Pilot Research Award in Liver Diseases
Application Deadline
Award Amount
$50,000
Award Term
One Year
Award Type
Project-Based
Clinical / Translational / Outcomes Research
Basic Science Research
Career Level
Junior Faculty
Mid-Career Faculty
View the 2025 request for applications [PDF].
Overview
The purpose of this award is to support highly innovative research ideas that have a clear potential to produce high-impact results, but that have little or no preliminary data to successfully compete for funding from other sources. This award is not intended to support ongoing research in the applicant’s laboratory, but rather support new ideas or approaches that have not previously been studied.
Clinical/Translational/Outcomes and Basic Science projects will be evaluated independently, with separate funding reserved for each category.
Notice of Special Interest
Additional dedicated funding to advance research activities in autoimmune hepatitis is available for the 2025 Awards cycle. Applications in autoimmune hepatitis are encouraged in all early to mid-career research award categories and the Pilot and Autoimmune Exploratory Research Award categories.
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Eligibility
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Award Details
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Selection Criteria
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How to Apply
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Application Resources
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CMS Open Payments Disclaimer
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for this award, the applicant must adhere to the following guidelines:
- The applicant must:
- Have a faculty appointment at or below the rank of Associate Professor. Junior Faculty must be at least three years from their first appointment at the start date of the award (faculty start date must be July 1, 2021 or earlier).
- Be a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) at the time of award application and maintain active membership for the duration of the award period.
- Be able to devote at least 20% effort to the research project on which this application is based
- Be sponsored by a public or private non-profit institution accredited in the United States, Canada or Mexico engaged in health care and health-related research. Individuals employed at the NIH, FDA, and CDC are not eligible to apply.
- If the applicant is at the rank of Assistant Professor, they must have a mentor or co-mentor who is an AASLD member in good standing at the time of application and for the duration of the award period. Mentors are not required for Associate Professor level applicants or equivalent.
- Not hold federal funding (e.g., U, P, R, K, VA Merit, VA CDA) unless they are able to justify the following in their application:
- The project is truly completely distinct and non-overlapping from existing funding.
- The proposed work cannot be completed using existing funds.
- The proposed project must:
- Not be an established project with alternate funding and must be clearly different than existing research portfolio of the PI.
- Be hypothesis based.
- Include only 1-2 aims that can be completed within the one-year award term.
- If the project is Clinical/Translational/Outcomes Research, intervention must involve a direct clinical interaction with patients (clinical), patient clinical data (outcomes), or patient samples (translational). No clinical interaction is required for Basic Research proposals.
- Be conducted at the sponsoring institution within the United States, Canada, or Mexico.
- Application limits:
- There is no restriction on the number of applicants an institution can sponsor each cycle, but only one applicant may be funded per distinct department within each institution in this award category.
- Applicants may only apply for one AASLD Foundation award per calendar year.
Award Details
Award Period: July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025.
Total Award Amount: $50,000
- Award of $50,000 will be provided over (1) one year.
- Funds are unrestricted for direct project expenditures, except that equipment acquisition of $5,000 or greater requires prior written approval from AASLD Foundation.
- PIs will receive complimentary registration for The Liver Meeting during their one-year grant term.
- No indirect costs, registration fees, or travel expenses are provided.
How Award funds are allocated to allowable costs is at the discretion of the sponsoring institution. For example, while this award requires a minimum of 20% effort toward the funded research project, it is not required that PI salary must be directly supported by Foundation Award funds.
Unexpended funds at the end of the award term must be returned to AASLD Foundation.
Selection Criteria
AASLD Foundation is soliciting innovative, small-scale exploratory research grant proposals focused on all aspects of liver disease. Funding is meant to allow investigators to test new ideas or methods to gather sufficient data to apply for longer-term grants.
Applicants will be evaluated based upon their background, their commitment to a research career, the scientific merit of their research project, and the environment in which they will conduct this project.
- Project feasibility, an appropriate environment to conduct the project, and relevant collaborators will strengthen the application.
- Work proposed must clearly be able to be accomplished in one year.
- Highly innovative, high-risk/high-reward projects will be prioritized.
- For Clinical/Translational /Outcomes Research proposals:
- Interventions addressing disparities in healthcare access or quality will receive priority consideration.
- Operational/clinical interventions will be judged on potential for generalizability to other institutions (i.e., intervention that can only applied in a single center due to specific local infrastructure requirements will receive lower priority).
Applications will be reviewed based on the written materials submitted. Incomplete applications and applications that fail to adhere strictly to the instructions (including the submission deadline and page limitations) will not be reviewed. All decisions are final.
How to Apply
The application deadline for this award is 11:59 pm Eastern time on December 9, 2024. Applications received after the deadline will not be reviewed.
- Download the 2025 RFA and prepare all components listed in the required documents section.
- The forms on pages 6-10 of the RFA must be completed and included as part of your application.
- Type responses where prompted and provide all requested signatures.
- Prepare your final application as a flattened, single PDF (no portfolios). PDFs cannot be locked or have any password protection. Applications that do not meet the requirements, in content or format, will not be reviewed.
- Assemble your application in the order listed in the required documents section of the program RFA.
- Name the PDF file as follows: 2025 PILOT_Last name, first name (Example: 2025 PILOT_Smith, Jane)
- Formatting:
- Include a header at the upper right corner of each page with your name (last name, first name), application year, and program name (2025 Pilot).
- Use half-inch margins. Do not use lettering smaller than 10 point.
- Adhere to page limits and complete all sections.
- Submit your application at www.liverresearchawards.org. You will be sent an email confirmation that the application was received. If an email confirmation is not received in two (2) business days, please contact awards@aasld.org to confirm receipt.
Application Resources
CMS Open Payments Disclaimer
This funding program may receive support that could require reporting by a corporate supporter under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA). Reported information may appear on the CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Open Payments Website and include such information as the grant amount, awardee name, NPI, and sponsoring institution name. To learn more about the PPSA and how to review reported information please visit the Open Payments Resources for Physicians and Teaching Hospitals.
QUESTIONS
Questions? Contact awards@aasld.org.
Return to Current Funding Opportunities
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The 2025 Pilot Research Award in Liver Diseases program is made possible through unrestricted donations from AASLD and donors to the AASLD Foundation.
