Research & Policy


Research Grants Program

 

Applications are now closed for the 2025 AOFAS Research Grants Program.

 

Since 1997, AOFAS has awarded more than $2.2 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 full list of past AOFAS Research Grant recipients.


Grant Categories

New primary investigators who have not yet received AOFAS Research Grant funding will receive an additional 10% on their grants' scores.

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.

Resident Award – awarded to an orthopaedic MD or DO resident who engages a named mentor (AOFAS Active or International Member) to serve as the CI on a research grant project.


Small Project Research Grants (up to $20,000)

The core grant category, providing seed funding for promising research projects.

Early Career Award – awarded to a researcher less than 10 years out of fellowship. The Early Career Award can only be awarded to an investigator once, but prior awardees of Pilot Project Grants and the AOFAS Resident Award are eligible.


Established Project Research Grants (up to $50,000)

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 will be announced in early 2025.


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 by email at research@aofas.org or by phone at 800-235-4855 or +1-847-698-4654 (outside US)


2024 Research Grant Recipients

 


Resident Award

Biomechanical Testing of 3D Printed Implants for the Fixation of OTA Type B Ankle Fractures
Myles Dworkin, MD, MPH


Early Career Award

Efficacy and Safety of Intraosseous Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Total Ankle Replacement: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial
Kurt Hofmann, MD


Small Project Grants

Multi-Omics Data Integration Using Machine Learning to Define Key Relationship of Healing Achilles Tendon and Paratenon
Daniel Moon, MD, MS, MBA; Michael David, PhD

The Biomechanical Evaluation of Achilles Tendon Mid-Substance Repair: The Effect of Heel Lift
Jiyong Ahn, MD, PhD; Soheil Ashkani-Esfahani, MD; John Kwon, MD; Christopher W. DiGiovanni, MD; Daniel Guss, MD, MBA; Lorena Bejarano-Pineda, MD; Gregory Waryasz, MD; Alireza Ebrahimi, MD, MBA

Arch Supporting Ligament Stiffness in Patients with PCFD Compared to Healthy Controls
L. Daniel Latt, MD, PhD

Stepping onto the Red Carpet of Etiology and Prevention: Gait Analysis as the Key to Success for Osteochondral Lesions of the Ankle
Sjoerd Stufkens, MD, PhD


Established Project Grants

Surgical Planning in the Treatment of Flexible Progressive Collapsing Foot Deformity to Improve Accuracy of Deformity Correction and Patient Reported Outcomes
Cesar de Cesar Netto, MD, PhD

Developing Precision Rehabilitation Using Wearable Sensors for Achilles Tendon Rupture Repair
Lorraine Boakye, MD

Strategizing Infection Prevention in Ankle Arthroplasty Based on Risk Factors and Wound Bacterial Load
Zijun Zhang, MD, PhD; Lew Schon, MD