CTSI Catalyst Awards

CTSI Catalyst Awards is sponsored by UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Catalyst Grants support team-building activities that advance translational science and promote collaborations across disciplines and UCLA CTSI institutions.

Past Awardees | Clinical & Translational Science Institute Please click on the links below to access a list of awardees for each funding opportunity. Catalyst Grants support team-building activities that advance translational science and promote collaborations across disciplines and CTSI institutions. Awards range from $100 to $5,000, depending on the nature scope of the project.

Typically, there are three award cycles each year. CTSI Core Voucher Awardees CTSI provides the infrastructure to translate scientific discoveries into innovations that improve health in Los Angeles and the nation. To achieve its mission and advance translational research, the CTSI periodically awards vouchers to defray the cost of core services.

Under this RFA, the CTSI T1/T2 Accelerator Program (previously known as the Core Voucher Program), will award vouchers worth up to $10,000 in core services to investigators whose primary appointment is at UCLA Westwood, Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA, Cedars-Sinai and Charles R. Drew University.

CTSI / CSORDA Pilot Awardees CSORDA, a NIDA-funded P50 Center at UCLA with support from the CTSI, awards applications with high-quality, innovative research that is in opioid-related areas and of relevance to the CSORDA mission. Any approach, from basic to preclinical or clinical research that involves exogenous or endogenous opioid actions, is considered. Engagement of CSORDA UCLA Cores is encouraged.

Up to $20,000/year is available (or $40,000/year with justified clinical translational significance).

CTSI / CURE Pilot Awardees The CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Core Center (CURE: DDRCC) and CTSI award applications (new or second year renewal) with high quality and innovative research in the biology, function and diseases of the digestive system, which is of relevance to the overall CURE Research Program, with special emphasis on receptor and signal transduction mechanisms, brain-gut interactions, neurogastroenterology, gastrointestinal and pancreatic physiology, pathophysiology and inflammation, and mechanisms underlying diseases of the digestive system.

Proposed projects should lead to peer-reviewed extramural funding such as NIH, VA or related agency research grants in which PFS awardees serve as Principal Investigators. CTSI / CART Pilot Awardees The UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) takes applications for grants to fund pilot and/or feasibility studies for biomedical, epidemiological, or behavioral research.

This funding is made available with departmental “Autism Initiative” funds to CART and matching funds via CTSI pilot funds. Preference is given to projects that are likely to lead to successful future funding (by R01-type awards, etc). Proposals addressing the mechanism and treatment of autism are encouraged.

CTSI / Iris-Cantor Women's Health Center Awardees Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center / CTSI funds can be used to focus on, expand, or strengthen a research project's applicability to women's health and/or research where exploration of sex and gender-based differences is relevant.

Funding categories include: augmentation awards, pilot awards, young investigator awards (applicants must have a sponsoring, principal, mentor who holds a UCLA faculty appointment) and funding for research in health disparities. CTSI / CHIME Pilot Awardees The Center for Health Innovation and Maximizing Eldercare (CHIME) and UCLA CTSI Pilot Project Award reviews applications for one-year awards of up to $55,000.

Applicants that are funded will conduct a pilot research project that involves older adults. Applicants are required to have a faculty appointment at UCLA or at another academic institution/organization in the greater Los Angeles area. CHIME is funded by the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Aging (NIH/NIA) and is housed in the UCLA Department of Medicine.

UCLA / DHS Safety Net Innovation / Implementation Science Awardees CTSI and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS) are partnering to develop and test interventions to enhance quality, efficiency and patient-centeredness of care provided by the LAC DHS.

Pilot grants of up to $150,000 support the design and small scale implementation of interventions within DHS that will achieve the goals of quality, efficiency and patient centered care. The project is completed within 2 years of notice of award. The DHS provides additional resources and operational support for the selected projects.

When completed, successful pilot projects will serve as a base for sustaining extramural funding to implement and formally evaluate the intervention(s) on a larger scale and longer timeframe within DHS.

UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Seed Grant Program Awardees The David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) Research Themes, in collaboration with the Institute of Precision Health (IPH), offer the DGSOM Seed Grant Program in an effort to promote the assembly of teams of scientists that are well-positioned to perform innovative, high-impact research and ultimately compete for large team science grants from federal agencies and private foundations.

Awardees may include faculty throughout the UCLA campus in any biomedical or medical research area in which groundbreaking advances catalyzed by teams of researchers can be envisioned. CTSI can help you find information on past RFAs and awardees