title: A community translational research pilot grants program to facilitate community--academic partnerships: lessons from Colorado's clinical translational science awards.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  National growth in translational research has increased the need for practical tools to improve how academic institutions engage communities in research.
  
  
  METHODS
  One used by the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) to target investments in community-based translational research on health disparities is a Community Engagement (CE) Pilot Grants program. Innovative in design, the program accepts proposals from either community or academic applicants, requires that at least half of requested grant funds go to the community partner, and offers two funding tracks: One to develop new community-academic partnerships (up to $10,000), the other to strengthen existing partnerships through community translational research projects (up to $30,000).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have seen early success in both traditional and capacity building metrics: the initial investment of $272,742 in our first cycle led to over $2.8 million dollars in additional grant funding, with grantees reporting strengthening capacity of their community- academic partnerships and the rigor and relevance of their research.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Denver, USA.
authors.forename: Deborah S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Main
authors.forename: Maret C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Felzien
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Magid
authors.forename: B Ned
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Calonge
authors.forename: Ruth A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kempe
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nearing
mesh_terms: D001363:Awards and Prizes; D003120:Colorado; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration*