2025 Research Grant Program Request for Proposals (RFP)

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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.

2025 Research Grant Awards

The generosity of the IOCDF’s donors has allowed for us to offer research funding in 2025 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, 2020. 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:

  • 2025 Topic of Interest: Increasing Access to Treatment for All — With recognition of existing disparities related to access to effective treatments for OCD, we encourage applications for this topic in 2025.
  • 2025 Special Category: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)
  • 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

2025 Special Category: Body Dysmorphic Disorder (Jenike Young Investigator Award only)

One Special Category Michael A. Jenike Young Investigator Award will be allocated for a research study on body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). While research about BDD, its treatment, and its impact on sufferers and their communities exists, more scientific exploration is necessary to help people with BDD access treatment, understand the disorder, and prevent consequences associated with it.

2025 Topic of Interest: Increasing Access to Treatment for All (Innovator & Jenike Young Investigator Awards)

Although evidence-based treatments such as ERP and medications can help reduce OCD symptoms, they are currently not accessible to all people with OCD. Factors such as distance from providers, cost, misinformation, and stigma prevent many people from underserved and minority communities from receiving effective and potentially life-saving treatments. 

Recognizing this disparity and in alignment with our mission of help, healing, and hope — for all — we are proud to continue with our 2025 Topic of Interest: Increasing Access to Treatment for All. We are particularly interested in proposals related to improving access to treatment for underserved and underrepresented groups, such as rural communities, people with lower socioeconomic status, and racial, ethnic, and sexual minority groups. 

While this is our Topic of Interest for the 2025 Research Grant Program, suitable proposals for other OCD and related disorders topics will also be considered. (Please note that Jenike Young Investigator Awards are for OCD and related disorders topics, and the Innovator Awards are for OCD topics only.)

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 2025 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 are accepted via our online application system at iocdf.org/research/apply. The application deadline for the Innovator and Jenike Young Investigator Awards is Friday, February 28th, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. ET.