Clinical Research Investigator-Initiated Awards Grant

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation offers Clinical Research Investigator-Initiated Awards (CRIA) to support innovative research aimed at improving the lives of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The program emphasizes patient-centric approaches and encourages collaboration with patients and caregivers. Key research priorities include IBD incidence, therapeutic effectiveness, and pain management. The CRIA also promotes junior investigators through support mechanisms, ensuring a future generation of researchers dedicated to advancing IBD science.

In approaching this challenging mission, we focus on several key principles that need to be considered in applying for a Clinical Research Investigator‐Initiated Award in IBD (CRIA):
Patients and caregivers participate in the strategic planning and research review committees of the Foundation. To ensure that research proposals are patient centric, patients and/or caregivers must be included as part of the clinical research team. Involved patients/caregivers must submit a letter commenting on the feasibility of the clinical research and the reasons/barriers that will influence why patients will participate.Research Priorities: Challenges in IBD Research outline the research priorities in IBD research that need to be overcome to accelerate the science towards our mission. For clinical research the priorities include: Incidence and prevalence of IBD, particularly minority health Medication positioning to increase therapeutic effectiveness Utility of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) Pain management Healthcare economics and resources utilization, particularly in the context of multidisciplinary care.While other research topics will be considered for funding, there needs to be a compelling clinical rationale to justify a focus outside of the priority areas.Support for Junior Investigators: The Foundation seeks to encourage a career of independent clinical investigation in the area of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis research. The CRIA supports junior investigators through two mechanisms:Senior Research Award (CRIA‐SRA): Lead PI is a senior faculty member and one Co‐PI must be a junior Co‐PI who is committed to IBD research as a part of his or her career development. A career development plan must be included in the proposal submission for the junior Co‐PI. Career Development Award (CRIA‐CDA): Lead PI is a junior faculty member, and a career development plan must be included in proposal submission. Flexibility in Funding: Because the financial needs for impactful clinical research vary tremendously, the Foundation is committed to flexibility in funding. The Foundation will select among the clinical research proposals recommended by its research review committees to maximize the number of funded proposals within its budget limitations. Applicants submitting proposals above $250,000/year in total costs (10% IDC maximum allowed) should speak with Foundation staff prior to submitting a letter of intent (LOI). The LOIs will be evaluated based on the alignment of the proposed study with the scope of the program and the feasibility of success 4 of the study, as described in more detail in Appendix A (below). The PI should submit the LOI by the specified deadline (see Key Dates, above).
The objective of the CRIA is to directly impact patient care by addressing an important clinical question by studying people either through direct interaction with the people and/or indirectly by studying people through large databases, such as claims data or administrative data. Therefore, the expectation is that the research findings from funded CRIAs will result in highly‐cited publications, citations in clinical guidelines, and/or follow‐on funding to advance the research further.