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PAT & SHIRLEY RYAN FAMILY RESEARCH ACCELERATION FUND

2025 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund

The Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund provides seed grants to Northwestern University faculty to speed up the commercialization of innovative and high-potential research in the life sciences.  The Fund will advance translational research discoveries in both engineering and medicine with the potential to have a meaningful and immediate impact on society.

Proposals are sought for critical research to scale the “valley of death” for established research programs that will then enable private sector (industry or investor) or translational government (SBIR, ARPA-H, etc.) funding.

The societal impact and potential for commercialization will be considered. Areas of interest include drug discovery, sensing and measurement, rehabilitation, regenerative medicine, surgery and transplantation, artificial intelligence and computation. See the original announcement for more information.

Past awardees are listed here.

Application Information

Application Due Date: March 3, 2025 (Monday) at 9 am CST

AWARD INFORMATION

  • The total award amount in FY 2025 is expected to be about $4.375 million through two rounds of competition.
  • Typical awards will be funded with a one-year budget of $100,000 to $300,000, though other amounts will be considered when justified.
  •  The typical funding period is one year.
  • Anticipated start date for selected awards in this round is 7/1/2025.

ELIGIBILITY

  • The PI holds a primary faculty position at Northwestern.
  • The project does not have other external sources of support at the time of proposal submission.

LIMITATIONS

  • A PI can serve as Lead on only one proposal and can be a co-PI on a maximum of one additional proposal.
  • Lead PIs currently funded by the Ryan Acceleration Fund are ineligible to submit projects as a lead PI in this round.
  • An individual cannot be a PI on more than 2 concurrently funded projects.

PROPOSAL PREPARATION
The proposal should include the following components, in single-spaced text, 12-point font, 1-inch margins:

  • COVER PAGE (one page)
    • Proposal Title
      • Lead PI’s name, position, department, school, email
      • Submitting unit
      • Key personnel (co-PIs) names, rank, department, school, email
      • Indicate proposal topic areas (select one)
        1. Therapeutics
        2. Devices/Diagnostics
        3. Health IT/Data Sciences/Analytics
        4. Other
  • LAY SUMMARY (0.5 pages)
    Clearly summarize:

     

    1. the unmet need
    2. the potential for the proposed work to enable critical advances towards meeting this need
    3. the next steps, both near-term and longer-term, that may be needed to translate/commercialize the work
  • PROJECT DESCRIPTION (maximum length of 3 pages, including references)
      • Vision – Expand upon the unmet need and the societal impact of your approach
      • Background
        • Explain how your approach compares to current state-of-the art
        • Describe the status of your work including key results and data
        • Describe how your approach addresses the barriers and gaps towards achieving a solution.
      • Justification for Support – with an explanation of why the project is not a strong candidate for other support
      • Research Strategy

         

        • Describe your one-year research plan, breaking down your strategy into milestones
        • Explain how achieving the milestones is critical to translation/commercialization
        • Describe your plans to seek follow-on external funding, highlighting how your milestone outcomes could enable this future funding
      • Translation Plan

         

        • Describe how your project can be translated/commercialized
        • Include information on market opportunity, size, estimated timeline, and competitors
      • Team – including expertise and contribution of key team members
      • References – can use 9-point font size; not to exceed 0.25 pages
    • DETAILED BUDGET (use the Excel template)
    • BUDGET JUSTIFICATION
    • NIH BIOSKETCH for each participating key personnel faculty member
    • ENDORSEMENT LETTER from the Chair or the Center Director of the PI.

    PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
    Proposals should be submitted here.

    REVIEW PROCESS AND NOTIFICATION

    • Proposals will be reviewed by an expert panel and a University Advisory Committee and recommended for funding to President Schill and the Ryan Family Foundation.
    • Notification of outcomes will be sent via email.

    REVIEW CRITERIA

    CRITERIA KEY QUESTIONS
    Transformative potential What is the impact of this proposed project on the status quo? To what extent does the proposed project establish an important advance or new standard for the targeted application (disease, device, diagnostic, process, tool, etc.)?​
    Technical basis & differentiation How innovative is the proposed approach? Are the comparisons with existing approaches convincing and grounded?​
    Project milestones​ Do the proposed milestones represent critical next steps towards commercialization? (Do the one-year milestones address the most important/expected next questions from an investor’s/partner’s perspective?)​
    Next phase outlook​ Will accomplishing the milestones lead to external funding to advance commercialization? Has the team outlined a realistic overall path to commercialization?
    Team/Near-term execution​ How confident are you that the team can achieve the milestones with the proposed budget? Is the team qualified and the budget reasonable?​

    REPORTING
    Awardees will be required to submit an annual progress report within 60 days of the anniversary date.

    INFORMATION SESSION
    On 07.17.24 we held a Zoom information session. Watch the video here.  (VPN required.)

    CONTACT INFORMATION
    Questions should be addressed to ryanrafund@northwestern.edu.

    The Request for Proposals (RFP) will be disseminated in multiple ways to NU faculty.