CENTER FOR PAIN THERAPEUTICS & ADDICTION RESEARCH (CPTAR) PILOT PROJECTS REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS

Deadlines: November 3, 2025 (Letter of Intent) & December 22, 2025 (Full Proposal)

Overview

The CPTAR is soliciting proposals for pilot project awards. The primary goal of this program is to support multi-PI projects with high potential for securing national grant support and ultimately improving human health. Priority will be given to projects addressing NIH FOA for larger Center or Program Project grants. Applicants must adhere fully to the guidelines and formats stipulated in this RFA, as non-complying applications may be administratively inactivated.

For proposal questions, please contact Shivani Ruparel (ruparels@uthscsa.edu).

For technical assistance with the applications, please contact Trisha Trainum (trainum@uthscsa.edu).

Eligibility

Applicants must hold a faculty-level appointment at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). Applicants from other institutions must include a meaningful collaboration with a UTHSCSA Co-PI. At least one Co-PI must be a member of CPTAR.

Submission, terms, and conditions

An individual may submit no more than one project as a Principal Investigator.

All applications (both letters of intent and full proposals) must be submitted through the Survey Monkey Apply platform (https://apply-uthscsa.smapply.io/) under the Principal Investigator’s account. The funding opportunity at that site is listed as: 2026 CPTAR Pilot Projects.

A required letter of intent (LOI) must be submitted by Monday, November 3^rd at 11:59 pm. The LOI should include the following:

• Descriptive title of the project
• Name and title of the MPI team and any Co-Investigators
• Summary of the project (2-3 sentences)
• List of 3 to 4 potential reviewers from UTHSCSA or partner institutions, but not from the same department or research group as the MPI team.

Invitations to submit full proposals

LOIs will be reviewed by CPTAR leadership to identify those having the best alignment with CPTAR programmatic goals and objectives. Applicants will be notified in mid-November 2025 as to whether their project has been selected for submission of a full proposal. Criteria for selection will include the following:

• Compliance with the foregoing eligibility and submission guidelines
• Relevance to clinical/translational pain or addiction research
• Collaborative team-science approaches
• Likelihood of downstream outside grant funding, including specific FOAs that are addressed by the pilot grant application.

The deadline to submit the full proposal is Monday, December 22, 2025 by 11:59 pm.

Awards

Awards will be made for a one-year project period starting on or about February 1, 2026. Progress reports will be required six months (brief) and 12 months after the initiation of funding. In addition, a follow-up survey of related grants and publications will be solicited at 24, 36, and 48 months. Recipients who fail to submit timely and meaningful progress reports will be deemed ineligible for future funding cycles. For projects involving the use of human subjects or vertebrate animals, no expenditures will be permitted until CPTAR is provided with a copy of the official letter of approval by the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), respectively. Investigators are encouraged to submit IRB and IACUC protocols early in order to avoid significant delays in project initiation. Excessive delays in meeting these regulatory requirements may result in withdrawal of the award. Applicants must also be up to date on compliance with institutional research training and conflict of interest disclosure policies.

Budget and financial policies

Budgets are to be submitted only at the time of an invited full-proposal application (i.e., not with the LOI). The maximum budget for these one-year awards is $50,000. Facilities and Administrative (F&A, indirect cost) expenses will not be reimbursed. Funds cannot be used to support the salary of the MPI team or faculty-level collaborators. Although the MPI team (and Co-I, if applicable) should be listed in the personnel section of the summary page, there is no minimum effort requirement. Salary (plus associated fringe benefits) may be requested for non-faculty support staff, including post-docs. Other allowable expenses include: equipment essential for the project (maximum $5,000); PI or Co-PI domestic travel to relevant scientific meetings (maximum $1,500); consumable laboratory supplies; animal purchase and per diem; core facility fees; consultation fees (maximum $5,000); computer time; software; publication / presentation expenses; costs related to human subject enrollment and management (listed as “Patient Care Costs” on budget page); and other expenditures that can be justified as being essential for the completion of the project. Tuition expense is not an allowable budget item. Account management will be centralized within CPTAR with expenditures and encumbrances being committed as they are incurred. For projects supported at other institutions, funds will be disbursed at appropriate intervals, based on the receipt of invoices for budgeted expenditures.

Application requirements and format

Invited full applications should be prepared using the templates provided and uploaded as a single pdf document. Font size can be no smaller than 11 point, preferably Arial or Times New Roman. The font size for figures, figure legends, charts, and tables may be smaller, but must be clearly legible. Margins all-around should be at least 0.5”. Pages should be numbered sequentially. The length of the Research Plan (narrative with illustrations and tables included) is limited to 4 single-spaced pages. The organization of the proposal should be as follows:

• SurveyMonkey Apply website funding opportunity - 2026 CPTAR Pilot Projects
• Project summary (level appropriate for scientific peers in the field)
• Pilot budget template is included in the application (no separate attachment needed)
• Additional information regarding the project (maximum 1 page) to include as appropriate:
  • Prospects and specific plans for outside funding (this is a key required element)
  • Description of how the pilot project will interact the CPTAR

PDF Attachments (in this order)

• Biographical sketch for MPI team and Co-I (if applicable) (maximum 5 pages; for NIH template see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm)
• Biographical sketches for other key personnel (maximum 5 pages each)
• Research plan (maximum 4 pages)
  • Hypothesis and specific aims
  • Background and significance
  • Preliminary data
  • Work proposed (including statistical analysis, power calculations, pitfalls, alternatives) and plan for submission to NIH
• Literature citations (be selective, but no page limit)
• Letters of support (brief) from core directors are encouraged (if applicable)
• Letters of collaboration (optional)
• Appendices are not allowed
• A UTHSCSA Certificate of Proposal (COP) is not required

Review process and criteria

Applications will undergo a two-tiered system of review. The first phase, or scientific review, will be performed by appropriate content experts. Scientific merit will be scored by these reviewers based on the following criteria:

• Significance
• Novelty / innovation
• Strength of the study protocol, including:
  • Design
  • Feasibility
  • Preliminary data (to the extent available)
  • Integration with ongoing research
  • Quality of the investigative team
• Likelihood of future NIH, DoD, or other competitive external funding
• Protection of human subjects and experimental animals

A programmatic review will then be performed by the CPTAR leadership team for program relevance. Funding decisions will be based on scientific merit, as well as programmatic considerations, such as breadth and depth of the overall pilot study portfolio, interactions among partners, community involvement, and balance among program areas and disciplines.

It is anticipated that this CPTAR Pilot program will support 1-2 projects.

Responsibilities of the MPI Team:

The principal investigators of funded projects are required to:

• Abide by NIH rules and regulations
• Abide by CPTAR policies and procedures
• Provide demographic information in a timely fashion, as required before expenditures can be authorized
• At the time of funding provide a complete list of other support, including other pilot project mechanisms, along with explanations of any potential scientific or budgetary overlap
• Provide a waiver of Facilities and Administrative (F&A) fees or Indirect Costs from your institution if you are a non-UTHSCSA investigator
• Submit complete and timely progress reports
• Acknowledge support from CPTAR funds in all publications and reports generated with pilot project resources (details to be provided at the time of funding)