Pilot Awards
Pilot Project Application
• Funding up to $25,000
• Duration of 1 year
• Application due March 20th, 2023
CHOSEN is a University-wide Center that seeks to engage talent and resources across Columbia University’s Schools and Departments to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and harm reduction of substance use disorders through a lens of health and social equity. The Center holds a particular focus on opioid use disorder and the overdose epidemic continuing to afflict the U.S. with a particular toll on communities which have been systematically marginalized.
CHOSEN aims to bring together multidisciplinary expertise across Columbia University in an effort to combat the negative consequences of substance use and all of the intricately related constructs within, including implementation of and access to treatment in the context of social, gender, and racial inequalities. The goal is to focus attention on the barriers that impede access to high-quality, best practice treatment in marginalized and underserved communities, in part by training and supporting the next generation of diverse addiction researchers and clinicians who are dedicated to improving substance use disorder treatment.
In partnership with our funding collaborators, CHOSEN is soliciting pilot projects to support research ranging from prevention and discovery to implementation of novel treatment approaches for substance use disorders and their common psychiatric and health comorbidities. Research that specifically addresses health inequities and/or that advances implementation science will be the focus of this awards cycle. Proposals will be evaluated on their capacity to address these issues and thereby should explicitly include a statement describing how this will be done. For example, proposals could address the following: target population(s) that are underserved with evident health disparities or who have been historically targeted through punitive “war on drugs” initiatives, incorporating innovative strategies designed to ensure representative recruitment and engagement; research questions that address social drivers of health and other factors that contribute to health disparities and inequities; and intervention or implementation strategies adapted to increase acceptability and effectiveness among population(s) experiencing inequities or who are underserved.
Pilot proposals should support preliminary research and data collection that could form the foundation for larger funded grants (e.g., NIH R-level grants or independent scientist awards). Successful proposals will articulate a long-term vision for such program development and funding. A critical focus of the pilot proposals should be interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary collaborations, with the goal of driving new partnerships within the University and local communities; as such proposals should draw talent from across two or more Schools or Departments, as well as consider ways of engaging partners from the community, across all phases of the project.