PennCERT - Small Grants

PennCERT Small Grant Program

Faculty of the CERT and others in the Penn community are eligible to apply for funds through a small grant program. Submitted applications undergo a formal peer review process, modeled on the NIH peer review process. There is a standing study section chaired by Dr. Strom (or Dr. Hennessy, if Dr. Strom is a collaborator on the project), comprised of CERT co-PIs and selected core faculty, with others added as appropriate depending on the application topic. Formal written feedback is provided. Applications can be resubmitted twice, with no application funded unless it achieves a score better than 2.0 using the 1-5 NIH rating scale. Indeed, almost all past applications have required resubmission and re-review. The total effort expended on this protocol writing and review process is extensive.

This program has a history of funding studies addressing therapeutic questions and pilot studies that support R01 applications. Of note, the small grant program has been used extensively by Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars (co-led by Dr. Metlay) to expand their activities into the area of infectious disease therapeutics. To date, Scholars have launched small grants in the areas of infectious disease surveillance to inform local treatment guidelines, evaluation of practice guidelines for the management of children with UTIs, and assessment of the impact of rapid diagnostic testing strategies on the management of adults with infectious diseases evaluated in emergency departments. The PennCERT small grant program hopes to stimulate new applications for pharmacoeconomic studies of anti-infectives; publicize specific priority research questions for which we are seeking small grant proposals that will lead to or evaluate generalizable interventions to improve anti-infective use.

Applications for the PennCERT Small Grant Program are no longer being accepted.
For additional information and application procedures, please click here.

Projects Funded Through the Small Grant Program

Effectiveness of a sustained campaign of physician and patient education reducing inappropriate antibiotic use for acute bronchitis and upper respiratory infection [Completed]
Darren Linkin, MD, MSCE

Estimating odds ratios under misclassification of the outcome in a large database cohort study when medical records are sampled [Ongoing]
Warren Bilker, PhD

A pilot study of drug allergy-associated genetic markers in patients with penicillin allergy [Completed]
Andrea J. Apter, MD, MA, MSc

Evaluation of antimicrobial orders circumventing an antimicrobial stewardship program [Completed]
Lori Ann LaRosa, PharmD & Darren Linkin, MD, MSCE

The role of prior antibiotic use on the emergence of fluoroquinolone resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa [Completed]
Leanne Gasink, MD, MSCE / Ebbing Lautenbach

Outcomes of alternative strategies for diagnosis and treatment of pediatric acute otitis media [Completed]
Sharon Meropol, MD, MSCE

Prevalence of antibiotic-resistant salmonella enterica in retail chicken meat and comparisons with known cases of antibiotic-resistant salmonellosis in humans [Ongoing]
Nkuchia M. M’ikanatha, DrPH, MPH

Effect of antimicrobial diversity on the development of antimicrobial resistance [Completed]
Darren Linkin, MD, MSCE

Evaluation of a pharmacy-based refill-derived measure of adherence for hepatitis C virus therapy [Completed]
Vincent Lo Re III, MD, MSCE

Factors associated with HIV testing in academic emergency departments [Completed]
Peter Ehrenkranz, MD, MPH

Survey of patients provided with oseltamavir prescriptions prior to the onset of influenza season: Who’s getting it and what are they doing with it? [Completed]
Leanne Gasink, MD, MSCE