We are pleased to announce the 2025 Research Collaboration Grant Program, which is designed to strengthen research collaborations and forge new research opportunities between the CU Anschutz and CU Boulder campuses.

  Key Dates

• Proposals due: April 1, 2025
• Award notifications: mid-June
• Project start date: July 1, 2025

New mechanisms

This cycle, we invite proposals to the following funding mechanisms:

• Exploratory/Broad Announcement ($75k, 18 months): Seeks proposals from teams that have not previously collaborated but have identified a path for integrated, joint work to study unique research concepts. There are no biomedical topic limitations, and proposals are encouraged to explore areas of growth in the research community.
• Special Topic Announcement—Quantum and Human Health ($350K, 24 months): Seeks proposals from both new and established collaborative teams to drive innovation in federally prioritized research areas. Proposals must focus on quantum science applications in medical research and healthcare. Projects outside this topic will be considered non-responsive and withdrawn.

View Program Details 
 

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CU Boulder’s CUbit Quantum Initiative and AB Nexus Initiative recently hosted scientists, engineers and healthcare professionals discussing the emerging intersection of quantum technology and healthcare and future CU Boulder-CU Anschutz collaborations.

During a landmark virtual event exploring CU’s strengths in quantum health research and the increasing federal interest in the area, various speakers touched on the strong partnership potential between quantum science and technology leader, CU Boulder, and biomedical research leader, CU Anschutz, to leverage their respective strengths in transforming healthcare.

Massimo Ruzzene, CU Boulder vice chancellor for research and innovation, launched the program to stimulate ideas on building partnerships and how to move the joint field forward. “This event is just the beginning of a new chapter for CU in quantum science and human health,” he said.

More than 100 attendees tuned into the event, “Applications of Quantum Science and Technology in Human Health,” and met in breakout groups focused on how quantum sensing, quantum imaging and quantum computing could help advance disease detection, medical imaging and diagnostics, drug discovery and more.

Jun Ye, CU Boulder professor of physics, remarked on the “incredible potential of quantum science in advancing human health.” Whether scientists move the field forward through quantum sensing, networking or computing, he said, “It’s going to have a big impact on all walks of life.” Ye is also a fellow at JILA, a collaborative research institute between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, renowned for its groundbreaking work in the quantum realm.

Ye said that CU Boulder–CU Anschutz collaborations are both practical and important. “Bringing in quantum science and technology for meaningful applications to solving real world problems in medicine will be really a great scientific and humanitarian goal,” he said. By building teams of experts across both campuses, said Ye, “We can really position ourselves as leaders in this exciting new field.” But that’s only possible by working together, he said. “Intradisciplinary partnerships are crucial and critical to success in this field.”

Tom Flaig, CU Anschutz vice chancellor for research, also applauded the focus on community-building in the quantum space. “With the long-term expertise of CU Boulder in [quantum] and the biomedical expertise of CU Anschutz, we have an opportunity to come together in quantum health in a really meaningful way –  to have some national prominence and leadership in this area,” he said. 

Recent cross-campus collaborations have been boosted by the AB Nexus Initiative, which provides seed funding and resources to support partnerships between CU Boulder and CU Anschutz researchers, said Flaig. The program has already demonstrated how combining forces can amplify their effect and lead to innovative solutions to the most challenging health issues facing society. That power of intercampus collaboration will serve as a foundation for advancing quantum applications in biology, neurology and chemistry.

“When you bring together scientists from different fields—for example a biomedical researcher, a clinician and an engineer—it can drive discoveries in powerful and innovative ways. AB Nexus has been highly successful in fostering these new interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers from a wide spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds,” said Flaig.

This is only the beginning of a larger, more intentional effort to build a community of research in quantum and health, said Karen Regan, CU Boulder associate vice chancellor for research and innovation. “It's just such a natural place for us to continue to collaborate. We anticipate future AB Nexus funding opportunities will support emerging ‘quantum and health’ collaborations,” she said. “We recognize that this is an important, new, emerging area.”

CU Boulder, already an established leader in quantum science and technology, continues to blaze trails in research, education, commercialization and job creation, cementing it as an international quantum hub of excellence providing tangible benefits to society. “Today, the CUbit Quantum Initiative reinforces Colorado’s quantum prominence by catalyzing research on campus, expanding education and workforce opportunities and linking quantum advancements to industry,” said Scott Sternberg, executive director of CUbit. “This event is the first of many that are intended to promote collaborations in not only biosciences but also in aerospace, climate and sustainability, and national security.”

Geetha Senthil, deputy director, Office of Special Initiatives, National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, also spoke at the event, giving insight into NIH’s quantum initiatives and stressing the need for early disease detection and the potential of quantum sensing to revolutionize diagnostics. She noted that NIH is eager to fund collaborative projects, particularly those that bring quantum technologies to health applications.    

Ye wrapped up the event encouraging attendees to keep up momentum. “Clearly we are not lacking in ideas, there’s a lot of synergies here in technology development,” he said. “CU Boulder and CU Anschutz are really sitting on gold mines of expertise, so we want to make sure that we translate that into real breakthrough opportunities in the coming years.”

To learn more about exploring synergies in quantum and health across CU Boulder and CU Anschutz, please contact Lisa Nanstad at lisa.nanstad@colorado.edu. 

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Today, the AB Nexus program announced its 2024 seed grant awards to interdisciplinary research teams from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder. Collectively, the seven winning teams will receive $713,000 in funding to advance cutting-edge research that improves human health and well-being. 

AB Nexus is a unique program that provides joint-campus funding and resources to catalyze research collaborations between CU Boulder and CU Anschutz. By fostering intercampus partnerships between scientists, engineers and physicians from diverse disciplines, AB Nexus has helped to advance new innovations and discoveries while growing CU’s collective research enterprise.

”AB Nexus has created a new culture of research collaboration at the University of Colorado,” said Thomas Flaig, MD, vice chancellor for research at CU Anschutz. “Solving the toughest challenges in human health requires teamwork across a wide range of fields, and we’re very proud of how this program has helped to inspire so many new interdisciplinary research projects across our campuses.”

Accelerating collaborative research in human health and wellness

   I'm thrilled to receive an AB Nexus seed grant for my collaboration with Dr. Ben Bitler at CU Anschutz. The research this award supports will transform our ability to leverage advanced data to identify new targets for treating patients with ovarian cancer."

—Professor Aaron Clauset, Department of Computer Science; BioFrontiers Institute (CU Boulder)

Since launching in 2020, AB Nexus has awarded more than $4.2 million in seed funding to 55 collaborative research teams, several of which have gone on to secure additional external funding and publish peer-reviewed research papers that are helping to improve health care and medicine.

For example, one team that received a $125,000 AB Nexus seed grant in 2020 was recently awarded up to $39 million in funding from the federal government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The team of scientists from CU Boulder, CU Anschutz and Colorado State University is working to develop new regenerative treatments for osteoarthritis. 

“Within five years, our goal is to develop a suite of non-invasive therapies that can end osteoarthritis,” said project leader and Principal Investigator Stephanie Bryant, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering at CU Boulder. “It could be an absolute game-changer for patients.”

Awarded teams to tackle wide range of health challenges

The 2024 AB Nexus awardees include three newly formed teams and four projects that expand upon existing collaborations. Individual grants range in size from $65,000 to $125,000, and this year’s funds include generous co-sponsor support: $100,000 from the University of Colorado Cancer Center and $95,000 from the Department of Computer Science at CU Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. 

This year, AB Nexus developed two themed “tracks” for its grant applications. In addition to the general human health track, research teams focused on “Climate Change and Health” and “AI/Advanced Computing and Health” were invited to apply to topic-specific AB Nexus grants.  

“We are identifying themes like AI and climate change to further explore research collaborations on our campuses that can significantly impact health and well-being,” said Massimo Ruzzene, vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes at CU Boulder. “Through strategic alignment with societal needs, federal funding trends and partnership opportunities, the research projects associated with these themes are better positioned for novel discoveries and improving human health.”

Among the collaborative research projects that received AB Nexus awards in 2024:  

• A cardiologist and computer scientist are exploring new applications of artificial intelligence to improve medical devices like pacemakers for heart failure patients
• An electrical engineer who specializes in medical imaging has teamed up with a mathematician to develop deep learning algorithms that can help doctors to better diagnose and assess accreta, a life-threatening condition involving the placenta tissue of expectant mothers
• A doctor and environmental scientist are investigating how climate change could have a disproportionately negative effect on Colorado’s prison population—and how to mitigate those impacts and improve inmate health in the face of rising temperatures
• An obstetrician and computer scientist are using advanced machine learning techniques to create better predictive models for the recurrence of ovarian cancer, which could lead to more personalized and effective treatments for patients

The full list of 2024 AB Nexus award winners is below. With the support of joint-campus leadership, the next AB Nexus award cycle will occur in spring 2025. More information will be available on the AB Nexus website this fall.

2024 AB Nexus Awardees

• AI Optimized Pacing for Heart Failure Patients
  Led by Michael Rosenberg (CU Anschutz) and Ashutosh Trivedi (CU Boulder)
• Cell Cycling Adaptations in Drug-Tolerant Persister Cells in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
  Led by Sabrina Spencer (CU Boulder) and Tejas Patil (CU Anschutz)
• Cell-Type, Pathway and Neurotransmitter-Specific Regulation of Feeding Circuitry
  Led by Christopher Ford, PhD (CU Anschutz) and David Root (CU Boulder)
• How Tubulinopathies Disrupt Microtubules and How to Fix Them: Integration of Genetics and Computational Modeling
  Led by Meredith Betterton (CU Boulder) and Jeffrey Moore (CU Anschutz)
• Improved Assessment of Placenta Accreta with Fast 3D MRI,
  Led by Stephen Becker (CU Boulder) and Nicholas Dwork (CU Anschutz)
• Investigating Extreme Health Risks at the Nexus of Climate Change, Incarceration and Societal Re-entry in Colorado
  Led by David Ciplet (CU Boulder) and Katherine LeMasters (CU Anschutz)
• ​Using Advanced Computational Analysis to Predict Ovarian Cancer Outcomes
  Led by Benjamin Bitler (CU Anschutz) and Aaron Clauset (CU Boulder)

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