Research Grants Program

The 2022 Research Grants Program application cycle is now open! Submit your proposal by December 1, 2021, at noon Central Time.

Before applying for an AOFAS Research Grant, make sure to review the Research Grants Policy and gather all required documents and contact information.

Start Your Application

Since 1997, AOFAS has awarded more than $1.7 million in grant funding for AOFAS members and their research teams. These grants provide vital resources to discover new treatments and advance patient care. View the list of past awards. 

Research Grants Program Information

Grant Categories

The AOFAS awards one-year research grants (May 1 to April 30) in three categories:

Pilot Project Grants (up to $5,000)
Grant recipients are expected to use data obtained from the projects to develop future grant applications. No more than four pilot grants will be awarded in any grant cycle.

Small Project Research Grants (up to $20,000)
The core grant category, providing seed funding for promising research projects.

Established Project Research Grants (up to $50,000)
Offering one opportunity in the 2020 cycle, this competitive grant category is intended to support innovative research for basic science, a clinical trial, or pre-trial work that could be used to obtain additional grants from national funding sources. Applications must be backed by preliminary work, data, and/or publications or abstracts to demonstrate feasibility of projects and capabilities of the research team.

Review Process

Applications are reviewed and ranked by the Research Committee on a competitive basis using a blinded NIH-style process. Any committee member or reviewer, including the Board liaisons, with any real or perceived conflict of interest with respect to a grant application is recused from deliberations and scoring of the application.

Grant recipients are announced in the spring.

Eligibility

Access to AOFAS Research Grants is a benefit of AOFAS membership. Either the principal investigator or co-investigator on an application must be an AOFAS member in good standing in one of the following membership categories:

• Active Member

• Candidate Member

• International Member

Surgeon in Training, International Surgeon in Training, MD Affiliate, Honorary, and Allied Health/Associate-Basic Science Members may apply with an AOFAS Active, Candidate, or International Member as a primary investigator or co-investigator. To determine your eligibility, please see the AOFAS Research Grants Program Policy and Guidelines. 

Questions?

Please contact the AOFAS Executive Office by email at research@aofas.org or by phone at 800-235-4855 or +1-847-698-4654 (outside US)

2021 Research Grant Recipients

Established Project Grants

Evaluation of frHMGB1 Treatment for Nonunion Fracture Healing in a Diabetic Rat Model
Jarrett D. Cain, DPM, MSc; Feng Li, MD, PhD; Jianying Zhang, PhD; Alan Y. Yan, MD; MaCalus V. Hogan, MD, MBA, FAAOS, FAOA

Creating Machine Learning Algorithms to Assess the Risk of Developing Venous Thromboembolism and Bleeding Adverse Events in Patients with Ankle Fractures
Daniel Guss, MD, MBA; Bart Lubberts, MD, PhD; Gregory R. Waryasz, MD; Christopher W. DiGiovanni, MD; Rohan Bhimani, MD, MBA; Soheil Ashkani-Esfahani, MD; Reza Mojahed-Yazdi, MSc; Takahisa Ogawa, MD, MPH; Haggai Schermann, MD, MPH

Small Project Grants

Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in Synovial Tissue of the Arthritic Ankle
Kenneth J. Hunt, MD; Michael Zuscik, PhD; Cheryl Ackert-Bicknell, PhD; Mary C. Hamati

Does the Synovial Fluid Fracture Hematoma after Intra-articular Ankle Fracture Cause Cartilage Damage?
Samuel B. Adams Jr., MD

Effect of Preoperative Mobility Device Training on Postoperative Fall Incidence in Foot and Ankle Surgery
Ashish Shah, MD; Nicholas Andrews, BS