CTSI K Career Development Awards
About the Program
The K12 and KL2 Career Development Awards provides junior faculty with financial support and research training to develop the skills necessary to build a well-funded, collaborative career in clinical and translational research.

Qualified faculty at the rank of assistant professor with an MD, PhD, or equivalent degree in the health sciences and who are U.S. Citizens or have Permanent Resident (Green Card) status are encouraged to apply. The CTSI welcomes applicants from any of the UF Health Science Center’s six colleges.
Scholar Selection Restrictions
At the time of appointment, scholars must not have a pending application for any other PHS mentored career development award (e.g., K07, K08, K22, K23, F99/K00) that duplicates any of the provisions of the K component. Former or current PDs/PIs on any NIH research project grant [this does not include NIH small grants (R03), Exploratory/Developmental (R21) or SBIR, STTR (R43, R44 grants)] or equivalent non-PHS peer reviewed grants that are over $100,000 direct costs per year, or project leaders on sub-projects of Program project (P01) or center grants (P50) are NOT eligible to participate as scholars.
Appointed scholars are encouraged to apply for individual mentored K awards (e.g., K07, K08, K22, K23) and independent awards (e.g., R01, R03, R15, R21, R34, or equivalent application from another Federal agency); if successful, scholars may be required to reduce effort on the mentored career award to a minimum of six-person months and hold concurrent support from their mentored career award and a competing PHS research grant on which they are the PD/PI or component lead or terminate the K12 appointment depending on Program requirements (See NOT-OD-08-065).
For questions, please contact Mary Gipson
K12 Timeline
K12 RFA released – September 19, 2023
K12 Information Session – September 20, 2023
K12 Application Deadline – December 11, 2023
K12 Interview – February 13, 2024
Notice of Awards – April 1, 2024

Introduction and Eligibility
The University of Florida and Florida State University (UF-FSU) Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Career Development Award for Early Stage Investigators (ESI) provides 2 years of financial support and research training development for skills necessary to build a well-funded collaborative career in clinical or translational research.
Faculty at the assistant professor level and postdoctoral fellows anticipating appointment at that rank, with an M.D., Ph.D., or equivalent degree in a health science related discipline are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents.
The CTSI welcomes applicants from any of the health science related programs at UF, as well as College of Medicine (COM) Jacksonville (JAX), UF Research and Education Center (Orlando), UF-Scripps Biomedical Research, and Sid Martin Incubator (Alachua). This opportunity is also open to FSU K2R Scholar Program participants through the UF-FSU partnership.
K12 funding is contingent upon UF-FSU’s NCATS K12 award (under review), with projected start date of July 1, 2024, if selected for funding. If the K12 application is not funded this cycle, contingency funding will be sought to support competitive K12 scholar applications; however, funding is not guaranteed.
Scholars and Advisory Committee
Scholars are supported by the institutional career development program must be at the career level for which the planned program is intended. Scholars are expected to devote a minimum of 9 person-months (75% of full-time professional effort) during the appointment on the K12 award. Scholars must be citizens or noncitizen nationals of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time of appointment.
Scholars must have a research or health-professional doctoral degree or its equivalent.
Candidates are later stage postdoctoral fellows or junior faculty who can take full advantage of and benefit from the described state-of-the-art research-focused career development program in clinical and translational science. Consistent with the type of mentoring and career development being provided by the CTSA Program, a scholar candidate who is already in the process of applying for an independent mentored career development grant, Program Project Grants/Center Grants or equivalent grant is likely too senior for the Career Development Award.
Non-surgical specialties scholars are expected to devote a minimum of 9 person-months (75% of full-time professional effort) during the appointment on the K12 award. Surgical specialties can have less than 9 person-months (75% of full-time professional effort), but no less than 6 person-months (50%), protected time for this program, if sufficiently justified and programmatically approved.
KL2 Scholars
NAme | Project Title |
---|---|
Joshua Wong, MD | Precision deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease using AI |
Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, PhD | Beyond Genetics: Impacts of Tumor Composition and Host Environment on Platinum-Sensitivity in Ovarian Cancer |
Colleen Gutman, MD | Disparities in the Management of Febrile Infants at Low-Risk for Invasive Bacterial Infection |
Brittany Bruggeman, MD | Natural History and Mechanisms of Exocrine Pancreatic Dysfunction in Pre-Type 1Diabetes |
CTSI Scholars
Name | Project Title |
---|---|
Adetola Louis-Jacques, MD | Lactation for Mom’s Sake |
Lakeshia Cousin, PhD | Pilot Feasibility Study of a Gratitude Journaling Intervention to enhance Well-being and Exercise Readiness in Older African American Female Breast Cancer Survivors |
Mohammad Ali-Ani, MD | Artificial Intelligence Analysis of Pathways to Cardiac Transplantation among Patients with Cardiogenic Shock Using A National Database |
Paul Castillo, MD | Unlocking CAR T cell therapy in refractory solid tumors |
Raymond Mailhot, MD, PhD | Optimizing Radiotherapy Delivery and Outcomes in Women with Breast Cancer ReceivingNeoadjuvant Chemotherapy |
Members of K Advisory Committee
Name | Appointment and department | college |
---|---|---|
Takis Benos, PhD | William Bushnell, Presidential Chaired Professor, Department of Epidemiology | UF College of Public Health and Health Professions |
Jiang Bian, PhD | Professor, Chief Research Information Officer, UF Health | UF College of Medicine |
Lauren Black, PhD | Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine | UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville |
Staja Booker, PhD | Assistant Professor, Behavioral Nursing Science | UF College of Nursing |
Wesley Bolch, PhD | Distinguished Professor, Biomedical Engineering | UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering |
Henna Budhwani, PhD, MPH | Professor and Director, Intervention Research and Implementation Science (IRIS) Lab | FSU College of Nursing |
Irvin PeDro Cohen, PhD | Director, Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC) Jacksonville | UF Citizen Scientist – Jacksonville |
Joe G.N. Garcia, MD | Associate Vice President for Research, UF Health | UF Scripps/College of Medicine |
Faheem Guirgis, MD | Professor of Emergency Medicine, K12 Co-Director | UF College of Medicine |
Rosemarie Fernandez, MD | Professor and Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Emergency Medicine | UF College of Medicine |
Jatinder Lamba, PhD | Professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research | UF College of Pharmacy |
Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, PhD | Professor, Department of Physiology and Aging, K12 Co-Director | UF College of Medicine |
Rowan Milner, PhD | Professor and Director, Small Animal Sciences | UF College of Veterinary Medicine |
Gordon Mitchell, PhD | Professor, Department of Physical Therapy | UF College of Public Health and Health Professions |
Miaisha M. Mitchell | Executive Director, Greater Frenchtown Revitalization Council, Inc. | FSU Community Scientist – Tallahassee |
Francois Modave, PhD | Professor, Artificial Intelligence, Department of Anesthesiology | UF College of Medicine |
Sylvie Naar, PhD | Distinguished and Endowed Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, K12 Co-Director | FSU College of Medicine |
Mei Liu, PhD | Associate Professor, HOBI | UF College of Medicine |
David Ledbetter, PhD | Professor, UF Jacksonville Office of Research Affairs | UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville |
Ann Progulske-Fox, PhD | Distinguished Professor, Microbiology | UF College of Dentistry |
Mark Segal, MD, PhD | Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professional Development, Department of Nephrology | UF College of Medicine |
Ronald Shorr, MD, MS | Director, Geriatric Research Education Clinical Center; Research Professor, Department of Epidemiology | UF College of Medicine – Veterans Affairs Administration, Gainesville, FL |
Diana Wilke, PhD, RN | Professor, Behavioral Nursing Science | UF College of Nursing |
Upcoming events and information sessions




Watch this recorded information session to learn more about the program.
Contact
For questions, please contact Susan Gardner in the Office of Biomedical Research Career Development.
- mary.gipson@ufl.edu
- (352) 294-8340
Definitions

- Clinical Research: Patient-oriented research, including epidemiologic and behavioral studies, outcomes research, and health services research. Patient-oriented research is research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens, and cognitive phenomena) in which a researcher directly interacts with human subjects. It includes research on mechanisms of human disease, therapeutic interventions, clinical trials, and development of new technologies, but does not include in vitro studies using human tissues not linked to a living individual. Studies falling under 45 CFR 46.101(b) (4) are not considered clinical research for purposes of this definition. (Source: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/glossary.htm)
- Translational Research: Translational research includes two areas of translation. One is the process of applying discoveries generated during research in the laboratory, and in preclinical studies, to the development of trials and studies in humans. The second area of translation concerns research aimed at enhancing the adoption of best practices in the community. Cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment strategies is also an important part of translational science. (Source: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/glossary.htm)
- Permanent Resident: Someone who has been granted authorization to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis. As proof of that status, a person is granted a permanent resident card, commonly called a “green card.” (Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security)
Former KL2 Scholars
Name | KL2 SCHOLAR PERIOD | Project Title |
---|---|---|
Jennifer Schoch, MD | 2019-2021 | Early determinants of the preterm infant cutaneous microbiome |
Erika Moore, PhD | 2019-2021 | Immune cell influences on blood vessel development |
Lauren Black, MD | 2019-2021 | A comparative assessment of hypotension-time metrics and risk of adverse outcomes in septic shock |
Jennifer Nichols, PhD | 2019-2021 | Carpometacarpal osteoarthritis: Towards identification of biomechanical, neuromuscular, and somatosensory mechanisms |
Nancy Seraphin, PhD | 2018-2020 | Anti-tuberculosis drug pharmacokinetics: the role of the gut microbiota |
Jennifer Fishe, MD | 2018-2020 | Emergency Medicine |
Allison O’Kell, DVM | 2018-2018 | Metabolomic analysis of canine diabetes |
Henry Young II, MD | 2017-2019 | Assessing the willingness of emergency patients to accept alternatives to opioids for pain relief |
Caitrin Rowe, PhD | 2016-2018 | Characterization of resistant hypertension and associated outcomes in OneFlorida |
Eric Porges, PhD | 2016-2017 | Cognitive and functional deficit, reduced cortical GABA in HIV + heavy drinkers |
Faheem Guirgis, MD | 2016-2016 | Dysfunctional HDL, as a predictor of chronic critical illness and long term outcomes after sepsis |
Andrew Bryant, MD | 2015-2018 | Hypoxia inducible factor regulation of secondary pulmonary hypertension |
Nicole Ennis, PhD | 2015-2016 | Substance use intervention for older underserved HIV+ adults in the primary care setting |
Aysegul Gunduz, PhD | 2015-2016 | The human tic detector: Responsive deep brain stimulation for the treatment of Tourette Syndrome |
Adam Woods, PhD | 2014-2016 | Neuromodulation of working-memory function in older adults |