The grants program is a centerpiece of our work, providing initial funding for scientists to develop alternatives to the use of animals in biomedical research and product safety testing.

To date, the center has funded over 300 grants (including renewals) for a total of more than $6 million. relatively small individually, these grants offer critical seed money that allows researchers to demonstrate the value of a particular area of study. This helps them gain support from the NIH and other sources. We have a stringent, peer-reviewed process for selecting the recipients of these grants. This process consists of sending each application to at least two experts in the field from academic, industrial, and government institutions. These reviewers evaluate the applications regarding scientific merit, budget appropriateness, suitability to CAAT’s mission, and expertise of the investigators. They also assign a priority score based on the NIH’s scoring system.

At the CAAT annual advisory board meeting, board members review these applications. Board members constitute the voting contingent for the grant applications. They assign priority scores in a secret ballot format based on a synopsis of the outside reviews and the board reviewers. The applications are then ranked in order of priority score. Those that receive fundable scores are awarded funds based upon availability of money for the fiscal year.

We continue to monitor the long-term progress of the Research Grant Program. We require our grant recipients to submit copies of publications resulting from the CAAT grant-funded work. We maintain a list of publications and an archive of journal reprints.

For any questions relating to any of our grants, please feel free to reach us at caat@jhu.edu.