The Office of Foundation Relations is pleased to share this open call for funding from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.
UCSC Contact: Almut Wolf | awolf2@ucsc.edu
Funder: Kenneth Rainin Foundation
Opportunity: Innovator Awards in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research
Deadline: September 30, 2025, at 5 PM PST
Overview
The Kenneth Rainin Foundation believes that early support for innovative ideas can lead to improvements in preventing, predicting, diagnosing and treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Their health grantmaking enables researchers worldwide to test ideas, gather and share data, and collaborate to advance the understanding of IBD.
Innovative ideas spur new lines of thinking and introduce novel methods or technologies that might transform how we understand IBD. They have the potential to lead to scientific breakthroughs in predicting, diagnosing, treating and eventually preventing the complex disease. Innovator Awards applications are evaluated based on innovation, scientific merit and the principal investigator’s capability to execute the project.
Award Amount & Terms
- Up to $150,000 for individual research projects
- Up to $300,000 for collaborative projects involving multiple investigators
Eligibility
- Researchers from any scientific discipline worldwide are eligible for funding.
- Innovator Awards may only have one Principal Investigator, and funding is awarded to their home institution. Additional investigators may be included as Co-Investigators, and the lead institution can create subawards.
- Postdocs are not eligible to apply as a Principal Investigator.
- All formerly funded Rainin Foundation grantees are eligible to apply for an Innovator Award.
- PIs may only submit one LOI.
See here for FAQs.
See here for a list of previous awardees.
Timeline
- September 30, 2025, at 5 PM PT LOIs due
- February 2, 2026, 5 PM PTFull proposals due
- May 1, 2026 Awards announcement
- June 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027 Grant period
Special Instructions
Please notify the Office of Foundation Relations if you are interested in applying to this opportunity (fr@ucsc.edu). For support in developing your proposal, please contact the Research Development Specialist assigned to your unit or send a request to resdev@ucsc.edu.
Call Sent: August 7, 2025
The Office of Foundation Relations is a unit of University Advancement. The FR team creates and maintains mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with private organizations, matching grant initiatives with educational and research programs and centers. FR supports faculty and staff to identify and approach these and other private foundations for funding, to assist in strategic positioning of the grant application, and to facilitate funder campus visits. For a list of recent funding opportunities, please visit the FR website: FR Calls for Funding.