Reeve Foundation Individual Research Grants Program to Support Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Projects
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Individual Grants Program seeks to fund meritorious science that is targeted at developing effective therapies for paralysis and dysfunctions caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders.
The program was founded on the understanding that effective treatments for acute and chronic spinal cord injury will involve carefully orchestrated multidisciplinary interventions, each tailored to the individual patient. For this reason, the Individual Grants Program, the largest and most comprehensive of the Reeve Foundation's research initiatives, supports investigator-initiated research on a variety of fronts.
Funding priorities include studying strategies that may promote neuronal growth and survival, encourage the formation of synapses, enhance the production of myelin, restore conduction capabilities, or may otherwise lead to restoration of the compromised circuitry in the acutely and chronically injured spinal cord; evaluating the efficacy of drugs or other interventions that protect against secondary neuronal injury or provide insight into the mechanisms causing such damage; defining anatomical characteristics of spinal cord injury in well-defined animal models and in the human spinal cord, specifically documenting the neuronal systems that are most vulnerable to spinal cord injury and the functional losses occurring as a result; and elucidating the biological mechanisms underlying approaches to improve concomitant functions affected by spinal cord injury, (e.g., bladder function, sexual function) and alleviate chronic pain and spasticity.
The development of treatments for chronic injury is a high priority for the organization; however, funding will also be provided for studies more relevant to the acute phase of injury. Basic research will be supported if it has clear potential to accelerate progress at the applied end of the continuum and/or if it reflects a research "change of direction."
Proposals are evaluated based on scientific merit, relevance to the Reeve Foundation's research priorities, and promise for clinical application.
Applications will be accepted only from individuals who possess a Ph.D., M.D., or other equivalent professional degree and are employed at a qualifying research institution. Established scientists, young investigators (completed postdoc within last five years), and postdoctoral fellows may serve as principal investigators.
Two-year awards are available for senior scientists and young investigators with a maximum funding level of $75,000 per year. Postdoctoral fellowships are available with a maximum funding level of $60,000 per year. Indirect costs are limited to 10 percent of direct costs.
