Center to Accelerate Population Research in Alzheimer’s
​Call for Pilot Project Proposals

The CAPRA Pilot Awardee program will be accepting proposals for funding, starting in October 2021. The deadline to submit proposals will be December 3rd, 2021. 

Please see below for further details on the application requirements.

• Internal Submission Deadline: Friday, December 3, 2021
• Award Cycle: 2022
• Discipline/Subject Area: Pilot studies will be selected on the basis of their potential to lead to substantive, innovative research related to the CAPRA themes
• Funding Available: 40,000
  
  

Description:​
The CAPRA Pilot Core is seeking novel, population-based pilot projects that aim to reduce the health and financial burden of dementia and improve government and healthcare organization policy. In addition to financial support, the Pilot Core will provide technical assistance and project guidance to investigators transitioning into Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) research.

CAPRA’s overarching goal is to serve as a national resource to promote and accelerate multidisciplinary research that informs the actions governments, healthcare systems and providers can take to reduce the social, economic, and health burden of AD/ADRD.

We will select and support pilot studies from a diverse set of investigators that not only fit CAPRA’s themes but also have the best chance to develop into externally funded research projects and be most influential for understanding and treating ADRDs in population health. We welcome pilot studies across many disciplines, including established investigators transitioning into AD/ADRD research. To reduce barriers to entry for Alzheimer’s population and healthcare research, CAPRA will provide not only funding for pilots but also access to expertise, methods, and in some cases data.
Applications will need to address four issues: how the pilot study can develop into an externally funded grant; which CAPRA themes the pilot aligns with; which CAPRA resources will be of benefit to the pilot; and how the pilot is innovative.
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CAPRA’s Four Themes:
1) Healthcare delivery and policy effects on outcomes and quality for persons with dementia,
2) Diffusion of new technologies,
3) Disparities in quality and access to care, and
4) Innovative applications of population data.

Required Elements of a Proposal:

• Follow the standard NIH outline (up to 4 pages for the main part of the proposal):
  • One page of Specific Aims including hypothesis and research question
  • Up to 3 additional pages explaining:
  • Significance
  • Innovation
  • Approach
  • Team
  • Budget and Budget Justification
• Supporting Documents (Not included in the 4 page limit referenced above)
  • Biosketch in current NIH format (this does not count to page count)
  • Other Financial Support

CAPRA will not merely fund promising pilot studies, the Pilot Study Investigators will become an integral part of CAPRA. They will participate in other CAPRA activities, creating a wider network of dementia research collaborators and also receive ongoing mentorship. We will leverage data, methods, and experience across all CAPRA collaborators to enhance the science and potential influence of their research. We will achieve this through mentoring, seminars, and grant writing workshops. As a condition of this award, you will be expected to provide us with an annual report, describing your progress on this research project, and to list the CAPRA grant number on any publications that result in whole or in part because of this award.
​
We will solicit applications from senior and promising junior faculty at the UM and nationally who either currently have expertise in AD/ADRD or would bring strong research skills as new researchers in this area.

Questions: Edward Norton ecnorton@umich.edu; Deborah Levine deblevin@umich.edu

The proposal and all supporting documents should be uploaded as a single PDF with your last name, first name and institution included in the filename.

How to Apply:
Applications should be submitted through the University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research Competition Space portal. Select Apply on the right-hand side of the Home page and log in using your uniqname and Kerberos (level 1) password. If applying from an institution outside of the University of Michigan, select “Other” for “Primary Organization”. (Note, if someone else will submit the application for you, FIRST you must authorize them as a PROXY in Competition Space. After logging in to Competition Space, click on your name in the upper right-hand corner of the page. This will be your user profile. Scroll down to Designate an Application Proxy, and add your proxy's email address using the format:uniqname@umich.edu.)

When you are ready to submit, click Submit Application at the bottom of the page. You will receive a confirmation email once your application has been accepted.

Award Notification: Applicants will be notified of funding decisions on or after February 1, 2022.

For technical questions, please contact Jason Mann at majason@med.umich.edu .