2026 SPORR CTS Pilot Grants Program

Stanford CTS Program Overview

The Stanford Clinical & Translational Science (CTS) Pilot Program supports projects that advance the science of translation, emphasizing collaborative, transdisciplinary work and generalizable translational outcomes. 

Special Area of Interest: This call prioritizes Research Rigor and Reproducibility (R&R) projects. Eligible activities include Establishing or Enhancing the following:

• Lab Manuals – projects that create or improve a public lab manual that describes, at minimum, lab goals, and practices related to data management and methods to ensure rigor and reproducibility of research. Examples of manuals can be found at the SPORR website.
• Data Pipelines – projects that create or improve practices, systems, or standard operating procedures for data collection, management, and analysis within a lab or research group. These could include increasing use of electronic laboratory notebooks.
• Computational Reproducibility Pipelines – projects that create or improve independent or parallel computational reproducibility or all results, tables, and figures in research manuscripts; or projects that develop “one-click” or “live” reproducible manuscripts; or other projects that ensure the validity and veracity of results, from data collection, through cleaning, analysis, and reporting.
• R&R Support Services – projects that create or improve R&R support services or experts within a research group, division, or university whose primary aim is to advise researchers on R&R topics.
• R&R Education –  projects that create or improve R&R courses, workshops, journal clubs or other trainings.
• R&R Monitoring – projects that aim to analyze previous or ongoing lab outputs on indicators of rigor and reproducibility (e.g., Sci Score, data and code sharing, computational reproducibility, sample size calculations, etc.) and develop plans or interventions for their improvement.
• Other rigor and reproducibility projects not captured by the descriptions above.

Note: All projects are required to monitor implementation and adoption of the project’s goals and include plans for project sustainability beyond the funding period. 

Awards will be managed by the following Stanford programs:

• Stanford Program for Research Rigor and Reproducibility (SPORR) is a School of Medicine hub for promoting and implementing best practices in research rigor and reproducibility. 

Amount and Period of Funding

The maximum funding amount is $20,000 for up to 5 months (and projects must be completed by June 30, 2026). Unexpended funds will be forfeited. Allowable expenditures include: investigator’s salary, research personnel salaries, printing costs, and project supplies. The personnel time can be full-time or a percentage of effort from 1 to 5 months. Funds cannot be spent on capital equipment over $5,000, intellectual property services, food, or publication costs.

Important Dates

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated by SPORR members and external reviewers based on adapted NIH criteria: 

1. Factor 1: Importance of the Research (Significance, Innovation)
2. Factor 2: Rigor and Feasibility (Approach)
3. Factor 3: Project Impact and Collaboration (i.e., how many Stanford researchers, staff, or students are expected to benefit from the project goals. Projects that include multiple labs working together or goals that would benefit multiple labs will be prioritized.)

Award Process

Awardees will receive preliminary notification of selection. Final awards will be granted only after all requirements are met. Teams that fail to meet requirements on time may forfeit their award to runner-up teams.

Restrictions

Rigor and Reproducibility: Pilot projects must have a focus on rigor and reproducibility, i.e., enhancing the validity of research processes and findings. Projects focused on advancing a specific therapy, drug, or clinical intervention, are not allowed.

Institutional representatives

Not applicable. Because this is an internal Stanford funding opportunity, you do not have to submit your applications through your RPM in RMG or your CGO in OSR for their approval.

Grant Acknowledgment:

All project outputs should include the following example statement on the produced outputs (e.g., department websites, research publications, etc.):

Our work was supported by Spectrum, the Stanford Center of Clinical and Translational Research and Education, through the Stanford Program on Rigor & Reproducibility (SPORR). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Spectrum or SPORR.