Neilsen Foundation

Deadline: Letter of intent due June 7, 2024 at 5 p.m. Eastern
If selected, full application due November 8, 2024, 5 p.m. Eastern

Funding: Three types of grants will be awarded. 

• Postdoctoral Fellowships: Grants of $100,00 per year for up to two years will be awarded to encourage specialization in spinal cord injury research.
• Pilot Research Grants: Grants of up to $200,000 per year for up to two years will be awarded to support pilot studies that lay essential groundwork, allow either junior or established PIs to test the feasibility of novel methods and procedures and/or collect new data that can lead to or enhance larger-scale studies.
• Senior Research Grants: Grants of up to $800,000 over up to three years will be awarded to established, independent investigators in a position equivalent to associate professor or above to encourage pursuit of new avenues, enable paradigm shifts or support decisive translational steps in developing SCI treatments. 

Purpose:
The foundation invites applications for its Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum (SCIRTS) grants program. Through the program, grants will be awarded to novel approaches to improving function and developing curative therapies after SCI. SCIRTS Grants support research projects that include, but are not limited to, the following areas: mechanistic research, preclinical, translational research or clinical research. 

Eligibility:
Eligible candidates must have a doctoral or equivalent terminal degree such as an MD, DVM, or PhD and conduct research at a nonprofit academic and/or research institution or rehabilitation facility in the United States or Canada. 

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Enduring Hearts

Deadline: Letter of intent due June 17, 2024, 5 p.m.
If invited, full proposal due July 26, 2024

Funding:
The Direct Grant Award will fund $25,000-$150,000, including indirect costs, for two years. Optional third year for clinical studies must be applied for at the time of application.

Purpose
Atlanta-based Enduring Hearts (EH) launched in 2013 with a mission to fund research to increase longevity and improve the quality of life for pediatric heart transplant recipients. Enduring Hearts seeks to fund projects for up to two years that have a combination of the best science, innovation and potential for impact. Optional third year for clinical studies must be applied for at the time of application.

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Brain Research Foundation

Deadline: Letter of intent due June 25, 2024, 4 p.m. Central

Funding: $150,000 over 2 years

Purpose:
Brain Research Foundation is inviting your institution to nominate one senior faculty member to submit a letter of intent for the 2025 Scientific Innovations Award. The objective of the program is to support projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings. It is expected that investigations supported by these grants will yield high-impact findings and result in major grant applications and funding as well as significant publications in high-impact journals.

Eligibility:
The nominee must be a full-time associate professor/full professor working in the area of neuroscience and brain function in health and disease. Current major NIH or other peer-reviewed funding is preferred but evidence of such funding in the past three years is essential. The support focus is for new research projects of the highest scientific merit.

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Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation

Deadline: July 1, 2024

Funding:
NEW! The Research Foundations now supports one-, two- or three-year grants in the four areas of emphasis. Grants in basic science, clinical applications, and design and development categories will now be funded up to $200,000 for the grant period and grants in the fellowship category will now be funded up to $150,000 for the grant period.

Purpose:
From transplanting cells and regenerating damaged nerve fibers to designing adaptive canoe seats, the Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation supports innovative research and fellowships that improve the lives of those with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D).

• Basic Science: laboratory research in the basic sciences to find a cure for SCI/D
• Clinical: clinical and functional studies of the medical, psychosocial and economic effects of SCI/D, and interventions to alleviate these effects
• Design and development:  of new or improved rehabilitative and assistive technology/devices for people with SCI/D to improve function, which also includes improving the identification, selection and utilization of these devices.
• Fellowships: for postdoctoral scientists, clinicians and engineers to encourage training and specialization in the field of spinal cord research

The Research Foundation is focused on funding projects grounded in basic laboratory science and the education of scientists working on breakthroughs directed toward a cure for paralysis, secondary health effects and technologies associated with spinal cord injury or disease. These projects should be designed to find better treatments and cures for paralysis and support efforts to improve the quality of life of individuals with SCI/D until improved clinical treatments, technologies or cures are discovered, as well as to train postdoctoral fellow investigators and encourage them to specialize in the area of spinal cord research.

Eligibility:
Investigators and fellows are not required to be U.S. or Canadian citizens. All grant applicants must have a professional degree: PhD or MD preferred.

Senior fellows are encouraged to apply as principal investigators. Postdoctoral scientists are eligible to apply for fellowship support within four years of receiving a PhD or completing MD residency. Graduate students can participate in foundation-related research and be paid from a foundation award. However, graduate students cannot apply for a foundation grant as a fellow or as a principal investigator.

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award

Deadline: July 8, 2024, 4 p.m. Eastern Time

Amount: 
The Stage 1 award will be for two years, $200,000 per year ($400,000 total) with the opportunity for up to two additional years of funding (up to four years total for $800,000). Stage 2 support for years three and four will be granted to those awardees who demonstrate progress on their proposed research during years one and two of the award. Applicants will provide a written update on their research and present their progress in person to the committee shortly before the end of the second year of the award, at which time the committee will make a decision regarding continued funding. The Award cannot be used for indirect costs or institutional overhead. Awards will be paid in increments of $200,000 per year for the term of the award.

Description
The Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award is designed to provide support for the next generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with “high-risk/high-reward” ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.

The Innovation Award is specifically designed to provide funding to extraordinary early career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. It is not designed to fund incremental advances. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.

Eligibility

• Institutional nominations are not required and there is no limit to the number of applications that can be received from a particular institution.
• Applicants (including non-U.S. citizens) must be conducting independent research at a U.S. research institution.
• The applicant must have received an MD, DO, PhD or MD/PhD degree(s) from an accredited institution.
• Basic and translational/clinical projects will be considered. Applications will be accepted from all scientific disciplines provided that the proposed research meets the selection criteria.
• Applicants with a background in multiple disciplines are especially encouraged to apply.
• Joint submission from two collaborators working in different disciplines will be considered. (The collaborators will share the award.) Each collaborator must meet the eligibility criteria.
• Applicants must belong to one of the following categories:
  • Tenure-track assistant professors within the first five years of obtaining their initial assistant professor position (cut-off date: July 1, 2018).
  • Clinical instructors and senior clinical fellows (in the final year of their sub-specialty training) holding an MD, MD/PhD or DO who are pursuing a period of independent research before taking a tenure-track faculty position. Such individuals must have an exceptional record of research accomplishment, dedicated laboratory space and the support of their institution.
  • Distinguished fellows with an exceptional record of research accomplishment identified by their institution to pursue an independent research program and who have dedicated laboratory space. These candidates are markedly distinct from traditional postdoctoral fellows. Examples: Whitehead fellows, UCSF fellows, Cold Spring Harbor fellows. (Research assistant professors, research associate professors, research scientists and postdoctoral fellows are not eligible.)
• Applicants are expected to commit a minimum of 80% of their time to conducting research.
• Applicants may apply no more than two times.
• Applicants must demonstrate that they have access to the resources and infrastructure necessary to conduct the proposed research.
• The department must guarantee the investigator is conducting the proposed research independently.

Elsa U. Pardee Foundation

Deadline: August 31, 2024

Career Stage: Post docs, early and established career

Funding:
By design, there are no limits set on the amount that can be requested. It must be reasonably supported by the scope of the project outlined in the application. Indirect costs cannot exceed 5% of the total amount requested.

Description:
The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation funds research to investigators in United States nonprofit institutions proposing research directed toward identifying new treatments or cures for cancer. The foundation funds projects for a one-year period that will allow the establishment of capabilities of new cancer researchers or new cancer approaches by established cancer researchers. It is anticipated that this early-stage funding by the foundation may lead to subsequent and expanded support using government agency funding. Project relevance to cancer detection, treatment or cure should be clearly identified. The foundation particularly welcomes innovative, small-scale, short-term projects that may be difficult to fund elsewhere until some interesting results are obtained.

Eligibility:
Post-docs who are on the tenure track and have a tenured mentor are eligible. Priority is given to researchers at nonprofit institutions in the United States who are new to the field of cancer research, or to established research investigators examining new approaches to cancer cure.

AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship

Deadline: Thursday, September 5, 2024

Purpose:
Enhances the training of postdoctoral applicants who are not yet independent. The applicant must be embedded in an appropriate investigative group with the mentorship, support, and relevant scientific guidance of a research mentor. Within this award, additional collaboration money has been designated through the AHA/CHF Congenital Heart Defect Research Awards and AHA/VIVA Physician Research Award and by the Barth Syndrome Foundation and California Walnut Commission.

American Federation for Aging Research
Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program

Deadline:
Interested students should be in touch directly with the National Training Centers to for the program deadline and application materials.

Funding:
The stipend level is approximately $1,980 per month; actual amounts will vary based on the specific appointment period of individual students. Award period: Eight to 12 weeks.

Purpose:
The MSTAR Program provides medical students with an enriching experience in aging-related research and geriatrics, with the mentorship of top experts in the field. This program introduces students to research and academic experiences early in their training that they might not otherwise have during medical school. Positive experiences in the MSTAR program have led many physicians-in-training to pursue academic careers in aging, ranging from basic science to clinical research to health services research. They have joined the growing cadre of physicians and scientists whose specialized knowledge and skills are in great demand as our population ages.

Students participate in an eight- to twelve-week (or two- to three-month, depending on the training site) structured research, clinical and didactic program in geriatrics, appropriate to their level of training and interests. Research projects are offered in basic, translational, clinical or health services research relevant to older people. Most scholars will do their training and research during the summer months. They will also be invited to submit an abstract to present a poster at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society.

Eligibility

• Any allopathic or osteopathic medical student in good standing, who will have successfully completed one year of medical school at a U.S. institution by June 2024. Evidence of good standing must be provided by the medical school registrar or dean when the student is notified of receiving the award.
• Applicants must be citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States, or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence (i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551, or some other legal verification of such status). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible. Due to NIA restrictions, individuals holding PhD, MD, DVM or equivalent doctoral degrees in the health sciences are not eligible to apply to do the MSTAR Program.
• Additionally, applicants receiving a stipend or salary support from a federal source are not eligible for this program. Applicants may not hold another award or participate in another program concurrently with the MSTAR program, and must participate in the program full-time for a minimum of eight weeks and a maximum of 12 weeks.

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Infectious Diseases Society of America
Grants for Emerging Researchers/Clinicians Mentorship Program

Career Stage: Medical Students

Amount: Not specified

Deadline: Ongoing

Description
The G.E.R.M. Program was developed to provide grants to medical students to support a longitudinal, mentored clinical learning and/or research project for up to a year on infectious diseases-related topics, including HIV, under the mentorship of an IDSA or HIVMA member. This program replaced the IDSA Medical Scholars and HIVMA Medical Students Programs.

Eligibility

• Graduate students
• Applicants must be medical students (first-, second- or third-year and those in combined degree programs, including MD/MPH and MD/PhD) from an accredited allopathic or osteopathic medical school in the U.S.