Grants

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Guidelines for Applicants

Purpose of grants: Proposed research projects must be related to the mission of this research grant. This grant focuses on to improve the outlook for children by understand genetic, nutritional and environmental impacts on children’s brain development and cognition, during both prenatal and postnatal stages through basic and clinical research.

Description of grants: A competitive yearly grants program is a core component of the initiative is to provide seed funding to both young and established investigator for the most promising projects related to brain development research. The program will distribute $1M each year for five years (2024-2028) and support 5-10 projects every year.

Eligibility

  1. Principal investigator (PI) must be an employee of Boston Children’s Hospital; starting from the second year, request for proposals (RFP) will open to outside investigators in collaboration with one or more Boston Children's Hospital investigators.
  2. Projects must advance the goals of the initiative and have clear and measurable aims and outcomes.
  3.  Budget is $75,000-$100,000 yearly for no more than two years, including 20% institutional indirect costs.
  4. PIs must be willing to present their findings at an annual symposium and/or in a seminar, together with a semiannual report of project progress.

Process: The initial application will consist of a 2-page letter of intent (LOI). The project coordinator(s) will collect the LOI and forward them to the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for review and recommendation of grant recipients. Once the LOI meets the criteria of the grant, an official full application will send back to the applicant for execution.

Letter of intent: For research proposals, the LOI consists of 1-2 pages of the hypothesis and specific aims. The aims should include a brief description of the research design and methods. All LOI applications must be submitted to FeihePF@childrens.harvard.edu. An email confirmation of receipt will be returned to the applicant. The LOI must be received by 5 pm on May 8th, 2026.

Full applications must be invited following review of LOI. Requests for full applications will be sent out by May 18th, 2026. Full applications must be submitted in single spaced text, one-half inch margins, and no smaller than an 11-point font. Arial or Helvetica typeface is preferred. The primary applicant’s name must appear in the upper right-hand corner of each page. Proposal text must be limited to five pages (including figures but excluding references). Standard PHS 398 forms for budget, biosketch, other support, and resources may be used.

Required format: Applications must be submitted electronically. Send a single PDF file of assembled proposal to FeihePF@childrens.harvard.edu

Composition of research proposal: Invited research proposals should include to following elements:

  1. Cover page
  2. Abstracts (scientific and lay, 1 page limit)
  3. Budget (1 page)
  4. Budget justification
  5. Biosketch(es)(include PI and co-investigators; NIH format or Harvard CV)
  6. Other support page (list pending and current support only)
  7. Research plan (5 page limit, not including references)
    1. Specific aims
    2. Background and significance
    3. Preliminary results or, if 2nd year renewal, progress report
    4. Research plan
    5. Statement of how proposal supports the initiative mission and research priorities 
    6. *Statement of commercialization potential, including any issues of intellectual property (*optional)
    7. Literature cited
  8. Letter of support from department/program chief
  9. *Letters of support from collaborators or consultants, limit of 2 letters (*optional)
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