Clinical and Translational Science Research Program (CTSR)
Clinical and Translational Science Research Program (CTSR)
The goal of this award is to fund a highly meritorious interdisciplinary clinical and translational science (CTS) project that develops AI tools that advance health for all.
Funding per Award
Up to $125,000 annually for two years direct costs
Pre-Application Due Date
October 3, 2025
Award Period
August 1, 2026 - August 1, 2028
The CTSR Program funds a clinical and translational science (CTS) project that develops AI tools that advance health for all.
Proposals must develop new concepts, methods, technologies or research practices that drive translational science, and should clearly identify the translational science challenges or barriers that their proposal addresses.
Proposed work must be innovative, equitable and generalizable.
Proposed work must be completed within two years. The NIH does not allow no cost extensions on these funds. Feasibility for completing the work within 24 months will be an important review criterion.
A successful translational science study:
- Is designed to develop or test a translational science-directed hypothesis that employs one or more translational science principles to generate a scientific, operational, financial or administrative innovation that addresses longstanding challenges in the translational research pipeline to make research faster, more efficient and more impactful.
- Addresses a barrier to turning observations in the laboratory, clinic and community into interventions that improve the health of individuals or the population health.
- Can emphasize specific clinical and translational research area but must have the potential for broader application.
2025 Funded Projects
Project 1
AI-guided information retrieval and recommendation for clinical decision support. (MPI: Drs. Xia Ning and Courtney Hebert, Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine)
Project 2
Unleashing the Potential of Large Language Models for Clinical and Translational Science: Application to Addressing Unmet Social Needs of Patients (MPI: Drs. Macarius Donneyong, Huan Sun, and Yu Su, College of Pharmacy and College of Engineering)
How is this funding program different than the Clinical and Translational Science Pilot Program (CTSP)?
The CTSR Program funds a clinical and translational science (CTS) project that develops AI tools that advance health for all.
The CTSP Program funds research for the development of preliminary data to enable researchers to be competitive in applying for extramural funding that advances clinical and translational science.
Research project(s) funded through the CTSA should not only address a translational research question in a particular disease or intervention development/dissemination context, but also provide generalizable translational science (TS) innovations or insights that can be applied to other translational research projects and thereby increase the overall efficiency or effectiveness of translation.
The project should generate innovation(s) that overcome challenges in the translational research pipeline making it faster, more efficient and more impactful. Research strategies in the proposed project should be characterized by the translational science principles.
Primary Contacts
Lang Li
Program Co-Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Research Program, Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics
Tanya Berger Wolf
Program Co-Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Research Program, Director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology
Jenny Grabmeier
Program Manager of the Clinical and Translational Science Research Program, Director of Research Strategy at the Translational Data Analytics Institute