The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has invited UCI to submit 2 proposals for the Allen Distinguished Investigators (ADI) Program. The ADI Program seeks to fund a select group of investigators to pursue new, pioneering research that collectively ‘moves the needle’ towards answering broad scientific questions. The most promising proposals will incorporate novel, creative, and ambitious approaches. For this reason, the program is especially interested in proposals that are unlikely to receive funding from traditional government sources.
The 2014-15 request for proposals focuses on the basic biology of Alzheimer’s Disease. The foundation is seeking revolutionary new ideas to push the field in new directions or even to invent new fields of research, with an emphasis on the cellular biology on Alzheimer’s Disease. This call is limited to interdisciplinary teams that include researchers in the field of Alzheimer’s Disease paired with researchers in other fields (e.g. lipid biology, immunology, cerebro/vascular biology, bioenergetics, biostatistics, biomedical engineers, etc.).
Scientists at any stage of their career may apply. The Foundation has a particular interest in both supporting the careers of exceptional young scientists showing particular promise as thought leaders in their fields and supporting more established researchers with ambitious, high-risk ideas that could have a revolutionary impact in the field but remain outside the scope of traditional funding sources.
The Foundation expects to award between 5 and 7 projects with an average total funding of up to $1.5M for each, over a 3 year period.
Since UCI is limited to submitting only two proposals in response to this RFP, interested applicants are asked to submit a preliminary application to my office by November 7, 2014 (via email to or@research.uci.edu), with the following information:
- Project description (up to three pages),
- Preliminary budget,
- Bio sketches (no more than two pages each) of the primary researchers,
- Support letter from the Dean (or the equivalent in units without a Dean)
If necessary, an ad hoc committee will convene to review the preliminary proposals. The selected PI(s) will be notified in time to meet the Foundation’s January 30, 2015, deadline for full proposals.
For the available guidelines, please refer to the attached PDF. For more information about the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, visit: http://www.pgafamilyfoundation.org/. Questions about our internal campus review process may be directed to Greg Ruth at greg.ruth@uci.edu or x4-0372.
John C. Hemminger
Vice Chancellor for Research