Global Team Science Award

Global Team Science Award

Connects interdisciplinary lupus scientists through the Global Team Science Award to study molecular disease variation.

The Global Team Science Award is the Lupus Research Alliance's (LRA) largest single grant mechanism, providing $3,000,000 over three years to interdisciplinary teams pursuing transformative research on the molecular underpinnings of lupus. The LRA is a New York-based nonprofit (Federal Tax ID #58-2492929) that has awarded more than $284 million to over 675 research grants since its founding, with 100% of donated funds directed to research programs. The Global Team Science Award targets a strategic LRA priority: understanding human lupus heterogeneity at the molecular level, a goal embedded in the organization's 2024–2028 Research Roadmap developed by a committee of lupus experts and patient advocates.

Funded projects must be interdisciplinary, collaborative, and highly synergistic, using cutting-edge technologies to address critical questions that could advance breakthroughs in lupus care, research, or drug development. The award is open to teams at universities and nonprofit research institutions; for-profit organizations are ineligible as lead applicants. The 2026 cycle deadline has passed; the 2027 cycle is expected to open on a similar annual cadence. Scientific inquiries for the program are directed to Mara Lennard Richard, PhD, at mrichard@lupusresearch.org; administrative inquiries go to Diomaris Gonzalez at dgonzalez@lupusresearch.org.

At $3 million over three years, the Global Team Science Award is suited to established research consortia with complementary expertise spanning molecular biology, clinical immunology, and technology development. Competitive applications will articulate how the proposed team's synergies go beyond what any single laboratory could accomplish, and how the work directly advances molecular stratification or heterogeneity-driven questions in human lupus — not murine models alone. Teams targeting the 2027 cycle should begin assembling collaborators and assembling preliminary data well in advance of the expected submission window.