Drug Discovery
Faculty Starter Grant

Program Vision

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.

Scope of Research

Research areas could include, but are not limited to:

• Target identification and validation using genetic engineering (e.g., CRISPR-Cas9) and phenotypic screens (e.g., 3-D cell culture)
• Mapping disease mechanisms using single-cell and spatial multi-omics approaches to identify disease-relevant targets (e.g., scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, spatial proteomics)
• Hit and lead identification with validation and molecular modeling (including structure-enabled discovery of novel drug modalities)
• Protein biochemistry and structural biology, including computational approaches
• Cellular and molecular biology approaches to elucidate therapeutically relevant pathways and mechanisms
• In vitro (cell-based) and in vivo (animal) studies that assess drug candidate pharmacological profiles (e.g., mechanism of action, effectiveness, safety and toxicity)
• Applications of advanced biomedical imaging in vitro (e.g., cellular high-content screening for target identification and validation) and in vivo (e.g., PET, MRI/CT for drug target engagement and biodistribution)
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and computational approaches that directly advance a therapeutic hypothesis

Requirements

All proposals must clearly state a therapeutically relevant hypothesis. Computational approaches must include a clear and feasible plan for translational validation to human-relevant systems. Proposals that involve AI approaches (i.e., data-driven ML/DL) must clearly document and reference the methodology, explain the data curation process (sources, quality, quantity), and detail the validation process.

Nonresponsive

Projects that focus exclusively on single aspects such as pure assay development, chemistry-only projects without therapeutic evaluation, or biomarker or diagnostic identification without clinical context will not be considered.

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 Foundation’s Drug Delivery and Translational Medicine programs to see whether your project fits into one of those programs. Contact the 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 LOI submission.
• Applicants are ineligible if their faculty status began before January 1, 2025.
• Applicants are ineligible if their last terminal degree was conferred before January 1, 2017.
• 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 startup funding from their university. Preference will be given to applicants with startup funding less than $750,000.
• 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 substantial financial award from any grant-making institution. Generally, funding over $250,000 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.
• Applicants are ineligible if they do not have at least three first author publications.
• Only one applicant per lab may apply across the three funding categories of predoc, postdoc, and faculty starter grant in Drug Discovery Program.

• The PhRMA Foundation Faculty Starter Grant in Drug Discovery provides funding of $100,000 of project support 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. The funds may not be used to provide tuition, fringe benefits, or indirect costs for personnel. Budgeted personnel may not be an active award recipient of the PhRMA Foundation.
• Funds may be used to purchase equipment and/or data to support the research.
• Up to $1,500 of the funds may be used by the awardee for travel to professional meetings in the United States.
• Funding may begin as early as January 1, 2027, or on the first day of any month thereafter, up to and including August 1, 2027.
• If you are offered a PhRMA Foundation award, the Foundation will reconfirm your financial support. Should you receive external funding in excess of $250,000 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, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) (9:00 a.m. PT, 10:00 a.m. MT, 11:00 a.m. CT). If your LOI is accepted, you will be notified by July 1, 2026, that you should proceed to the second step of submitting a full application, due August 26, 2026. 

To start a letter of intent, 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. Letter of Intent

The LOI must be written by the applicant and should describe the research project and its aims. It will be entered directly into ProposalCentral and cannot exceed 4,500 characters, including spaces. The first use of any abbreviation or acronym should be preceded by the full name or description. One attachment is allowed for figures (maximum of 4) and citations. These do not count towards the 4,500-character limit. This attachment should be on U.S. letter sized 8.5” x 11” page with .5” margin and 11-point font. Figure descriptions should not exceed three sentences.

4. Research Impact Questions

Provide responses to the Research Impact 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 five years of publication.

LOIs are due by April 15, 2026, 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, 2026, and invited to submit a full application.

Full application deadline is August 26, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) ET. Late submissions will not be accepted.

To submit a full application, please complete and/or review for accuracy the following sections in ProposalCentral. Submissions that do not meet the requirements will not be considered.

Section 1: General Information

On this page, enter your project title.

Section 2: Download Templates and Instructions

Use this page to download copies of the program instructions, as well as templates that you must use for the Research Impact Questions.

Section 3: Applicant

The information you provided in the LOI stage will remain in your historical data in ProposalCentral. If needed, update your Professional Profile to include your degrees and a biosketch, as these are required to complete this page of the proposal.

Section 4: Institution Details

The information on this page will be populated from the institutional profile in ProposalCentral’s database. If any information is missing or incorrect, contact the PC Support Team at pcsupport@altum.com or 800-875-2562 (Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time).

Section 5: Key Personnel

Use this page to add any Key Personnel to your project. Adding them on this page does not grant them access to your proposal — that must be done on the “Enable Other Users to Access This Proposal” page.

You are required to add your Department Chair.

Section 6: Letters of Reference

The system will NOT accept your application unless the letters of support from your references have been successfully uploaded.

You are required to submit contact information for the following personnel:

• General References: 1-3 people who are familiar with you and your scientific career
• Collaborators: If you have collaborators, they must submit a letter of support. Each collaborator (up to 2) should submit their own letter of support. If you have 3 or more collaborators, they should co-write one letter of support with all their signatures. The person responsible for coordinating this group letter is the name you should enter in this section.

Once you add their names and contact information to your application, an auto-generated email will be sent to them with instructions on what they should address in their letter of support and a personalized hyperlink where they should upload their letter.

Letters of support should be uploaded before August 26 so you can submit your application before 12:00 p.m. (noon) ET.

We suggest you inform your references in advance of what to include in their letter of support.

General Reference requirements:

• The time period for which they have known the applicant and in what capacity.
• Comment on the applicant’s communication and interpersonal skills, and ability to collaborate with peers on research projects.
• Explanation of how this program will be a productive experience for the applicant and why they should be selected.
• If involved in the applicant’s project, an explanation of their roles and responsibilities regarding the project.

Collaborator Reference requirements:

• Explanation of their involvement and responsibilities with the project.
• The collaborator’s CV or biosketch, attached to the letter as an appendix.

Section 7: Additional Questions

Answer all questions on this page. Be sure your bibliography page is up to date with publications and presentations.

Section 8: Abstract and Keywords

Enter your abstract (written for a broad scientific audience) and keywords. Take heed of the character limit for the abstract.

Section 9: Other Sources of Funding

Briefly list current, pending, and previous funding. Remember, you are ineligible if you have other substantial sources of research funding by the time of award activation. (For example, applicants are ineligible if they are the PI of an R or K series award from the NIH, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, or other financial award over $250,000 a year from any grant-making institution.)

Section 10: Organization Assurances

Respond to the questions on this page regarding your IRB and IACUC approval.

Section 11: Attachments

Ensure your name and institution are noted at the top of each attachment.

• Applicant’s NIH-Style Biosketch (required)
  You will have submitted this under the “Applicant” section. Do not include your academic record.
• Extended Letter (required)
  Include a synopsis of your career, professional interests, and desired career path. The letter should not exceed two single-spaced pages (U.S. letter size 8.5” x 11” / .5” margin / 11-point font).
• Research Plan (required)
  Applicants must prepare a comprehensive yet concise research plan. Applicants should use a format similar to that for NIH grants. The research plan should include a specific aims page (one-page limit), followed by your research strategy (not to exceed eight pages) that describes the rationale, significance, research design and methodology, statistical plan, timeline, and preliminary results (if any exist). A bibliography of major references should also be included (bibliographies are not included in the page limit). Clearly identify other principals involved as collaborators in the project, the amount of time they will commit, and the amount of time you will commit. Identify the amount of intramural support available for the proposed project and other research efforts by budget categories and amounts. If the university makes the services of a technician available to the candidate, note this. Identify the part of the proposal that will be directly initiated or expedited by the PhRMA Foundation’s funds. Required type specifications: U.S. letter size 8.5” x 11” / .5” margin / 11-point font (figures may be provided in a smaller font). The first use of any abbreviation or acronym should be preceded by the full name or description. Submissions that do not meet the specified guidelines for proposal preparation will not be considered.

• Research Impact Questions (required)
  Please respond to the research impact questions using the template provided.
• Budget (required)
  Upload your budget explaining: 1) how the funds will be used and 2) whether the project receives other funding.

Section 12: Demographics

Responses on this page are confidential.

Section 13: Enable Other Users to Access This Proposal

Use this page to grant access to your proposal to any other users in the system.

• “Administrator” level permissions allow them full control of the proposal.
• “Edit” level permissions allow them to edit the proposal, but not delete it.
• “View” level permissions allow them to view the proposal but not make any changes.

Section 14: Validate

By clicking “Validate” on this page, the system will check your application for any missing or incomplete information.

Section 15: Print Application and Signatures

On this page, you will be able to print a recap of your application. As the applicant, by e-signing this application, you agree that you completed the application yourself. This is required for submission.

If you have given someone at the institution “Edit” access because they need to sign your application, they will e-sign in this section once you have completed your application. This needs to be completed before you “submit” your application.

Note: The PhRMA Foundation does not require anyone other than the applicant to e-sign the application, but your institution may require it.

Section 16: Submit

Do not forget to review your application before you “submit.”

Award notification is December 15, 2026.