The Indiana CTSI Devices Think Tank Program offers a "one-stop-shop" for early stage innovations. It is designed to provide early guidance to academic and clinical investigators interested in advancing their discoveries to the market. The program includes a pool of advisors from Indiana CTSI partner universities and industry around the state to provide investigators with a wide range of expertise and perspectives. The advisors serve as an essential resource for a wide range of scientific technical, and regulatory information, and the think tank helps with bringing out the commercial value of the project.

Have an innovative idea that will change the world, but don’t know what to do? The Indiana CTSI Think Tanks would like to know how we can help with your early-stage innovation challenges. Take a brief survey to tell us about your experiences.

The Indiana CTSI Project Development Teams (PDTs) provide investigators access to experts who can help implement high-quality pilot projects that generate successful external grant submissions.

Committees consist of multidisciplinary researchers who assist investigators in developing ideas/hypotheses into well-designed translational research projects. The teams serve as “one stop shops” by providing investigators access to protocol development; pilot funding; biostatistics; IRB/regulatory and nursing support; facilitation of collaboration with other investigators and access to Core Resources on the IUPUI, IU, Purdue and Notre Dame campuses, all in one meeting. Pilot awards are typically up to $15,000 for two years.

The overall mission of the PDTs is to “Increase the translation of health sciences research and health care delivery to the people of Indiana and beyond by facilitating an environment that enables the conduct of clinical and translational research.”

The six current PDTs include expertise in the following areas:

The Bioethics and Participant Advocacy Program of the Indiana CTSI at Indiana University School of Medicine presents Translational Research Ethics: Applied Topics seminars (TREATs) monthly regarding ethical issues in translational research. Access to presentations and information on research ethics presented as TREAT seminars are available.

September 22, 2023
9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

The 2023 Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) Annual Meeting will be on Friday, September 22, 2023. The keynote speaker will be Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD, who is also this year’s winner of the August M. Watanabe Prize in Translational Research. The 2023 Indiana CTSI Annual Meeting will be focused on neurological disorders.

Submission deadline: June 1, 2023

Indiana CTSI Community Health Partnerships is soliciting proposals for collaborative, community-engaged research projects focused on topics that have potential to improve health equity in Indiana. Examples of work we are interested in funding include substance misuse, tobacco use, obesity prevention, infant mortality, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as disparities in rural areas. This RFA encourages and prioritizes projects that have outlined a sustainability plan using existing Indiana CTSI infrastructure (i.e., Connections IN Health, Monon Collaborative) and/or connections to statewide health initiatives.

Eligible projects will propose to either: (1) implement research that has the potential to identify or reduce health inequities; or (2) evaluate an existing health-related program that has the potential to improve health equity. Projects that propose to achieve their objectives by changing (or demonstrating the potential to change) policy, systems, and/or the environment are encouraged.

There must be both 1) a university lead and 2) a community lead for the project, both partners must currently work in an Indiana-based institution or organization.

Funding may be requested up to $25,000 over two years

Contact Information: Community Health Partnerships chep@iupui.edu

Submission Deadline: August 1, 2023

The Indiana CTSI Community Health Partnerships is soliciting proposals for the development of community-university partnerships to improve health, examine social determinants of health, or enhance health equity to result in future collaborative research proposals. The award can be used to establish new partnerships or to strengthen/expand existing community-university partnerships to solve critical health problems affecting Indiana residents. This award will not fund research pilot projects; instead, it will fund activities that help develop partnerships between organizations that have potential to later engage in joint research projects to address health, health equity or social determinants of health. The expected outcome of this award is the development of a future research proposal for opportunities such as the Community Health Partnerships Trailblazer Award. Examples of partnership development activities we are interested in funding include meetings, conferences, travel expenses, and quality improvement assessments.

Awards will be up to $5,000 for one year to allow for partnership growth and collaborative grant proposal development.

Contact Information: chep@iupui.edu

Rolling Submission

The IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center (IUSCCC) is providing an opportunity to fund cancer focused PI-directed applications to the National Institutes of Health that have been reviewed once and missed the NIH pay line and have a high potential for obtaining external funding. The goal is to increase the cancer focused NIH funding base in the IUSCCC. Non-NCI targeted applications should have significant cancer relevance.

Investigators wishing to apply to this funding mechanism must first submit a draft cover letter (letter of intent) for approval by the IUSCCC Executive Committee before working with a Coordinator to submit a full application. Once approved, the link for submitting the online application will be sent.

Maximum allowable amount for R01, R42 and R44 grants is $50K with P01 and SPORE funding amounts evaluated on a case-by-case basis. .

Contact for Letter of Intent and Questions: Kaitlin Condron or Crystal Baker

Submission Deadline: July 3, 2023

The IU School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics is a member of the multi-institutional Developmental and Hyperactive Ras Tumor (DHART) SPORE program. The goal of the SPORE program is to improve the diagnosis and management of tumors arising in persons with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and other inherited “Rasopathy” syndromes through basic, translational, and clinical research.

IU investigators who lead the DHART SPORE program conduct their research within the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, a national leader in childhood disease research. To learn more about the DHART SPORE program, including its cores, ongoing projects and overall approach, visit dhartspore.org.

Two funding opportunities are available via this program: the Developmental Research Program (DRP) and the Career Enhancement Program (CEP).

Awards: Funding is available for one or two DRP projects at $50,000 - $75,000 AND two to three CEP projects at $50,000 - $75,000. Awards will be for a 12-month period.

Eligibility: Proposals are accepted from clinical or basic science investigators at any DHART SPORE institution as well as from other academic institutions. See guidelines for additional eligibility criteria

Contact Information: Kevin Shannon or Jaishiri Blakeley

Submission Deadline: July 10, 2023

Description: This funding opportunity announcement invites applications from all CTSI investigators with a full-time academic appointment for up to $50,000 to support innovative research work that is in scope and aligned with the research activities of the IUSM-Purdue TREAT-AD Center. These include (but are not limited to):

Contact Information: Alan D. Palkowitz, Director for the IUSM-Purdue TREAT-AD Center apalkow@iu.edu

Want to learn more? You can view documents featuring ND-eligible funding opportunities as well as the other opportunities from the Indiana CTSI at these links.

If you have any questions about Indiana CTSI grants, programs, or upcoming events please feel free to reach out to co-navigators Jessica Brookshire or Paul Helquist.

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 $33 million for the current five-year funding period of 2018-2023. 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