2026 Wu Tsai Neuroscience:Translate Award Program

Component Details

1. Cover Page (1 page). Must include:

• Project title
• co-PIs (names, contact info, department, appointment type)
• Team members; admin/finance contacts; funding request
• IRB/APLAC status; OTL docket # & licensing associate
• Lay Summary (≤250 words, plain-language project description, which may be shared with the public/media for awarded teams).

2. Body of Proposal (≤5 pages). Must include:

• Importance to Neuro Health: Describe the significance of the project to neuroscience or brain health and the envisioned product or service.
• Clinical/User Need & Impacted Population: Summarize the need being addressed, who will benefit, and potential improvements in outcomes, cost, or access.
• Current Stage of Technology: Provide evidence of the development stage, including key data or prototypes.
• Competitor Landscape: Identify main competitors or alternative approaches and what differentiates your solution.
• Intellectual Property: State IP status and summarize interactions with the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL).
• Translational Plan: Outline milestones by quarter, regulatory path, and reimbursement considerations.
• Risks & Mitigations: Identify the major risks (technical, clinical, IP, or market) and describe strategies to address them.
• Follow-on Funding: Describe anticipated next steps and plans for securing future support to advance translation or commercialization.

3. Plan to Build and Maintain an Inclusive Training and Work Environment (~½ page per applicant). Each applicant should address at least two of the prompts below (mentorship, career support, conflict resolution, etc.).

• Provide one example of a practice that you have employed or plan to employ in your lab to ensure there is a collaborative and supportive research and training environment. Examples include but are not limited to: personally going through training on mentorship/coaching, and/or seeking leadership coaching, and/or developing cultural awareness in order to be able to equitably support trainees from a breadth of backgrounds and personal experiences; creating and using a “lab manual” to make expectations about “succeeding in academia” transparent; etc.
• Provide one example of how you have supported your trainees in their transition to their next career stage. Examples include, but are not limited to: admission to a graduate program; transition to a career outside of academia; application for a postdoc job or a faculty job; etc.
• Provide one example of how you have dealt with conflict in the lab.
• Provide an example of how your work has improved or is improving the training environment at Stanford overall.

4. Budget & Justification (1–2 pages). The total budget may be up to $100,000 - $120,000 in direct costs for one year. Allowable costs include trainee/staff salaries, supplies, prototyping, core/imaging services, participant costs, project-specific software, non-capital equipment (<$5k/item), and milestone-related travel. Not allowable: admin staff, capital equipment (≥$5k), general-purpose IT.  Complete the budget using the Wu Tsai N:T budget template: create a copy of the budget template by clicking this link, complete the budget and justification, save it as pdf and submit it with the rest of the application. 

5. Biosketches: Provide biosketches (≤5 pages each) for co-PIs only. List other team members and their roles on the cover page; biosketches are not required for team members.

6. References and Supporting Details:

• Relevant supporting literature
• Regulatory Approvals: IRB or APLAC protocols (or exemptions) must be provided before funding release; delays will not justify no-cost extensions
• Current & Pending Support: List all related funding (dilutive and non-dilutive) for each co-PI
• OTL Disclosure: If not already disclosed, submit an invention disclosure to OTL by the deadline. SEE THE INVENTOR DISCLOSURE PAGE LOCATED ON THE OTL SITE

Formatting Details

The body of the grant proposal should not exceed 5 pages (>0.75” margins, at least 11 pt font). This page limit does not include the following: cover page, funding and pending proposal list, brief biosketch, references, budget and plan to build and maintain an inclusive training and work environment.

Renewal proposals/applications

Renewal applications will be evaluated on a competitive basis during the same review process as new applications. In addition to the content outlined above, a renewal application must include a brief comparison of milestones achieved vs. those planned in the original submission. 

Contact

Questions? Please contact Program Manager, Linda Lucian: llucian@stanford.edu.

Submit proposals by Monday, October 20th, 11:59PM, as a single PDF to Linda Lucian llucian@stanford.edu with the following naming convention: Last name PI_Last name PI_2026_WuTsaiNeuro