Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship

Supports junior ALS postdocs through research fellowships to strengthen real-world implementation.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is a flagship early-career award of The ALS Association, funded through the generosity of the Safenowitz family, the Hugh and Herbert Hoffman ALS Impact Fund, and other philanthropic contributors. The program provides junior postdoctoral scientists with up to $150,000 in direct costs over two years — $75,000 per year — to pursue research of high scientific merit and relevance to ALS. Indirect costs are not provided. More than 75% of past awardees continue in ALS research after completing the fellowship, and all fellows become members of the Association's Postdoctoral Fellowship Consortium, presenting on quarterly Zoom calls.

Supported research areas include new target validation in animal and human cell models, target or pathway biology in disease-relevant systems, ALS risk factor research (genetics, epigenomics, epidemiology), new biomarker identification and assay development, ALS management and assistive technologies, and analysis of large -omics datasets from PRO-ACT, Project MinE, and Answer ALS. Drug development studies and clinical trials are explicitly out of scope. Eligibility is limited to junior postdoctoral researchers who received their Ph.D. or completed postgraduate clinical training on or after February 10, 2024, and who hold an existing postdoctoral position with mentor support. Fellows cannot hold another postdoctoral fellowship at any point during the two-year award period. The program is open to U.S. and non-U.S. organizations, including biotech and pharma.

For the FY27 cycle, the Letter of Intent deadline was February 10, 2026, and full proposals (by invitation only) were due April 21, 2026; award decisions are anticipated July 2026, with an earliest project start of August 1, 2026. Applications are submitted via ProposalCentral under grant maker 'The ALS Association.' Competitive applications demonstrate clear scientific merit, relevance to ALS, and strong mentorship arrangements.