To ensure that our funding is as impactful as possible, SFARI will be undergoing a strategic planning process in the first half of 2024. We have thus adjusted our request for applications (RFA) schedule to ensure that the SFARI science team can devote sufficient time and energy to this effort. In 2024, we will hold the Bridge to Independence (BTI) RFA, and one call for Pilot Awards, in tandem with a call for continuation funding for former Pilot Award grantees whose projects have been successful. We will also hold a targeted RFA on Bridging Early Neurodevelopment and Emerging Neural Circuits, as well as a call for proposals for an updated version of SFARI Gene.

To further our goal of funding the best and most transformative research on autism, SFARI strives to strike a balance between open requests for grant applications (RFAs) on any autism-related topic and more targeted RFAs focused on top priorities identified by SFARI. In 2023, we will hold two calls for Pilot Awards and will reissue the Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science RFA and the Genomics of ASD RFA. We will also issue a call for projects that integrate the study of ASD-relevant behaviors across human and non-human species.

SFARI’s requests for grant applications (RFAs) underwent a number of changes in 2021. In 2022, we will largely continue on the course set last year. There will be a single call for Pilot Awards and new calls for the Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science and the Genomics of ASD RFAs.