CFAs: Young Researchers Innovation Grant Program

Deadline Date: December 13, 2024

 Donor Name: CMT Research Foundation

 Grant Size: $10,000 to $100,000

https://cmtrf.org/young-researchers-innovation-grant

The CMT Research Foundation is seeking applications for its Young Researchers Innovation Grant Program (YRIG) for small, high-impact projects that address key barriers in CMT drug development.

YRIG Predoctoral Grants aim to spur innovative ideas in CMT research from in-training researchers and engage them in CMT research. Priority for this grant will be given to research projects that exhibit strong scientific rigor and a demonstration of a clear pathway to meaningful application and further research development.

Focus Areas

• Focus on one of the following Priority Areas:
  • Drug delivery to the PNS (understanding the blood nerve barrier (BNB) and/or cell types impacted by CMT (e.g. Schwann cells and peripheral axons) and how they can be targeted for therapeutic delivery, testing new delivery approaches not previously explored for the PNS, optimizing current drug delivery approaches to be more specific to the PNS, etc.) 
  • Identifying new therapeutics or drug targets (can be specific to an individual subtype or aim to find ones that span across multiple subtypes) 
  • Translating research to the clinic (generating better research models, identifying or validating new biomarkers and outcome measures, other activities to improve clinical trial readiness, etc.) 
  • Other areas that can have a strong impact on CMT drug development that have been pre-approved by CMTRF following the submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI) 2. Be basic, translational or clinical research that is applicable to CMT drug development, which can be specific to an individual CMT subtype or more broadly-focused to benefit across many CMT forms.

Types of Grants

• Pilot Grant:  YRIG Pilot Grants are intended to support early-career researchers in the conduct of research projects aimed at testing new and innovative ideas that will expand and advance drug development for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, bringing new talent and thinking into the CMT research arena. YRIG Pilot Grants aim to spur innovative ideas in CMT research from early-career researchers in order to generate meaningful pilot data that can be used to launch larger CMT research projects. For successful projects, follow-on funding from CMTRF may be a possibility.
• Predoctoral Grant: YRIG Predoctoral Grants are intended to promising predoctoral fellows in the conduct of research projects aimed at testing new and innovative ideas that will expand and advance drug development for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, bringing new talent and thinking into the CMT research arena. YRIG Predoctoral Grants aim to spur innovative ideas in CMT research from in-training researchers and engage them in CMT research. Priority for this grant will be given to research projects that exhibit strong scientific rigor and a demonstration of a clear pathway to meaningful application and further research development. For successful projects, follow-on funding from CMTRF may be a possibility.

Funding Information

• Pilot Grant:
  • Funding of up to $75,000.
• Predoctoral Grant:
  • Up to $25,000 may be requested.
• Duration: Awards are intended for a one year duration.

Eligibility Criteria

• Pilot Grant
  • Applicants must hold a doctoral degree (MD, PhD, etc.) and be no more than 10 years after receipt of terminal degree. 
  • Applicants must have the resources and ability to conduct independent research or will have their own lab by the proposed start of the award (by or before September 2025). Applicants who do not have their own lab or cannot conduct their experiments independently should identify and have a letter of support from a PI sponsor/mentor.
  • Work may be conducted in academic/non-profit research institutions or industry (pharma/biotech).
  • For industry applicants, academic-industry collaborations are encouraged, but not mandatory.
  • Applications must focus on one or more of the research areas of interest outlined in Section V below.
  • U.S. residents and applicants from outside the U.S. are welcome to apply.
• Predoctoral Grant:
  • Applicants must be junior researchers/doctoral students (MD, PhD, etc.) who are in a doctoral training program and under mentorship at the time of the applications deadline.
  • Research must be conducted within a PI sponsor/mentor’s lab or in collaboration with external partners serving as mentor(s).
  • A letter of support is required from the PI sponsor/mentor.
  • Applicants from all countries are eligible to apply.
  • Work may be conducted in academic/non-profit research institutions. Industry researchers are not eligible to apply.

For more information, visit CMT Research Foundation.