The Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation (MRREF) is an instrumental partner with the University of Illinois College of Medicine (UI COM) in fostering innovative discoveries. In 2021, the MRREF Board of Directors made a $1 million renewed commitment over a five-year period to the Michael Reese Pioneer in Research Awards Program. Starting this year, the Executive Dean of UI COM, will supplement this award to allow us to call for applications three times each year to coincide with NIH review cycle. This will ensure funding of two proposals at $50,000 each/cycle for a total of six proposals/years. This commitment will continue supporting outstanding investigators who are pursuing high-impact research programs and whose NIH grant applications were reviewed favorably but fell short of receiving fundable scores.
Since this transformative program and investment began in 2017, the Michael Reese Pioneers have secured over $22 million dollars of new grant funding, mostly from NIH, through 2021. The College of Medicine remains grateful to MRREF for its efforts to honor the tradition of the Michael Reese Hospital and support medical research by its commitment to UI COM-Michael Reese Pioneer in Research Awards Program.
We are very pleased to announce yet another round of Michael Reese Foundation Pioneer in Research Award. Please download and fill out the program application submission form. Applications that do not fully meet the application criteria will not be considered. In this round, we intend funding a minimum of two successful applications. Please note that the deadline to receive completed application package is 5 p.m., Monday, March 27, 2023