Breakthrough Award | The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation

The Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award provides follow-on funding to previous Stepping Strong Innovator Award recipients who have shown promising results from their supported project.

14 teams

funded by the Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award

$2.9+ million

given in Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award funding

$34+ million

secured from external funding sources

How It Works

Application Cycle: June – November

Stage 1: Applications

Previous Stepping Strong Innovator Award recipients will receive an email from the center with the upcoming cycle’s request for applications. After full applications are received, proposals will undergo a review based on accomplishments toward Stepping Strong Innovator Award-funded research to date, significance of the goals of the next phase of research, strength of research strategy, potential to impact patients or clinical practice, and the strength of the research team applying. Selected finalists will be notified.

Stage 2: Finalist Presentations

Finalists will present to the review committee and Stepping Strong Trauma Research and Innovation Symposium, consisting of The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation’s leadership, the Stepping Strong Medical Executive Committee, faculty from other institutions, donors, venture capitalists, representatives of the biopharma/device industry, and partners of the Stepping Strong Center. The review committee will provide insights from organizational, commercialization, and clinical perspectives.

Stage 3: Funding Awarded

Based on the results from the review committee following the presentations, the Stepping Strong Center leadership will select the Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award recipients.

The applicant must be a recipient of a prior Stepping Strong Innovator Award.
At least one collaborator must have their primary affiliation at a Mass General Brigham (MGB) institution and no more than 25% of the award funding can be allocated to institutions external to MGB.
Previous awardees of the Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award are not eligible to apply. Previous award recipients are encouraged to mentor research trainees and early career faculty applying for Stepping Strong Center research funds.
Applicants may serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) on only one proposal but may serve as Co-Investigator on multiple proposals.
U.S. and non-U.S. citizens are welcome to apply.

The Stepping Strong Center will release the RFA to all previous Stepping Strong Innovator Award recipients via email at the beginning of the summer. Please email steppingstrong@bwh.harvard.edu if you have any questions.

Recipients of the Stepping Strong Innovator Award are eligible to apply for the next Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award cycle after receiving their Stepping Strong Innovator Award. Please note, a key factor in evaluating Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award proposals is the progress made in the research project funded by the Stepping Strong Innovator Award.

In a landscape where trauma-specific research is often overlooked by larger funding bodies, the Stepping Strong Innovator and Breakthrough Awards have filled a vital gap, helping investigators pursue early-stage research and gather enough preliminary data to apply for larger federal grants, ultimately moving the needle in the field of trauma.”

Shailesh Agarwal, MD
Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award Recipient
Associate Surgeon, Division of Plastic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital