The mission of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) is to understand the causes of autism and thereby improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this and related developmental disorders. To this end, we solicit applications for SFARI Awards from individuals who will conduct bold, imaginative, rigorous research relevant to this spectrum of prevalent disorders.
A deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying Autism Spectrum Disorders will require approaches at multiple levels of analysis, including but not limited to studies focused on gene discovery, molecular mechanisms and cognition and behavior. We will consider proposals at all of these levels.
We seek applications from independent investigators who can devote a substantial portion of time to this effort (a minimum of 15%). We will also accept collaborative grants involving multiple investigators.
Collaboration among Simons Investigators is encouraged. Applicants are strongly advised to familiarize themselves with the work currently supported by SFARI and to think how their proposals might complement existing grants. We also encourage researchers to apply who may not currently be working on autism, but who have skills that could be brought to bear on this complex research agenda.
Access to the Simons Simplex Collection, a resource of rigorously characterized phenotypic data and biomaterials, will be available to all scientists, and will be available without charge for Simons Investigators. In the same spirit, we will expect Simons Investigators to share reagents and data developed with Simons Foundation funds (see Simons Foundation Policy).
Investigators may submit three types of applications:
SFARI Pilot Awards: Junior and senior investigators who are new to the field of autism should consider applying for a pilot grant to support activities that will lead to the formulation of competitive grant applications. SFARI Pilot Awards provide support for two years. Receiving support for a pilot grant does not guarantee support for future grants from the Simons Foundation.
SFARI Individual Awards: SFARI Individual Awards provide resources to work on an experimental hypothesis for which enough preliminary data has already been gathered. SFARI Individual Awards provide support for three years.
SFARI Project Awards: SFARI Project Awards provide resources for multiple labs to work on an experimental hypothesis for which enough preliminary data has already been gathered and the expertise of the collaborators in the field has already been proven. These awards are appropriate for projects focused on a central hypothesis where success depends on close collaboration between two or more labs. SFARI Project Awards provide support for three years.
The Simons Foundation will support applications for a maximum of:
The Simons Foundation's salary support guidelines are identical to those set by the National Institutes of Health for faculty, trainees, and students. The Simons Foundation reserves the right to modify budgets when an application has been selected for an award.
All applicants and key collaborators must hold a PhD, MD, or equivalent degree and have a faculty position or equivalent at a college, university, medical school, or other research facility. Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign non-profit organizations, public and private institutions, such as colleges, universities, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local government, and eligible agencies of the federal government. For profit organizations will not be considered. There are no citizenship or country requirements.
Applications must be completed electronically and submitted using forms provided on the proposalCENTRAL website at proposalcentral.altum.com. Please log in as an applicant, scroll to Simons Foundation and click on the program. For customer service inquiries, please call 800-875-2562.
Prospective applicants must submit a letter of intent (LOI) using the LOI template via proposalcentral.altum.com . The deadline for LOI submission is January 8, 2009, 5:00 PM EST.
The LOI should be no more than 3 pages long (including any figures and references) and should include:
Applicants are strongly encouraged not to devote too much space to the Introduction: there is no need to provide a scholarly review of autism.
Please note that Letters of Intent exceeding the 3-page limit will not be reviewed.
Successful LOI applicants will be notified by February 13, 2009 and will be invited to submit a Full Proposal. Only then will applicants have access to the Full Application instructions on proposalCENTRAL.
Applicants will receive notification regarding approval of the Letter of Intent. If your LOI is approved, you will be invited to submit a full proposal via proposalCENTRAL.
The deadline for Full Proposal submission is March 23, 2009, 5:00pm EST.
Full Proposals should include:
Please note that Full Proposals exceeding the 8-page limit will not be reviewed.
A committee of peers will review applications. Reviewers will consider excellence of science, relevance to autism and appropriateness of budget. See the scientific review board for a list of previous reviewers. The Simons Foundation Board of Directors makes final funding decisions.
Grants selected for SFARI Awards will be announced on June 15, 2009 and funding will begin July 1, 2009.
grants@simonsfoundation.org
800-875-2562
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