Autism Speaks - Autism Research Grants

Autism Speaks invites both Full- and Pilot-Level Basic & Clinical research grant applications to conduct innovative biomedical and behavioral research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and dissemination of evidence-based practices for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Autism Speaks supports global biomedical research into the diagnosis, causes, prevention, and treatment of autism or its disabling symptoms. Autism Speaks provides funding along the entire research continuum -- from discovery to development to translation and dissemination -- for innovative projects that hold considerable promise for significantly improving the lives of persons with autism.

Autism Speaks research funding will be restricted to projects that address one of the following priorities:
·         Understand environmental risk factors and their interaction with genetic susceptibility to enable prevention and improve diagnosis and treatment
·         Discover biomarkers that can improve risk assessment and subtype stratification that will allow for an individualized approach to treatment
·         Improve quality of life through more effective medicines, behavioral interventions, and technologies

 

            Enhance diagnosis and treatment of underserved and under-studied populations, specifically, nonverbal persons with ASD, ethnically-diverse and/or low resource communities, adults, and those with medical co-morbidities.

Pilot-Level Awards must satisfy one or more of the following requirements:
·         Employ innovative, novel and/or untested basic or clinical biomedical and behavioral research, which if successful, will advance emerging or transforming areas of research on the causes, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and/or cure of autism spectrum disorders
·         Develop preliminary data necessary to expand or develop a research program and/or submit a competitive basic & clinical grant application to a major funding agency (e.g., NIH, NSF, CDC etc.) or the equivalent
·         Come from beginning principal investigators with demonstrated potential for and a commitment to autism research
·         Come from established investigators with expertise and experience in other (non-autism) areas of research that are relevant and will be applied directly to research on autism spectrum disorders.

Full-Level Awards must satisfy the following requirements:
·         A well-developed research project from established or beginning principal investigators with demonstrated potential for and a commitment to autism research
·         Build on existing and/or pilot-level feasibility data to further investigate basic or clinical biomedical and behavioral research, which if successful, will advance emerging or transforming areas of research on the causes, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and/or cure of autism.