Mentored Research Development Award Program (MRDA)

Program Goal

The principal goal of the MRDA program is to improve the success rate for grant submissions by junior faculty. To accomplish this objective, MRDA recipients (MRDA Scholars) will work with their chosen mentor(s) to achieve milestones associated with the preparation of a targeted grant application. To assure highly-competitive grant submissions, MRDA Scholars will also take advantage of extensive ACCEL resources. These include grant writing workshops, peer mentoring groups, grant review sessions, support from the Professional Development Core (PD Core), and biostatistics and study design consultations with experts from the ACCEL Biostatistic Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Core.

MRDAs support awardees by releasing them from non-research responsibilities (e.g., clinical work, teaching, administration) and/or providing minimal funding to allow for participation in defined activities associated with writing and submitting a competitive grant proposal. At the end of the MRDA period, awardees are required to submit a fully- developed grant proposal to one of the following mechanisms:

1. IDeA Program Pilot Grants (e.g., CTR, COBRE, INBRE, CTSA, ISPCTN);
2. NIH; PCORI; AHRQ; other federal agency;
3. A well-recognized grant-issuing foundation or organization (AHA, ACS, etc.).

Please note: The Delaware CTR ACCEL Program is in its final year of funding. Although a renewal application has been submitted, there is currently no guarantee of additional funding. Thus, 2023-2024 MRDA funding is contingent upon successful renewal of the ACCEL Program by NIH.

MRDA Submission and Review Timeline

Comments or questions about the program?