Yale/NIDA Neuroproteomics Center Pilot Research Project Grants

The goals of the Pilot Research Projects Program of the Yale/NIDA Neuroproteomics Center are to encourage investigators working in our Center’s laboratories to embark on careers in substance abuse research, to disseminate the Center’s core technologies to researchers investigating the neurobiology of addiction who are not yet using neuroproteomics technologies, and to expand the technical abilities of the Center. Pilot Research Projects Grants provide short term funding to obtain preliminary data so that applicants can apply to funding agencies for longer term grant support. These awards provide free access to all of the Center's Cores and Technologies as well as a small amount of funding ($7,500 Direct Costs together with the associated Indirect Costs to non-Yale universities) to help pay for the cost of preparing samples for analyses in the Center’s Cores.

Applications are accepted from:

1. Center investigators and their graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and higher level research staff
2. Non-Center investigators expert in substance abuse with interests in initiating research in neuroproteomics and their graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and higher level research staff
3. Non-Center investigators with expertise in cell and molecular aspects of neuronal signaling with interests in initiating neuroproteomics research on substance abuse and their graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and higher level research staff.

Awards are for one year for research that is directly related to the Center’s theme of the “Proteomics of Altered Signaling in Addiction" and that propose either to apply existing technologies available from the Cores or to improve or develop new technologies. Awards to non-Center investigators will be accompanied by Center membership for at least the term of the award. Awardees must agree to provide a short progress report to support the Centers’ annual grant applications and to give a seminar at one of the Center’s Research in Progress Meetings. Priority will be given to new projects that are directly related to our Center’s theme, to collaborative projects involving multiple investigators, and to Technology Development projects. In addition, we are especially interested in cell-type-specific, proximity – proteomics, and biomarkers of addiction projects.

The receipt deadline for the next round of Pilot Research Project grant applications for Grant Year 20 is July 21, 2024.

Applications should follow PHS398 format except the Research Plan (items #2-5 below) is limited to 3 pages or less:

1. Title Page and Project Summary: the first page of the application should contain the name/title of the PI, institution, and a 500 or less word Project Summary
2. Specific Aims (including the title of the proposed research project)
3. Significance
4. Innovation
5. Approach (must address the review criteria outlined below and include Preliminary Results if applicable)
6. Literature Cited (this section is not included in the 3 page limit)
7. Budget: for the purpose of the application this section, which is not included in the 3 page limit, only needs a 1-2 sentence general description of the proposed use of the funds. Successful applicants will need to submit a detailed NIH-style budget and justification prior to award.
8. NIH-style Biographical Sketch of the proposed PI and if the PI is a graduate student, an NIH-style Biographical Sketch of the mentor.

Criteria for review will include:

1. Relevance to the Center’s mission of elucidating the "Proteomics of Altered Signaling in Addiction".
2. Scientific merit as judged by the significance and innovation of the proposed research.
3. The extent to which the proposed research requires use of, and is suitable for being supported by, the Center’s cores.
   
4. In addition, higher priority is given to applications that:
   a. are from young investigators as one of the goals of the pilot projects grant program is to enable promising young researchers to obtain sufficient preliminary data to support NIH and other grant applications that we hope will help to launch successful careers in substance abuse research.
   b. that originate from new projects/directions or from Center investigators who have not yet used the Center’s cores.
   c. involve collaborative research by investigators from multiple Center laboratories.
   d. propose biotechnology, bioinformatics, or biostatistics research that may directly benefit the research programs of multiple Center investigators.
   
   

With a short application, the opportunity of getting technical advice from Center leaders before submitting and after review, and fast review cycles; Pilot Project grant applications provide an opportunity for young investigators to gain valuable grant writing experience and for more established investigators to obtain the funding and access to the core technologies needed to obtain the preliminary data that is essential for embarking on new research directions. In addition, Pilot Project grantees who successfully complete their projects and who are not Center investigators are considered for full membership in the Center.

Applications should be submitted as a single pdf email attachment to the Director of the Pilot Research Projects Core: marina.picciotto@yale.edu