The intent of this program is to build connections between investigators at the CORES institutions and collect preliminary data that will support future work that is funded by larger extramural awards.
The online platform Apply will be utilized to submit applications. Please click here to view the instructions on how to create an Apply account.
If you need assistance working within the Apply online platform, contact Hailey Rogers at hrogers@uams.edu or Paul Duguid at pduguid@uams.edu
There are no limitations on the number of LOIs that a person can submit per cycle. Please note that, depending on the number of submissions, you may be asked to select only one of your applications to be selected for funding.
No, applications deadlines are firm.

Award amounts are based on direct costs only, and budgets should not include indirect/F&A costs.
CORES Pilot Funding cannot be used as a sub-award of another ongoing project or to supplement funding for another funded study.
No, Pilot funding cannot be used towards salary support for the PI or any co-investigators.

Yes, you are welcome to submit another application if you have previously been funded by the Pilot Grant Program.
Principal Investigators (PI/PIs) for these awards must be eligible to receive federal funding and be members of a participating institution’s faculty (junior or senior investigators - all title series, i.e. regular, research, clinical and special), including partnering institutions of the CTSA site.
Applicants are required to hold a faculty or equivalent appointment at the site. Both tenure-line faculty and Career-line faculty are eligible to apply. We recognize that non-faculty research staff and administrators are well positioned to recognize barriers to performance of translational research, and to develop pragmatic solutions to ameliorate these barriers. Collaborative proposals between faculty and research staff are encouraged.
If you are a non-faculty staff interested in applying, please confirm your eligibility with your site administrator
No. All awardees must maintain their CORES-affiliated appointment throughout the duration of the pilot award and this award is not transferable to another institution.

sIRB is managed on a case-by-case basis, and the pilot administrators for each institution participating on the project provide support to the investigators in determining which site will serve as lead for sIRB and coordinating reporting documentation amongst the sites.
If your project involves animal subjects or human subjects, it must receive prior approval from NIH before you can begin your project. In order to submit for prior approval, you will need to provide your IRB/IACUC approval letter, proof of required training for key personnel and other required documentation. NIH Prior Approval can take up to six weeks to obtain; you will need to factor this into your study timeline to avoid delays.

No, images and/or figures are not permitted to be included in the LOI submission. However, if you are invited to submit a full application, you can upload images/figures as part of your full application.
No additional pages can be added to a Letter of Intent submission.
References and citations are not required within the Letter of Intent. If the PI is invited to submit a full application, references and citations can be included.
Documents can only be uploaded as PDF documents. Applications should adhere to the following formatting specifications:
- 11‐point Arial font
- Single‐spaced
- 0.5 inch margins on all sides
- 8 1⁄2″ x 11″ (i.e. standard size) paper
- Pages numbered
- Frontiers CTSI: Robin Liston, rliston2@kumc.edu
- Medical University of South Carolina SCC&TRI: Sydney Bollinger, bollinger@musc.edu
- Penn State University CTSI: Tyler Deal, TDeal@pennstatehealth.psu.edu
- SYNERGY, Dartmouth CTSI: Ruchir Goswami, Ruchir.M.Goswami@hitchcock.org
- University of Arkansas TRI: Hailey Rogers, hrogers@uams.edu
- University of Iowa ICTS: Jamie Thrams, Jamie-Thrams@uiowa.edu
- University of Kentucky CCTS: Joel Thompson, Joel.Thompson@uky.edu
- University of New Mexico & University of Arizona Southwest CACTI: Daron Vigil-Scott, DVigilScott@salud.unm.edu
- University of Utah CTSI: Breanne Johnson, Breanne.Johnson@hsc.utah.edu