Transdisciplinary Seed Grant Program
The Departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine and Surgery invite applications for the Transdisciplinary Seed Grant Program, designed to catalyze novel research collaborations between departmental faculty in UML, UTL, NTL, and CE lines and experts in fields outside of medicine (e.g., computer science, engineering, physics, mathematics, chemistry, design, or the social sciences).
This initiative supports high-risk, high-reward pilot projects that integrate novel insights, tools, or approaches to address challenges in perioperative care, surgical innovation, pain management, critical care, and related fields.
Funding Details
- Award Amount: Up to $50,000
- Project Duration: 24 months
- Funding Start Date: January, 2026
Program Goals
- Foster new collaborations between investigators in Anesthesiology, Surgery and external disciplines.
- Enable early-stage, exploratory projects that are not yet supported by traditional funding.
- Lay the groundwork for extramural grant applications (e.g., R01, U01, Smart Health, or industry partnerships).
- Promote innovative solutions to clinically relevant problems.
- Foster new collaborations between investigators in Anesthesiology, Surgery and external disciplines
- Enable early-stage, exploratory projects that are not yet supported by traditional funding.
- Lay the groundwork for extramural grant applications (e.g., R01, U01, Smart Health, or industry partnerships
- Promote innovative solutions to clinically relevant problems.
- Faculty in UML, UTL, NTL, and CE lines
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Proposals must have at least three PIs:
- One PI with a primary appointment in anesthesiology and another PI with a primary appointment in surgery.
- One PI with expertise outside of medicine or surgery (e.g., Computer Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Design, Data Science, etc.).
Applications should be submitted as a single PDF and include:
1. Cover Page
- Project title
- Names, titles, departments, and emails of Multi-PIs
- Total budget requested
2. Project Proposal (3 pages max)
- Specific aims
- Background and significance
- Innovation and transdisciplinary approach
- Preliminary data (if applicable)
- Proposed methods
- Anticipated impact and future funding plans; include specific target funding mechanism (R or U grant, industry, etc)
3. Lay Summary (200 words)
- For internal communication and donor updates
4. NIH Biosketches for each PI (5 pages max per PI)
5. Budget and Justification (1 page)
- Allowable expenses: personnel (non-faculty), supplies, computing costs, core facility costs, pilot studies
- Not allowable: PI salary, conference travel
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee using the following criteria:
- Transdisciplinary scope and novelty of collaboration through shared aims and mixed methods not achievable by one discipline alone.
- Innovation and risk-taking beyond traditional grant mechanisms
- Scientific merit and clarity of hypothesis
- Clinical relevance and potential for impact
- Feasibility of approach within the funding period
- Path to future extramural funding
Submission and Contact
Email completed applications as a single PDF to:
Flora Truong (ftruong@stanford.edu), Department of Surgery
Barbara Chargin (bchargin@stanford.edu), Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine .
Any questions about this opportunity can also be referred to the same administrative contacts.
Allowable expenses: personnel (non-faculty), supplies, computing costs, core facility costs, pilot studies
Not allowable: PI salary, conference travel
