One Mind Rising Star Awards

The 2024 One Mind Rising Star Awards will support grant proposals spanning basic/preclinical, translational, and clinical research for psychiatric disorders.

These include, but are not limited to, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and suicidality.

Outside the scope:

• Autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and neurodegenerative disorders are out of scope.
• Studies solely focused on addiction/substance use disorders (SUD) are outside the scope. Studies at the intersection of SUD and psychiatric disorders are within scope.

Examples of relevant research include, but are not limited to studies that aim to:

• Discover the molecular/genetic, synaptic, cellular, or circuit/network basis of psychiatric disorders in model organisms or humans.
• Advance biomarker development to improve diagnosis and/or treatment outcomes.
• Investigate common mechanisms of brain dysfunction between two or more disorders.
• Develop new experimental or computational approaches/models/tools for a sophisticated understanding of disease etiology, pathophysiology, resilience, and/or recovery.
• Evaluate therapeutic mechanisms and modes of action for interventions including pharmaceuticals, neurostimulation, digital therapies, and other cognitive/behavioral health interventions.
• Identify and/or test novel pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapeutic targets.
• Improve our understanding of how age, race/ethnicity, and/or comorbidities impact the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment effectiveness.

Transdiagnostic investigations and research that bring us closer to precision psychiatry will be given special attention. Illustrative examples include metabolomics biomarkers, gut microbiome-brain interactions, psychedelics, closed-loop neurostimulation, (AI/ML)-based biomarkers, and predictive analytics-based models for evaluating risk or treatment efficacy.

Each 2024 One Mind Rising Star Award winner will receive:

• A research grant of $300,000 over a three-year project period.
• Eligibility for the One Mind Rising Star Leadership Program. The program provides awardees with leadership training, networking and singular career development opportunities, catalytic tools to move the entire mental health ecosystem forward. Though seminars, workshops, and 1:1 coaching and support, awardees will work with subject-matter experts on media training, negotiation skills, scientific and non-scientific communications, personal branding, and leading with impact.

• Applicants must be tenure-track, independent investigators (faculty or equivalent) already employed at the rank of assistant or associate professor (or equivalent) in a non-profit (public or private) academic or non-academic research institution. 
• Applicants should be within 6 years of their initial independent appointment to qualify as an ECI. 
• Applicants will have a doctoral level degree (e.g., MD, PhD, PsyD, PharmD, etc.) with demonstrated academic excellence and research productivity in scientific fields that can be applied to the study of psychiatric disorders. 
• Pre-doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, instructor-level faculty, and professors are not eligible to apply. 
• Applicants can apply for the award only one time per year for a maximum of three times in their career. 
• One Mind encourages applications from underrepresented minorities and women. 
• There are no citizenship or geographical restrictions. International applicants are welcome to apply. 
• One Mind reserves the sole right to decide if an applicant meets the eligibility requirements.

All applications must be completed and submitted by June 6, 2024, through One Mind’s online grants management portal. Please register your account first on the portal and then click the Apply button to start your application.

The application includes the following:

• Face Sheet: Please fill in the requested information on the application portal.
• Project Narrative: Written in plain language understandable by a lay audience, the narrative should summarize the proposed research and articulate how it might translate into better diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatments for psychiatric disorders. Up to 500 words.
• Research Proposal: The proposal should generally include background, significance/impact, hypothesis, rationale, experimental design, brief methods, predicted outcomes/expected datasets, pitfalls, and alternative strategies. The exact format is left to the applicant’s discretion. Preliminary data is not required. The proposal should not overlap with existing funding. Please specify when you can start the project and any potential sources of delay (e.g. IRB approval, hiring etc.)
  • Specifications: 
    • 2 pages maximum, Arial 11 pt. font, single-spaced, minimum 0.5” margins. Page limit includes figures, tables, and schematics.
    • Bibliography should be submitted on a separate 3rd page.
    • Gantt Chart should be submitted on a separate 4th page. Please provide a Gantt chart with timelines for each scientific aim. Please clarify when you are able to start the project and any potential sources of delay (e.g. IRB approval).
• Budget: Include a summary budget for Year 1 of the proposal.
• Data Sharing Plan: Separate page. Provide a brief description about how data will be made available to the broader research community. If the research involves human subjects, informed consent documents should be written to request approval to share de-identified clinical data and biological samples in adherence with Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies aimed at protecting patient privacy. IRB approval is not required for submission of the application but will be required prior to the release of funds.
• Recommendation Letter: for the applicant from the Dean, Department Chair, or Head of Scientific Program. The letter should briefly describe:
  • merits of the applicant and 
  • resources and support provided to the applicant by the home institution and be signed by the nominator.
• NIH Style Biosketch: of the principal investigator. Please add the following sections to the Biosketch: (1) Past and present funding sources, (2) Patents, (3) Industry partnerships and consulting, (4) Leadership, volunteer, or extracurricular activities (not restricted to academic activities).  
• Resources & Personnel: Include a description of all applicable facilities and equipment already available. List all key personnel (including graduate students and postdocs) who will work on the project. It is understood that applicants starting their labs may not have facilities/equipment in place and might need to hire personnel. 1 Page maximum.
• Leadership Essay: Please share your responses to these three questions (up to 1000 words total): 
  • What does leadership mean to you and how have you acted on it?
  • Describe a time in your life when you took a significant risk; 
  • What do you deeply care about and what have you done about it? 
• Video: Upload a 2-3 mins video introducing yourself and describing why you are interested in the One Mind Rising Star Award Program.
• Portal submission of your application to your Nominating Officer for final approval is required.

The One Mind Scientific Advisory Board (along with independent scientific experts as needed) will review the grant proposals for feasibility, scientific merit, innovation, and potential for impact on people living with psychiatric disorders. Applicants will be evaluated for their academic track record, research productivity, and leadership potential. The Scientific Advisory Board will forward their recommendations to the One Mind Board of Directors for final approval. Awardees will be notified around July 29, 2024. One Mind is unable to provide feedback/reviewer comments to the applicants given the large number of applications received each year.

April 23, 2024 Application portal opens 

June 6, 2024 Applications due by 5 P.M. Pacific Time (PT)

July 29, 2024 Notification of decision (subject to change)

January 1, 2025 Earliest start date for the Award (subject change)

• One Mind expects the highest standards for ethical conduct of research from awardees, and in general regards the policies of the National Institutes of Health as gold-standard guidelines for such procedures.
• Awardees will be invited to attend and present their proposed research at the Scientific Symposium during One Mind’s 30th Music Festival for Brain Health on September 5-7, 2024 in Napa Valley, California. One Mind will cover all costs associated with travel and accommodations. 
• Awardees are expected to participate in all activities associated with the One Mind Rising Star Leadership Program and the Capstone Project. The estimated time commitment for this program is an average of 8hr/month.
• Progress reports and financial statements will be due at the conclusion of each grant year for all awarded projects.
• The project period is three years. $100,000 will be disbursed to awardees annually. Research funding for Years 2 and 3 is contingent upon satisfactory progress made towards fulfillment of aims outlined in the grant proposal as determined by the One Mind Scientific Advisory Board. 
• Indirect costs are limited to a maximum of 10% and will be taken from direct costs.
• One Mind allows reasonable flexibility in the use of funds for equipment, software, salaries, stipends, etc., as long as they are in service of the research proposal. Funds cannot be used for travel and conferences/meetings.
• Unused research funds may be carried over to the following year, and requests for no-cost extensions will be considered.
• One Mind advocates for open and rapid dissemination of scientific methods, reagents, tools, and results. 
  • Reagents/tools developed with this funding, including plasmids/clones, cell lines, transgenic organisms, and antibodies will be made available for dissemination to the research community via suitable repositories (e.g. Addgene, Jackson Labs.)
  • Software code developed for the proposed research is to be made publicly available on GitHub or a similar public platform. 
  • Any datasets curated or generated through the proposal will be made publicly available through an appropriate data repository.
  • Publications related to this funded work must be submitted to a preprint server (e.g. bioRxiv) at or before the first submission to a journal. 

• One Mind requests awardees to acknowledge support from this funding in all resulting publications, preprints, and presentations.