Office of Research
Scientific Innovations Award
Brain Research Foundation is pleased to invite your institution to nominate one senior faculty member to submit a Letter of Intent for the 2026 Scientific Innovations Award (SIA). The program's objective is to support projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings. It is expected that investigations supported by these grants will yield high-impact findings and result in major grant applications and funding as well as significant publications in high-impact journals.
The nominee must be a full-time associate professor/full professor working in neuroscience, neurology, neurobiology, physiology, psychiatry, psychology, or related disciplines, proposing scientific projects with a focus on brain health and disease, including cancer. Current major NIH or other peer-reviewed funding is preferred but evidence of such funding in the past three years is essential. The grant period is for two years, totaling $150,000. The support focus is for new research projects of the highest scientific merit.
Application Instructions
Please submit as one combined pdf labeled with PI’s Lastname, Firstname:
- A one‐page letter of intent with a description of proposed aims and approach.
- If the final application requires a diversity statement or statement of broader impacts, please summarize your plans to address the specific requirements on an additional page.
- CV (not biosketch) of the PI including past grant funding.
to limitedsubs@uw.edu by 5:00 PM Wednesday, April 30, 2025. The required LOI is due to the sponsor 6/3/2025 with an institutional signature, so you will need to have your materials in to the Office of Sponsored Programs by 5/22/2025 if given the go‐ahead by the review committee.
Inquiries and Contact Information
Investigators who identify a grant, award or fellowship program that restricts the number of applications that can be submitted from an Institution should immediately contact their Chairperson, Associate Dean for Research (or Dean, if no ADR) and the Office of Research (see below) if they intend to prepare a response. Failure to do so, or to meet the deadlines for submission of pre-proposal, will preclude submission of the application through the Office of Sponsored Programs.
For general inquiries, or to request a listing of a limited submission opportunity that should be but is not already listed, please email us at limitedsubs@uw.edu.