Drug Discovery
Faculty Starter Grant

Drug discovery involves the innovative application and integration of multiple scientific disciplines to create efficacious, safe, and differentiated treatment options for patients. The PhRMA Foundation seeks to fund novel early-stage, drug discovery research with a clear potential for translation to humans. Proposals should focus on biological validation of potential drug targets, such as molecular targets, targetable pathways, or targetable systems.

Research areas could include, but are not limited to: 

• Cellular and Molecular Biology
• Design and Generation of Pharmacological Tools 
• In Vitro and/or In Vivo Pharmacology 
• Protein Biochemistry 
• Molecular Modelling 
• Structural Biology and Computational Structural Biology
• Biomedical Imaging (e.g., cellular)
• Single Cell Analysis (e.g., CRISPR screens) 
• Spatial Omics 
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computational Approaches   

Projects that focus exclusively on single aspects such as identification of and development of assays for single targets, chemical probes, biomarkers, chemical library screening, or diagnostics will not be considered. Studies considered exploratory in nature should contain a rigor and reproducibility plan. 

Proposals that involve AI approaches (i.e., data-driven ML/DL) should clearly document and reference the methodology, explain the data curation process (sources, quality, quantity), and discuss the wet lab validation process. Expected pitfalls and alternative strategies should be described as well. 

Note: Please ensure you are applying to the correct PhRMA Foundation program. If your project does not align with the goals of the Drug Discovery Program, as outlined above, please review the PhRMA Foundation’s Drug Delivery and Translational Medicine programs to see whether your project fits into one of those programs. Contact the PhRMA Foundation (info@phrmafoundation.org) with your project description if you need further clarification. 

• Applicants (U.S. and non-U.S. citizens) must be full-time, promotion-eligible, research-intensive faculty at a PhD and/or MS degree-granting accredited U.S. university by the time of award activation. (Awards may be activated between January 1, 2026, and August 1, 2026.)
• You are not eligible if your faculty status began before January 1, 2023.
• Applicants who have taken leave from their career (e.g., parenting of a child, childbirth, long-term care of a parent/spouse/child/dependent, personal health issues) that puts them outside of the eligibility time frame can reach out to PhRMA Foundation staff ahead of their LOI submission to determine their eligibility. The Foundation aims to be flexible and adjust these time frames if necessary and appropriate.
• Applicants must be eligible to apply for independent external research funding by their university.
• Applicants should not have other substantial sources of research funding, excluding intramural funding or start-up funding from their university. Applicants are ineligible if they are the principal investigator (PI) of an R or K series award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, or other significant financial award from any grant-making institution. Generally, funding over $150,000 a year is considered substantial, unless you are the PI of a grant where funds go to training others. If this is the case, explain in your extended letter.
• The Foundation will not consider multiple applications for similar efforts on the same project. For instance, if a predoc, postdoc, and faculty member from the same lab are all submitting applications for proposed efforts on the same project, the efforts must be separate activities and not duplicative.

• The PhRMA Foundation Faculty Starter Grant in Drug Discovery provides funding of $100,000 for one year.
• Funding is conditional upon the awardee’s continued employment with the university, which will be assessed on a quarterly basis prior to payment. Awardees are required to notify the PhRMA Foundation if they leave the university. Payments will be made directly to the university on behalf of the awardee, with the understanding the university will administer the funds.
• Funds must be used to conduct the proposed research. Funds may not be used for salary support of the awardee, fringe benefits, or indirect costs.
• Funds may be budgeted to include the support of a technician, graduate student, or postdoctoral fellow at an hourly rate. The funds may not be used to provide tuition, fringe benefits, or indirect costs for said personnel. Said personnel may not be an active award recipient of the PhRMA Foundation.
• Up to $1,500 may be used for travel to professional meetings by the awardee.
• Funds may be used to purchase equipment and/or data to support the research efforts.
• Funding may begin as early as January 1, 2026, or on the first day of any month thereafter, up to and including August 1, 2026.
• If you are offered a PhRMA Foundation award, the Foundation will reconfirm your external grant support. Should you receive additional funding in excess of $150,000 in annual direct costs, the PhRMA Foundation award will be withdrawn.
• A final progress report and financial report will be required within 60 days of the grant’s conclusion.
• Unspent funds are to be returned to the PhRMA Foundation upon the grant’s conclusion.
• Any changes to the proposed project must be approved by the PhRMA Foundation.
• Funds are non-transferable.

This is a two-step process. Step one is submitting a letter of intent (LOI) by April 15, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) ET. If your LOI is accepted, you will be notified by July 1, 2025, that you should proceed to the second step of submitting a full application, due August 28, 2025. 

To start an application, go to the ProposalCentral website at proposalcentral.com. If you are a new user of ProposalCentral, follow the link “Create an Account” and complete the registration process. If you are already a registered user, login with your username and password. If you have forgotten your password, click the “Forgot your Password?” link.

Once you are logged in, please click the “Professional Profile” tab at the top and complete steps 1-11 or update with your current information. Your name, degrees, position/title, academic rank, department, and address will be pulled from this page in ProposalCentral.

Step 1: Letter of Intent (LOI)

To submit an LOI, select the “Grant Opportunities” tab in ProposalCentral and a list of applications will be displayed. Find “PhRMA Foundation” and click the “Apply Now” link next to the Faculty Starter Grant in Drug Discovery Program.

Candidates are required to submit the following items at this stage: 

1. NIH Biosketch 

2. Project Abstract

3. 600-Word LOI

The LOI must describe the research project and its aims. It should be written by the applicant on U.S. letter-sized 8.5” x 11” pages with .5” margin and 11-point font. The first use of any abbreviation or acronym should be preceded by the full name or description. Citations and figures do not count toward the 600-word LOI limit. 

4. Research Impact Questions

Provide responses to the below questions using the template provided in Proposal Central: 

• Explain how your project fits into the PhRMA Foundation’s Drug Discovery Program.  
• What is the critical question you aim to address and how is your project an innovative way to address it?  
• What is the specific hypothesis/hypotheses you aim to test?  
• Explain how your project could advance drug development within a three-year time horizon.

LOIs are due by April 15, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) ET.

Step 2: Full Application (by invitation)

Applicants whose LOIs are selected by the review committee will be notified by July 1, 2025, and invited to submit a full application. Full application requirements will be sent via email and also posted here before the portal opens for full application submissions.

Full application deadline is August 28, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) EDT. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Award notification is December 15, 2025.