The Intuitive Foundation grant program is accepting applications for Clinical Research Grants for Robotic-assisted Surgery in 2024-2025.

Overview: The purpose of these grants is to support clinical research at non-profit institutions worldwide focused on the field of robotic-assisted surgery. Successful proposals will study important questions related to surgical care and patient outcomes

Available Grants:

Applicants may apply for grant funding total costs up to $75,000 (US) per project.

Grant funds can be used to support salaries for statisticians, lab technicians, fellows, research coordinators, and other support personnel. Funds can cover equipment, supplies, and/or travel required to support the proposed research project for a period of up to one year. Funding may not be used to support physician salaries.

Research Areas of Interest

The Intuitive Foundation has identified key research areas of interest for the 2024-2025 clinical grant programs. Principal Investigators are encouraged –  although not required – to submit proposals that fall into one or more of the following areas:

Clinical Outcomes-Based Research 

Research related to clinical outcomes for robotic-assisted surgical procedures with a particular focus on comparative studies between robotics and alternate surgical modalities, or therapies. Examples include:

• Assessment of clinical outcome differences (including variation in outcomes) comparing robotic-assisted surgeries vs. other laparoscopic invasive and/or open surgical techniques.
  • For applications from the United States, we are most interested in clinical outcomes related to Thoracic Surgery and General Surgery.
  • For applications from APAC (Asia, Australia, and New Zealand),we are most interested in clinical outcomes related to Urology, Gynecology, Colorectal Surgery, General Surgery, Head and Neck procedures, Thoracic surgery, and other emerging surgical procedures.
  • For applications from Europe, we are most interested in clinical outcomes related to Colorectal Surgery, General/Visceral Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Gynecology, and Urology.
  • For applications from Africa and South America, we are most interested in clinical outcomes related to Colorectal Surgery, General/Visceral Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Gynecology, and Urology.
• Comparison of opioid use and/or pain between robotic-assisted procedures vs. other minimally invasive and/or open surgical techniques.
• Evaluating the impact of ERAS or similar protocols.
• Proposals related to public health or other of-the-moment topics.

Imaging, Vision and/or Navigational Research (all regions)

Research focused on enhanced visualization during surgical procedures. Examples include:

• The application of preoperative imaging modalities during surgical interventions.
• The use of intraoperative imaging modalities during surgical interventions.
• Novel use of fluorescence imaging technology. Note that research that has been published or presented by other groups will not be considered.
• The use of novel imaging modalities during interventions.
• New techniques to discriminate between healthy and diseased tissues.

Health Economic and Outcomes Research including Cost-effectiveness and Cost-utility Studies related to Robotic-assisted Surgery (all regions)

Research related to local services utilization, clinical and economic burden of the disease, cost of care, and research focused on quality of life or utilities related to surgical care. Examples include:

• Patient care pathway or epidemiological studies on clinical and economic burden of illness.
• Patient/clinician-reported outcomes, quality of life, health utilities.
• Cost-effectiveness modeling incorporated local services utilization and costs from local data sources (not from the literature.)

The Intuitive Foundation strongly recommends that research within this category include a health economist as a part of the research team. Please identify this individual in the capabilities section of the grant submission.

New Procedure Exploration and Development Research (all regions)

Research focused on emerging robotic-assisted surgical procedures using existing technologies. Please note that research conducted on human subjects may require applicable authorizations or favorable opinions from any relevant authorities, such as governmental and medical institution authorities, prior to funding. Example proposals may include:

• Robotic-assisted procedures that do not have a laparoscopic analog.
• Procedures that benefit from parallel entry of instruments (e.g., da Vinci SP).
• Development of replicable workflows to achieve critical surgical access in high volume procedures that do not have standardized port placement positions, such as lysis of adhesions. Such workflows should reliably apply to variations in patient body habitus and pathology.

Application Guidelines

Selection Process: Applicants must first submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) to Propose as detailed below. Grant LOIs will be reviewed and ranked by a selection committee. LOIs reaching a predetermined scoring threshold will be invited to submit a full grant proposal. All LOIs, as well as invited full grant applications, will be reviewed, and scored on the following criteria:

• Clarity of research goals and objectives
• Novelty (building on existing literature)
• Clinical relevance and value
• Evidence of feasibility
• Strength of evaluation methods and measures including statistical power analysis as appropriate
• Availability of required resources
• Appropriately defined research scope, timeline, and budget

LOIs and full grant proposals will be handled in a confidential manner and will not be distributed beyond the Intuitive Foundation’s grant selection committee. Due to the expected volume of proposals, the foundation regrets that its committee will not be able to provide detailed individualized feedback on unsuccessful grant proposals.

LOI Guidelines: A LOI to propose should be submitted by all grant applicants. Submissions should consist of five parts:

• Summary: one- or two-sentence proposal overview.
• Description of Problem/Background.
• Purpose, Hypothesis, and Methods of Research.
• Capabilities: Indicate the identities, capabilities, and credentials of investigators as well as any participating institution. Include contact information for principal investigator.
• Budget: Include a specific request for funds that includes permanent hard equipment, statistical analyses, consumable equipment, salaries to staff, and other direct expenses. No more than 20% of the total budget can be allocated for indirect costs. Funds from the grant may not be used to purchase equipment or instruments from Intuitive Surgical.
  • Hard equipment purchases should not exceed $5,000.
  • The budget should not include salaries for physicians, although salaries for statisticians, lab technicians, fellows, and other support personnel may be included.