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Pilot Projects
and Alliance Challenge Projects

The NU-CCNE will provide pilot project funding each year for research in new and emerging areas.

Applications for NU-CCNE pilot project funding are solicited annually, at the mid-point of each grant year. Solicitations describe the NU-CCNE Pilot Project Program, specify required qualifications of the applicants, and contain full instructions for the submission of applications. Applicants are advised to apply for IRB and/or animal care approval at the time of submission.

Applications for pilot projects are accepted only from independent investigators who are tenured, tenure-track, clinician-investigator track or research-track faculty.  Proposed projects must be innovative and closely aligned with the overarching framework of the NU-CCNE. Selected projects will be funded for one year with the possibility of a second year of funding.

Proposals will also be accepted outside of the normal solicitation process. For example, promising ideas or the possibility of a particular fruitful collaboration might arise in the course of discussion with another investigator at a meeting or after a seminar presentation, and we would encourage the submission of a proposal as soon as possible thereafter, even if an application deadline is several months away. This proposal will then be included with those received in the next application cycle. In exceptional circumstances, a pilot proposal might require immediate funding. A proposal for a potentially important collaboration with an existing project would represent one example. Contingent on the availability of funds, such a proposal could be submitted directly to the Executive Committee for an expedited review.

Pilot project investigators will be obligated to attend and present their work at NU-CCNE meetings and annual site visits. The first oral presentation will be made when they initiate their project, in order to acquaint all of the NU-CCNE Center members with the proposed study and to afford each NU-CCNE participant the opportunity to identify areas of overlap with their own work. The second required presentation will be made at the project mid-point. At these presentations, feedback from the other NU-CCNE participants, including members of the Executive Committee, Center Technology Council, and Center Steering Committee will be encouraged. 

Year One Pilot ProjectS
Cells on Microtracks: The Motility Phenotype in Normal vs. Metastatic Cells (Bartosz Grzybowski, Ph.D.)

Dual-Modality Drug Delivery for Theranostic Nanomedicine (Fraser Stoddart, Ph.D.) This project funded through internal indirect return funding.

Year One Alliance Challenge Grant
Polyvalent Oligonucleotide-Nanoparticles as Carriers for Multifunctional Polymeric Structures (SonBinh Nguygen, Ph.D.)