Dear Researchers,

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful holiday break and were able to spend some time relaxing and celebrating with family and friends.

The Indiana CTSI has many funding opportunities that can support your research activities. See the list below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Please hold the date of October 21, 2026 for the Notre Dame Indiana CTSI Summit. This summit will be an opportunity to showcase Notre Dame research strength(s), while engaging our colleagues across the State. The summit will be held at the Morris Inn and will include speakers from across the Indiana CTSI partnerships, a poster session, and plenty of opportunities to network with our colleagues from around the State. More information will follow in the coming months.

All the best for a fruitful, productive Spring semester.

Sincerely,

Melanie DeFord, Deputy Director and Assistant Vice President for Research
Prakash Nallathamby, Notre Dame Navigator of the Indiana CTSI

Take a moment to explore our past newsletters and summits. At Indiana CTSI, we’re committed to uniting Indiana’s life sciences community to drive research forward and improve health across the state.

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Regenstrief Institute Social Hub, 1101 West 10th Street Indianapolis, IN and via Zoom

This session will focus on the basic principles and tools of AI and how to apply them to a research workflow. The session focuses on generative AI techniques and specifically how to apply large language models (LLMs) to research workflows. We will cover the basics of LLMs; alternatives for interacting with an LLM such as basic chat, IDEs, or APIs; techniques for LLM specialization such as model fine tuning and retrieval augmented generation (RAG); foundational vs. specialized generational models; federated learning; and data sensitivity considerations when working with LLMs.

The Indiana CTSI is excited to announce that applications are now open for the 2026 Undergraduate Summer Internship cohort. The program's goal is to accept 12 students, four from each IU, Purdue and Notre Dame.

The program runs for eight weeks over the course of June and July and provides students the opportunity to work with faculty mentors and their teams on clinical and translational research projects while expanding their career development in biomedical and life sciences areas.

More information about the internship can be found on on our website, and interested students can apply between now and the February 1, 2026 deadline. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Robyn E. Hawn or Matt Allen.

The Indiana CTSI Commercialization PDT is designed to provide early guidance to academic and clinical investigators interested in advancing their discoveries to the market. The programs are open to investigators from Indiana University (IU), Purdue University, or the University of Notre Dame; and includes a pool of advisors across these universities and industries around the state to provide investigators with a wide range of expertise and perspectives.

Letter of Intent Deadline: January 30, 2026

Submission Deadline: March 30, 2026

A primary research-related activity of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases (CDMD)’s Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) program is to foster the development of new diabetes-related investigators and provide seed-support for innovative, high-risk projects.

Contact: jelmendo@iu.edu

Submission Deadline: March 12, 2026

The Postdoc Challenge offers postdoctoral researchers at Indiana University, IU School of Medicine, IUI, Purdue University, and the University of Notre Dame valuable proposal writing and reviewing experience in areas related to translational research through the use of one or more of the Indiana CTSI-designated core facilities at any of the partner universities.

This is a competitive opportunity for a $5,000 award in the form of an expense account for use of core facility services. Funding is to be used ONLY for services provided by the Indiana CTSI designated core facilities. Indiana CTSI-designated core facilities are listed on the Indiana CTSI website.

Contact: matallen@iu.edu and ajzych@iu.edu

Submission Deadline: March 31, 2026

The Indiana CTSI Pilot Funding program is intended to promote the use of technologies and expertise afforded by the Indiana CTSI Core Facilities available at all partner institutions. Successful proposals will demonstrate outstanding scientific merit that can be linked to generating extramural funding or novel intellectual property (IP). Success of the program will be viewed, in part, by the fostering of new funded grants or providing significant contributions to grant renewals. Therefore, proposals will be judged with equal measure on scientific merit and the likelihood of generating new IP or extramural grant support.

Funding is for a maximum requested amount of $10,000; projects are typically two years in duration.

Funding is for utilization of designated Indiana CTSI core facilities only.  Information describing each core is available at https://indianactsi.org/servicecores/

Contact: trnsldev@iu.edu

Submission Deadline: March 31, 2026

Population health research advances the promotion and protection of the health of communities and populations, emphasizing healthy lifestyles, social determinants of health, and health care equity, quality, and accessibility. To facilitate this approach, IU Research at Indiana University-Bloomington, in partnership with the Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is accepting applications for the Translational Population Health Research Award program.  Applications may focus on any aspect of population health, but meritorious projects should result in an external submission to NIH, NSF, DoD, USDA or comparable agency and ultimately lead to the improvement of population health outcomes.

Contact: jybe@iu.edu

Submission Deadline: April 1, 2026

The goal of the Pre-Clinical Neuroimaging Research Pilot Study program is to facilitate the generation of new knowledge in the neurosciences through the development of funded research programs.  This mechanism will provide seed-support up to $10,000 for innovative, high-risk animal imaging projects using the Bruker BioSpec 9.4T PET-MRI scanner using the IIBIS In-Vivo Imaging Core.

Contact: yucwu@iu.edu

Submission Deadline: Rolling submission

Research Project Development Teams (PDTs) are groups of experienced senior faculty located on each of the Indiana CTSI campuses who will connect you with resources, collaboration opportunities, and small (typically up to $15,000) awards for preliminary or additional data. Each PDT is designed around a common research theme.

There are biostatisticians and regulatory experts on each team, and other experts are added as needed when you meet with the team to discuss your application. You will have access to the expertise and knowledge you need all in one place.

Contact: tsajdyk@iu.edu

Submission Deadline: March 30, 2026

Submission Deadline: Rolling Submission

Rolling Submission

Rolling Submission

The Indiana CTSI has experts across a wide variety of fields and research areas of interest. Click the button below to have the latest research discoveries and developments making news and positively impacting health in Indiana delivered right to your inbox. 

The Indiana CTSI includes Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Notre Dame as the major academic partners along with a number of other institutions and entities in the state.

It is funded by a Clinical and Translational Sciences Award from the National Institutes of Health amounting to some $38 million for the current seven-year funding period of 2023-2030. This funding is supplemented by additional support from many other institutional and corporate partners.

Funding is provided to researchers by many mechanisms to promote translational and collaborative research among the partner institutions.

For more information, please visit: indianactsi.org

If you have any questions about Indiana CTSI grants, programs, or upcoming events please feel free to reach out to navigator Prakash Nallathamby.