Award Intent

The IOCDF is grateful for the opportunity to once again offer the Michael Jenike Young Investigator Awards to junior researchers investigating OCD and related disorders. Related disorders include pediatric OCD, PANDAS/PANS, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), tics/Tourette syndrome (TS), hoarding disorder (HD), and body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). These awards intend to support promising young investigators who are developing their careers while pursuing creative and impactful research projects on OCD and related disorders across various disciplines.

Funding for the Jenike Awards has been generously provided to the IOCDF by the thousands of donors who have contributed to our Research Grant Fund.

Eligibility

Eligible principal investigators must be current graduate students, or must have completed their residency or PhD (or equivalent) on or after September 1, 2021 (Note: exceptions to this restriction will be considered on a case-by-case basis — please contact research@iocdf.org with any questions). Applicants who are still in training must submit a letter from their mentor with their application. You may include study personnel, consultants, etc. in your application who do not meet these requirements, but they cannot occupy a PI or co-PI role.

Preparing Your Application

Your application must include the following documents uploaded via the application portal:

• Main proposal document (includes cover sheet, proposal, and references)
• Administrative section (attached to the end of the main proposal)
• Budget Worksheet (uploaded separately using this Excel template, download from Google Sheet to start working on your budget)
• Individual biosketches for the PI, co-PI, co-investigators/collaborators, and all other significant contributors (OSCs) uploaded via the application form
• Mentor Letter (if applicable – see eligibility section above; uploaded via the application form. If a Mentor Letter is not needed, please submit a one-page PDF stating why it is not necessary through the "Letter of Recommendation/Support Upload" prompt.)

Formatting

Your proposal is limited to 5 pages, not including a cover sheet, references, and narrative budget. Please use Arial font, size 11, single-spaced, with 0.7-inch margins. Double spacing is required between paragraphs. Each paragraph can be single-spaced, as long as there is a double space between paragraphs. The cover sheet and references are not counted toward the five-page limit. Please upload your proposal as one PDF that includes the following:

Cover Sheet

Include the name, address, phone, fax and email of the Principal Investigator and any co-PIs, as well as the name and address of the sponsoring institution.

Proposal and References

Your proposal should address each of the following points (unless the point is not relevant to the work proposed):

• Background (prior work making this proposal reasonable and worthwhile). Limit to one paragraph
• Hypotheses that will be tested
• Methods
• Intended use of the results
• Describe how the results will improve our understanding of:
  • Increasing access to treatment of OCD or a related disorder for underserved and underrepresented groups;
  • The etiology, epidemiology or clinical picture, pathophysiology, or treatment of OCD or a related disorder
  • The etiology of OCD or a related disorder;
  • The epidemiology or clinical picture of OCD or a related disorder;
  • The pathophysiology of OCD or a related disorder; or
  • The treatment of OCD or a related disorder
• Duration of the proposed study (12 months recommended)
• Describe the funding that has already been obtained for this proposal, and the sources of that funding
• Describe the publication plan
• If the study involves pre-clinical/clinical research, describe how you intend to comply with the IOCDF inclusion policy (see below)
• If the study is submitted for the 2026 Topic of Interest, describe how you intend to comply with the IOCDF Topic of Interest policy (see below)
• If drafting of the proposal involves the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), describe how you intend to comply with the IOCDF AI policy (see below)
• If the proposed study involves humans, include copies of the Informed Consent and the Institutional Review Board approvals as attachments at the very end of your proposal document. If approvals are pending, please note that fact in your proposal and be prepared to submit approvals for each study site prior to receiving payment
• If the proposed study involves human gene therapy, you must submit a copy of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) review or waiver of review
• Bibliographic references (not counted toward page limit)

Pre-clinical and Clinical Research (Inclusion Policy)

It is the policy of the IOCDF that women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups shall be included in clinical research funded by the IOCDF, unless there is a clear and compelling reason on the basis of either the health of research participants or the purpose of the research, to exclude women and/or members of minority groups from a proposed study. The IOCDF will not fund clinical research that excludes women and/or members of minority groups without an appropriate justification (cost is not considered to be appropriate). Principal investigators are also expected to conduct analyses for the effects of sex/gender and race/ethnicity when appropriate.

If complying with this policy would risk the health and safety of research participants or conflict with the purpose of the study, please indicate this in your proposal application and provide a detailed justification. All other applicants proposing clinical studies must include the following in their proposal:

1. A description of the composition of the proposed study population that includes sex/gender and race/ethnic group data about the population;
2. A description of proposed outreach plans for recruiting women and members of minority groups as participants; and
3. A description of how effects of sex/gender and race/ethnicity will be addressed in the analytic plan. If there is prior literature either supporting the presence of such effects or suggesting their absence, this should be summarized and addressed. It is not expected that all studies will be adequately powered for analyses of sex/gender and race/ethnicity will be fully powered and it is thus understood that such analyses may be secondary/exploratory.

For preclinical studies, the applicant must address how sex as a biological variable will be considered in experimental design and analysis.

Topic of Interest Policy and Guidelines

Introduction

A “Topic of Interest” is an area considered by the IOCDF community, donors, and researchers to need increased attention and consideration due to factors such as the necessity for greater understanding and treatment of OCD and related disorders; promising potential for research, treatment, and practice; and consensus from the community. These do not serve as sole deciding factors in whether a proposal is accepted; suitable proposals in other areas are also considered and accepted based on the peer review process. 

The 2024 and 2025 Topic of Interest was “Increasing Access to Treatment for All.” Because of the deep disparities in access to evidence-based treatment for people with OCD from underserved and minority groups, we encouraged submissions that focused research on  addressing these gaps.

2026 Topic of Interest: Addressing the OCD Care Crisis for All

In 2025, the IOCDF published its first white paper, titled “America’s OCD Care Crisis: National Findings on the Failure of Effective OCD Treatment to Reach Patients.” Based on our findings, we are proud to introduce the 2026 Topic of Interest: “Addressing the OCD Care Crisis for All”:

OCD is severely underdiagnosed and very often undetected in US clinical settings. An estimated 10 million people in the U.S. live with OCD, but only one in six of them are diagnosed with it in the healthcare system. Although effective, evidence-based treatments  for OCD such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) using exposure and response prevention (ERP) - the gold standard treatment for OCD - exist, it is markedly under-utilized. Even of those diagnosed with OCD, fewer than 20% receive CBT.  Thus, an estimated 95% of people with OCD in the U.S. do not receive evidence-based therapy for OCD. These disparities impact all people with OCD, but men and people from minority groups face deeper diagnosis gaps. Factors that lead to this crisis in care include:

• The lack of screening for OCD in healthcare settings
• The lack of training provided to clinicians in OCD and its evidence-based treatments
• Poor adherence to professional standards and practice guidelines for treatment of OCD
• The lack of affordable access to effective care
• The lack of accurate awareness of OCD and its treatment options in the general public
• Stigma, shame, and misunderstanding surrounding OCD, which often cause people with OCD to not seek treatment

Recognizing these severe gaps in diagnosis and treatment, and in alignment with our mission of help, healing, and hope — for all — we are proud to announce our 2026 Topic of Interest: Addressing the Care Crisis for All. We are particularly interested in proposals related to addressing the factors outlined above — for all people with OCD, including underserved and underrepresented groups, such as rural communities and racial, ethnic, and sexual minority groups. 

Although this white paper and the findings were based on data from the United States, we know this is not a problem faced by the US alone. The Topic of Interest is open to researchers in any country looking to address the care crisis faced by those with OCD and related disorders globally.

Note: While this is our Topic of Interest for the 2026 Research Grant Program, suitable proposals for topics will also be considered. 

Jenike Young Investigator Award applicants can focus on OCD and related disorders for the Topic of Interest. 

Guidelines for Applicants

The following guidelines were created by IOCDF staff in collaboration with the IOCDF Board of Directors, the IOCDF Scientific & Clinical Advisory Board, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Research Grant Program, and the IOCDF Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Council (DEIAC) to best represent needs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in OCD and related disorders research.

All applicants who select that their proposal relates to the 2026 Topic of Interest must address the following points in their proposal in a separate additional section:

1. How does the study sufficiently address one or more of the major factors that contribute to the OCD diagnosis and treatment gap (screening, training, adherence to practice guidelines, affordable access, awareness, and stigma)?
2. Does the study address the OCD diagnosis and treatment gap in all people with OCD, or a specific target population(s)? 
3. How does the study reflect the target population(s) who live with OCD? If not, are the differences potentially of importance or can otherwise be justified?
4. How does the study measure outcomes that are relevant to the target population with OCD in relation to one or more of the major factors?
5. Is the intervention designed and delivered in a way that is acceptable and feasible to a broad range of people of the target population(s) who live with OCD?
6. Does the study take into account active recommendations and/or involvement from persons with lived experience who are part of the target population(s) the study will focus on?

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Grant Proposal Generation (“AI Policy”)

On July 17, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released NOT-OD-25-132 — “Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications”. According to this Notice, “AI tools may be appropriate to assist in application preparation for limited aspects or in specific circumstances, but researchers should be aware that using AI comes with its own risks. AI use may result in plagiarism, fabricated citations, or other kinds of research misconduct.”

The NIH’s stance on the use of AI is as follows: “NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants. If the detection of AI is identified post award, NIH may refer the matter to the Office of Research Integrity to determine whether there is research misconduct while simultaneously taking enforcement actions including but not limited to disallowing costs, withholding future awards, wholly or in part suspending the grant, and possible termination.”

It is the policy of the IOCDF that generative AI tools should not be used in the conceptualization of a Research Grant Program proposal, though they may have a place in drafting one (e.g.using generative AI tools to translate text if English is not the principal investigator’s first language). The principal investigator must indicate in the application whether any AI tools were used in its preparation, and if so, what this usage entailed.

This policy does not apply to the appropriate use of AI and machine learning (ML) in conducting a research study, which may be appropriate in certain cases. AnInstitutional Review Board (IRB) must approve the use of AI and ML, to ensure the confidentiality and proper handling of participant data.

For any questions, please contact Boris Litvin, IOCDF Research Communications Specialist, at blitvin@iocdf.org. 

 

Administrative Section

At the end of your main proposal, please include a separate administrative section with the following:

• Narrative Budget Justification

This section will not count towards the application page limit.

Allowable Costs / Narrative Budget Justification Outline

Using the outline and instructions below, please prepare a narrative budget justification and include it in the administrative section at the end of your main proposal. Please note that in addition to the narrative budget justification, you will also need to complete and upload a separate budget worksheet using the supplied Excel template.

The Jenike Award is a maximum $50,000 grant paid in four equal, quarterly installments. Indirect costs are not awarded.

Please use the following outline to form your narrative budget justification.

Personnel

• Please list each member of the project team and their role, regardless of their percent effort or whether a salary will be paid. Please note the percentage of each team member’s time that will be spent on the proposed project (percent effort).
• For members of the project team who will be paid, please list their salary. To calculate salary, multiply the individual’s institutional base salary by their percent effort. This calculation provides the maximum salary that can be requested; a lesser amount may be requested in place of this amount.
• Fringe benefits may also be requested in accordance with your institution’s rate.
• Please list consultants in this section, and justify the use of consultants by describing their role in the project, relationships to investigators, and expertise in the field. Please include an estimated total of hours that each consultant will spend working on the project.
• If your proposed project is supported by funding from other sources, please detail that support, including personnel whose salaries may be shared.

Supplies & Equipment

• Please itemize supplies as separate categories (e.g., lab ware, office supplies, or chemicals) and list the total for each amount. If the total budget for any category is over $500, list examples of items to be purchased and their use. Any single item over $300 should be itemized individually on the budget worksheet. Please list and describe any durable equipment purchases, the project need they would address, and how durable equipment will be utilized upon completion of your project.
• For particularly expensive items (e.g., certain medications), please describe the procurement process that will be used and how cost will be minimized.

Travel Expenses

• Funds may be requested to cover travel costs for study subjects (e.g., parking or bus fare).The IOCDF does not generally fund travel expenses for personnel, with the exception of expenses related to attending the IOCDF Research Symposium and Annual OCD Conference. If you do request funding for travel expenses, please specify the reason for the travel.

Study Participant Recruitment and Advertising

• If requesting funds for study participant recruitment, please describe your recruitment plan and itemize costs by category (e.g., payments to participants, billboard advertising, or radio advertising).

Institutional Review Board

• In the event that you require IRB approval from an independent agency that charges for their services, you may include these costs in your budget. Please describe the reason for accessing an independent agency and provide an estimate of anticipated charges.

Other Application Information:

Biosketches

Applicants must upload a biosketch via the application form for the PI/co-PI and all co-investigators, collaborators, consultants, and other significant contributors (OSCs). Please use the provided template and limit each biosketch to four pages maximum. Refer to NIH guidance on team roles if you are unsure of the definitions of these terms.

Budget Worksheet

Please complete a budget worksheet using the provided template and upload it in the specified section of the application form.

Review Criteria

Reviewers will be asked to consider a range of criteria in evaluating grant applications. These include:

Importance of the Research (Significance and Innovation): Does the project address an important problem? How will scientific knowledge, and/or clinical practice be improved with this project? Does the project use new methods, concepts, or technology — or use existing methods, concepts, or technology in a new way?

Rigor and Feasibility: Are the strategy, methods, and analyses appropriate so that the aims of the project can be reached? Is the study feasible? Are the plans for the protection of human subjects reasonable?

Expertise and Resources (Investigators and Environment): Are the investigators qualified to complete this project? Are they likely to continue to make an impact on research in the field of OCD and related disorders? Where will the work be done? Will the institution support and contribute to the success of the investigators? Are the investigators well-suited to complete the project?

Reviewers will also be asked to consider how well the project conforms to these application guidelines, including the IOCDF’s policy regarding women and minority group inclusion in pre-clinical/clinical research.

If the project is submitted for the 2026 Topic of Interest, reviewers will be asked to consider how well the project conforms to the Topic of Interest policy.

Award Conditions

The following conditions are attached to IOCDF Jenike Awards:

• Progress Reporting: An interim progress report will be made in March 2027 in a prescribed format. A conference call to discuss the project with IOCDF staff will take place in February-March 2027. A full project report must be submitted by March 1, 2028 — six months after the end of the grant term. 
• IOCDF Newsletter Article: Upon completion of their projects, PIs are expected to write and submit a 1,500 word article for a future issue of IOCDF’s OCD Newsletter. The article should explain the PI’s grant-funded research, their findings, and the significance of their work in language that is clear and accessible to a lay audience.
• IOCDF Research Symposium/Conference: Jenike Award winners are strongly encouraged, upon completion of their research, to participate in an IOCDF Research Symposium and/or Annual Conference. They are also encouraged to submit a poster for the Research Symposium and/or Annual Conference poster sessions.
• Acknowledgement: Award recipients are expected to include a credit line acknowledging the International OCD Foundation as a funding source on all published materials arising from IOCDF-funded research.
• Restrictions/Unused Funding: Grant funds from the IOCDF can only be applied to the project for which the Research Award was given. Any unused money available at the end of the project must be returned to the IOCDF.
  
• Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee Documents: Award recipients must provide a
  copy of all Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee documents, including
  applications, approvals, and amendments to the IOCDF.
• Budget Reallocations: If a budget reallocation is necessary, Award recipients must submit a
  budget reallocation request to the IOCDF on university/institutional letterhead via email. This request should include an updated budget spreadsheet using the template submitted during the application period. This request will be reviewed and a decision will be made by the IOCDF.

NO-COST EXTENSIONS

While the IOCDF strongly encourages that all Young Investigator Award projects are completed within one year, it recognizes that there may be circumstances that may impede the progress and completion of the project in this time-frame. In the event that more time is needed to complete the study funded by the Award, the PI can email the IOCDF Research Communications Specialist requesting a one-year no-cost extension. 

The request should explain the reasons for why the extension is required, including, but not limited to:

• Need for sufficient participant enrollment
• Need for sufficient data collection and time for analyses
• Scheduling issues for the PI and staff involved with the project
• Obstacles connected to uncontrollable events

The PI should send the no-cost extension request as a Word document or PDF, using the funded institution’s letterhead. Once the request is received, it will be reviewed and a no-cost extension approval letter will be sent if the justifications are appropriate.

If the no-cost extension is granted, an additional mid-year progress report will be required, and the final progress report will be due within six months after the end of the extension period.

 

Questions & Additional Information

Please see our FAQs for additional information. If you still have questions, please email Boris Litvin, Research Communications Specialist, at blitvin@iocdf.org. 

Award Intent

The IOCDF is grateful for the opportunity to once again offer the Innovator Award in 2026 to researchers pursuing impactful projects investigating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The Innovator Award is intended to support innovative and potentially groundbreaking projects — high-impact science that could profoundly impact the field and accelerate progress toward new and more effective treatments for OCD. For more information, refer to the 2026 Request for Proposals (RFP).

Eligibility

Eligible principal investigators will have completed residency or their PhD before September 1, 2021, and must have at least five (5) years of research experience. You can include study personnel, consultants, etc. in your application who do not meet these requirements, but they cannot occupy a PI or co-PI role. Only projects that investigate topics in OCD will be considered for funding.

Preparing Your Application

Your application must include the following documents uploaded via the application portal:

1. Main proposal document (includes cover sheet, proposal, and references)
2. Administrative section (attached to the end of the main proposal)
3. Budget Worksheet (uploaded separately using this Excel template)
4. Individual biosketches for the PI, co-PI, co-investigators/collaborators, and all other significant contributors (OSCs) (uploaded via the application form using provided templates)

Main Proposal Formatting

Your proposal is limited to ten (10) pages, not including the cover sheet, references, and narrative budget. Please use Arial font, size 11, single-spaced, with 0.7-inch margins.

Double spacing is required between paragraphs. Each paragraph can be single-spaced, as long as there is a double space between paragraphs. The cover sheet, references, and narrative budget justification are not counted toward the 10-page limit.

Please upload your proposal as one PDF that includes the following:

Cover Sheet

Include the name, address, phone, fax, and email of the Principal Investigator (PI) and any co-PIs, as well as the name and address of the sponsoring institution.

Proposal and References

Your proposal should address each of the following points (unless the point is not relevant to the work proposed):

• Background (prior work making this proposal reasonable and worthwhile). Limit to one paragraph
• Hypotheses that will be tested
• Methods
• Intended use of the results
• Describe how the results will improve our understanding of:
  • The etiology of OCD;
  • The epidemiology or clinical picture of OCD;
  • The pathophysiology of OCD;
  • The treatment of OCD; or
  • Increased access to OCD treatment
• Duration of the proposed study (3 years)
• Describe the funding that has already been obtained for this proposal, and the sources of that funding
• Describe the publication plan
• If the study involves pre-clinical/clinical research, describe how you intend to comply with the IOCDF inclusion policy (see below)
• If the study is submitted for the 2026 Topic of Interest, describe how you intend to comply with the IOCDF Topic of Interest policy (see below)
• If drafting the proposal involves the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), describe how you intend to comply with the IOCDF AI policy (see below)
• If the proposed study involves humans, include copies of the Informed Consent and the Institutional Review Board approvals as attachments at the very end of your proposal document. If approvals are pending, please note that fact in your proposal and be prepared to submit approvals for each study site prior to receiving payment.
• If the proposed study involves human gene therapy, you must submit a copy of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) review or waiver of review
• Bibliographic references (not counted toward the page limit)

Pre-clinical and Clinical Research (Inclusion Policy)

It is the policy of the IOCDF that women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups shall be included in clinical research funded by the IOCDF unless there is a clear and compelling reason on the basis of either the health of research participants or the purpose of the research, to exclude women and/or members of minority groups from a proposed study. The IOCDF will not fund clinical research that excludes women and/or members of minority groups without an appropriate justification (cost is not considered to be appropriate). Principal investigators are also expected to conduct analyses for the effects of sex/gender and race/ethnicity when appropriate.

If complying with this policy would risk the health and safety of research participants or conflict with the purpose of the study, please indicate this in your application and provide a detailed justification. All other applicants proposing clinical studies must include the following in their proposal:

• A description of the composition of the proposed study population that includes sex/gender and race/ethnic group data about the population;
• A description of proposed outreach plans for recruiting women and members of minority groups as participants; and
• A description of how the effects of sex/gender and race/ethnicity will be addressed in the analytic plan. If there is prior literature either supporting the presence of such effects or suggesting their absence, this should be summarized and addressed. It is not expected that all studies will be adequately powered for analyses of sex/gender and race/ethnicity will be fully powered and it is thus understood that such analyses may be secondary/exploratory.

For preclinical studies, the applicant must address how sex as a biological variable will be considered in experimental design and analysis.

Topic of Interest Policy and Guidelines (Optional)

Introduction

A “Topic of Interest” is an area considered by the IOCDF community, donors, and researchers to need increased attention and consideration due to factors such as the necessity for greater understanding and treatment of OCD and related disorders; promising potential for research, treatment, and practice; and consensus from the community. These do not serve as sole deciding factors in whether a proposal is accepted; suitable proposals in other areas are also considered and accepted based on the peer review process.

The 2024 and 2025 Topic of Interest was “Increasing Access to Treatment for All.” Because of the deep disparities in access to evidence-based treatment for people with OCD from underserved and minority groups, we encouraged submissions that focused research on  addressing these gaps.

2026 Topic of Interest: Addressing the OCD Care Crisis for All

In 2025, the IOCDF published its first white paper, titled “America’s OCD Care Crisis: National Findings on the Failure of Effective OCD Treatment to Reach Patients.” Based on our findings, we are proud to introduce the 2026 Topic of Interest: “Addressing the OCD Care Crisis for All”:

OCD is severely underdiagnosed and very often undetected in US clinical settings. An estimated 10 million people in the U.S. live with OCD, but only one in six of them are diagnosed with it in the healthcare system. Although effective, evidence-based treatments  for OCD such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) using exposure and response prevention (ERP) - the gold standard treatment for OCD - exist, it is markedly under-utilized. Even of those diagnosed with OCD, fewer than 20% receive CBT.  Thus, an estimated 95% of people with OCD in the U.S. do not receive evidence-based therapy for OCD. These disparities impact all people with OCD, but men and people from minority groups face deeper diagnosis gaps. Factors that lead to this crisis in care include:

• The lack of screening for OCD in healthcare settings
• The lack of training provided to clinicians in OCD and its evidence-based treatments
• Poor adherence to professional standards and practice guidelines for treatment of OCD
• The lack of affordable access to effective care
• The lack of accurate awareness of OCD and its treatment options in the general public
• Stigma, shame, and misunderstanding surrounding OCD, which often cause people with OCD to not seek treatment

Recognizing these severe gaps in diagnosis and treatment, and in alignment with our mission of help, healing, and hope — for all — we are proud to announce our 2026 Topic of Interest: Addressing the Care Crisis for All. We are particularly interested in proposals related to addressing the factors outlined above — for all people with OCD, including underserved and underrepresented groups, such as rural communities and racial, ethnic, and sexual minority groups. 

Although this white paper and the findings were based on data from the United States, we know this is not a problem faced by the US alone. The Topic of Interest is open to researchers in any country looking to address the care crisis faced by those with OCD and related disorders globally.

Note: While this is our Topic of Interest for the 2026 Research Grant Program, suitable proposals for topics will also be considered. However, Innovator Award applicants must only focus on OCD for the Topic of Interest.

 

Guidelines for Applicants

The following guidelines were created by IOCDF staff in collaboration with the IOCDF Board of Directors, the IOCDF Scientific & Clinical Advisory Board, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Research Grant Program, and the IOCDF Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Council (DEIAC) to best represent needs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in OCD and related disorders research.

All applicants who select that their proposal relates to the 2026 Topic of Interest must address the following points in their proposal in a separate, additional section:

1. How does the study sufficiently address one or more of the major factors that contribute to the OCD diagnosis and treatment gap (screening, training, adherence to practice guidelines, affordable access, awareness, and stigma)?
2. Does the study address the OCD diagnosis and treatment gap in all people with OCD, or a specific target population(s)? 
3. How does the study reflect the target population(s) who live with OCD? If not, are the differences potentially of importance or can otherwise be justified?
4. How does the study measure outcomes that are relevant to the target population with OCD in relation to one or more of the major factors?
5. Is the intervention designed and delivered in a way that is acceptable and feasible to a broad range of people of the target population(s) who live with OCD?
6. Does the study take into account active recommendations and/or involvement from persons with lived experience who are part of the target population(s) the study will focus on?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Grant Proposal Generation (“AI Policy”)

On July 17, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released NOT-OD-25-132 — “Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications”. According to this Notice, “AI tools may be appropriate to assist in application preparation for limited aspects or in specific circumstances, but researchers should be aware that using AI comes with its own risks. AI use may result in plagiarism, fabricated citations, or other kinds of research misconduct.”

The NIH’s stance on the use of AI is as follows: “NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants. If the detection of AI is identified post award, NIH may refer the matter to the Office of Research Integrity to determine whether there is research misconduct while simultaneously taking enforcement actions including but not limited to disallowing costs, withholding future awards, wholly or in part suspending the grant, and possible termination.”

It is the policy of the IOCDF that generative AI tools should not be used in the conceptualization of a Research Grant Program proposal, though they may have a place in drafting one (e.g.using generative AI tools to translate text if English is not the principal investigator’s first language). The principal investigator must indicate in the application whether any AI tools were used in its preparation, and if so, what this usage entailed.

This policy does not apply to the appropriate use of AI and machine learning (ML) in conducting a research study, which may be appropriate in certain cases. AnInstitutional Review Board (IRB) must approve the use of AI and ML, to ensure the confidentiality and proper handling of participant data.

For any questions, please contact Boris Litvin, IOCDF Research Communications Specialist, at blitvin@iocdf.org. 

Administrative Section

At the end of your main proposal document (PDF upload), please include a separate administrative section with the following:

• Narrative Budget Justification

This section will not count towards the application page limit.

Allowable Costs / Narrative Budget Justification Outline

The Innovator Award is a maximum $300,000 grant. Winners will receive these grants in three equal, annual installments. Indirect costs are allowable but are capped at 15% of the total budget, and the total budget including indirect costs may not exceed the maximums listed above. (Under the "Award Amount Requested" prompt in your application, please ignore the "Note: Indirect costs are not awarded.")

Please use the outline below for your narrative budget justification. Please state in your narrative budget whether or not you will be requesting indirect costs as a part of your project budget, and if so, at what rate.

Personnel

List each member of the project team and their role, regardless of their percent effort or whether a salary will be paid. Please note the percentage of each team member’s time that will be spent on the proposed project (percent effort).

For members of the project team who will be paid, please list their salary. To calculate salary, multiply the individual’s institutional base salary by their percent effort. This calculation provides the maximum salary that can be requested; a lesser amount may be requested in place of this amount. Fringe benefits may also be requested in accordance with your institution’s rate.

Please list consultants in this section, and justify the use of consultants by describing their role in the project, relationships to investigators, and expertise in the field. Please include an estimated total of hours that each consultant will spend working on the project.

If your proposed project is supported by funding from other sources, please detail that support, including personnel whose salaries may be shared.

Supplies & Equipment

Please itemize supplies as separate categories (e.g., lab ware, office supplies, or chemicals) and list the total for each amount. If the total budget for any category is over $500, list examples of items to be purchased and their use. Any single item over $300 should be itemized individually on the budget worksheet. Please list and describe any durable equipment purchases, the project needs they would address, and how durable equipment will be utilized upon completion of your project.

For particularly expensive items (e.g., certain medications), please describe the procurement process that will be used and how the cost will be minimized.

Travel Expenses

Funds may be requested to cover travel costs for study subjects (e.g., parking or bus fare). The IOCDF does not generally fund travel expenses for personnel, with the exception of expenses related to attending the Annual OCD Conference or IOCDF Research Symposium. If you do request funding for travel expenses, please specify the reason for the travel.

Study Participant Recruitment and Advertising

If requesting funds for study participant recruitment, please describe your recruitment plan and itemize costs by category (e.g., payments to participants, billboard advertising, or radio advertising).

Institutional Review Board

In the event that you require IRB approval from an independent agency that charges for their services, you may include these costs in your budget. Please describe the reason for accessing an independent agency and provide an estimate of anticipated charges.

Additional Application Information

Biosketches

Applicants must upload a biosketch for the PI/co-PI and all co-investigators, collaborators, and other significant contributors (OSCs). Please use this provided biosketch template and limit each biosketch to four (4) pages maximum. Refer to NIH guidance on team roles if you are unsure of the definitions of these terms.

Budget Worksheet

In addition to the narrative budget justification, all applicants must complete this provided budget worksheet and upload it using the application portal.

Review Criteria

Reviewers will be asked to consider a range of criteria in evaluating grant applications. These include:

• Importance of the Research (Significance and Innovation): Does the project address an important problem? How will scientific knowledge, and/or clinical practice be improved with this project? Does the project use new methods, concepts, or technology — or use existing methods, concepts, or technology in a new way?
• Rigor and Feasibility: Are the strategy, methods, and analyses appropriate so that the aims of the project can be reached? Is the study feasible? Are the plans for the protection of human subjects reasonable?
• Expertise and Resources (Investigators and Environment): Are the investigators qualified to complete this project? Are they likely to continue to make an impact on research in the field of OCD and related disorders? Where will the work be done? Will the institution support and contribute to the success of the investigators? Are the investigators well-suited to complete the project?

Reviewers will also be asked to consider how well the project conforms to these application guidelines, including the IOCDF’s policy regarding women and minority group inclusion in pre-clinical/clinical research.

If the project is submitted for the 2026 Topic of Interest, reviewers will be asked to consider how well the project conforms to the Topic of Interest policy.

Award Conditions

The following conditions are attached to the IOCDF Innovator Award:

Progress Reporting: Interim progress reports will be submitted to research@iocdf.org by May 1 of each calendar year that the grant is active. PIs are expected to participate in three progress report conference calls (10-15 minutes) with the IOCDF’s Research Communications Specialist and/or other IOCDF staff every January in 2027-2029. A longer, final progress report must be submitted at the end of the term of the grant. Templates will be provided for all written progress reports.

IOCDF Newsletter Article: Upon completion of their projects, PIs are expected to write and submit a 1,500-word article for a future issue of IOCDF’s OCD Newsletter. The article should explain the PI’s grant-funded research, their findings, and the significance of their work in a language that is clear and accessible to a lay audience.

IOCDF Research Symposium/Conference: Innovator Award winners are strongly encouraged, upon completion of their research, to participate in an IOCDF Research Symposium and/or Annual Conference. They are also encouraged to submit a poster for the Research Symposium and/or Annual Conference poster sessions.

Acknowledgment: Award recipients are expected to include a credit line acknowledging the International OCD Foundation as a funding source on all published materials arising from IOCDF-funded research.

Restrictions/Unused Funding: All funding from the IOCDF will be applied only to the project for which the Research Award was given. Any unused money available at the end of the three-year project must be returned to the IOCDF Research Fund.

Grant Review Committee: PIs are expected to serve on the IOCDF Grant Review Committee for a term concurrent with the length of their award.

No-Cost Extensions

While the IOCDF strongly encourages that the Innovator Award project is completed within three (3) years, it recognizes that there may be circumstances that may impede the progress and completion of the project in this time frame. In the event that more time is needed to complete the study funded by the Award, the PI can email the IOCDF Research Communications Specialist requesting a one-year no-cost extension.

The request should explain the reasons for why the extension is required, including, but not limited to:

• Need for sufficient participant enrollment
• Need for sufficient data collection and time for analyses
• Scheduling issues for the PI and staff involved with the project
• Obstacles connected to uncontrollable events

The PI should send the no-cost extension request as a Word document or PDF, using the funded institution’s letterhead. Once the request is received, it will be reviewed and a no-cost extension approval letter will be sent if the justifications are appropriate.

If the no-cost extension is granted, an additional mid-year progress report will be required, and the final progress report will be due within six months after the end of the extension period.

Questions & Additional Information

Please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for additional information. If you still have questions, please email Boris Litvin, Research Communications Specialist, at blitvin@iocdf.org.