New Ideas Award

The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, or SFARI, supports basic science aimed at advancing understanding of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. Through the New Ideas Award, SFARI seeks bold, imaginative, rigorous and relevant research that can establish new conceptual or experimental directions. The program is intentionally broad and permits research from any scientific discipline, methodology, experimental system or level of analysis, including studies involving humans. Applicants should make a compelling case for the relevance and potential of their proposed experiments to SFARI's mission. Investigators do not need prior experience in autism research, and researchers who have not previously received SFARI funding are especially encouraged to apply. The New Ideas Award is intended specifically for exploratory work testing novel hypotheses rather than extensions or continuations of ongoing projects funded by SFARI or other funders. Applicants are encouraged to challenge existing assumptions, introduce new frameworks and apply new tools or insights. Preliminary data are not required, although applications must contain enough information to demonstrate feasibility. Applicants should familiarize themselves with SFARI's existing funded projects and resources to avoid duplication. SFARI also makes research data, tools, cohorts and biospecimen resources available, including SPARK, Simons Searchlight and Research Match. Applicants proposing human autism or neurodevelopmental disorder research are strongly encouraged, but not required, to consider Research Match for participant recruitment. Awards may support projects for up to two years at a maximum of $300,000 per year, producing a maximum project budget of $600,000 over two years. The annual maximum includes 20 percent indirect costs. Allowable indirect costs to the primary institution for subcontracts are excluded from the total budget threshold. The mechanism may also support smaller projects and shorter-term efforts, and budgets are evaluated in relation to the proposed work and required level of commitment. Larger requested budgets receive increased scrutiny, and SFARI may request budget modifications during review. Funds are expected to be spent as requested during each annual budget period. No required cost share or matching contribution is stated in the provided material. Applicants and key collaborators must hold a Ph.D., M.D. or equivalent degree and have a faculty position or equivalent appointment at a college, university, medical school or other research facility. Postdoctoral associates cannot apply as principal investigators. Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign nonprofit organizations and public or private institutions including colleges, universities, hospitals and laboratories, as well as units of state and local government and eligible federal agencies. There are no general citizenship or country requirements, but the Simons Foundation and Simons Foundation International do not fund institutions in China, including Hong Kong, fiscal sponsors or agents of such institutions, subcontracts at those institutions, or consultants residing or working for institutions there. Simons Foundation employees, including Flatiron Institute employees, are also subject to stated application and project-funding restrictions. Applicants are limited to one application to this RFA per calendar year, regardless of their role, and unsuccessful applications from previous SFARI RFAs may not be resubmitted. Applications are submitted through Simons Award Manager, or SAM. Letters of intent are accepted on a rolling basis beginning April 29, 2026. The LOI is limited to two pages of single-spaced 11-point text with 0.5-inch margins, with up to three figures separately permitted outside the page limit. Required LOI materials include the LOI Narrative, personnel biosketches, Budget Justification, an abstract, and a data and/or renewable reagents sharing plan when applicable. The SAM submission also requires applicant and degree information, ORCID iD, project title, information concerning requested SFARI cohort data or biospecimens, and disclosure of generative AI use. Institutional sign-off is not required for the LOI. LOIs are internally reviewed by the SFARI science team, and applicants can anticipate an initial decision within three to four months after submission. Only a subset of LOI applicants will be invited to submit a full application. Invited applicants have four weeks to submit the full application, which is reviewed by the SFARI science team and, for most applications, external experts. Full applications include Specific Aims, Proposal Narrative, Resources and Research Environment, a detailed budget, publications and other support, organizational assurances when applicable, and additional information for human participant studies, personnel, data and renewable reagents, and multi-site or subcontract arrangements as applicable. The Proposal Narrative should address scientific background and relevance, feasibility or preliminary results where applicable, specific aims, experimental design, pitfalls and alternatives, future directions, timeline and milestones, and relevant methodological details. Full applications require institutional sign-off by the Signing Official before submission. The source does not state a fixed final closing date because LOIs are accepted on a rolling basis beginning April 29, 2026, and invited applicants receive four weeks to submit their full applications. Scientific questions may be directed to sciencerfa@simonsfoundation.org, administrative questions to sfarigrants@simonsfoundation.org, SFARI Data and Biospecimen Repository questions to sdbr@simonsfoundation.org, and technical assistance questions to samsupport@simonsfoundation.org. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. No named individual contact, fixed award notification date, number of awards or recurring annual cycle is stated in the supplied source.

Propose bold exploratory research that tests a novel hypothesis or opens a new conceptual or experimental direction; do not propose an extension or continuation of ongoing work; clearly establish relevance to autism, related neurodevelopmental disorders and SFARI's basic-science mission; preliminary data are not required but provide sufficient information to establish feasibility; review currently funded SFARI projects and resources to avoid duplication; applicants new to autism research should consult experts to ensure relevance to the human condition; where relevant, address controls, models, cohorts, datasets or biospecimens, statistical power, data analysis, pitfalls, alternatives, future directions, timeline and milestones