Description

The McKnight Scholar Award is administered by the McKnight Foundation’s McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience to support scientists beginning independent neuroscience research careers. Proposed work should represent one of the laboratory’s most innovative and impactful directions. The program emphasizes scientific excellence and transformative potential, with clear hypotheses, consideration of alternative outcomes, and a compelling vision for advancing understanding of the brain. Research need not be an entirely new direction, and the broader vision matters more than completing it within the award period.

The program’s primary mission is basic neuroscience, but clinical, translational, drug-discovery, and chemical-biology approaches can fit when they illuminate fundamental neural mechanisms. Mentorship, equitable laboratory environments, and concrete actions beyond the laboratory that broaden participation in science are also central priorities.