The Developmental x Clinical Investigation Grant is designed to encourage novel research utilizing stored clinical samples from the Clinical Investigation (CI) Core with the potential to connect findings to the CFAR Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS) patient-reported outcomes.

Overview:

• Letter of Intent : Due to CI Core Leaders (Drs. Maile Karris and Laura Bamford) by January 15
• Application Deadline: February 16, 2026 
• Funding: Up to $50,000 USD in direct costs 
                  Up to $30,000 USD in direct costs for newly recruited, establish investigators
• Duration: 1 year

Eligibility: 

Applicants must be Junior Faculty^* within one of our member institutions and meet the following criteria:

• Possess a doctoral-level degree
• Be an early-stage investigator without an R01 (or equivalent) NIH funding
• UCSD/SDSU: Be at the level of Assistant Professor, Project Scientist, or Research Scientist
• SCRIPPS/LJI: Junior faculty positions, staff scientists (with chair approval), institute investigators, and Scripps Fellows

^* Newly recruited (within the last two years), established investigators may hold the rank of Associate Professor or higher (or an equivalent position) and may have existing R01 funding.

Requirements:

• Submissions should address at least one of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Priorities and/or an and an intersecting aspect of addiction science.
• You may use qualifying samples from the CI Core’s stored collection, or you may propose the use of fresh samples.
• Core Services (if needed): You must contact SD CFAR service cores by January 12, prior to your submission to discuss assistance needed. 
• Mentor: 
  • Early stage (pre-R01) investigators must work with at least one mentor. Newly recruited senior investigators are not required to have a mentor, though it is encouraged. Recruits in their second year will be considered on a case-by-case basis. 
  • Mentors must certify that they have reviewed and provided input on the application prior to submission. Applications will only be accepted after this pre-submission review. Mentors need not be HIV experts but should have received NIH R01 (or equivalent) funding and have experience with NIH grants. Qualifications will be evaluated during the review process.
  • For assistance in identifying a mentor, please email cfar@ucsd.edu with any questions.

Restrictions:

• All work must be conducted within the United States, as foreign components are no longer allowed under the current NIH–CFAR funding structure.
• Applicants may submit only one Developmental grant application per cycle and may only serve as PI on one active Developmental grant at a time.
• Postdoctoral fellows may not apply for Developmental grants, and these grants may not be used to provide salaries for postdoctoral fellows.
• Developmental grants cannot:
  • Support clinical trials or studies involving new drugs, treatments, or devices, or off-label use of a licensed drug.
  • Fund travel to scientific meetings, with one exception: Early stage investigators may include travel to a scientific meeting to present the results of their Developmental grant research.
• If an awarded grant includes research in humans or animals, Institutional Review Board or Institutional Animal Care Use Committee approval must be submitted to the SD CFAR Developmental Core before funds may be spent. Regulatory approvals should be emailed to cfar@ucsd.edu.

Application Components to be submitted via REDCap: 

Cover and Face Page, Abstract, Goals & Mentoring Plan, Budget and Budget Justification, NIH Other Support, Biosketch of PI and Mentor(s), Environmental and Institutional Commitment, Service Core Checklist, 4-page Research Plan, Literature Cited. If applicable: Letters of Support and IRB.

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Questions? Please email cfar@ucsd.edu.