CTSI CERP Community Grant Awards

ELIGIBILITY/ REQUIREMENTS

Who is eligible to apply?
Community-based organizations that work with diverse populations in greater Los Angeles County and surrounding areas that are disproportionately affected by health and/or social inequities.

What are the project requirements?

• Awardees will be asked to share their work at a CERP meeting with community partners, staff, and faculty. This will include a brief presentation and time for questions and answers.
• Funds may be used to support adaptations or scaling up and evaluation of ongoing projects and/or new projects related to promoting health, building community capacity or building organizational capacity 
• Awardees will have approximately one year to spend the funds after receiving the funds
• Participate in 6-month check-in call with CERP on project progress and complete a written final report (short survey)

What are reviewers looking for in a successful application?

The reviewers will include trained community and academic reviewers. They will be looking for applications that meet one of the following:

• Addresses programmatic or capacity building efforts 
• Engages with local communit(ies) experiencing health disparities in Los Angeles County
• Project goals are feasible for one year
• Project budget is appropriate for proposed work
• Likelihood of impact on community

TO APPLY

Please complete the following two documents and email them Dale Slaughter at daslaughter@mednet.ucla.edu by 11:59pm PT on November 3, 2023.

• Application form (Word document)
• Budget form (Excel document)

For your convenience, we also provide examples for the application and the budget. If you or your organization are unable to access the application templates, please contact Dale Slaughter at daslaughter@mednet.ucla.edu.

Sample application and budget

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

• Do organizations need to have 501(c)3 status to apply for this award?
  No, organizations are not required to have 501(c)3 status to apply for the CTSI CERP Community Grant Awards. However, you should identify an organization with 501(c)3 status to serve as a fiscal sponsor (they will receive and distribute the funds to the non-501(c)3 organization). Both organizations should be listed in your application with a note as to which organization is the fiscal sponsor.
   
• Are the awardees expected to work together?
  The awardees will have an opportunity to meet each other and learn from each other, including at the 6-month progress check in meeting. They are not expected to work together for this specific project, but we hope they will network and potentially find opportunities to work together in the future.
   
• How should awardees address any potential unexpected changes to their projects?
  If circumstances change and will directly impact the awardee’s ability to carry out the proposed project, please notify program staff as soon as possible to discuss the best way to approach this.
   
• Do we need to identify a Principal Investigator (PI) for our proposal?
  The proposals should include a Project Director who plans to oversee the project and serve as the main contact person. This person may also be the Principal Investigator if the proposal is a research project.
   
• Will the award cover indirect costs?
  The award amount ($10,000) is inclusive of indirect costs (facilities and administrative costs), meaning the total of direct plus indirect costs should not exceed ($10,000). Organizations without a federally negotiated indirect cost rate may use a 10% de minimus rate. Please contact us if you have additional questions.
   
• Are there any requirements about how much of the budget goes to program staff salary versus other program resources?
  There are no requirements about how the budget is allocated; in general, the budget should be appropriate to carry out the proposed project.
   
• What are allowable costs in this budget?
  The budget can include items that are reasonable to carry out and complete this project. This includes staff members to help manage administrative or financial aspects of the project. The budget can also include food if they are part of the project (for example, demonstrations of healthy food preparation). The total of these costs may not exceed $10,000. Please contact us if you have additional questions.
   
• If funded, what kind of paperwork or other expectations are there for awardees?
  Once the award is made, awardees will need to complete paperwork to establish their organization as an official vendor and set up a subcontract with UCLA. The contract will be deliverable-based, with two opportunities to invoice for funds: the first invoice will take place upon completion of the contract paperwork to provide project start-up funds. The second invoice will take place upon completion of the six-month check in. Program staff can help to provide guidance with these processes.

Q&A presentation slides are listed here.