CFF Research Grants

CFF Research Grants

Supports research teams and institutions for CFF Research Grants in biotechnology, medical technology, and synthetic biology.

The CFF Research Grant fall cycle provides the same funding terms as the spring cycle and serves as the second annual opportunity for basic science investigators who missed the May deadline or chose to strengthen preliminary data over the summer. The award provides up to $150,000 per year in direct costs plus 12% indirect costs for up to two years, competitively renewable. The fall deadline is expected in December 2026; exact dates are published by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on awards.cff.org when the RFA opens. As with the spring cycle, all applications must be submitted online by 5 p.m. ET on the stated deadline.

Research Grant funding is intended for basic science investigations at the subcellular, cellular, animal, or patient level into CF etiology and pathogenesis. Proposals must be hypothesis-driven and include sufficient preliminary data. Interventional clinical studies are ineligible and must be submitted as Clinical Research Awards. Projects addressing CFTR restoration, gene repair, or gene replacement must be routed to the PTAC Research Grant program. Eligible applicants are independent investigators at U.S. academic or research institutions; for-profit companies are ineligible. Each institution may submit only one Research Grant application per cycle, meaning an institution that submitted in the spring 2026 cycle may not also submit in the fall 2026 cycle.

Review follows NIH-aligned peer-review norms under the Research and Research Training Committee. Notifications typically arrive four to eight months after submission. The Policies and Guidelines PDF governing the fall 2026 cycle will be posted to cff.org when the RFA is released and should be downloaded before writing, as it contains binding page limits, formatting requirements, and the scoring rubric. Investigators with projects focused on mechanisms of pulmonary infection, airway inflammation, mucociliary dysfunction, GI complications, or nutritional pathophysiology — areas not covered by the PTAC initiative — are well matched to this mechanism.