Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund
Seed grants for Northwestern faculty to advance and commercialize innovative life sciences, engineering, and medical research with major societal impact.
Funder: Northwestern University
Due Dates: September 1, 2026 | March 1, 2027 | September 1, 2027 | March 1, 2028 | September 1, 2028 | March 1, 2029 | September 1, 2029 | March 1, 2030 | September 1, 2030 | March 1, 2031 | September 1, 2031
Funding Amounts: Typical awards: $100,000–$300,000 for 1 year; total annual pool ~$4.375M; other amounts considered with justification.
Summary: Seed grants to Northwestern faculty for accelerating commercialization of innovative life sciences research with high societal impact.
Key Information: Only NU faculty eligible; majority of budget must be spent at NU; projects must lack other external support at award time.
Description
The Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund provides seed grants to Northwestern University faculty to advance translational research in the life sciences, engineering, and medicine. Its primary goal is to accelerate the commercialization of innovative, high-potential research projects with immediate and significant societal impact. The fund supports projects that are at a critical stage—often referred to as the “valley of death”—to help them attract subsequent private sector or government translational funding. Areas of interest include drug discovery, sensing and measurement, rehabilitation, regenerative medicine, surgery and transplantation, and artificial intelligence and computation.
