Impact Statement
The mission of the IOCDF is to ensure that no one affected by OCD and related disorders suffers alone. Our community provides help, healing, and hope. Our vision is that everyone impacted by OCD and related disorders has immediate access to effective treatment and support. The IOCDF provides up-to-date education and resources, strengthens community engagement, delivers quality professional training, and advances groundbreaking research.
IOCDF Research Grant Program
In support of its mission, the IOCDF makes annual grant awards to research scientists seeking to advance scientific understanding of OCD and related disorders, improve existing therapies, and discover new and more effective treatments. Since 1994, the IOCDF’s Research Grant Program has awarded over $11 million in funding support to researchers around the world.
2026 Research Grant Awards
The generosity of the IOCDF’s donors has allowed for us to offer research funding in 2026 through the Innovator Award and the Michael A. Jenike Young Investigator Awards.
Innovator Award: This special award category — a three-year grant of up to $300,000 — will support senior researchers pursuing high-impact research into OCD. The goal of the Innovator Award is to support research with the potential to revolutionize scientific understanding of OCD, accelerate progress toward new and more effective treatments, and discover ways to prevent OCD from taking hold in the first place.
Applicants must have at least five years of research experience following the completion of their terminal degree. Eligible research projects must investigate topics in the field of OCD, with a focus on finding a cure for OCD. These may include prevention (i.e., keeping OCD from taking hold) and treatment (i.e., effectively achieving significant reduction in symptoms or remission). The award will be for a term of three years, with payments made in annual installments. Any senior researcher pursuing a relevant project is eligible to apply.
Michael A. Jenike Young Investigator Awards: These are grants of up to $50,000 each. They support promising young investigators who are developing their careers while pursuing creative and impactful research projects on OCD and related disorders across a range of disciplines. To be eligible for funding, researchers must be investigating OCD and related disorders (OCD, including pediatric OCD; PANS/PANDAS; hoarding disorder; body dysmorphic disorder; or body focused repetitive behaviors). Eligible applicants must be current graduate students, or must have completed their residency or their PhD (or equivalent) on or after September 1, 2021. Applicants who are still in training must submit a letter from their mentor with their application.
The usual term for the Jenike Awards is one year.
The maximum award is $50,000. However, applications that require less than this level of funding support are welcome. If you are pursuing a smaller project that requires less than $50,000, we encourage you to apply and request the appropriate funding amount in your application.
The Jenike Awards are funded by individual donors to the IOCDF Research Grant Fund, and because we allow donors to restrict their donations to specific purposes, we have funding set aside for projects in several areas, including:
- 2026 Topic of Interest: Addressing the OCD Care Crisis for All — In line with the findings of the IOCDF's white paper, we encourage applications for this topic in 2026.
- The role that Race, Ethnicity, and Culture play in OCD and related disorders
- OCD treatment
- Research into the causes of OCD, including genetic causes
- Pediatric OCD
- PANDAS/PANS
- Hoarding disorder
2026 Topic of Interest: Addressing the OCD Care Crisis for All (Innovator & Jenike Young Investigator Awards)
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 the IOCDF 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. However, Innovator Award applicants must only focus on OCD for the Topic of Interest.
Eligibility
Exceptions to the eligibility requirements detailed above will be considered on a case by case basis. Questions should be directed to research@iocdf.org.
Review Process and Funding Decisions
All grant applications that comply with program guidelines (see iocdf.org/research) will be assigned three reviewers from our expert panel. These reviewers will score the application and provide written comments.
Reviewers will evaluate each proposal on several criteria, including: significance and innovation of the study; rigor and feasibility; expertise and resources; and, if applicable, the proposal’s compliance with the IOCDF’s Inclusion Policy for Pre-clinical and Clinical Research, and the strength of the plan to include women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups in the proposed study. Reviewers will also be asked to consider the intent described in this RFP and to consider how well-aligned proposals are with that intent. Finally, reviewers will be asked to consider how well proposals comply with guidelines for the 2026 Topic of Interest, for those submitting proposals relevant to it.
The top-scoring applications from the initial round will advance to the second round, where they will be discussed and rated by the full reviewer panel. Ratings from this round, as well as comments received during the initial round, will be used to advise the IOCDF Board of Directors, who will make all final funding decisions.
Application Guidelines
Please carefully review the application guidelines for each grant type (see menu on the right side of this page) before submitting your proposal. International applicants are welcomed and encouraged to apply.
How to Apply
Grant applications will be accepted via our online application system at iocdf.org/research/apply starting on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. The deadline for submitting applications is Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
