Parkinson's - Michael J. Fox Foundation Funding Opportunities Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 ($ 4 million)

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) invites applications for its Therapeutic Pipeline Programme, Improved Biomarkers and Clinical Outcome Measures Programme and the Target Advancement Programme. Deadline to submit pre-proposals is May 27, 2015 for this year's fall session and October 28, 2015 for the spring sesson of 2016.

The Therapeutic Pipeline Program, part of the Edmond J. Safra Core Programmes for PD Research, supports Parkinson's disease therapeutic development along the pre-clinical and clinical path. MJFF seeks applications with potential for fundamentally altering disease course and/or significantly improving treatment of symptoms above and beyond current standards of care. Proposals must have a well-defined plan for moving toward clinical utility for patients. The Therapeutic Pipeline Program is open to industry and academic investigators proposing novel approaches or repositioning approved or clinically safe therapies from non-PD indications. MJFF will commit up to $10 million to The Edmond J. Safra Core Programmes with the intention to support multiple awards. There is no set budget limit for proposals.


With the Improved Biomarkers and Clinical Outcome Measures Programme MJFF seeks to support research that will develop improved biomarker tools and clinical outcome measures to assist in clinical trial design, execution and interpretation of results. Funding will be awarded to projects that improve the ability to enrich subject populations in clinical trials and/or determine whether experimental treatments are modifying the course of the disease, its symptoms or its progression. MJFF is also interested in supporting projects to determine target engagement/modulation and pharmacodynamic response, especially for high-priority therapeutic targets like alpha-synuclein, LRRK2, parkin and glucocerebrosidase.  MJFF intends to support multiple projects through this RFA and may fund up to $ 4 million for this program. There is no set budget limit for proposals;


The Target Advancement Programme, also part of the Edmond J. Safra Core Programmes seeks to build robust evidence to rationalize biological pathways and targets for further translation into new Parkinson's treatments. MJFF believes that a major hurdle in the development of promising treatments for Parkinson's disease is the lack of well-validated targets linked to the disease process. By promoting critical target validation studies within academic and industry laboratories, MJFF investments can de-risk subsequent drug development and ultimately accelerate the creation of innovative therapies for Parkinson's patients. The programme consisits of the following awards:
• Target Validation Pilot Awards: 1-year grants $ 100,000;

• Target Optimization Awards: 2-year grants $ 400,000;
• Priority Target Awards: 1-year grants $ 100,000.


The Michael J. Fox Foundation works tirelessly to accelerate promising research toward clinical testing and breakthroughs for Parkinson’s patients. The strong emphasis of the Foundation is on funding translational and clinical research. It also supports high-risk/high-reward discovery work to help keep new ideas flowing into the drug development pipeline.