Programs and Events

The purpose of the pilot program is to provide MCHDI faculty with funding for initial stages of research projects, with the goal of generating sufficient data to apply for larger, external grants. Projects are encouraged that are likely to: a) improve children’s health, b) promote collaboration within the MCHDI, and c) leverage additional extramural funding for the Principal Investigators (PIs). Projects with two or more PIs will be given higher priority in review. At least one PI must be a faculty member of the MCHDI. Only exceptional applications submitted by one PI might garner funding.

Up to three awards will be made. Each project will be funded at $75,000 for the calendar year. Reporting of scientific progress of the project will be requested. An additional year of funding for one project may be possible through competitive renewal, following a review of the project’s scientific progress.

Faculty can enroll in the grant review program, which includes mock study sessions. This program is intended for faculty preparing submissions for the following NIH cycle with preference given to junior investigators. The program is timed for the new Research Project Grant (R01) submission deadlines:

The incubator series is a bi-monthly luncheon meeting co-chaired by Drs. Nicole Dubois, PhD, and Anna Rommel, PhD. These meetings allow faculty to provide feedback on grant proposals or other topics. Investigators gain through constructive critiques from a diverse scientific audience prior to submitting applications. Below we provide further guidelines.

Information for Presenters
MCHDI faculty lunch, also known as MCHDI Incubator Series, gives you the chance to get guidance and critical feedback on your proposals. This is not meant to be a traditional "Works in Progress" presentation. If you have any questions about your presentation, please contact Drs. Nicole Dubois, PhD, and Anna Rommel, PhD, the series co-chairs or the Administrative Director, Elena Lum.

Speaker Guidelines
Choose any topic on which you would like feedback or to start a discussion with MCHDI faculty. Most presentations are about grant proposals, but speakers have also sought advice about experimental design.

1. To focus audience comments, state at the beginning of the talk what sort of feedback would be most helpful.
2. Plan to finish the entire talk in 20 minutes, leaving about 30 minutes for discussion.
3. Present the background concisely, but remember that the audience members have diverse backgrounds (genetics, developmental biology, epidemiology, immunology, etc.).

Our annual retreat gives you and fellow researchers the opportunity to present your work, learn about the latest studies conducted within the Institute. We also encourage research collaborations among our members, provide networking opportunities for faculty and trainees, and receive valuable feedback on research projects. We typically cover a wide range of topics at the retreat, encompassing several disciplines.

Program Format 

The program usually consists of a keynote address, presentations by pilot program recipients, young investigators competitions, poster sessions, and an interview with parents from families affected by a child health disorder.

Child Health Research Day is a two-day program held annually in April and organized and co-sponsored with the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai. Faculty, staff, clinical and research post-doctoral fellows, social workers, nurses, and junior faculty present posters and oral presentations in basic, translational, and clinical research. An annual speaker also delivers Pediatrics Grand Rounds at this event. Investigators within the Pediatrics Department and MCHDI may identify new research topics and areas of collaboration.

The Child Health Research Seminar series is co-hosted by the Department of Pediatrics and the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute. The purpose of this series is to highlight current and ongoing child health research from internal and visiting researchers as an opportunity to enrich the scientific community at Mount Sinai. The series consists of didactic seminars and practical workshops developed to appeal to researchers interested in research areas including diabetes, allergy/asthma, cardiovascular outcomes and neurodevelopmental diseases.

We also include topics applicable to all research such as approaches for consortium-based research, the use of technology and apps to engage community based participatory research, and tools for generating figures to visualize research results. The CHRS series takes place most Tuesday's at noon during the Spring and Fall semester.