Request for Applications — Research Grants

Applicants must have an M.D., Ph.D. or equivalent degree and hold a faculty appointment or equivalent at the institution where the research will be conducted at the time of award. Researchers are invited to apply from all over the world and do not need to be United States citizens. No fellowships will be awarded under this RFA, although salary support for personnel working on the project may be requested. Applicants may only submit one grant proposal per funding cycle.

Award amounts will equal $80,000 direct costs per year for two years, for a total grant award of $160,000 (or $240,000 for a three-year Young Investigator Award). Future-year funding is dependent upon the availability of funds and interim research progress. The funds awarded must be used solely for the purposes specified in the proposal submitted to and approved by the PKD Foundation as executed by the investigator and institution in strict compliance with the budget attached to the application. Please note the following restrictions on salary, travel and indirect costs:

• No Indirect Costs are paid on this award.
• No more than 50% of the Direct Costs ($40,000) may be used for the applicant’s or other personnel’s salary. Any use of the award for salary support must be justified in the application.*
• Consultant costs cannot exceed $10,000; equipment costs cannot exceed $12,000.
• No more than $1500 per year may be used for travel.
• Successful applicants may not hold any other research funding from the PKD Foundation at the time funding of this grant begins.
• Applicants with existing funding from other sources will be eligible to apply for this award as long as there is no scientific overlap between the new application and existing or anticipated funding.
• All current or potential funding must be disclosed at the time of application.

*Salary and equipment cost limitations may be waived on research involving epidemiology/data analysis research or other proposals requiring heavy personnel support. Please contact eliseh@pkdcure.org with details of your project to be considered.

The PKD Foundation strives to be transparent related to our decision-making processes. We rely on our grant review committees, who develop recommendations for funding, as well as the process we use as a Foundation to make funding decisions. Learn more here. 

An optional third year of support will be available to a young investigator(s). The recipient(s) will be selected from meritorious grant applications to support the transition of a junior scientist to an independent investigator.

Specific eligibility criteria at the time of the beginning of this additional support include:

• Primary faculty appointments not required at time of application but must be held by start of funding
• A letter of support is required from the department/division chair outlining the applicants’ path to independence and institutional/divisional commitment to the candidate’s research career development (commitment to the candidate having ability to devote required effort to activities under the award, access to appropriate office/laboratory space etc.,). If the applicant is a post-doctoral fellow at time of
  award submission, the letter needs to provide assurance of promotion to a faculty appointment at time of award initiation
• No other career development award may be held (e.g., NIH K-award or equivalent)
• No major research award may be held (in the role of lead investigator) (e.g., NIH R01 or equivalent)
• No more than 7* years from completing post-doctoral or clinical fellowship training

*does not include maternity leave, FMLA, or time lost during the COVID-19 pandemic

Interested applicants will need to clearly outline their interest, eligibility, and scope of research for this third year of funding. Grant applications should be written for the standard two-year proposal; a section will be provided for those applying to the YIA to provide an additional page justification.

Applicants are restricted to one application resubmission and will be asked to provide a one-page response to reviewer comments. Thereafter, the application must be submitted as a new application.

Grantees must submit an annual Progress Report to be submitted along with a Financial Report. As part of these reports, a brief (one or two paragraph) summary written for the lay public must be included.  Although Research Grant and Fellowship Awards are for a two-year period, the PKD Foundation reserves the right to terminate any grant if there has been inadequate research progress during the first year of the award.

Download the PKDF Report Requirements.

A stipulation to all awards is appropriate attribution of the PKD Foundation in any publication, news release, presentation, etc. that results from work funded by the award.  The PKD Foundation must also receive a copy of the publication and/or news release. This responsibility extends beyond the interval of provided funding.

Grantees are asked to please use language similar to the following: This research was funded by a grant from the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation, pkdcure.org. The Foundation had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

All research projects funded by the PKD Foundation are subject to its intellectual property policy. Details can be found at pkdcure.org/intellectualpropertypolicy. By accepting a PKD Foundation award for a research project, the Principal Investigator or other personnel contributing to and working on the project, as well as the Institution(s) with which they are affiliated, agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this policy.

All research projects are encouraged to publish as high-quality, peer-reviewed research articles, monographs, and book chapters. We believe that maximizing the distribution of these publications – by providing free, online access – is the most effective way of ensuring that the research we fund can be accessed, read, and built upon. In turn, this will foster a richer research culture.   

Click here to learn more about the Open Access Policy 

The PKD Foundation serves as a grantor not a sponsor for research grant projects.  For those involving human subjects, the responsibility for liability issues and all reporting requirements including local, state and federal regulations and requirements including those of the FDA, will reside with the sponsoring institution, not the PKD Foundation.

Any relationship between the investigators and any industrial collaborator must be disclosed in the application.

Prior to releasing funding, the PKD Foundation will require an Authorized Organizational Representative to certify by means of a signed letter on institutional letterhead, institutional commitment to ensuring:

1. Proper policies, procedures and oversight are in place to prevent discriminatory harassment and other discriminatory practices, and;
2. Commitment to respond promptly and appropriately to allegations of discriminatory practices.

Failure to provide the signed letter will result in withdrawal of the application/funding. The full Foundation policy can be found here.

Font size and types, margins, and line spacing requirements are necessary to ensure readability. Applications that do not strictly adhere to the following guidelines will be administratively withdrawn.

• Font size: Must be 11 points or larger. Smaller text in figures, graphs, diagrams, and charts is acceptable, as long as it is clearly legible when the page is viewed at 100%.
  • Some PDF conversion software reduces the font size. It is important to confirm that the final PDF document complies with the font requirements.
• Text fonts: please use one of the following:
  • Arial
  • Georgia
  • Helvetica
• Page margins: 1-inch margins from top, bottom, left and right aspects of each page. The NIH Biosketch may use 1/2 inch margins. 
• Line spacing: No more than six lines per vertical inch (e.g., text using Arial font size 11 would need to be at least single (1.0) spaced).
• Text color: No restriction. Though not required, black or other high-contrast text colors are recommended since they print well and are legible to the largest audience.
• *All images, graphs, charts, etc. should be included in the Project Plan section of the application.