APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 11:59PM.  EMAIL YOUR APPLICATION HERE: ETUDES@UPMC.EDU 

Applications are now closed.

                         $100,000 Joint Pilot Program Round III

        (Applications Due: September 14, 2020 Awards Made: END of September 2020)

Objectives

The National Institute of Mental Health-funded ETUDES Center within the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Psychiatry seeks to identify and build long-term collaborative relationships with Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). Towards that goal, they have organized a Joint Pilot Program whose goals are to develop novel technologic solutions for identifying, triaging, and/or managing depressed and/or suicidal youth who present for routine clinical care. 

Augmenting this cross-university Joint Pilot Program are the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Behavioral Health, Media, and Technology (CBHMT) who will provide additional expertise in clinically-oriented behavioral health solutions, and the Center for Interventions to Enhance Community Health (CiTECH) who will provide expertise in the community implementation of such solutions. 

Eligibility

The HCII principal investigator (PI) must be a tenure- or research-track CMU faculty member.

The ETUDES PI must be a core faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh.

(See Appendix for a list of the ETUDES investigators’ interests)

Criteria

Proposals should:

1) Pair an HCII faculty member with an ETUDES faculty member (co-PIs);

2) Include at least one faculty member from the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Behavioral Health, Media, and Technology (CBHMT) and/or Center for Interventions to Enhance Community Health (CiTECH);

3) Study, design, develop or adapt an existing technologic solution that addresses one or more clinical issues for improving the care of depressed and/or suicidal youth;

4) Pilot their novel solution on youth who present for clinical care at an outpatient Pittsburgh-area UPMC facility; and

5) Generate pilot data and experiences that can inform the development of new grant applications, papers, and presentations within 12 months of funding.

Funding Details

We plan to award $100K to support two to four projects that can be completed within a 12 month timeframe ($50K from ETUDES and $25K each from CBHMT and CiTECH). Funds can be used for graduate and other student salaries, supplies, equipment, conference travel, and other project-related expenses, but no faculty salary support. Although not a requirement, priority will be given to applications that leverage Joint Pilot Program funds with additional funds the PIs may have access to (e.g., faculty start-up funds, career development awards, foundations, or faculty effort). 

Application Process

The application should include:

• Descriptive title of proposed research

• PI’s name, address, email, and telephone number

• NIH biosketch for each key investigator

• Specific aims and hypotheses (1 page)

• Project proposal (3 pages excluding references) to include:

  • Significance

  • Innovation

  • Preliminary data, if available

  • Methods

  • Analytic plan

  • Plan for future independent funding

  • Project timeline

• References

• Budget request (1 page)

• List of roles for personnel support

Review Process

Proposals will be reviewed by two or more application-specific reviewers, and then by Drs. David Brent, Bruce Rollman, Shaun Eack, and Jodi Forlizzi, the directors of ETUDES, CBHMT, CiTECH, and HCII, respectively, who will consider these reviews and make consensus recommendations for funding. 

Dates and Deadlines

Applications will be due August 24, 2020, and we anticipate making awards by September 14, 2020.

Questions

Please contact Ms. George-Milford, ETUDES Research Program Administrator, at georgeba2@upmc.edu, or visit www.etudes.pitt.edu.