2025-2026 Request for Applications

Guidelines

1. Applicant Teams. The ESPD Award is built on the hypothesis that, with appropriate guidance and resources, academic research settings can serve as initial incubators for development of commercial health innovations. The ESPD Award is ideally suited for teams that have gone through iCore, Commercialization Bootcamp, or other similar training programs.  ITHS faculty or staff may be listed as active research contributors on a case-by-case basis. Please consult with ITHS (contact below) prior to application submission if your proposal includes ITHS faculty or staff.

2. Support.  This award provides up to $100,000 for 1 year of funding. The period of performance coincides with the ITHS fiscal year from March 1 to February 28/29.  All grant funds must be expended before the grant expires at the end of the fiscal year. No-cost extensions to allow use of funds that have not been expended by the end of the fiscal year will not be allowed.

• Funding for awarded applications will be negotiated based on amounts needed to support specific accepted milestones, after accounting for all other public or private funding dedicated to the project.
• In-kind resources will be available for awarded applications to assist with scientific, intellectual property, legal, regulatory, health informatics, digital health and health metrics support that will be available to enhance the success of the project.
• In the post-award phase, ITHS could provide research coordination, data management support, or statistical expertise to achieve further project goals as needed.

3. Review Considerations. The review process for full applications will involve a mandatory live-session product pitch to reviewers.  ITHS will provide guidance and training for preparing these presentations. Applications should describe a trajectory of past progress, current specific aims and milestones that are feasible within the funding limits, a vision for how attainment of the proposed milestones will enable future work, and the potential scope and impact of future work if the current project is successful.

Successful applications will help reviewers determine whether the project should and could be done.

• Describe how the project addresses an unmet health need.
• Provide evidence supporting proof of concept.
• Define critical milestones to support go/no-go decisions.
• Demonstrate an opportunity for commercialization and marketing.

We have high interest in new and innovative generalizable solutions for common and persistent challenges in the conduct and outcomes of translational research through development of new methods, approaches, platforms, or tools that

• Increase efficiency
• Accelerate progress
• Improve rigor and reproducibility
• Increase the depth of impact
• Extend the reach of impact.

See https://ncats.nih.gov/about/about-translational-science/principles for details.

Application Process

Letter of Intent

The letter of intent form must be submitted through the ITHS website before submission of the application. The form includes information on the applicant and any Co-Investigators, project title, and abstract addressing the 5 questions (up to 200 words each). Investigators who are invited to submit a full application will receive notice within  3 weeks of the letter of intent deadline.

Application

The application must be submitted through the ITHS website.

Applications will follow National Institutes of Health (NIH) formatting guidelines (see FAQ) and include:

[prettyfilelink size=”138 KB” src=”https://www.iths.org/wp-content/uploads/Cover-Page-Pilot-Awards.2021b.pdf” type=”pdf”]1) Cover Page[/prettyfilelink]

2) Abstract (250 word maximum)
3) Research Plan, 6-pages (references do not count toward page limit)

[prettyfilelink size=”57 KB” src=”https://www.iths.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilot-Proposal-Timeline-Template.2018.docx” type=”doc”]4) Project Timeline – 1-page[/prettyfilelink]

5) Partnership Plan, 1-page description of the collaboration including an explanation of the respective roles of the partners and the synergy brought about by the partnership
6) Potential use of ITHS in-kind resource, complete the ITHS in-kind resources form, select “send me a copy of my responses” and submit with your application packet
7) Generalizable Solutions, up to 1-page description if applicable (see Guidelines)
8) Human Subjects, if applicable
9) Budget and Budget Justification[prettyfilelink size=”29 KB” src=”https://www.iths.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilot-Budget-Template.2018.xlsx” type=”xls inline”]9a) Budget[/prettyfilelink] [prettyfilelink size=”37 KB” src=”https://www.iths.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilot-Budget-Justification-Sample.2018.docx” type=”doc inline”]9b) Budget Justification[/prettyfilelink]

10) Letters of Support – Letters of Support are not required unless you are an instructor or acting faculty member. If you are an instructor or acting faculty member, you will need to include a letter supporting your eligibility to serve as PI from your Department head (or equivalent).

Timeline

ITHS is funded through a CTSA grant from NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). NCATS requires the review and approval of all pilot grants involving human subjects research before funds are released. Therefore, if your proposal is awarded funding and involves human subjects research, additional documentation will be required. NCATS review and IRB review can be concurrent, but final NCATS approval is contingent upon IRB approval.