Director's Corner

Dear Research Community,

It’s officially a new school year (though we know many trainees and postdocs have been on campus for a few months now). Every so often, when we have new faculty and trainees on campus, the CCTSI hosts a Town Hall to share information about the vast resources and training programs the CCTSI offers. We are doing so on Tuesday, September 15. You may attend on Zoom or in-person in the Shore Family Forum. Dr. Janine Higgins and I will deliver an overview of the CCTSI’s many funding opportunities – we award about $2 million in pilot grants and career development awards each year! We also provide dozens of trainings, workshops, short courses, and pre-submission grant reviews, all at no charge to you. Register here; we will have lunches on a first-come first-served basis.   

New RFA

The Pragmatic EHR-Embedded Trials program is one of our newest funding opportunities. The 2026-2027 Request for Applications (RFA) for demonstration project proposals for the Pragmatic EHR-Embedded Trials (PEET) Program is now available. We invite investigators to apply for a 2-year grant of up to $300,000 to support pragmatic clinical trials conducted within UCHealth and integrated with Epic. 

Why Apply? 
•    PEET demonstration project grants can help you implement your intervention and access research-quality data.
•    These grants are more than just funding – they include Epic facilitation and dedicated data/informatics support to help your study succeed.
•    PEET demonstration projects benefit from streamlined UCHealth approval processes, including Epic implementation feasibility review.
•    These grants are an opportunity to expand your collaborative network and conduct research in UCHealth’s large patient population.
•    Early-career investigators are eligible to serve as a multiple PI, helping you to develop the expertise and relationships needed to conduct pragmatic, EHR-embedded trials at UCHealth.

How to Prepare 
•    You may find the full RFA at the PEET Program website.
•    Attend a virtual informational call on September 29, from 2:00 - 3:00 pm MT. RSVP to Sarah Kautz at peet.program@cuanschutz.edu.edu to receive the Zoom link.  
•    A mandatory, competitive Intent to Apply process opens on September 30, with Letters of Intent due on October 23, 2026. 
•    Questions? Contact PEET Program Coordinator Sarah Kautz at peet.program@cuanschutz.edu. 


CU-CSU Summit

Last month, we hosted our 14th annual Summit conference, Advancing Neurosciences: From Molecules to Mind. By every measure it was a success – we had keen interest across all four CCTSI institutions, both early career and senior investigators attended, the keynote talks featured groundbreaking research at each of our campuses, and the lightning presentations were excellent. Plus, we had more than 50 individuals present posters during our session. Thank you to the Summit Program Committee for crafting a memorable conference! Read more here and check out the presentations here. 

Welcome! 
We are excited to welcome a new Associate Medical Director of our adult Clinical Translational Research Center: Amanda Piquet, MD, FAAN. Dr. Piquet is an internationally renowned expert in autoimmune neurology, and she leads the Autoimmune Neurology Program at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine. We are thrilled to see her bring her many years of clinical research experience to bear in her important role – for both research participants and clinical research staff. Read our full announcement here. 

Best regards,
Ron