Funding opportunity: UT System UT REAL Health AI Pilot Program

The UT REAL Pilot Award Program is designed to strategically identify, fund and oversee projects that advance the objectives of UT REAL. The program aims to fund projects that advance AI innovation in health, foster Health Related Institution (HRI) collaboration and strengthen strategic partnerships.

About

The objectives of the UT REAL Health AI Initiative (UT REAL) include:
• Developing and expanding shared platforms to enable AI innovation across campuses.
• Implementing AI solutions that directly improve patient care, safety, and access while enhancing clinician efficiency.
• Building workforce capacity and leadership understanding of AI.
• Advancing foundation and customized models, testing cross-institution generalizability, and generating clinically relevant products.
• Applying AI to improve system-level efficiency, resource allocation, and scalability.

Award Categories and Funding Structure

We are soliciting proposals across three primary award categories, with a focus on innovation, collaboration, and implementation. Deadline to submit proposals is Saturday, January 10, 2026: Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

AI Innovation Awards (AI Moonshot) 

This award category encourages breakthrough ideas and high-impact innovation in healthcare AI. These projects are intended to identify bold, early-stage concepts with the potential for systemic transformation.
• Award Size: Up to $500,000 each.
• Target: About 3 - 5 projects.
• Budget Period: 12 -18 months

AI Project Supplements (HRI Collaboration) 

These supplements support existing AI projects by expanding their refinement or implementation to additional HRI sites at UT to test cross-institutional generalizability. A supplement is defined as adding one or more sites to an existing AI project from one HRI. This mechanism aims to strengthen collaboration across UT System HRIs. This mechanism strengthens collaboration across UT System HRIs.
• Award Size: $100,000 per additional HRI site up to $300,000.
• Target: Up to 10 projects.
• Budget Period: 12 -18 months

AI Implementation Awards (System-Level Scale-Up)

These awards focus on AI implementation at the system-level through strategic partnership with existing partners including qualified health, UT-HIP, Microsoft to ensure successful adoption and system integration. Primary focus would be on the implementation of solutions that improve patient care, safety, and access, and enhance capacity of healthcare systems and providers. These projects should be designed with a clear path to broader adoption within the UT System HRIs, leveraging shared platforms, governance, and best practices.
• Award Size: $100,000 each with the AI implementation cost covered through the partnership.
• Target: About 3–5 AI implementation projects to scale at the system-level implementation.
• Budget Period: 12 - 24 months
 

Scope and Alignment Requirements

All proposed projects must explicitly align with the UT REAL mission and vision.
 

In Scope Projects:
• Address key challenges identified in UT REAL, including data access and interoperability, AI maturity gaps, AI adoption, workforce capacity, and literacy in AI.
• Support the design, development, and evaluation of novel AI applications or AI-powered solutions that improve access to health services, enhance the capacity of healthcare systems and providers, and increase engagement among patients, communities, and providers.
• Engage patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and other stakeholders to ensure solutions meet real-world needs (co-design).
• Are designed with a clear path to broader adoption within the UT System HRIs, leveraging shared platforms, governance, and best practices.

Out of Scope Projects:
• Efforts that do not address the identified priority challenges (e.g., AI maturity, ethical AI adoption, health system capacity, patient/community engagement).
• Single-institution initiatives with no potential for scale or projects that cannot be feasibly replicated or adapted across multiple UT System health institutions.
• Proprietary solutions developed without stakeholder co-design, transparency, or alignment to open standards.
• Projects that bypass ethical, regulatory, or governance review, or any AI application that does not meet HIPAA, FERPA, or UT System compliance requirements.
• Long-term research programs without a rapid learning cycle or multi-year R&D projects without near-term milestones or actionable learnings for the AI ecosystem.
• Pilots with no measurable outcomes or proposals lacking defined success metrics related to access, capacity, or engagement.

Submission and Review Process

Submission Requirements:  Applications must clearly specify the Project Category (AI Innovation Moonshot, AI Implementation/Scale-Up, or HRI Collaboration Supplement) and detail alignment with UT-REAL-Health-AI. Please use the RFA template with 5 pages maximum (excluding cover page and citations).

Review Criteria: Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
• Innovation and the concept behind the project.
• Potential for real-world impact.
• Strengths of group leaders and/or team.
• Ability and availability of key personnel and infrastructure.

UT REAL Pilot Program Contact at each HRI:
UT MD Anderson: Nyma Shah
UT Medical Branch: Peter Mccaffrey
UT Austin Dell Medical School: James Buntrock
UT Health Houston: Hongfang Liu
UT Health San Antonio: Ed Sankary or Kumar Sharma
UT Health Tyler: John Yoder
UT Health Rio Grande Valley: Eric Martinez
UT Southwestern: Eric Peterson
 

Please submit your proposal to UT System REAL Health AI Pilot Program as one PDF file here. (Download the proposal template).

For more information, please contact Amy Vondenberger at 210-450-3840 or via email at vondenberger@uthscsa.edu.