Pilot Project Program Funding

Request for letters of intent must be received via email by 12PM EST on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

Women’s Health Research at Yale’s (WHRY) Pilot Project Program funds studies providing new approaches to understanding

• the health of women, and/or
• the influence of sex and gender on health

Please address your inquiries to Marco Mutonji.

• Clinical research and community interventions that describe a clear path toward clinical or public health benefit.
• Translational basic science, such as developing models to understand mechanisms of disease, which lead to actionable implications for clinical care.
• Evidence that women’s health — or the influence of sex and gender — is the point of the investigation.

• Annual Pilot Project Award ($35,000 max) for research designed to meet a clear need in advancing the health of women.
• The Wendy U. & Thomas C. Naratil Pioneer Award ($50,000 max) for highly inventive, new research on the health of women designed to achieve a breakthrough, or ongoing research in which funding is needed to achieve a discovery.
• Community-Based Research Awards (up to $35,000) for data-driven community-based research designed to advance the health of women as a pathway to economic and social mobility.

• Provide a clear statement of how the proposed study will advance the health of women by leading to clinical, community, or public policy benefit.
• Specifically target diseases and conditions with a disproportionately high prevalence in women or those for which female mortality and morbidity are high.
• Present a hypothesis-driven proposal, with clear specific aims, and demonstrated methodological rigor showing a thoughtfully considered study design.
• Leverage the diversity among women to study various groups (e.g., by age, ethnicity) to advance the health of all women.
• Demonstrate the link between advancing the health of women and greater societal benefits.
• Initiate programmatic research on the health of women (junior faculty) or seek to expand research to include the health of women (senior faculty).
• Bring together different research communities and/or interdisciplinary approaches in which investigators with complementary skill sets provide new perspectives on the health of women.
• Study the health of women in communities within the United States.

Examples of projects sought:

For Translational Basic Research:

Model system approaches that:

• focus on uncovering the mechanism of action of a disorder or intervention, AND
• can be transferred to the human condition, AND
• articulate a clear path toward clinical implementation or benefit to the public health.

For example, use of a humanized mouse model and female animals to test mechanism/treatment explorations that have application to human disease with high prevalence, morbidity, and/or mortality among women.

For Clinical, Community, and Policy Research:

Studies that focus on:

• uncovering etiology, AND/OR
• clarifying presentation and diagnosis, AND/OR
• developing treatments or prevention strategies that improve lives.

These studies are encouraged to consider the examination of sex/gender differences to develop gender-focused approaches to disorders and conditions experienced by women.

Proposals that will not be considered for funding:

• Laboratory models with little evidence of connection to human disease and health, such as the study of an isolated protein without a clearly described path to how the model will improve the health of women.
• “One-off” studies that are not part of the investigator’s research interests and do not demonstrate a programmatic interest in the health of women.
• A study that focuses on some aspect of biology that affects women (e.g., gonadal hormones) but has little chance of improving women’s health.
• A study primarily about the development of a technology or technique, rather than about the condition of interest itself.
• Modeling of big data without a clear connection to clinical or public health benefit.

Due Thursday, October 17, 2024, by 12PM EST.

Our application process begins with a request for Letters of Intent. A full application will be requested from investigators whose projects are consistent with Women’s Health Research at Yale’s funding interests as outlined above.

Eligibility:

• For questions regarding scientific content, aims, grants administration & finances, please contact WHRY Finance and Grant Program Manager, Marco Mutonji.