Congratulations to Dr. Alex Baumgartner for being awarded the CCTSI Pilot Grant Award for his project titled “Naturalistic sleep assessed by wearable devices and direct recording of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson’s disease.” This grant will expand on the research that Dr. Baumgarter did with the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center Pilot Grant award that he received in the fall of 2020. We look forward to hearing the results of his study in the future.
Through the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center Pilot Grant Award, the MDC awards selected early-career clinical and bench researchers a small, monetary award. Awardees have included young researchers in different specialties that overlap with movement disorders. This award allows researchers to collect initial data they might need to win more prestigious awards with larger budgets. Previous awards have led to publications in scholarly journals and funding from the NIH and Dystonia Coalition, among others.
Each year the MDC puts out a request for proposals. Interested applicants fill out a detailed proposal and submit it. The MDC faculty review each proposal and selects proposals that are within budget, are well-planned, and are valuable to the movement disorders community. The pilot grant process gives young researchers exposure to the grant application process. Additionally, it helps garner career-long interest in movement disorders research across disciplines.
For researchers who may be interested in applying for the Movement Disorders Center Pilot Grant Award, please join our Movement Disorders Center to be the first to hear about the Request for Applications and more opportunities for collaboration. More information can be found here.
For our movement disorders community, you can learn more about the phases of research and how to participate here. You can find a list of our current studies here.
If you are interested in supporting the Movement Disorder Center Pilot Grant Program, please contact our CU Foundation office (303-724-9146) or visit their donation website.