Pilot Grant Award

The I-REACH: Infrastructure for Research in Equity, Aging, Cancer and Health is requesting letters of intent for one-year pilot research grants.  

The pilot grants are intended to provide start-up funds to support new investigators and increase collaborations at the intersection of aging, disparities, and cancer survivorship.  

Studies can involve human subjects, use existing data, or involve animal models with relevance for clinical translation to aging, disparities, and cancer survivorship care.

I-REACH will consider funding 2-3 pilot projects, each with a total budget of $10-40,000 direct costs. These projects are expected to be feasible in one year and lead to manuscripts and grant proposals. 

Priorities areas for this round of pilots will focus on how heterogeneity in multilevel social determinants of health and aging affect disparities in cancer survivorship outcomes. Outcomes of interest Include but are not limited to biological aging, physical, functional and cognitive outcomes, tumor-host interactions and risk of cancer recurrence and death.  Social determinants of health and aging of interest to our communities include:

  • Environmental factors (e.g., neighborhood quality, poverty, discrimination) 
  • Structural factors (e.g., provider communication, language barriers, access to care, unmet needs) 
  • Differences in aging by race/ethnicity or sexual minority 
  • Older adult populations or preclinical models in aged animals

Eligibility (i-REACH member)

  • Full-time early-stage investigator 
  • Post-doctoral fellow with a written departmental commitment 
  • Senior investigator seeking to transition to research in aging/disparities/cancer
  • Commitment to a career in the scope of I-REACH’s mission
  • Must be a US citizen or green card holder at the time of award

Application process

  • Letter of intent (form with biosketch)
  • Work with I-REACH to refine proposal
  • Submit full proposal (RO3 format, institutional letter of support, mentoring plan)

Review criteria located at https://ireach.georgetown.edu/pilot-application

PIs may use the funds for research costs and staff salaries (i.e., excludes PI salary support expected by the institution). Preliminary data is not required if hypotheses are well substantiated.

Important dates:

  • Informational session
    If you missed the information session or would like to view it again, please view this Zoom recording .
  • Letter of intent due by October 1, 2024
  • Notification of LOI acceptance by November 1, 2024 
  • Pilot project applications due by December 20, 2024
  • Decision notification by February 3, 2025
  • Funded pilot projects begin on March 3, 2025

Interested applicants are encouraged to discuss their project with an I-REACH Pilot core leader to assure compatibility with I-REACH.  For more information about I-REACH’s mission and core services, please visit (https://ireach.georgetown.edu/). 

 I-REACH is a collaboration of Georgetown University, University of Maryland, Karmanos Cancer Institute/Wayne State University and the University of California at Los Angeles.