ETUDES Center Call for Pilot Applications

2024 ETUDES Innovation Contest 

APPLICATIONS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TO 10/8/24

Mission

The ETUDES Center invites proposals for pilot projects focused on identifying, triaging, and managing children and adolescents with depression and/or at risk of suicide. 

ETUDES (Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality) is an NIMH-funded research center that aims to build capacity in pediatric primary care to identify, manage, and treat youth at risk for suicidal behavior (https://www.etudescenter.org/).  Many young people who die by suicide have had a recent clinical encounter in primary care.  Suicide prevention interventions delivered in primary care are effective for preventing suicide, and primary care is the preferred location for patients and families to receive mental health care, particularly for youth of color.

We preferentially seek to fund pilot projects that will provide principal investigator (PI)-applicants with the pilot data and experiences they need to develop later requests for external funding (NIMH K-, R-, foundation, etc.), and address gaps in our Center’s current research portfolio.  While ETUDES focuses on youth depression/suicide in primary care settings, we are also receptive to proposals that address these issues in non-primary care settings.  

The PI-applicant must be a current postdoctoral trainee or early career investigator at the University of Pittsburgh or Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (e.g., instructor, assistant professor, early stage psychologist, social worker, primary care physician, or psychiatrist).   While not a requirement, we encourage applications that include interdisciplinary partnerships and community based non-academic collaborators.  We also encourage applications from new investigators without extramural funding as well as new investigators with access to additional funds that can leverage an award from ETUDES (e.g., start-up funds, K-award, foundation grants). 

Available Funding

We expect to make several awards ranging from $10K to $25K over a 12-month period depending on the number and quality of applications received. 

  • Up to 25K for postdocs

  • Up to 50K for ECS

Application Instructions

Applicants need to find a Center faculty member to work with as part of their application

Applications will be due by 10/1/24 and should include:

  • Application Cover Letter

  • Descriptive title of the proposed research

  • PI name, address, email, and telephone number

  • Participating ETUDES co-investigator/liaison: NIH Biosketch for the PI and for their primary mentor(s) if the applicants is a trainee

  • Letter(s) of support from community partners (if applicable)

  • Specific aims and hypotheses (1 page)

  • Scientific proposal (3 pages excluding references) that will include short sections on: Background (significance, innovation), Methods, Analytic Plan, Plan for Future Independent Funding

  • Project Timeline: As Project start dates will vary by date of IRB approval, describe Project steps by month (range: 0-12).

  • Budget request (1 Page): The ETUDES Pilot funding can be used to pay for staff salaries, project materials, participation fees, travel to a national conference to present work, and open access publication fees but not salary support for the PI or for their mentors and co-investigators.

 

We anticipate notifying PIs of awards in November 2024.

Contact Ms. Amy Anderson, ETUDES Methods Coordinator, with questions and send your completed applications to her as a single PDF file by 5pm on 10/1/24 (amy.anderson2@chp.edu).