Disease Model Award Grant

The Disease Model Award, funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, aims to advance research by developing and validating innovative non-rodent disease models for inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) and dry age-related macular degeneration (dAMD). Proposals should focus on enhancing the relevance of existing models, identifying therapeutic targets, and generating data for drug discovery. Funding ranges from $300,000 to $1,000,000 over 3 to 5 years, supporting research trainees and supplies.

The Disease Model Award is designed to advance the field by developing and validating innovative models to support the scientific community in accelerating discovery. Applications must focus on disease models and their validation. Proposals primarily centered on therapeutic development research are out of scope for this program and will not be reviewed. The goal is to develop, validate, or utilize non-rodent disease models (in silico, in vitro, or in vivo) for therapeutic development for IRD and dAMD. The award offers a total funding value ranging from $300,000 to $1,000,000, distributed over a period of 3 to 5 years.
The goal is to develop, validate, or utilize non-rodent disease models (in silico, in vitro, or in vivo) for therapeutic development for IRD and dAMD. Proposals should address one or more of the following objectives:
Develop new disease models relevant to inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) or dry age-related macular degeneration (dAMD).Improve or validate existing models to enhance their relevance to human disease.Utilize disease models to identify or validate therapeutic targets, drug discovery, and underlying disease mechanisms.Generate and share data that can be used for numerous applications, including high throughput screening of molecular tools or to evaluate drug candidates, accelerate treatments for IRD and dAMD.
Award:
The award offers a total funding value ranging from $300,000 to $1,000,000, distributed over a period of 3 to 5 years. The award may be used to support the salaries of research trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral or clinical fellows), technical staff, and research supplies.
Partial support for the Principal Investigator’s salary is permitted but is not to exceed 20% of the total annual award.