Community Health Partnerships (CHeP) Trailblazer Planning Grant

Community Health Partnerships (CHeP) Trailblazer Planning Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI)
Amount: Up to US $5,000
Last Updated: April 01, 2026

Summary

The Community Health Partnerships (CHeP) Trailblazer Planning Grant aims to foster community-university partnerships in Indiana to enhance health equity and address social determinants of health. This initiative will fund activities such as meetings and conferences that lead to collaborative research proposals. Awards of up to $5,000 support partnership growth and the development of future grant applications. Eligible applicants must include both university-based and community-based partners actively engaged in Indiana.

Overview

Community Health Partnerships (CHeP) Trailblazer Planning Grant Indiana CTSI Community Health Partnerships (CHeP) is soliciting proposals for the development of community-university partnerships to improve health, examine social determinants of health (SDoH), or enhance health equity, to result in future collaborative research proposals. The award can be used to establish new partnerships or to strengthen/expand existing community-university partnerships to solve critical health problems affecting Indiana residents. This award will not fund research pilot projects; instead, it will fund activities to help develop partnerships between organizations that have potential to later engage in joint research projects to address health, health equity, or SDoH. The expected outcome of this award is the development of a future research proposal for opportunities such as the Community Health Partnerships Trailblazer Award (Trailblazer Award). Examples of partnership development activities we are interested in funding include meetings, conferences, travel expenses, stakeholder interviews, and quality improvement assessments. Types of Projects The Trailblazer Planning Grant is intended to fund partnership development through conferences, travel, collaborative meetings, and other activities that will culminate in a community-engaged collaborative research proposal application to the Trailblazer Award (or other funding mechanism). CHeP defines health broadly, and is especially seeking to fund the development of partnerships whose long-term goals are to impact SDoH and focus on improving the underlying factors influencing health outcomes and health equity. Intended goals of the partnerships may span various sectors and do not necessarily have to be clinical in nature. Examples of such goals could include affordable housing; food security and nutrition; community safety and violence prevention; education and employment; anti-discrimination and inclusion; environmental justice and access to green spaces; and transportation and mobility. Examples of past funded projects: IU School of Medicine and the Indiana Department of Corrections developed a partnership with the goal of improving care for incarcerated youth with autism spectrum disorder.A women’s health center and the IU School of Medicine developed a partnership with the goal of improving perinatal mental health in rural areas.IU Bloomington and a public library developed a partnership with the goal to develop and implement an obesity prevention agenda for children and families in an Indiana county. Funding Awards will be up to $5,000 for one year to allow for partnership growth and collaborative grant proposal development. The proposed budget must be justified, including all planned expenditures. Faculty salary support can be covered up to $1,000 per proposal (including fringe and benefits). There are no limits on non-faculty salary support. Hospitality costs should be a minimal part of the budget and need to be well-justified as a required part of meeting the goals. Travel expenses are limited to those that are necessary to achieve the aims of the proposed project. Only in-state travel is allowable, and State of Indiana reimbursement rates apply.

Eligibility

We've imported the main document for this grant to give you an overview. You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Applicants must describe the strategies they will use to build or strengthen a partnership and the short-term goals of the partnership. The goals should include plans for co-designing collaborative initiatives and grant applications to address health, health equity or SDoH.There must be at least one university-based partner and one community-based partner. All partners must currently be employed in Indiana-based institutions or organizations.The University Project Lead must be a “full-time” (>80% FTE) faculty member employed by a college, university, or other academic institution located within the state of Indiana.The Community Project Lead must have ≥80% of their work assignment based in the community. Examples of communities include but are not limited to:geographically-based groups;condition-specific groups (e.g., patients with diabetes, hypertension, STDs, etc.);self-characterized communities (e.g., African American, LGBTQ+, Hispanic or Latino, etc.);community-based hospitals, clinics, health departments, or other health facilities; orneighborhoods, grass-roots organizations , faith-based organizations, and community organizations interested in health.All individuals on the application are required to join the Indiana CTSI Community Health Partnership Network.

Ineligibility

This award is not designed to fund research studies, pilot studies, or supplies for existing partnership work.Postdoctoral students, fellows, residents, adjunct professors, visiting professors may be collaborators, but are not eligible to serve as a University Project Lead. Staff members are not eligible to serve as the sole University Project Lead. However, they are permitted to, under guidance from a research faculty member designated as the University Project Lead, serve in a leadership role for the project.No indirect costs or finance and administration costs are allowed. Funds cannot be used to purchase equipment greater than $1,000 per piece.The proposed efforts cannot exceed 12 months from the start date.