Pilot Grants
The Community Engagement and Research (CEAR) Core of the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) at the University of Pennsylvania makes pilot grant funding available for research with public and community health relevance.
This call for proposals is open to faculty and postdocs with significant public and community health-related experience at Penn and is intended to:
- Foster interdisciplinary research in public health at Penn that will have meaningful results at the community level.
- Assist in garnering external support for large-scale studies in the field of public health.
- Encourage additional faculty and staff at Penn to become involved in public health research.
- Identify the innovative methodologies in the field of public health that have the potential of informing local, state, and national policy and programming.
CEAR Core also awards pilot grant funds through Community Driven Research Day (CDRD). Community Driven Research Day is a collaboration between community groups and researchers at Penn, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Temple University, Drexel University, LaSalle University, and Thomas Jefferson University.
CDRD is an opportunity for members of community organizations and academic researchers to come together to meet and discuss potential collaborations and community-academic partnerships.
Questions can be addressed to Krista Scheffey (krista.scheffey@pennmedicine.upenn.edu) and Emma Soliva (emma.soliva@pennmedicine.upenn.edu)
Other related pilot grant
opportunities available at Penn
Community Driven Research Day Pilot Grants
CHIBE Pilot Grants
ITMAT Pilot Grants
CEAR Core Pilot Grant Awards
2024 – 2025
Catherine McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN
Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Co-Director, Penn Injury Science Center
“Design and Pilot Evaluation of E4E Drivers License Academy Program”
Nia Bhadra-Heintz, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Co-director of PROUD
“Enhancing Perinatal Care for Substance Use Disorders in West Philadelphia”
Emily Perkins, PhD, MS
MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellow
“A Community Partnership to Improve Mental Health in Philadelphia Youth Diversion”
2023 – 2024
Tamara Cadet, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Social Policy & Practice
“Screening for Nutrition in Oncology Settings for Underserved Rural Communities with Food Insecurity and Social Determinants of Health Challenges”
Elinore Kaufman, MD, MSHP
Associate Professor, Surgery
“Health Care Use Among Patients Newly Insured via Hospital-Based Insurance Linkage”
2022 – 2023
Lauren Eberly, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine
“Improving Quality of Heart Failure Care Among American Indian Patients Receiving Care through the Indian Health Service”
Amanda Fultz, PhD, RDN
Postdoctoral Fellow, Perelman School of Medicine
“Nutrition Assistance Recipient and Stakeholder Perceptions on COVID-19 Policy Changes”
Sarah Schrauben, MD, MSCE
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Perelman School of Medicine
“Pilot Study of Kidney Community Connect – Digital Tools for Kidney Research”
Kent D.W. Bream, MD
Associate Director, Predoctoral Education in Family Medicine
Associate Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and Community Health, Perelman School of Medicine
“African Immigrant Community Needs Assessment and burden of diabetes and trauma”
Steven Scherer, MD, PhD
Vice Chair for Academic Development, Department of Neurology
Ruth Wagner Van Meter and J. Ray Van Meter Professor of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine
“TTR Amyloidosis Education and Outreach Program”
2021 – 2022
Joanna Hart, MD, MSHP
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine
Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division
“Caregiving youth: an invisible cause of inequity”
Nadav Schwartz, MD
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
“A telehealth solution to improve community access to fetal monitoring in high-risk pregnancies: a feasibility pilot study”
2017 – 2018
Kristen Feemster, MD, MPH, MSHPR, FAAP
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine
Attending Physician, Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
“Evaluating the Impact of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Educational Videos on Parental Knowledge of Respiratory Virus Transmission and Etiquette”
2016 – 2017
Julia Alber, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow, Perelman School of Medicine
Raina Merchant, MD, MSHP, FAHA
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine
“Increasing Hepatitis B Screening among Chinese and Vietnamese
Philadelphians: Exploring the Feasibility of a Community Liaison Social Media Program”
Carolyn Cannuscio, ScD
Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health
Director of Research, Center for Public Health Initiatives, University of Pennsylvania
Anna Uma Morgan, MD, MSc
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
“Building the Capacity of Libraries to Address the Social Determinants of Health”
2014 – 2015
Jeffrey Gerber, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Attending Physician, Division Infectious Diseases, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Keith W. Hamilton, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship
Associate Healthcare Epidemiologist, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Julia E. Szymczak, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Division of Infectious Diseases
Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness (CPCE), The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
“Development of a Citywide Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaborative”
Anu Asnaani, PhD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
“Testing and Dissemination of a Screening Measure for PTSD in Youth”
Community Driven Research Day – Pilot Grant Awards
Community-Driven Research Day (CDRD) is a program that encourages collaboration between researchers and community-based organizations (CBOs)/community groups that have research questions they are interested in answering.
Through CDRD, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and community groups interested in developing partnerships to conduct research participate in an interactive rapid presentation that highlights their mission, goals, and major accomplishments and displays research questions they are interested in answering to health and equity for their community members.
Learn more here https://violence.chop.edu/community-driven-research-day
2024-2025
Desmond Upton Patton, PhD, MSW
PIK Professor, School of Social Policy & Practice Annenberg School for Communication
Shameka Sawyer
5 Shorts Project
“Bout Mine I Matter Youth Video Production Initiative Research Pilot”
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Abigail Ross, LICSW, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor, Social Policy and Practice
Verna Aggie
Motivated Young Scholars
“A Community-Driven Evaluation of the Up-Cycling Arts Therapy Program”
2023-2024
Caroline Watts, EdD, EdM
Senior Lecturer, Director of School and Community Engagement; Graduate School of Education
Aqueelah Brown
Know Your Worth Girls Inc.
“The Preparation and Pilot Implementation of HOPE-ish: A Mental Health Awareness Program”
2022-2023
Steven Paul Meanley, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Penn School of Nursing
Lee Carson
PHMC
“Building capacity to address equity in sexual health and wellness among transgender and gender nonbinary communities in Philadelphia”
____________________________________
Sara F. Jacoby, MPH, MSN, PhD
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Penn School of Nursing
Carly Maurer
ACHIEVEability
“Evaluating the gun violence prevention potential of the 60th Street Strong Coalition”
2020-2021
Terri Lipman, PhD, CRNP, FAAN
Professor of Nursing of Children, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Angela Huc
Learning Central Preschool
“Enhancing children’s readiness for school: Using goals of community parents”
2017-2018
M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine
Cory Long
Team Making A Change
“Examining A Partnership Between Youth and Community Stakeholders in Violence Intervention: A Qualitative Approach”
