Conference Support for Rare Neurodevelopmental Disorder Communities Participating in Simons Searchlight is sponsored by Simons Foundation Inc.. SFARI accepts applications for funding of Patient Advocacy Group Family Conferences, with a focus on groups in the Simons Searchlight community. The funding enhances the research component of conferences, including scientist presentations and in-person research opportunities.

Geographic focus: Global

Focus areas: Autism Research, Neuroscience, Patient Advocacy

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org/funding-opportunities/#search) * Mathematics & Physical Sciences * Autism Research (SFARI) * Science, Society & Culture * Multidisciplinary Programs * Policies and Procedures * Simons Award Manager (SAM) FAQs and Videos Our grantmaking efforts focus on mathematical and physical sciences, life sciences, neuroscience and autism research.

* Autism Research (SFARI) * Mathematics and Physical Sciences ## All Institution Locations * All Institution Locations * Autism Research (SFARI) * Mathematics and Physical Sciences ## All Institution Locations * All Institution Locations #### Simons Collaborations in Ecology and Evolution The Simons Foundation seeks to create strong collaborations and foster the cross-pollination of ideas between investigators, as these interactions often lead to unexpected breakthroughs.

Towards this end, in 2012 the foundation launched a new collaborative funding model, the Simons Collaborations, which funds groups of investigators — often from different disciplines — to work together on… Program Area: Life Sciences | Ecology and Evolution Career Stage - Investigators, Other Vision Statement (LOI) Deadline October 16, 2025 Full Proposal Deadline April 15, 2026 #### Simons Foundation Autism & Neuroscience Conferences and Courses Awards The Autism & Neuroscience division at the Simons Foundation is accepting applications for funding of conferences and courses.

This year, conferences and courses that align with the scientific missions of any of the following programs will be prioritized: Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), with a mission to advance the basic science of autism and… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) | Neuroscience Status - Open LOI Deadline April 15, 2026 #### Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience (SURFiN) The goal of the Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience (SURFiN) program is to spark and sustain interest in neuroscience among undergraduate students who have not had access to research training opportunities.

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) | Neuroscience Career Stage - Undergraduates Status - Open, Application Deadline: 12pm ET April 21, 2026 Informational Webinar March 25, 2026 The fellowship will enable today’s brightest minds to apply their talent and expertise to a new field and will consist of one training year where the fellow will be embedded in a lab of a mentor to learn the new discipline and its culture.

Program Area: Simons Foundation | Life Sciences | Neuroscience Career Stage - Investigators, Other Status - Open Application deadline: 12 p. m. ET May 14, 2026 #### Targeted Grants in MPS The MPS division invites rolling letters of intent for the Targeted Grants in MPS program, which supports high-risk theoretical mathematics, physics and computer science projects of exceptional promise and scientific importance on a case-by-case basis.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators Status - Rolling, LOI Submission Required. #### Conference Support for Rare Neurodevelopmental Disorder Communities Participating in Simons Searchlight SFARI is accepting applications for funding of Patient Advocacy Group Family Conferences, with a focus on groups in the Simons Searchlight community.

This funding is intended to support and enhance the research component of conferences, from scientist presentations to in-person research opportunities for families.

It is open to both patient advocacy groups (PAGs) with well-established… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Simons Dissertation Fellowship in Mathematics The MPS division invites applications for the Simons Dissertation Fellowship in Mathematics to provide research support to excellent graduate students in the final years of their Ph. D. studies.

This program was created to honor the work of our late founder, Jim Simons, and his commitment to supporting the field of mathematics.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Graduate Students #### Travel Support for Mathematicians The MPS division invites applications for its Travel Support for Mathematicians program, which is intended to stimulate collaboration in the field primarily through the funding of travel and related expenditures.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators #### Scientific Software Research Faculty Award The MPS division invites applications for the Scientific Software Research Faculty Award, which supports new research professor positions in existing academic departments to be filled by scientific software-focused researchers no later than September 1, 2027.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators #### Fellows-to-Faculty Award The Fellows-to-Faculty Award program supports talented early career scientists by facilitating their transition into tenure-track faculty positions. The focus of this program is the $600,000 USD three-year faculty research grant.

Additionally, fellows engage with a community of investigators and receive mentoring and peer support during their transition.

The Simons Foundation’s Autism & Neuroscience division offers… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) | Neuroscience Career Stage - Postdoc/Early Career, Investigators #### SPARK Research Match Expansion — Request for Applications The SPARK Research Match Expansion RFA is an effort to engage with and increase research participation by individuals whose genetic ancestries have been undersampled in clinical research.

Funding will provide per-person participant incentives (e.g., gift cards) for participation in projects that utilize SPARK Research Match to recruit participants into new research studies or to broaden… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology The Simons Foundation’s Life Sciences division invites applications for postdoctoral fellowships to support candidates who intend to pursue a career in basic research on fundamental problems in plant biology.

We are interested in applicants with training in disciplines that could be brought to bear on plant biology, including but not limited to engineering, computational modeling,… Program Area: Life Sciences | Plant Biology Each Simons Symposia series brings together mathematicians, theoretical physicists and/or theoretical computer scientists to interact and collaborate in a series of up to three symposia, held every second year and focusing on one topic or a tightly connected group of topics.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators #### Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences The aim of the Simons Collaborations in MPS program is to stimulate progress on fundamental scientific questions of major importance in mathematics, theoretical physics and theoretical computer science.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators #### Targeted Grants to Institutes The program is intended to support established institutes or centers in the mathematics and physical sciences through funding to help strengthen contacts within the international scientific community.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences #### Simons Fellows in Mathematics The Simons Fellows program in Mathematics provides funds to faculty for up to a semester-long research leave from classroom teaching and administrative obligations.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences | Simons Fellows Career Stage - Investigators #### 2025 Data Analysis — Request for Applications The goal of this award is to increase use of large, publicly available data resources by supporting investigators to allocate time and personnel toward working in and publishing from these previously collected data.

Applications should leverage existing publicly accessible datasets to ask new questions and extract new knowledge. Priority will be given to applications that… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph. D.

programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution.

While we will consider all projects in ecology and evolution, we are particularly interested in interdisciplinary research that jointly considers processes on both ecological and evolutionary timescales, or that links… Program Area: Life Sciences Career Stage - Undergraduates, Graduate Students #### Simons Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology Awards Program Area: Life Sciences Career Stage - Investigators #### Autism Rat Models Consortium 2.

0 RFA Grants awarded through this request for applications (RFA) are intended to recharge and extend a consortium of researchers using rats as an experimental system to advance our understanding of the behavioral and circuit neuroscience mechanisms underlying autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD).

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Simons Early Career Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Evolution Awards This program was titled “Early Career Investigator in Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution Awards” from 2015-2022.

The purpose of these awards was to help launch the careers of outstanding investigators in the fields of microbial ecology, microbial biogeochemistry and/or microbial evolution in marine or natural freshwater systems, who will advance our understanding through field work,… Program Area: Life Sciences Career Stage - Investigators #### Solar Radiation Management The Simons Foundation has launched an international collaborative research program designed to fill fundamental scientific knowledge gaps relevant to Solar Radiation Management.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators, Other #### Linking Early Neurodevelopment to Neural Circuit Outcomes — Request for Applications, Ph. D. The Linking Early Neurodevelopment to Neural Circuit Outcomes RFA aims to bridge the gap in our understanding of whether and how developmental phenotypes caused by autism risk gene mutation lead to altered circuit formation and function.

We strongly encourage proposals involving close collaboration between investigators from a range of backgrounds, such as developmental neurobiologists and… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Postdoc/Early Career, Investigators #### 2024 SFARI Pilot Progression Award — Request for Applications The goal of the Pilot Progression Award is to provide continuing support for projects initiated during SFARI Pilot awards that have advanced significantly and produced insights that justify an extension.

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### 2024 Pilot Award — Request for Applications The goal of the Pilot Award is to provide early support for exploratory ideas considered higher risk but with the potential for transformative results, particularly those with novel hypotheses for autism.

This funding mechanism is particularly suitable for investigators new to the autism field, though we encourage applicants to consult with experts in autism research… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Postdoc/Early Career, Investigators #### Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Marine Microbial Ecology Program Area: Microbial Oceanography | Life Sciences Career Stage - Postdoc/Early Career #### NSF-Simons National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes in the Astronomical Sciences The NSF and the Simons Foundation shall jointly sponsor up to two national AI research institutes in the astronomical sciences.

These institutes shall have, as their primary focus, the co-advancement of astronomy, astrophysics and artificial intelligence through multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder research on large-scale, longer-term horizon challenges.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences #### Cross-Species Studies of ASD — Request for Applications Grants awarded through the Cross-Species Studies of ASD RFA were intended to support multi-disciplinary teams of PIs with expertise in both human and animal research to perform coordinated cross-species studies to advance our understanding of ASD-relevant behaviors and their underlying neurobiological mechanisms, with the potential for developing novel biomarkers or interventions.

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science — Request for Applications, Ph. D. The Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science RFA prioritized research that produces foundational knowledge about the neurobehavioral differences associated with ASD.

These projects were expected to inform or relate to the development and refinement of tools needed for translational efforts, such as biomarkers and outcome measures.

Special emphasis was placed on objective, quantitative measures that may… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Neuroscience Collaborations Vision Statements Call Program Area: Neuroscience #### Genomics of ASD: Pathways to Biological Convergence and Genetic Therapies — Request for Applications Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to improve our understanding of the molecular and cellular consequences of genetic risk for ASD, and to provide a foundation for the development of new therapies.

Special emphasis was placed on the use of scalable methods, especially as applied to genes that are suitable targets for genetic therapies. Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Analysis of Postmortem Brain Tissue from the Autism BrainNet Collection — Request for Applications, Ph. D.

Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to advance the understanding of autism spectrum disorder through analyses of human postmortem brain tissue donated to the Autism BrainNet collection.

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### NSF-Simons Collaboration on a National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (NITMB) The National Science Foundation Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (NSF/MPS) and for Biological Sciences (NSF/BIO) and the Simons Foundation Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences (SF/MPS) shall jointly sponsor a new research institute to facilitate collaborations among groups of mathematicians (including statisticians and computational scientists) and biologists.

Program Area: Mathematics & Physical Sciences Career Stage - Investigators, Other #### Autism Rat Models Consortium — Request for Applications SFARI launched the Autism Rat Models Consortium(ARC) in 2022 with a group of researchers funded through the original Autism Rat Models Consortium RFA.

These researchers are using rats generated with SFARI funding that carry mutations in high-confidence genes that in humans significantly increase the likelihood of developing autism and related NDD. As part of the consortium, these… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Maternal COVID-19 As a Potential Risk for Autism: Supplemental Funding for Ongoing Pregnancy Cohorts — Request for Applications, Ph. D.

Grants awarded through this RFA supplemented funding from other agencies for ongoing pregnancy cohorts to broaden biospecimen collection and to extend post-natal family tracking. These cohorts and biospecimen collections can be leveraged in future research to understand the effects of gestational infection and inflammation on autism risk in children.

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### 2020 SFARI Collaboration on Sex Differences in Autism — Request for Applications SFARI Collaborations are a new funding mechanism that will provide substantive and stable funding support to multidisciplinary teams of investigators tackling critical issues in the autism research field.

Collaborations will be led by a director who oversees interdisciplinary, synergistic research efforts across multiple laboratories.

Investigative groups within a Collaboration will focus on the same conceptually… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### 2020 Research Award — Request for Applications Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to provide support for the investigation of key unresolved research questions in autism, particularly those that connect etiology to brain function and behavior.

SFARI welcomed risk and novelty in Research Award proposals, but potential impact on the autism research field was the most important criterion. Competitive applications had… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Novel Outcome Measures in ASD — Request for Applications, Ph. D.

Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to develop and validate outcome measures that are suitable for use in intervention studies that target the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder.

Such measures should provide objective data with strong psychometric properties, be scalable for use in large, multisite studies, not be unduly burdensome to participants and… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### SPARK Clinical Site Network — Request for Applications SPARK is a SFARI initiative intended to recruit, engage and retain a community of 50,000 individuals with autism, and their family members, in the United States.

This research cohort includes children and adults who span the full autism spectrum and individuals of all socio-demographic backgrounds.

Through this RFA, SFARI supported additional U.S.-based clinical sites for… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Genomic Analysis for Autism Risk Variants in SPARK – Request for Applications Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to advance our understanding of the genetic basis of autism.

Investigators who are interested in analyzing genomic data in innovative ways from thousands of SPARK families were encouraged to apply. Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Explorer Awards — Request for Applications, Ph. D.

This RFA was intended for proposals requesting support of exploratory experiments that will strengthen hypotheses and lead to the formulation of competitive applications for subsequent larger-scale funding by SFARI or other organizations. Innovative, high-risk/high-impact proposals were encouraged.

We especially encouraged applications from investigators who are new to the field of autism, but who have expertise… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Whole-Genome Analysis for Autism Risk Variants — Request for Applications Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to advance our understanding of the genetic basis of autism, and in particular, to begin to assess genetic variants conferring risk in non-coding regions and in coding regions of the genome that may be less accessible to whole-exome sequencing.

Investigators who are interested in developing innovative and efficient… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Functional Screen of Autism-Associated Variants Request for Applications Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to advance our understanding of the genetic basis of autism, and in particular the potential role of missense and in-frame deletion variants in conferring risk.

Investigators who are interested in developing medium- or high-throughput screens to test the functional effects of missense and in-frame deletion variants identified in… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Innate Immune System Impact Request for Applications, Ph. D.

Grants awarded through this RFA were intended to advance our understanding of the impact of activation of the innate immune system on behavioral, circuit, synaptic and neuronal functions in order to understand the consequences of infection and immune activation on autism-related behaviors.

Experiments were expected to include physiologically relevant activation/inhibition of the innate immune system… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Circuit Dynamics Request for Applications This RFA was intended to advance our understanding of the circuit basis for behavioral and cognitive alterations relevant to autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The goal was to determine the downstream consequences of autism-associated genetic perturbations on neural circuitry, with an emphasis on how collections of neurons operate in concert during autism-relevant behaviors.

Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Analysis of Simons VIP Biospecimens Request for Applications This RFA sought proposals that take advantage of the unique combination of biospecimens and rich phenotypic information collected by Simons VIP.

Although SFARI was open to many different approaches, we gave priority to those that aim to accomplish a comprehensive characterization of RNA expression differences and correlate such expression patterns with phenotypes.

Furthering the ability… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### Mouse Phenotyping Request for Applications This RFA sought proposals that aimed to comprehensively analyze the behavior of mouse models that have been generated with targeted genetic mutations based on strong human genetic evidence implicating them in autism spectrum disorders.

We expected investigators to test at least three genetic models in the same background strain (C57BL/6).

In addition, investigators needed to… Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Career Stage - Investigators #### SFARI Mouse phenotyping awardees Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Status - Open , Application Deadline No deadline set #### SFARI Innate Immune System Impact awardees Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Status - Open , Application Deadline No deadline set #### SFARI Circuit Dynamics awardees Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Status - Open , Application Deadline No deadline set #### SFARI Analysis of Simons VIP Biospecimens awardees Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Status - Open , Application Deadline No deadline set #### Innate Immune System Impact (RFA) Frequently Asked Questions Program Area: Autism Research (SFARI) Status - Open , Application Deadline No deadline set [](https://www.

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