Pioneering a New Mammalian Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder via Germline Exposure 

The Escher Fund for Autism is now accepting expressions of interest in their 2024 Grant Program: Pioneering a New Mammalian Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder via Germline Exposure. This program has $100,000 grants available. See the requirements for expressions of interest and read more about the grant program by clicking the button below.

Requirements for the Expressions of Interest
(1) Title. A title for the project.
(2) Investigators. Basic information about the investigators. Please attach NIH biosketch.
(3) Basic hypothesis. Your overall approach, in 200 words or less.
(4) Outline. Brief outline of the study following part (C) above, providing rationales for all choices. Please briefly explain the methods to be used.
(5) Implications for autism research. Assuming some F2 offspring exhibit brain and behavior consistent with ASD, please briefly explain what might be the implications of your animal model for (a) further model development; (b) understanding of autism pathogenesis; (c) efforts toward prevention of autism (which could including anything from pre-medications to protect germline, to clinical practice modifications, to paternal sperm testing); and (d) efforts toward treatment of ASD.
(6) Funding. Brief description of funding requested (up to $100,000 per grant) and how the funds would be used, and timeline anticipated, with reasonable line items. Due to the limited size of these grants, which are intended to generate pilot data on which larger grants may then be based, please reference possible leveraging of existing work or studies. If the work is to be done in phases, please describe those phases and the expected budgets for each.
Note: For our grant programs, we have a policy to not pay indirect costs.

These expressions of interest are due April 30, 2024. Submission of PDF files are preferred. Please email expressions of interest (questions prior to that are also welcome) to jill.escher@gmail.com.

Authors of submissions meeting review criteria will be invited to submit more detailed information as may be needed. We anticipate making grants in the latter part of the year. We reserve the right to make changes to this RFP at any time for any reason, and changes will be posted at EscherFund.org. If no expressions of interest meet review criteria, we reserve the right to modify the 2024 grant program.