Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center - Call for Proposals

Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC)

Developmental Projects for Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease related disorders (AD/ADRD) ($250,000)

Deadline: Monday November 15, 2021

Amount of funding and budget information:

Applicants may request up to $250K in direct costs for two years (range, one-to-three years) under this program. The Stanford ADRC plans to fund two developmental projects this year. The budget period is anticipated to begin 04/01/2022 (however may be later, pending NIA approval).

Eligibility:

All Stanford faculty (UTL, UML, NTL-Research, CE). Awards are intended primarily for junior faculty investigators, but senior faculty investigators whose research is primarily in areas other than AD/ADRD are eligible, as are senior postdoctoral fellows or instructors transitioning to an academic position (or the equivalent). The expectation is that proposed research will allow the investigator to develop preliminary data sufficient for the basis of an application for independent support. An investigator is eligible only once for development project support. You do not have to submit your applications through your RPM.

Senior ADRC faculty are not eligible to submit applications but may be included as unfunded collaborators.

Note: a PI waiver will be required for non-faculty successful applicants. PI waivers would need to be approved by the appropriate schools or Dean of Research. For School of Medicine PIs, requests must be made to the Research Management Group (RMG). For PIs outside of the school of Medicine, the individual must work with their school dean’s office. Postdoctoral fellows in senior, academic trajectory can apply as PI if Co-PI is faculty advisor/mentor who is UTL, UML, NTL-Research, CE) who will in turn be responsible for all oversight, budget and reporting requirements of the project.

Purpose:

The Stanford ADRC focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body disease, and healthy aging. Proposals should describe innovative basic, clinical, behavioral, translational, epidemiologic, caregiving, or educational research likely to advance the understanding of the basic and clinical underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease and related cognitive disorders (including Lewy body neurocognitive disorders); aid in prevention or treatment; or enhance caregiving, community outreach and education. Preference is given to proposals that use data and resources from the Stanford ADRC, including clinical data; biological specimens (e.g., blood, DNA, CSF, stool microbiome, skin fibroblasts, autopsy tissues), imaging data (including structural MR and amyloid-PET), and biostatistical resources; or that use data and resources of the National Alzheimer Coordinating Center (https://www.alz.washington.edu/), National Centralized Repository for AD (NCRAD) (https://ncrad.iu.edu/), and the National Institute on Aging Genetics of AD Data Storage (NIAGADS), (https://www.niagads.org/). *Please be sure to address type of ADRC resources and how such resources will be used in your proposal.

This funding mechanism is intended to allow an investigator the opportunity to develop robust preliminary data sufficient to provide the basis for an application for independent research support from the NIH or other agency.  Developmental project grants are designed for 1) junior faculty level investigators and 2) for more senior investigators who have experience in areas other than Alzheimer’s disease or Lewy body research, and who want to work in the Alzheimer research field broadly defined or want to try a new hypothesis, method, or approach that is not an extension of ongoing Alzheimer or Lewy body research.

Contact/Questions:

Programmatic questions should be directed to Dr. Katrin Andreasson, chair of the Developmental Project Review Committee (kandreas@stanford.edu), administrative questions to Nusha Askari (askarin@stanford.edu), Senior Administrator of the ADRC.

If selected and funded:

Funding is contingent upon receipt of all required documents and protocols, and verification of approved protocols should be submitted to Nusha Askari at the ADRC. An annual report and final progress report in NIH format will also be due to Nusha Askari. A presentation to the ADRC team and presentation of progress is required, usually at the time of the annual site visit of the ADRC External Advisory Board.

Selection process:

The ADRC Developmental Project Review Committee will review and recommend action on all Developmental Project applications. You will receive a notification of selection by early January 2022.

The goal is to bring in junior faculty and senior faculty not currently working in AD/ADRD research, and our review process prioritizes these groups. We will consider other applicants as well, depending on the number of quality applications we receive. 

Note: the release of funds after selection is contingent upon formal approval of the National Institute on Aging and verification by ADRC of the recipient's human subject, SCRO, and animal subject approvals and compliance with other administrative issues.