Cures Within Reach: Funding for Chicago Area Clinical Repurposing Trials

[Clare Thibodeaux]

Cures Within Reach (CWR) has released our funding opportunity Request for Proposals (RFP), Repurposing Research for Chicago 2026, supporting clinical repurposing trials led by Chicago area researchers/institutions. Researchers can apply to one or both tracks:

• Track 1 Investigator Groups: in any unsolved disease led by an Early-Stage Investigator or an underrepresented researcher.
• Track 2 Patient Groups: impacting health disparities, pediatrics, rare diseases and/or veterans issues (including mental health, PTSD and brain injuries).

See the full RFP at https://bit.ly/cwrrfps. CWR’s strongest preference is for proof of concept, pivotal, Phase I or Phase IIA clinical repurposing trials supported by strong preclinical evidence, real world evidence, AI/ML drug-disease matching tools and/or clinical observations. CWR is accepting budgets of up to $125,000 for this funding opportunity, which includes the required institutional match, and CWR may provide up to $15,000 in additional funding for approved community engagement. Community engagement is required for any trials addressing health disparities (regardless of RFP track) and is optional for all other trials.

Repurposed therapies must be approved and/or generally recognized as safe for human use by a governmental regulatory agency and can include drugs, devices, nutraceuticals and/or diagnostics, as well as combinations. These repurposed therapies must be tested in a new indication for which they are not already approved or used widely in clinical practice as standard of care. Repurposed therapies may also be added to current standard of care to improve patient outcomes and/or quality of life.

CWR has a 2-stage submission process, starting with the brief Letter of Intent (LOI). The top-rated LOI submissions will be invited to submit a full scientific proposal. All submissions are ProposalCentral (https://proposalcentral.com). Search for “Cures Within Reach” and submit your LOI using the “Geographic Specific Repurposing Research” program. The LOI submission deadline is 11:59pm U.S. Eastern Time on May 8, 2026.

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