Award Focus

The purpose of this program is to encourage the development of researchers in child health by awarding small grants to new researchers, helping them gain a foothold in this important area. The goal is to fund applicants who will go on to be independent investigators. The Fund will make up to 32 awards total with two funding cycles (16 awards each).

Research Interests

The Fund is open to a wide variety of research topics. We do not focus on a particular ​disease, but all our funded projects deal directly with children's health.

In the Early Career Award Program, the Fund is particularly interested in applicants that show great potential to impact that field of children's health through medical research. Both an applicant's aptitude and inclination toward research are considered. The quality of the mentor and the mentoring relationship are also considered to be important predictors of success.

Budge​t Guidelines

The grant amount is based on the actual budgetary needs of the project, with a maximum of $25,000 in direct costs for the entire grant. The duration of the project can be up to two years. Indirect costs of no more than 7% of direct costs will be paid on Early Career Award Program grants, for a maximum total budget of $26,750.

Up to $12,500 in total of the proposed budget may be used for salary (including fringe) of the new researcher. Funds not needed for salary are to be used for research supplies or other research-related expenses.

The cost of attending conferences are allowed for the applicant to report findings resulting from Thrasher-supported research. Such travel costs may not exceed $2,000.

Publication costs are allowed with a cap of $2,500.

Tuition is allowed on a case by case basis for high level, specific courses or training programs pertaining to the grant aims. Requests need approval from the fund and require justification.

Requests for purchase of major equipment (single items >$4,000) are discouraged and rarely funded.

Those eligible to apply include:

1. Physicians who are in a residency/fellowship training program, or who completed that program no more than one year before the Concept Paper deadline.

2. Post-doctoral researchers who received the doctoral level degree no more than three years before the Concept Paper deadline.

Selection Criteria

Applicant

Applicants who excel in this category have demonstrated commitment to a research career that will find solutions to children's health problems. These applicants should demonstrate the potential to eventually become independent principal investigators.

This is judged in part by

1. Publication record relative to where the applicant is in training
2. The applicant's role in developing the research project
3. Prior funding, grants, and recognitions

Mentor

This is judged in part by

1. History of successful funding
2. Publication record
3. Expertise in the topical area
4. Mentoring track-record
5. History of working with the applicant

Research Question

All applications are expected to have a novel, scientifically sound, hypothesis-driven approach. Projects should be feasibly accomplished between 1-2 years.

Distance to Applicability

In the Discovery/Development/Delivery paradigm, most of our grants fall into the Development category, though excellent applicants in the Discovery and Delivery categories are occasionally funded.

Discovery: Mechanis​ms and pathways, biomarker target identification, gene identification, descriptive '-omics

Development: Therapeutics, interventions, diagnostics, clinically relevant biomarker validation

Delivery: Implementation science, operations research, health services, quality improvement

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