Northwestern faculty who are a) collecting preliminary data to support a future grant submission and/or b) supplemental support for ongoing sponsored research for work outside the aims and/or scope of work of the funded project.

Four grants are given each year to support research related to skin biology.

Encourages interdisciplinary research in sleep and circadian rhythms within Northwestern University.

Fosters research that will advance the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AFib).

Established to foster innovative, high-impact research and to support translation of this research into clinical advancements.

Seeking proposals for highly innovative, multi-disciplinary pilot projects that will advance Translational Science and are aligned with one of two priority areas: Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) or Dissemination and Implementation (D&I).