Pathway to Stop Diabetes® Accelerator Awards

Pathway to Stop Diabetes® Accelerator Awards is sponsored by American Diabetes Association. This program supports innovative and ambitious diabetes-related research programs by providing significant funding to established early-career investigators.

Pathway to Stop Diabetes | Research Funding American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes® has a simple, yet revolutionary goal: to find scientists at the peak of their creativity and provide them with the flexibility and resources they need on the road to breakthrough discoveries. We attract and retain brilliant scientists in diabetes.

Our three areas of focus—awarding research grants, providing access to scientific and career mentoring from leading diabetes researchers, and creating a diabetes think tank—are each key components of a unique formula to cultivate the next generation of leaders, whose discoveries will stop diabetes and its burdens once and for all.

To accelerate the research needed to stop this deadly disease, the American Diabetes Association’s bold transformational initiative, Pathway to Stop Diabetes ® , is inspiring a new generation of diabetes researchers. Pathway provides crucial support to individuals focusing on innovative ideas and transformational approaches that will lead to ground-breaking discoveries in diabetes prevention, management, and cures.

We are building a human pathway to tackle the toughest questions in diabetes by driving research innovations through 1:1 mentorship and the creation of a brain trust in diabetes. This call for nominations will prioritize translational applications that move knowledge and discovery gained from basic research to its eventual translation into patient and population benefit.

The ideal applicant will propose innovative research that will be an important step towards the eventual goal of improving the lives of people at risk of diabetes or living with the disease - and the pathway to this impact is clear. Our vision is to create a pathway to launch the next generation of trailblazers in diabetes research.

ADA will accept up to two (2) nominations per institution with one (1) nomination spanning basic through preclinical research and one (1) nomination spanning clinical through public health research.

Duke Internal: March 24, 2026 Sponsor Deadline: May 19, 2026 Examples of basic through preclinical research studies (for nomination #1) include: • Innovative mechanistic studies on fundamental or new aspects of biology • Novel insights derived from data science using AI/Machine Learning • Development of new technologies, devices, and/or experimental approaches • Identification and validation of novel and unique therapeutic targets Examples of clinical through public health research (for nomination #2) include: • Clinical experimental medicine studies • Identification and validation of novel biomarkers • Health services research • Population epidemiology • Health economics research • Patient preference / Quality of Life • Dissemination and implementation science • Health Care system-based interventions Accelerator Award Eligibility: Applicants must hold independent faculty positions and have demonstrated independent productivity in diabetes research.

Applicants may currently hold independent NIH funding (K or R awards, including an initial NIH R01) but must not have applied for, or received, an NIH R01 renewal or a second R01 award. Applicants must hold a MD, PhD, DMD, DO, PharmD, DVM or an equivalent health- or science-related degree. Candidate’s must hold a full-time appointment at their sponsoring institution.

Rare exceptions to fulltime positions may be granted on a case-by-case basis and must be pre-approved by ADA Research Programs staff prior to application submission. Applications are open to individuals with current research positions at university-affiliated institutions or other non-profit research institutions within the United States and U.S. possessions.

Initiator Award Eligibility: Applicants must currently be in research training positions (i.e. post-doctoral fellowships, research fellowships) and can have no more than seven (7) years of training since their doctoral degree. Initiator award recipients cannot concurrently hold an NIH K99/R00 grant. All other Career Development awards are allowable (unless holding of concurrent awards is prohibited by the other granting agency).

Candidate’s must hold a full-time appointment at their sponsoring institution. Rare exceptions to fulltime positions may be granted on a case-by-case basis and must be pre-approved by ADA Research Programs staff prior to application submission. Applicants must hold a MD, PhD, DMD, DO, PharmD, DVM or an equivalent health- or science-related degree.

Applicant fellowship positions must be at university-affiliated institutions or other non-profit research institutions within the United States and U.S. possessions.

Initiator Award Maximum Funding: Up to $100,000 USD per year in Phase 1, Up to $325,000 USD per year in Phase 2 Accelerator Awards provide research support of up to $325,000 USD per year (including 30% indirect costs) over five (5) years for a maximum total of $1,625,000 USD.

Owing to the sponsor's restriction on the number of applications that may be submitted from Duke, anyone wishing to pursue nomination should submit the following materials as one PDF.

Letter of support: for Initiator applications, from postdoc mentor; for Accelerator applications, from department chair Scientific abstract (250 word max) Specific aims (1 page max) – typically includes key background, relevance/significance, and Specific Aims Please identify which pathway (Initiator or Accelerator) you are applying to Please identify if your work is basic through pre-clinical OR clinical through public health Please submit internal materials through My Research Proposal.

(Code: ILN) https://www. grantinterface. com/sl/B7ekSv Instructions for creating an account (if needed) and submitting your materials: https://ctsi.

duke. edu/about-myresearchproposal Engineering and Physical Sciences Medical - Clinical Science