Pilot Awards for Investigators New to HIV

Spring 2025 funding cycle: Applications available until Monday, March 3. 

• Call opens: Thursday, January 30, 2025
• Deadline: Monday March 3, 2025 (2:00 pm PST)
• Funding results: Available before end of May 2025

Amount available: $50,000 in direct costs for 1 year

Apply through the UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP) portal

Amount available: $50,000 in direct costs for 1 year

Apply through the UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP) portal

The Pilot Award for Investigators New to HIV is aimed for Investigators New to HIV (Assistant or Associate faculty, including clinical) without past or current HIV/SIV funding with an innovative research idea in translational, clinical, and/or behavioral-epidemiological HIV research. Pilot awards are typically used to initiate a project or to gather preliminary data and findings leading to a future grant application. International research projects are allowed.

Of high interest to CFAR are investigations ranging from basic pathogenesis to clinical outcomes in the research areas of HIV/aging and inflammation, latency, cure, vaccines, co-infections, HIV in women, implementation science, and research related to HIV-infected and HIV-impacted Bay Area populations. Our CFAR Science Cores and Working Group are available to assist you in your research. 

Eligibility
Junior or mid-level faculty members at UCSF or affiliated partner institutes (https://cfar.ucsf.edu/about/partners: Gladstone Institutes, Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco Department of Public Health, and San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center/NCIRE) may apply. Investigators may apply only if they are newly entering the field of HIV research. Investigators are not eligible for CFAR Pilot Funding if they have received any past HIV research funding from any agency.

Who is Not eligible: Postdoctoral fellows and full professors; staff Applicants without terminal degrees (e.g. PhD and MD).

Projects must be within NIH’s HIV/AIDS research high or medium priority areas. Projects in closely related areas (e.g. TB, HCV, drug use, etc.) must be clearly linked to HIV in order to be eligible for CFAR funding.

The award amount is $50,000 in direct costs for one year.

CFAR requests that applicants review the NIAID HIV Language Guide as they prepare their proposals so that they can follow best practices on language for communicating respectfully about HIV and related topics, including the use of person-first, non-stigmatizing language. Please contact us if you have any questions about this request.

For more detailed information about this RFA, please see the RAP Portal.