We are pleased to announce the availability of funding to support pilot projects relevant to elucidating the causes of and/or developing potential new therapies for intellectual or developmental disabilities. These pilot projects may be basic, translational, or clinical research. The goals of this program are to help junior faculty integrate into the IDDRC and to develop strong externally funded research programs in this area.

This program was previously supported as part of the Institutional Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at CHOP/Penn with funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) when the Center was supported as a P30 mechanism (see attached list of prior awardees). With the most recent competitive renewal, the mechanism switched to a U54 and the New Program Development was excluded from eligibility. Thankfully, Drs. Bryan Wolf and Jonathan Epstein agreed to provide funding so that the program could be reinstated.

This year, we anticipate making 3 awards of up to $50,000 per year for two years. The second year of support is contingent upon demonstration of adequate progress. Applications will be reviewed by a subgroup of the IDDRC Steering Committee.

Eligibility Requirements:

Individuals must hold a faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor for less than four years from the date of appointment by July 1, 2018 even if the initial appointment was at another institution. Academic Clinicians are not eligible for this award. None of the funding can be used to support the salary of the Principal Investigator (support for salaries of technical staff and trainees is acceptable). K awardees are encouraged to develop projects that are non-overlapping extensions of their funded K awards (the goal will be to subsume the effort required for the pilot project under the K award). All others will need to commit a reasonable percentage of effort to the pilot project (generally 5-10%). This will be cost-sharing supported by either the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia or the University of Pennsylvania (presumably from start-up funds).