Slots: 1 faculty member (Assistant or Associate Professor)
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, October 4th, 2024, 5pm PT Closed.
LOI: November 19, 2024, 4pm CST.
External Deadline: March 27, 2025, 4pm CST
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Anticipated Award Amount: Each total grant is limited to $80,000 (direct costs) for a two year grant period. The first grant payment of $40,000 will be made upon completion of the Seed Grant Acceptance Form (June 2025). The final payment of $40,000 will be made contingent upon receipt of a preliminary progress and financial report (June 2026). Funds must be utilized within the grant period.
Who May Serve as PI: To be eligible, PI must be a full-time Assistant or Associate Professor at an invited US academic institution, working in the area of studies of brain function. This includes molecular and clinical neuroscience as well as studies of neural, sensory, motor, cognitive, behavioral and emotional functioning in health and disease. The grant proposal must detail a new research project that is not funded by other sources. This grant is not to be used as bridge funding.
Investigators at institutions that are affiliated with a medical school or university are eligible to apply only through the institution where they hold a full-time faculty position.
Scientists that have previously received a BRF Seed Grant may not receive the award for a second time unless all grant requirements from all previous awards are met. Only one PI may apply per application.
Ineligibility: 1.) PI is ineligible if they are not a full-time faculty member at the institution in which they are applying under.
2.) PI is ineligible if they are a Full Professor.
3.) PI is ineligible if they are a research assistant professor or research associate professor.
4.) PI is ineligible to submit more than one BRF Seed Grant proposal in a funding period.
5.) PI is ineligible if they have BRF funding that will overlap this grant period.
6.) PI is ineligible if they have been awarded prior BRF funding, but have failed to submit progress and financial reports at the end of their grant period.
7.) PI is ineligible if they are a member of the BRF Scientific Review Committee.
8.) PI is ineligible if they are a relative of BRF a representative, including the SRC, as defined by the Foundation.
Link to Award: https://www.thebrf.org/seed-grants/
Link to Guidelines: https://www.thebrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2025-SG-Guidelines.pdf
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The objective of the BRF Seed Grant Program is to support new and innovative projects, especially those of junior faculty, who are working in new research directions. BRF Seed Grant awards are not intended to supplement existing grants.
Brain Research Foundation’s Annual Seed Grant Program was initiated in 1981. The purpose of our program is to provide start-up monies for new research projects in the field of neuroscience that will likely lead to extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other outside funding sources.
Funding Specifics:
Funding is to be directed at pilot research projects that are both innovative and will likely lead to successful grant applications to NIH and other public and private funding entities.
Assistant Professor – Junior faculty with a new research project that will generate pilot data that will lead to RO1 funding or a comparable outside grant will be first priority.
• Must provide abstract and specific aims for current grants and indicate if there is any overlap.
Associate Professor – Faculty who are pursuing new research directions.
• Must explain how the project is a new research direction.
• Must provide abstract and specific aims for current grant(s) and indicate if there is any overlap
A new technique is not considered a new direction unless it pertains to a different area of
study.
Grants are NOT to be used for bridge funding between grants.
Budgetary Requirements:
100% of these BRF Seed Grant funds must be utilized for direct costs.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.