Funding Opportunities

Open Programs

• Alpha-synuclein Seed Amplification Assay Program

  Objective:

  This program supports research that will facilitate integration of alpha-synuclein seed amplification assays into clinical studies for the purposes of predicting prognosis, tracking disease progression and monitoring therapeutic response.

  Award Amount:

  $3M for Total Program

  Due Date:

  September 13, 2021

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• Therapeutic Pipeline Program: Pre-clinical Studies

  Objective:

  This funding program — an Edmond J. Safra Core Program for PD Research — will support development of Parkinson’s disease (PD) therapeutics with potential for fundamentally altering disease course or significantly improving non-motor or motor symptoms.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $500,000

  Due Date:

  Pre-proposals Due: September 28, 2021

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• Target Advancement: Tool Generation and Target Validation

  Objective:

  This funding program — an Edmond J. Safra Core Program for PD Research — seeks to build conclusive evidence and develop field-enabling tools around early-stage biological targets in Parkinson’s disease (PD).

  Award Amount:

  Up to $200,000

  Due Date:

  Pre-proposals Due: September 28, 2021

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• Cellular Phenotyping in Human iPSCs

  Objective:

  This program will support phenotyping of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from our Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). Such work will facilitate future mechanistic studies and expedite drug screening and proof-of-concept testing for Parkinson’s therapeutics.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $200,000 (data analysis) or up to $1 million (phenotypic analysis)

  Due Date:

  September 28, 2021

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• Parkinson’s Pathway Molecular Data Analysis

  Objective:

  This funding program will support high-impact projects that utilize existing data resources to increase molecular understanding of Parkinson’s disease (PD), correlate biological changes to clinical/other outcomes, and more deeply interrogate disrupted pathways in PD.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $350,000

  Due Date:

  Pre-proposals Due: September 28, 2021

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• MRI Biomarkers: Data Analysis and Tool Generation

  Objective:

  This funding program will support studies to develop reproducible diagnostic, prognostic, and monitoring magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarkers.

  Award Amount:

  $5M for Total Program

  Due Date:

  Pre-proposals Due: September 28, 2021

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• The Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders

  Objective:

  The Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders aims to grow the global base of movement disorder specialists — neurologists with additional training in Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders — by training movement disorder clinician-researchers who can provide expert care and lead scientific advances.

  Award Amount:

  $90,000 per fellow per year

  Due Date:

  December 9, 2021

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Programs in Review

• Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Parkinson’s Disease Research

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation seeks applications with the potential to increase knowledge about Parkinson’s disease in populations that have been excluded from or underrepresented in research.

  Award Amount:

  $50,000 up to $400,000 for 18 to 36 months

  Due Date:

  Pre-Proposals: April 2021

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• ASAP Collaborative Research Network: Circuitry and Brain-body Interactions

  

  Objective:

  The ASAP Collaborative Research Network, a program of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative being implemented through The Michael J. Fox Foundation, seeks to support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams to address key knowledge gaps in the basic mechanisms that contribute to Parkinson’s development and progression.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $9 million

  Due Date:

  Pre-proposals Due: December 2020

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• Therapeutic Pipeline Program

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation seeks applications with potential for fundamentally altering disease course and/or significantly improving treatment of symptoms above and beyond current standards of care.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $500,000 (pre-clinical) or up to $2 million (clinical)

  Due Date:

  Pre-Proposals Due: October 2020

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• Target Advancement Program

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation seeks applications that leverage and translate basic research to enable therapeutic development.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $150,000 for 18 to 24 months

  Due Date:

  Pre-Proposals Due: October 2020

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• Development and Validation of Improved Outcome Measures

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) seeks applications to develop objective biomarkers that can support therapeutic development in Parkinson’s.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $750,000 for up to two years

  Due Date:

  Pre-Proposals Due: October 2020

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• Analysis of Patient-Reported Outcomes from Fox Insight

  Objective:

  This Request for Applications (RFA) seeks to fund analyses of the patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and genetic data collected through the Fox Insight study.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $100,000 for one year grants

  Due Date:

  Pre-Proposals Due: October 2020

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• PIPETTE: 4R Tau and Alpha-Synuclein PET Tracer Development

  Objective:

  The PIPETTE Consortium (Philanthropic Investments in PET TracErs) is a funding partnership formed in 2017 by The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Rainwater Charitable Foundation (conveners of the Tau Consortium).

  Award Amount:

  Total funding available is $1 million

  Due Date:

  Pre-Proposals Due: October 2020

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Closed Programs

• Investigating Environmental Factors that Increase the Risk for Parkinson’s Disease

  Objective:

  This funding program supported projects to investigate environmental exposures, such as chemicals or toxic emissions, that increase the risk of PD and/or influence disease progression.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $400,000 for up to two years

  Due Date:

  Awarded Spring 2021

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• Occupational Therapy in Parkinson’s Disease Intervention

  Objective:

  This program seeks to fund research to investigate occupational therapy interventions in Parkinson's disease.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $100,000

  Due Date:

  Awarded February 2021

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• Accelerating Publication of Parkinson’s Disease Replication Data

  Objective:

  To address the bias toward the publication of novel positive results, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease (JPD) invite researchers to “open their notebooks” and submit unpublished results from experiments that attempted to replicate previously published findings from other laboratories.

  Award Amount:

  Manuscripts passing peer review will be published in JPD

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• Parkinson’s Pathway Biomarkers

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation seeks applications with the potential to develop new/better biomarkers for measuring pathway function or dysfunction that can support therapeutic development for affected pathways in Parkinson’s disease (PD).

  Award Amount:

  Up to $300,000

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• ASAP Collaborative Research Network

  

  Objective:

  The ASAP Collaborative Research Network, a program of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative being implemented through The Michael J. Fox Foundation, seeks to support international, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams to address key knowledge gaps in the basic disease mechanisms that contribute to Parkinson’s development and progression.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $9 million

  Due Date:

  Awarded Fall 2020

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• Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition

  

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation has prioritized alpha-synuclein imaging as the most likely imaging approach to have an impact for therapeutic development. The goal of this $10-million funding program is to deliver a selective alpha-synuclein PET tracer for use in clinical studies.

  Award Amount:

  Initial $8.5M Total with Additional Future $1.5M

  Due Date:

  Awarded Summer 2020

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• BEAT-PD (Biomarker and Endpoint Assessment to Track Parkinson’s Disease) DREAM Challenge

  Objective:

  BEAT-PD is a data challenge designed to benchmark new methods to predict Parkinson’s disease progression. Specifically, its objective is to determine whether disease severity and progression can be assessed from passive sensor data collected during daily life.

  Award Amount:

  Winners share a $25,000 prize

  Due Date:

  Awarded Spring 2020

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• Use of Parkinson’s Disease Biosamples

  Objective:

  The Michael J. Fox Foundation seeks to facilitate access and use of our cohort biosamples. Applicants could request these human biosamples and associated grant funding for target validation or biomarker development programs.

  Award Amount:

  Up to $300,000

  Due Date:

  Awarded Spring 2020

  Learn more