Open Grant Announcements

LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory: 2024 Request for Proposals

The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the University of Pennsylvania Health System announce the 4^th Annual Request for Proposals for the LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory. This year the Research Lab solicits proposals for projects focused on improving the efficiency and experience of care delivered at Penn Medicine with a specific focus optimizing the use of technology, including automation, the electronic health record, and artificial intelligence.   

LDI Small Grants Program: 2024 Request for Proposals

The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) requests proposals for one-year pilot research grants investigating issues in health care delivery, health policy, and population health. Funding is from January-December 2025.

Closed Grant Announcements

Pilot Projects on Transitional Housing for People with HIV Experiencing Housing Instability

LDI, the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) Division of HIV Health (DHH) are soliciting research proposals focused on transitional housing for people with HIV (PWH).

We invite LDI Senior Fellows and CFAR faculty to propose ideas for one-year collaborative pilot projects aimed at advancing policy and practice around and successful adoption of transitional housing programs. Proposals should focus on research questions around the implementation or effectiveness of transitional housing programs, be feasible for completion in a one-year timeline and have the potential for impact by advancing our understanding of the effectiveness of transitional housing programs or informing current or future efforts aimed at addressing homelessness.

Past Grant Announcements

LDI Small Grants Program: 2024 Projects

The LDI Small Grants Program provides funding for pilot research grants in the broad category of health services and health policy research, with a focus on health care access and coverage, health equity, improving care for older adults, the opioid epidemic, and population health. Funded projects investigate emerging medical, economic, social, and policy issues that influence how health care is organized, financed, managed, and delivered. The goals of the Small Grants Program are to stimulate innovative research ideas among the Penn community, encourage the development of new collaborations between investigators of different backgrounds and disciplines, encourage cross-school collaborations, and lead to new extramural grant funding or a new research program for the PI. Penn LDI recently awarded 12 Fellows grants from this program. Learn about the funded projects below.

LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory: 2024 Projects

The LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory is a strategic granting partnership designed to advance LDI’s mission of developing generalizable health care knowledge for the nation and to generate actionable knowledge which guides Penn Medicine’s operational decisions towards ensuring that patients receive the best care. Its 2024 grant award proposals focused on “Optimizing Efficiency and Value in Health Care Delivery.” See the three winners.

Penn LDI Research Initiative on Improving Management of Chronic Kidney Disease: Cycle 2 Projects

LDI launched an initiative to support research that will transform the health care delivery for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), with a particular focus on addressing disparities in care, including structural barriers and racial inequities.

To support this goal, this year the Research Lab sought proposals for projects focused on improving the efficiency and value of care provided at Penn Medicine. 

LDI Small Grants Program: 2023 Projects

The LDI Small Grants Program provides funding for pilot research grants in the broad category of health services and health policy research, with a focus on health care access and coverage, health equity, improving care for older adults, the opioid epidemic, and population health. Funded projects investigate emerging medical, economic, social, and policy issues that influence how health care is organized, financed, managed, and delivered. The goals of the Small Grants Program are to stimulate innovative research ideas among the Penn community, encourage the development of new collaborations between investigators of different backgrounds and disciplines, encourage cross-school collaborations, and lead to new extramural grant funding or a new research program for the PI. Penn LDI awarded 13 Fellows grants from this program. Learn about the funded projects below.

Penn LDI Research Initiative on Improving Management of Chronic Kidney Disease: Cycle 1 Projects

The University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) has announced the first three grants awarded as part of its Research Initiative on Improving Management of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The projects are designed advance the U.S. health care system’s capacity to effectively identify, manage, and improve the care received by CKD and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients. They focus on making palliative care more easily and effectively available for stage 5 CKD patients; creating a virtual health assistant to increase patient understanding of the value of transplantation; and developing a system for better understanding the modality of end-state kidney disease care desired by patients and their families.

LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory: 2023 Projects

The LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory is a strategic granting partnership designed to advance LDI’s mission of developing generalizable health care knowledge for the nation and to generate actionable knowledge which guides Penn Medicine’s operational decisions towards ensuring that patients receive the best care. Its 2023 grant award proposals focused on “Optimizing Health Care Through Community-Based Sites of Care.”

LDI Small Grants Program: 2022 Projects

The LDI Small Grants Program provides funding for pilot research grants in the broad category of health services and health policy research, with a focus on health care access and coverage, health equity, improving care for older adults, the opioid epidemic, and population health. Funded projects investigate emerging medical, economic, social, and policy issues that influence how health care is organized, financed, managed, and delivered. The goals of the Small Grants Program are to stimulate innovative research ideas among the Penn community, encourage the development of new collaborations between investigators of different backgrounds and disciplines, encourage cross-school collaborations, and lead to new extramural grant funding or a new research program for the PI. Penn LDI awarded 10 Fellows grants from this program. Learn about the funded projects below.

Penn Medicine-Optum Labs: 2022 Projects

In fall 2021, Penn LDI and the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation sought proposals for one-year projects that have the potential to lead to valuable and enduring innovations in health care delivery. The funding for this initiative comes from a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania and Optum Labs to support activity toward shared goals in research, training, patient care, community health, and innovation. Optum Labs is the research and development arm of UnitedHealth Group. Optum Labs works to create the most equitable, engaging, effective, and affordable health care solutions for patients, payers, and providers by leveraging big data insights, artificial intelligence, machine learning, disruptive product development and engineering, clinical and scientific advancements. Learn about the funded projects below.

LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory: 2022 Projects

The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the University of Pennsylvania Health System announce the inaugural LDI-Penn Medicine Research Laboratory. Developed in partnership between Rachel M. Werner, MD, PhD (Executive Director, Penn LDI) and Kevin Mahoney, MBA (Chief Executive Officer, University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), the Research Lab is a unique partnership that invites the deep expertise of LDI-affiliated faculty to Penn Medicine’s health delivery setting to ask and answer pressing questions about health care delivery. The goals of this strategic partnership are both to advance LDI’s mission of developing generalizable health care knowledge for the nation and to generate actionable knowledge which guides Penn Medicine’s operational decisions towards ensuring that patients receive the best care. To support this goal, the Research Lab solicits proposals for projects focused on the following priority area for 2021: Expanding Health Care Delivery Using Non-Traditional Care Approaches.

LDI Small Grants Program: 2021 Projects

Penn LDI annually provides grant funding for early-stage investigations that would otherwise not qualify for larger NIH or other institutional grants. Often, the findings of these pilot studies are the stepping stones that enable researchers to advance their careers with larger grants or projects. In partnership with Penn’s initiative, Bold Solutions: Dismantle Racism, Advance Health, twelve research teams were awarded Penn LDI’s 2021 pilot grants for research on the effects of racism on health. Learn about the funded projects and resulting products here.

LDI Small Grants Program: 2020 Projects

Penn LDI awarded 12 grants to teams led by LDI Senior and Associate Fellows engaged in work across a wide range of health services research areas. Read more below about the funded projects completed in 2020.

Pilot Projects with the Penn Center for AIDS Research and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health

In June 2021, Penn LDI awarded pilot grants to four LDI Fellows to evaluate programs to augment Philadelphia’s response to the HIV epidemic, in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO) and the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). The projects evaluated existing HIV/AIDS service systems and programs, or assessed feasibility, acceptability, and policy implications of potential novel implementation programs in the City’s “Ending the HIV Epidemic” initiative. The projects also connected the Fellows with AACO to answer questions that are of mutual interest and will impact policy.

COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants

In May 2020, Penn LDI announced the award of 13 COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Grants designed to produce policy insights directly relevant to the unfolding pandemic and its broad range of health effects. The awards were given to 13 LDI Senior and Associate Fellow principal investigators and twelve co-investigators are involved in the thirteen projects.