The bridge program at the CU School of Medicine was first funded in 2006 when reductions in the National Institutes of Health budget threatened faculty survival. Its purpose is to provide one-time support to principal investigators while they re-apply for funding. The Bridge Funding Committee is advisory to the Dean.
The Office of Research Development calls for applications each spring and fall. There are two separate categories of eligible applicants: Established Investigators who have lost major research funding and Beginning Investigators whose start-up funding has run out without their obtaining independent research support.
Bridge Application-Beginning Form >>
Bridge Application-Established Form >>
Progress Report of Bridge Funding (BF) Program from Inception (March 2006) through April, 2009 (Recipients had at least a year to regain funding when reports were solicited.)
- 43 faculty members received awards, most around $50,000, for a total of $2.2 million
- Of these 43 individuals, 32 (74%) received research funding within a year.
- Of these 32, 27 received total funding greater than $100,000.
- Of the 27 individuals who earned more than $100,000 total funding, 22 received at least one RO1 (20 individuals) or R21 (2 individuals). These 27 faculty members received a total of 58 major grants (NIH, DOD, foundation). This included a total of 29 RO1s or R21s.
- Total research dollars received by bridge funding recipients as a Principal Investigator (PI) equaled $30.749 million, with $21.811 million in direct costs and $8.904 million in indirect costs. Total costs received represent a return of about 14-fold, indirects a return of about four-fold.
- Four of the PIs were co-PIs on grants that received a total of $654,000, of which $496,000 was direct costs and $144,000 was indirect cost.
- The goal of the program was to allow productive faculty researchers to continue their research. The research of 32 faculty members was preserved.