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Dear Colleagues,
This month’s newsletter brings several important updates on the federal funding landscape. There were major delays in new and continuation awards during the first half of 2025, resulting in major funding gaps for many investigators. We fortunately have seen a large increase in awards to DOM investigators in the past few months, which is helping to close gaps as we near the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30. At the same time, the NIH budget, while not yet passed, is expected to remain essentially flat rather than facing the drastic 40% cut that was originally proposed. Although this is positive news, we also recognize that not all investigators have recovered funding, and some federal organizations have projected reductions in funding for the next budget period. We also recognize the uncertainties created by the possibility of a government shutdown.
We are all aware that the institution is under considerable financial pressure. If there are challenges you are facing that are not being addressed, we encourage you to let us know so we can continue to work together to support our research community.
While these updates reflect both progress and ongoing uncertainty, we remain committed to keeping you informed as the situation evolves. We will continue to share resources, guidance, and opportunities to help you sustain your research programs during this challenging time. Most importantly, we want to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of our community and express our gratitude for the resilience and dedication you bring to our shared mission.
Best,
Diane Havlir, MD
Associate Chair for Clinical Research
David Erle, MD
Associate Chair for Biomedical Research
| | National Research Administrator Day | | |
National Research Administrator Day is observed annually on September 25. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to join us in thanking our research administrators. We value every member of the research administration teams and would like to recognize the contributions made by administrators to the department’s research enterprise every day. We thank them for their invaluable work and their crucial role in supporting research.
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Elad Ziv, MD, professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at UCSF Health, received the Paul Fearn Award for Excellence in Data Sharing from the National Cancer Institute. This award was established in 2024 to recognize DCCPS-funded investigators who have demonstrated commitment to excellence in data sharing. The award is named posthumously for Dr. Paul Fearn, a Surveillance Informatics Branch Chief (Surveillance Research Program) who was a cross-agency champion of data sharing, data linkages, data provenance, data integration, and data security.
| | We’re excited to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty. If you know of recent awards, honors, or recognitions that we should highlight in future newsletters, please share them with Ilona Paredes—we’d love to spread the word! | | Please let Ilona Paredes know if we inadvertently missed your K award, first R01, or equivalent award in this issue of the newsletter. We will make sure to feature your award in our next issue. | | Research Support Programs | | |
PRE-Proposal Application REview (PREPARE) Program
Get expert NIH-style peer reviews for your R, K, and U proposals through the PREPARE program. The PREPARE program is dedicated to assisting you in achieving your funding objectives by providing application review services at no cost!
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ARCHES: Support During Challenging Times
In this climate of federal grant terminations and delays, we know that many of you are navigating serious challenges while caring for yourself and supporting your staff. For up-to-date information and resources on topics including grant writing support, finding alternative funding sources, and staff support, please visit the ARCHES website. It is available to all, and it will be updated monthly.
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The Catalyst Program
Applications are due by Monday, September 29
The Catalyst Program is UCSF’s translational accelerator focused on advancing UCSF discoveries and inventions across the arc of development towards real-world impact at scale.
- The selected Catalyst Awardees (Consultation and Final Awardees) will receive tailored and strategic team development, dedicated expert mentoring from experienced internal and external advisors, education, networking, and competitive funding opportunities, with an emphasis on development of the innovators and the innovations.
Catalyst Awards are designed to support UCSF discoveries, innovations, or inventions with the potential to generate scalable impact in health and life sciences. Catalyst Awards are focused on the advancement and validation of promising solutions in areas including:
- Therapeutics (e.g., lead optimization, preclinical efficacy and safety studies, IND-enabling work).
- Diagnostics (e.g., biomarker validation, regulatory readiness).
- Medical Devices (e.g., prototyping, bench and animal testing, usability, regulatory strategy).
- Digital and Computational Health Technologies (e.g., functional validation, integration into clinical workflows, usability testing) and Computational Health.
See flyer here. For questions, please contact Roopa Ramamoorthi, Sohela Shah, or Nathaniel Prorok.
The application deadline is Monday, September 29, 2025.
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UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research
Applications are due by Friday, October 24
The Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research (PBBR) invites proposals for funding in two award categories:
- New Frontier Research (NFR)
- Technologies, Methodologies & Cores (TMC)
PBBR seeks to stimulate and support highly innovative basic science research at UCSF. Applications from both single Principal Investigators and multiple Principal Investigators are welcome. Principal Investigators can receive up to $25,000 - $150,000 for one year for NFR, and up to $50,000 - $500,000 for one year in matching funds for TMC.
See flyer here. To apply, please email the proposal documents as a single PDF to Matt Arnegard no later than Friday, October 24, 2025.
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A.P. Giannini Foundation
Applications are due by Thursday, November 6
The A.P. Giannini Foundation invites physician-scientists with 3 to 36 months of total postdoctoral experience to apply to the 2026 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship & Leadership Award. The Fellowship program supports innovative research in the basic sciences and applied fields and trains fellows to become established investigators. Research projects should advance the translation of biomedical science into preventions, treatments, and cures for human diseases.
Applicants must be United States citizens or permanent alien residents. They must hold or complete an MD/PhD, PhD, or equivalent degree before they activate the fellowship.
Applicants must arrange their research training before applying to the 2026 program. The research training program must be sponsored by an accredited California medical school and performed under the mentorship of a principal investigator who holds a full-time faculty or primary appointment at the sponsoring medical school.
To Apply:
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Applications are submitted through an online portal on the Foundation’s website.
The application deadline is Thursday, November 6, 2025.
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NIH Loan Repayment Programs Applications Cycle
Applications are due by Thursday, November 20
The NIH will begin accepting applications for the Extramural Loan Repayment Program (LRP) on Monday, September 1, 2025. Awardees can receive up to $100,000 in qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year award.
To learn more about eligibility requirements, application dates, and the benefits of receiving an LRP award, be sure to visit the LRP website, check out the overview video, and attend one of the upcoming events:
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October 7: LRP Technical Assistance Webinar
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November 6: LRP Ask Me Anything Session
The application deadline is Thursday, November 20, 2025.
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Discounts and Funding for Open Access Publishing
Open access publishing offers wider dissemination, higher visibility, and faster discovery of published research. To promote broad public access to the work of UCSF scholars, the University of California (as a system) and the UCSF Library (individually) provide various forms of funding support to encourage authors to publish open access. Find out more about UC’s approach to publisher agreements.
The University of California (UC) and UCSF have open access agreements that enable all UC or UCSF-affiliated corresponding authors to publish their scholarly articles open access at reduced or no cost. See the general FAQ for UC's open access agreements.
See here for full details of all of the agreements that UCSF participates in, as well as the Journal Open Access Lookup Tool - JOLT for looking up journals by title to see what support is available.
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New IRB System Coming in 2026
UCSF has kicked off a major research compliance system replacement project that we are calling the Research Gateway. This includes replacing the iRIS IRB system as well as other research compliance systems over the next several years.
The Research Administration Compliance Systems (RACS—a unit of Academic Research Services in IT) team, is spearheading this initiative with support from partners like the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP), the Office of Clinical Trials Activation (OCTA), the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR), the Office of Research (OoR), Clinical Trials Operations (CTO), and the Office of Ethics and Compliance (OEC), with governance oversight provided by an Executive Committee comprised of leaders who represent stakeholder interests in research from across the institution.
Further communications will be sent over the subsequent months to provide specific details about this project and how it may impact you. If you would like to watch a brief video summarizing this communication, click the button below.
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UCSF Clinical & Translational Institute
The Clinical Trials Operations unit (CTO) is pleased to share upcoming events, trainings, and key resources to support your ongoing research activities.
Please see the details below:
Upcoming Events & Trainings
Featured Resources & Other Trainings
For questions, please contact CTO@ucsf.edu.
| | If you'd like to contribute to future newsletters, please send your items to Ilona Paredes. | | Informational Resources for the Research Community | | |
Copyright © 2025, University of California, San Francisco, All rights reserved.
Please send comments, suggestions, and questions to:
diane.havlir@ucsf.edu and david.erle@ucsf.edu
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