Pilot Project Program Funding

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

We are no longer accepting letters of intent for the current annual funding cycle. However, WHRY accepts inquiries year-round for projects that address emerging and/or urgent threats to the health of women and/or have sex-or-gender differences that could inform our knowledge of a disease.

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.

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 Financial Analyst, Marco Mutonji.