Campus-Community Research Incubator – Request for Applications

← Back To Funding Opportunities Application Deadline: April 7, 2025

Overview

The Campus-Community Research Incubator Program (CCRI) is a small funding mechanism designed to foster collaborative, research-oriented projects between university researchers and community organizations.

Annually, there are two levels of grant funding available:

1. Mini CCRI: Up to $5,000 (for capacity- and partnership-building applications)
2. Exploratory CCRI funds: Up to $10,000 in total costs (for collection of pilot or formative data, QI, and evaluation-based applications)

No indirect costs outside of the institution will be supported. Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to attend a workshop on March 6 at 10 AM (see registration link below) to understand new funding requirements. A registration link for this workshop can be found below.

The estimated funding period is July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.

All applications must be submitted electronically.

Eligibility

Grants are awarded only to teams comprised of UCI researchers and community organization representatives. Applicants can be:

• An organization based in the community, with preference to those located in Orange County, CA
• UCI-based researchers, including faculty, healthcare providers, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students (with appropriate mentorship), and/or senior researchers

Proposals must demonstrate an active engagement between UCI researchers and community representatives. Specifically, projects must demonstrate they are co-designed and clearly state the anticipated benefits to each partner.

Types of Awards

Mini CCRI: Up to $5,000 (for capacity- and partnership-building applications)

Program description: Capacity-building and project planning activities include but are not limited to trainings, conferences/workshops, data set organization, technology, and project development for future research.  This work can include investment in developing relationships and trust within communities, with an eye toward long-term collaborative work.  A fundable proposal must include articulated milestones.

Exploratory CCRI funds: Up to $10,000 in total costs (for collection of pilot or formative data, QI, and evaluation-based applications)  

Program description: Activities for Exploratory funding include but are not limited to feasibility studies, data collection, data analyses, expanded study aims and/or study populations, and other similar activities.

• An example of an exploratory CCRI is a study that will generate findings to be further studied or tested in a larger follow-up research study. Typically, CCRI funds are adequate to determine feasibility.
• A statistically-significant sample can be obtained, but this is not an expected outcome of CCRI-funded projects. For information on the expectations and limitations of seed grant funding, please see this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3081994/

Important Funding and Regulatory Requirements and Notices

• Use of Funds. Funds may be used to purchase research supplies, support research assistants, compensate participants for completing surveys/focus groups, or support the community PI’s time. Fifty-one percent (51%) of research funds must be allocated and distributed directly to the community partner. Community partner funds may also be used to supplement academic partner’s project activities, if necessary. Funds may not be used to purchase food but may be used to purchase study participant gift cards.Funds must be spent by June 30, 2026.

• We do not fund clinical trials. Answering yes to all 4 of the questions below constitutes a clinical trial.

  • Does the study involve human participants?
  • Are the participants prospectively assigned to an intervention?
  • Is the study designed to evaluate the effect of the intervention on the participants?
  • Is the effect being evaluated a health-related biomedical or behavioral outcome?

  If your project meets the definition of a clinical trial and you would like assistance to modify your project to meet the funding criteria, feel free to get in touch with our team using the contact information at the bottom of this notice.

• All projects require regulatory compliance (e.g. UCI Human Research Institutional Review Board [IRB] approval or an exemption determination, required trainings, NIH prior approval) to be met prior to funds being released. It is recommended, but not required, that the IRB application be submitted prior to final submission of this funding application. In addition to UCI regulatory compliance, community organizations may have their own processes. If the project includes personnel conducting human subjects research, all personnel must take the Human Subjects Protections and HIPAA tutorial prior to funds being disbursed. Tutorials: Human Subject Protection and HIPAA https://www.citiprogram.org/Default.asp If your project is designated by the IRB as human subjects research (versus exempt), the project must be submitted to the NIH for prior approval, which can delay the start date for the project. Questions about regulatory compliance can be addressed at the workshop or during office hours.
• Priority will be given to applications that focus on translational science, the field that generates scientific and operational innovations that overcome longstanding challenges along the translational research pipeline. Translational science applications focus on outcomes that are:
  • Generalizable across multiple diseases
  • Will make future research more efficient or effective

Examples of Translational Science Projects

1. Project Title: Improving the conduct of clinical trial research through validation of a patient-centered approach to neurocognitive assessment. (notice there is not a disease mentioned in the title)
   • Research Roadblock: Need for a self-administered on-line neurocognitive assessment. (the neurocognitive assessment can be used across several diseases)
   • Use Case: Patients with diabetes and diabetic kidney disease (this team is testing the assessment within a population of patients with diabetes and/or kidneys disease)
   • Rationale for the project being translational science: “The results will make routine assessment of neurocognitive outcomes in clinical trials possible, leading to new insights into neurocognitive effects and/or intervention mechanisms that would otherwise have been undetected.”
2. Project Title: A data-driven approach to unraveling the contextual social determinants of health (SDoH) that drive racial/ethnic health disparities (again, no mention of a disease in the project title)
   • Research Roadblock: Need for a method to measure contextual SDoH (i.e., structural conditions of places where people live, work, play that drive racial/ethnic disparities in health). (SDoH measure can be used in a variety of situations and disease processes)
   • Use Case: Racial/ethnic disparities in antihypertensive medication treatment adherence. (this team is testing the assessment with a population of patients on antihypertensive treatment adherence)
   • Rationale for the project being translational science: “The results will illustrate the need for developing rigorous methodologies for measuring contextual SDoH to advance health disparities research.”

Information Session

We strongly encourage all potential applicants to join the information session on March 6 at 10 am.

Register for CCRI info session

We will also be holding office hours on March 12 at 8 am via Zoom where potential applicants can join an open conversation ask, project-specific questions, and learn how applicants’ projects may be modified to best fit the spirit of this RFA.

Register for office hours

Reporting Requirement

• Awardees are required to complete documentation for an activation meeting that takes place at the beginning of funding, and must complete a report with highlights, findings, and further actions at the close of the award period: June 30, 2026.
• Awardees are required to acknowledge the ICTS in all publications and presentations.
• Awardees will meet with the Research Acceleration and Facilitation Team (RAFT) during designated months throughout their project via Zoom. More information about the RAFT process will be provided during the activation meeting.

Selection Criteria

Awards will be made competitively. In general, proposals that demonstrate the following will be given highest priority:

• Focus on integrating innovative community-based practices that accelerate discoveries toward better health and healthcare delivery and/or contribute to the understanding of clinical translational science and the social determinants of health.
• Have formed or established a partnership (an existing partnership prior to applying for CCRI). This can be a new partnership, where the project being applied for is the first co-led activity of the partnership, but the active role of both partners is required. Partnership development and fortification are a primary mission for this grant mechanism, so a special emphasis on the nature of the academic-community partnership should be apparent.
• Include a translational science component (see above description).
• Demonstrate project ingenuity/innovation.
• Have a high likelihood of meaningful positive impact (ex. changing clinical care or public health in a positive way, future research possibilities).
• We will preferentially consider proposals with in-kind support.
• Those with existing IRB approval.

The CCRI applications for research activities are rigorously reviewed by UCI faculty and community partners. Each application will have at least one review from an academic and a community member. Please be sure to clearly indicate to which funding mechanism you are applying.

Scoring for CCRI applications are based on the following:

1. Significance and impact
2. Qualifications of the PI and research team
3. Innovation
4. Approach; Scientific strength of research design
5. Scientific environment
6. Translational nature of the project
7. Project feasibility within the proposed time frame
8. Likelihood of generating extramural funding
9. Strength/potential of the partnership

Application Components

• Research Description (Template for EXPLORATION application) (Template for Mini-CCRI application)
• Biosketch (NIH new format) of University Partner and biosketch or CV/resume of Community Partner
• Timeline (1 Page)
  • A detailed plan for completion of the project by June 30, 2026
• Letter of support from the university partner (department head) and the community partner (ED or CEO)
• Budget (itemized, 1 page maximum). Must clearly state the following:
  • Total budget for the project
  • Amount requested from the ICTS
  • Breakdown of funds to be directed to the community partner vs. university partner (> 51% of funds are to be sent to the community partner)
• Budget Justification
  • Funds cannot be used to support the PI’s salary, computer purchases, or travel. Other personnel salaries are allowable.
  • No overhead will be provided for outside institutions
• ICTS Pilot Project Implementation Plan (click link to download form)
• UCI Financial Disclosure For academic partner, please be sure your annual COI has been completed.

Note: Partnered and engaged research differs in several ways from traditional research inquiry, including the time and care it takes to create and maintain mutually beneficial relationships, and the ability for partners to understand and acknowledge the expertise, contributions, and needs of the other. If you have questions about what is meant by Community-Engaged Research, would like examples of high-quality proposals, help framing your research project, and/or to discuss your idea, please contact Robynn Zender or Melissa Estrada via the information below.

Robynn Zender, MS 
949-331-6593 
E-mail: rzender@hs.uci.edu

Melissa Estrada, MPH 
E-mail: estradm4@uci.edu

The link to submit you application can be found HERE