WPI/UMMS Collaborative Pilot Project (CPP)

UMass Medical School (UMMS) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) announced a funding opportunity in June 2007, for up to $200,000 for a new research endeavor between the institutions.  Each institution contributed $100,000 to the Collaborative Pilot Project (CPP) initiative, which seeks to establish partnerships between our faculty and institutions that

• promote pioneering scientific discovery.
• develop highly innovative technologies, with a long-term view toward.
• fosterand accelerate the translation of research from the bench to the bedside. 

Under the first solicitation, investigators from each organization formed collaborative teams in order to leverage the combined strengths, expertise and facilities of each to address novel research questions.  Ten teams of UMMS/WPI investigators responded to this first call for proposals with Letters of Intent (LOIs) in early July, 2007. 

An ad hoc scientific review committee of UMMS and WPI senior researchers reviewed the LOIs and invited five teams to submit full proposals by the end of August, 2007.  Projects that assembled teams of scientists from multiple disciplines, including but not limited to the life sciences, medicine, the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, informatics, and computer science received the highest priority in terms of funding.

The same inter-institutional review committee evaluated the final proposals and in early September, 2007 awarded a $200,000 grant for the following two-year study:

Imaging Stroke Using Hyperpolarized Xenon MRI

Principal Investigators:  Mitchell Albert, PhD, Professor of Radiology and Director of MRI Research, UMMS; Christopher H. Sotak, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, WPI; Marc Fisher, MD, Professor of Neurology, UMMS

This initial solicitation, completed in three months from program announcement to funding, demonstrated a great deal of inter-institutional and interdisciplinary interest.  It also demonstrated that the use of electronic LOI and final proposal submissions fast-tracked the submission and review process, providing valuable experience for our final program design.