Funding Philosohy
Research Initiative Program
FAST's Research Initiative Program strives to encourage research aimed at finding a specific treatment for Angelman syndrome. FAST is committed to assisting individuals living with Angelman syndrome to realize their full potential and quality of life. Our goal is to bring practical treatment into current medical practice as quickly as possible; therefore, preference will be given to research projects that have a clear practical application and the results of which will be shared in a timely fashion.Grants - One of our goals at FAST is to identify and support promising research with the hope that results from these efforts will produce significant findings that will be reported in peer-reviewed journals. We also hope that projects we fund will lead to additional research support from government or other funding agencies. We are pleased to be able to support many different types of projects, each critical for advancing all phases of Angelman syndrome research, from basic to clinical to treatment. These grants are crucial for allowing investigators to gain enough data to be able to attract even larger, multi-year commitments from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other traditional medical research funding organizations. Our current grant programs include Grants-In-Aid, FAST-TRAC (Targeted Research to Advance a Cure) awards, and topic-specific requests for proposals (RFPs).
Fellowships - Fellowships provide the necessary resources to support and encourage the development of young scientists who benefit from the mentorship of prominent researchers or established scientists new to the field of Angelman syndrome. We believe the investment in Angelman syndrome research training will grow exponentially as our fellows later assume professorial roles in departments around the country and the world, many of which currently have no representation in Angelman syndrome research. We are currently reviewing application for our first Postdoctoral fellowship awards.
FAST Grant Review Process
The process commences when the Requests for Applications (RFAs) for a given funding program are published. Before submitting an application for research support, we advise an applicant to carefully review the applicable RFA for all submission criteria.The first stage of providing fair and expert review for research funding applications submitted to FAST consists of scientific peer review by a group of highly esteemed basic and clinical scientists that form our Scientific Advisory Board. The panel uses standard guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for scoring applications with an emphasis on innovation, scientific rigor, and relevance to the mission of FAST. All reviewer conflicts of interest must be revealed prior to the panel review meeting. Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to, employment at the same sponsoring institution and collaboration on recent or current research projects. All discussions of scientific merit are conducted in the absence of any reviewers who have declared conflicts of interest.
The Scientific Advisory Board recommendations are then reviewed and compiled by the Scientific Director's Panel. This panel is a group of three scientific and medical experts that includes the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, the Chief Science Officer and the Science Officer. All recommendations for funding are made by the panel to the FAST Board of Directors. Panel funding recommendations are based on scientific merit (as evaluated by the Scientific Advisory Board), budgetary considerations and discussions of relevancy and priority to the mission of FAST. Final approval is required by the FAST Board of Directors before funding may occur.