About the fund

The MIT HEALS Collaborative is dedicated to advancing transformative research that redefines how we understand and approach challenges in health and the life sciences. A broad swath of opportunities may be considered for this funding opportunity. Examples of suitable topics include:

1. research to develop new genome editing technologies or platforms
2. novel delivery approaches for genome editing machinery
3. genomic cell engineering for modeling or medical applications
4. genome editing approaches to gain knowledge about precision medicine targets, mechanisms of drug action, and drug resistance patterns.
5. artificial intelligence approaches to improve genomic medicine design or deployment
6. ethical considerations, socio-economic analyses, or business cases related to genome editing medicines or precision medicines

Other topics can be considered if aligned with genomic medicine strategies. All disease areas will be considered. Projects related to germline editing will not be considered.

We encourage proposals from across all Schools, the College, Departments, and units at MIT. Proposals involving collaborative or interdisciplinary teams are encouraged, though single-PI proposals are permitted.

Eligibility

MIT faculty and PIs whose work aligns with the topics above are eligible. Although the work can involve collaborations with Broad Institute investigators, no funds can be distributed to non-MIT collaborators.

Funding

Each award will be up to $200k per year in direct costs per PI for lab-based research projects. Teams of PIs may request up to $200k direct costs per lab-based PI per year (e.g., a team of 2 lab-based PIs can request $400k per year in direct costs). Awards in ethics, social sciences, and business will be up to $100k per year in direct costs. These awards can but are not required to be collaborative with lab-based projects. Full overhead at MIT’s current rate will be applied to all funded projects.

Projects may be up to 2 years in duration.

Initial grants will vary based on the requested budget for a given project or team and applicants will be eligible to submit renewal applications if satisfactory progress is met toward milestones.

We anticipate funding approximately 4 lab-based PIs in the first year (e.g., two teams of 2 PIs), or 3 lab-based PIs and 2 PIs in ethics, social sciences, or business, for a total of $1.3M. Additional awards will be available in the following two years.

Funds may not be co-mingled from other sources.

Grant Expectations

• Institute-wide symposium: PIs may be asked to showcase their work at the HEALS annual symposium, engaging with the broader research community.
• Quarterly reporting: Each quarter, PIs will be required to provide a short project update.

Intellectual Property

Recipients must promptly disclose any intellectual property (IP) developed in the course of the research to MIT’s Technology Licensing Office (TLO). Any IP developed using this funding will be encompassed under MIT’s relationship with the Broad Institute and also includes a time limited option right for Editas Medicine to take a commercial license to the IP.

Learn More & Apply

Visit the InfoReady site for full application details, submission information, and templates.

Contact Information

Please direct questions to:
MIT HEALS – mit-heals@mit.edu