Smith Family Awards Program for Excellence in Biomedical Research

The Smith Family Foundation created a grantmaking program in 1991 to support promising junior faculty to find breakthroughs in AIDS/HIV, cancer, heart disease, diabetes or neuroscience. Formerly known as the Smith Family New Investigator Awards Program, the program was renamed last year as the Smith Family Awards Program for Excellence in Biomedical Research. The mission is to launch the careers of outstanding biomedical researchers with the ultimate goal of achieving medical breakthroughs. Applications may focus on all fields of basic biomedical science and may also be submitted from departments of physics, chemistry and engineering. Now in its 18^th year, the Program has funded 109 scientists for a total investment of $16.6 million.

Three-year awards in the amount of $300,000 ($100,000 per year inclusive of 5% indirect costs) target junior faculty who are within two years of their first independent faculty appointment as of July 1st of the application year. Applicants must be full-time faculty at nonprofit academic, medical or research institutions in Massachusetts, Brown University or Yale University. Only two applications will be accepted from each institution, chosen by the institution's internal selection process.