Bridge to Independence Award Program

Note: This is not a limited submission and is being announced as a courtesy only

SFARI is invested in supporting the next generation of top autism researchers. The Bridge to Independence Award program promotes talented early-career scientists by facilitating their transition to research independence and providing grant funding at the start of their professorships at a U.S. or Canadian research institution.

Annual Request for applications (RFA) open each spring and are aimed at senior postdoctoral fellows who intend to seek tenure-track faculty positions during the upcoming academic year. Awardees will receive a commitment of $495,000 over three years, activated upon assumption of a tenure-track professorship.

BTI grants are awarded through a multi-stage process. The first stage is a competitive process in which Letters of Intent (LOIs) are reviewed by the SFARI science team and an external scientific panel. BTI awardees are selected at the end of stage one. Upon notification, awardees have one year to secure a tenure-track professorship at an academic institution in the U.S. or Canada and submit an approval application. Review of the approval application is a non-competitive, internal process intended to confirm that the awardee has secured an academic research position and adequate institutional resources to accomplish the Bridge to Independence research proposal. After the Simons Foundation accepts the approval application, awardees will receive a commitment of $495,000 over three years, awarded through their faculty appointment institution.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must hold a Ph.D., M.D. or equivalent degree
• Applicants must have fewer than six (6) years of postdoctoral or otherwise mentored training.
• Applicants must be currently in non-independent, mentored, training positions, as recognized by their institution. The following guidelines should be used to distinguish independent from non-independent positions (modified from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) K99/R00 program announcement eligibility section):
  
  Evidence for non-independence may include:
• The applicant’s research is entirely funded by another investigator’s grants.
• The applicant’s research is conducted entirely in another investigator’s assigned space.
• According to institutional policy, the applicant is not allowed to submit an application for an NIH research grant (e.g., R01) or SFARI grant (e.g, Pilot, Research, and Targeted awards) as the principal investigator (PI).

Conversely, evidence for independence, and therefore lack of eligibility, includes:

• The applicant has a full-time faculty position. Exception: A clinician who holds a faculty member position in order to fulfill their clinical responsibilities but who does not hold an independent research faculty position may still be eligible. Such individuals should contact the foundation to confirm their eligibility prior to submitting their applications.
• The applicant received a start-up package for support of his/her independent research
• The applicant has research space dedicated to his/her own research.
• The applicant is eligible to apply for independent research funding as the PI of an NIH research grant (e.g., R01) or SFARI grant (e.g, R01) or SFARI grant (e.g, Pilot, Research, and Targeted awards)

• Applicants must be actively seeking a tenure-track position at a U.S. or Canadian institution of higher education during the 2019-2020 academic year.
• Applicants are not eligible if they are recipients of other career development awards with similar budgetary scopes as the SFARI Bridge to Independence Award. These include, but are not limited to:
• NIH K99/R00 (please note that other K awardees may be eligible, e.g., recipients of K01 and K08) Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists
• American Academy of Neurology Career Development Award
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hanna H. Gray fellowship

You are strongly encouraged to contact SFARI before applying if you believe your career development award is comparable to the BTI Award but it is not listed above.

• Applicants must not have accepted a formal offer for a tenure-track faculty position.
• There are no citizenship requirements.

All potential applicants with questions about eligibility are strongly encouraged to contact SFARI at sfarigrants@simonsfoundation.org before submitting an application.

Level and Duration of Funding

The principal investigator (PI) will receive research support at a fixed rate of $495,000 over three (3) years, including 20 percent for indirect costs (see SFARI policies). The award is administered through the institution at which the PI has a tenure-track faculty appointment. Awardees may defer submission of their approval application for up to one year after receiving their finalist notification in order to secure their faculty position. Funds may not be used toward the PI’s salary but may provide salary support for other laboratory personnel. Institutional start-up packages may not be reduced because of SFARI funding.

Application Instructions

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