Postdoctoral Funding Opportunity - American Diabetes Association
American Diabetes Association (ADA): Pathway to Stop Diabetes
Three funding opportunities:- Opportunity #1: Initiator Award (post-doc/early career)
- Opportunity #2: Accelerator Award (experienced diabetes investigators)
- Opportunity #3: Visionary Award (experienced investigators new to diabetes)
Summary of Opportunities
Pathway to Stop Diabetes Research Program (Pathway) seeks to bring new investigators and new perspectives to diabetes research. Pathway intends to attract brilliant scientists at the peak of their creativity to diabetes research, and to accelerate their research progress by providing the necessary resources and support for conducting transformative science. Pathway will consider applications directed toward topics relevant to the prevention, treatment and cure of all diabetes types (type 1, type 2 and gestational), diabetes-related disease states (obesity, prediabetes, and other insulin resistant states) and diabetes complications.
The program intends to attract individuals with a broad range of expertise in various science and technology disciplines, including medicine, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics to the field of diabetes research. In addition, nomination of scientists from diverse backgrounds, including minority groups that are underrepresented in biomedical research, is strongly encouraged.
Pathway will provide crucial support to individuals focusing on innovative ideas and transformational approaches that will lead to ground-breaking discoveries in diabetes prevention, treatment and cures. Pathway will support creative scientists early in their diabetes research careers, or investigators who are established in other disciplines but would like to expand their focus to diabetes research. Through awards of $1.625 million over the course of up to seven years, the program will provide researchers the freedom, autonomy, time and focus needed to explore new ideas.
Pathway accepts nominations for exceptional investigators with medical and scientific backgrounds who propose innovative basic, clinical, translational, behavioral, epidemiological and health services research relevant to any type of diabetes, diabetes-related disease state or complication. Pathway solicits nominations for candidates in all disciplines as applied to diabetes.
Opportunity #1: Initiator Award
Description: This two-phased award is designed to support the transition of scientists from mentored training to independent research faculty.
Eligibility: Eligible applicants must currently be in research training positions (post-doctoral fellow, research fellowship) and have no more than seven years of research training following terminal doctoral degree. Applicants cannot concurrently hold an NIH K99/R00 grant. Candidates must be identified through institutional nomination; applications will be accepted only from individuals with the appropriate institution support.
Repeat Nominations: Only one repeat nomination of an individual applicant will be considered regardless of award type; the same individual may not be nominated a third time.
Support: Awards provide two distinct phases of research support: Phase 1 provides up to two years of support for mentored training at a maximum of $100,000 per year (including 10% indirect costs), Phase 2 provides up to five years of support for independent research at a maximum of $325,000 per year (including 30% indirect costs). Maximum combined support for Phase 1 and Phase 2 is $1,625,000.
Opportunity #2: Accelerator Award
Description: This award is designed to support exceptional, independent early-career researchers who have distinguished themselves as promising investigators and are in the beginning stages of establishing successful, sustainable diabetes research programs.
Eligibility: Awards are available to early-career diabetes investigators proposing innovative and ambitious diabetes-related research programs. Applicants must hold faculty positions and have demonstrated independent productivity in diabetes research. Applicants may currently hold independent NIH funding (K, U or R awards, including an initial R01/U01) but must not have applied for (regardless of outcome), or received, an R01/U01 renewal or a second R01/U01 award. Candidates must be identified through institutional nomination; applications will be accepted only from individuals with the appropriate institution support.
Repeat Nominations: Only one repeat nomination of an individual applicant will be considered regardless of award type; the same individual may not be nominated a third time
Support: Awards provide five years of research support at a maximum of $325,000 per year (including 30% indirect costs), for a total of $1,625,000.
Opportunity # 3: Visionary Award
Description: Awards are designed to support established, experienced investigators with strong records of outstanding productivity in fields outside of diabetes who are interested in applying their considerable skills and expertise to diabetes research. These awards are highly competitive and intended to support particularly innovative and transformational ideas that have the potential to have an exceptional impact in diabetes.
Eligibility: Applicants must hold independent faculty positions and have demonstrated significant productivity in their current field of research. Applicants cannot have previously received national grant support (NIH, NIDDK, ADA, JDRF, etc.), as either a PI or Co-PI, in diabetes or diabetes-related research.
Repeat Nominations: Only one repeat nomination of an individual applicant will be considered regardless of award type; the same individual may not be nominated a third time
Support: Awards provide two distinct phases of research support: Phase 1 provides up to three years of support at a maximum of $325,000 per year (including 30% indirect costs), Phase 2 provides up to two years of support at a maximum of $325,000 per year (including 30% indirect costs). Phase 2 renewal is contingent upon demonstration of significant contributions to the field of diabetes research in Phase 1. Maximum combined support for Phase 1 and Phase 2 is $1,625,000.
Limit on Number of Proposals Per Organization
Each institution is allowed a maximum of one nomination. The nomination can be in one of the three available Pathway award types:
- Initiator
- Accelerator
- Visionary
Key Dates
- Internal Letter of Intent Due: April 9, 2019 (by midnight)
- Sponsor Proposal Due: July 1, 2019 (by 5 pm ET)
Submitting a Mandatory Letter of Intent
Faculty members interested in applying are required to submit a letter of intent (LOI) by the deadline specified above. If interest exceeds the number of submissions the university is allowed, an internal competition will be held. Typically, all investigators that submit an LOI will be invited to submit an internal proposal.- Access the LOI form.
- Name the LOI as follows: “LastName-FirstInitial-ADA-Pathway-2019”, replacing “LastName” with your last name and “First Initial” with your first initial.
- Submit your LOI by completing this web form. Note: Supplemental documents are not accepted.
- To receive a confirmation email and copy of your submission, check the box (“Send me a copy of my responses”) and enter your email address.
- Click “Submit”.
Collaboration Opportunities
The Office of Research Development offers assistance in identifying and facilitating collaborations, putting together interdisciplinary teams, programmatic and administrative development of large, cross-school proposals, and leveraging institutional resources for outreach and education.
Contact Nicole Moore (nicole.moore@northwestern.edu), Director, for more information.
Contact and Additional Information
Karen Cielo, Senior Associate Director
847-467-0043
Please visit the ORD website for up to date information on research funding opportunities and resources. Also, follow them on Twitter.