Wake Forest Primate Research Center (WFPRC) Pilot Funding Program: Call for Proposals 2025

The Wake Forest Primate Research Center (WFPRC) invites proposals for pilot funding to support promising new research ideas focused on the use of nonhuman primates (NHPs), NHP data or biospecimens. 

Applications must be submitted by email to Ms. Rachel Ann Williams by email at R.Williams@wakehealth.edu; the deadline is June 15, 2025. Applicants should briefly outline the proposed pilot project in a single PDF document including: 1 page that outlines the Title, Investigators, and Abstract (150 words or less), a 5-page Research Strategy which includes sections: Specific Aims, Significance, Innovation, Approach and Next Steps). References, Budget, and Biographical sketches of key personnel are included and not subject to page limits. Applicants are encouraged to communicate with the Pilot Committee Chair, Dr. Kylie Kavanagh (kkavanag@wakehealth.edu) regarding this opportunity. 

The pilot awards committee anticipates making two to five awards. Well-justified expenses up to $60K per application will be considered; smaller-scale applications are also welcome. Budgets may include supplies, fee-for-service costs, animal costs, and staff salaries. Faculty salaries may not be supported by this funding mechanism. Extramural subcontracts are not allowed. Applications will be scored using NIH criteria. Funds will be awarded to successful applicants on July 1, 2025, and must be expended by December 15, 2025; carryover will not be allowed.  

Projects are required to 1) involve Wake Forest investigators with relevant expertise in research with NHPs, and 2) be of sufficient significance and quality that successful completion of the pilot project will provide a competitive basis for extramural funding. Special consideration will be given to new investigators and new collaborative teams. Proposal review will prioritize projects that use banked biospecimens and/or data (e.g. imaging data) to leverage institutional NHP resources for high translational impact .

Relevant resources include, but are not limited to, systematically archived data, tissue and blood samples from NHP colonies studied by Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty. These include a Central Biorepository Shared Resource archiving materials from individual research programs, including the NIH P40-supported Vervet Research Colony; the NIH-supported Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center repository of NHP brain tissue, neuroimaging data, CSF, blood and other biospecimens; the MIDAS biorepository of aging rhesus, cynomolgus, baboon, and vervet samples; and the NIH-supported Radiation Late Effects program facilitating longitudinal, multi-systemic investigations of radiation effects in rhesus monkeys. 

Faculty awarded pilot grants are required to acknowledge the award in presentations and publications; present data at the WFPRC annual symposium and/or advisory board meetings, comply with surveys that track research outputs (abstracts, publications and applications for external funding), and share or deposit data to WakeShare.org and other relevant public data depositories as appropriate. Funded projects will be assigned a Scientific Oversight Committee composed of experienced WFPRC investigators or others with relevant expertise, to help facilitate research progress, support career development of new investigators, and ensure that the project results in an extramural funding application. 

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