Pilot projects integrate innovative technologies to allow investigators to expand scope of current research and obtain pilot data for future funding

Supported by SPrINT in collaboration with the NIH BRAIN Initiative

Overview

The goal of this program is to make current technologies more readily available to the scientific community, and to generate pilot data that participants can use to apply for future funding. This program will select six pilot projects each year to be conducted by SPrINT, in coordination with the Investigators. We encourage proposals ranging from highly innovative projects that integrate multiple techniques (see application details), to highly focused projects that use a single technique to address the impact of an informative experimental manipulation. 

Technologies for Pilot Projects include but are not limited to:

  • In vivo models of neurodegenerative disease (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease)
  • Animal behavior (e.g., Morris Water Maze, Fear Conditioning, Continuous Monitoring, Machine Learning)
  • Drug efficacy studies
  • Behavioral phenotyping
  • Whole brain clearing and imaging
  • Proteomics and Transcriptomics
  • Array Tomography
  • Super-resolution volumetric imaging
  • STARmap (in tissue single cell transcriptomics)
  • Gene and viral vector technologies
  • Stereotaxic injection of viral technologies into mice or rats
  • Human brain organogenesis
  • RNAscope

Eligibility

  • The proposal must be related to understanding the brain function in health and disease and relevant to the aims of the NIH Brain Initiative
  • Basic science or translational Neuroscience are both welcomed
  • Proposals must be submitted by either the principal investigator or a lead researcher/scientist in the research program 
  • Open to non-Stanford researchers

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated regarding their scientific merit and feasibility by an appointed review committee. 

Application Submission

Download Application Details for more information. Proposals should be submitted as a PDF file or Microsoft Word document to sprintneuro@stanford.edu with the file name and subject line as, Last Name of Applicant SPrINT Pilot Project. Successful submission will be confirmed by email notification.

Applications are due February 3, 2025

Resources

This application cycle is closed, but feel free to reach out to sprintneuro@stanford.edu if you are interested