CTSI Ignition Funds

About this program

Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and Advocate Health offer Ignition Funds—small, rapid-access awards (up to $5,000, to be spent within 3 months) to accelerate clinical and translational projects, generate pilot data for extramural grant applications, or advance peer‑reviewed/scored projects toward fundability; requests exceeding $5,000 or longer project periods may be considered with strong justification. Applications are submitted via the ePilot Ignition Fund Application (short research question, project description, justification for external funding positioning, budget justification, timeline, NIH‑style biosketch, and proposal summary statement if applicable) on a rolling basis; CTSI initiates review immediately after the first Tuesday of each month (11:59 PM EST deadline) and decisions may take up to six weeks. Eligible applicants are faculty investigators across Advocate Health’s Southeast region (including Atrium Health systems and Wake Forest University School of Medicine) and CTSI‑affiliated institutions with a Wake Forest co‑investigator; co‑PI structures are allowed and non‑faculty allied health researchers may serve as co‑PI with a faculty lead. Awardees must acknowledge Wake Forest CTSI and NCATS/NIH grant UM1TR004929, comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, report resulting publications/extramural funding/IP when requested, and may receive only one Ignition Fund per year.