Harvard Q-FASTR Therapeutics Acceleration Grants

Q-FASTR Development Award

Funds Harvard biomedical investigators through sustained support to reach preclinical milestones.

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

The Q-FASTR Development Award is the larger of two grant tracks administered by Q-FASTR (Quadrangle Fund for Advancing and Seeding Translational Research) at Harvard Medical School's Innovation Hub, established in 2014 with initial support from Phill Gross and matched funding from the Warren Alpert Foundation and Barbara and Louis Perlmutter. Development Awards provide up to $300,000 in direct costs over up to two years, targeting projects at advanced preclinical development stages that are expected to deliver tangible results creating a clear path to clinical or commercial translation. Representative projects include developing chemical or biological compounds that show activity in validated preclinical models, or advancing biological therapeutics toward IND-enabling studies.

Eligibility mirrors the Pilot Award track: applicants must be assistant, associate, or full professors with HMS Quadrangle research programs who assign intellectual property to Harvard University, plus HSCRB faculty and LSP investigators under joint Harvard-affiliate IP agreements. The key differentiating requirement for Development Awards is a minimum 5% institutional base salary and effort commitment from the lead PI, compared to 1% for Pilot Awards, reflecting the more substantial project scope. Co-PIs must commit a minimum of 1% effort. Budget restrictions prohibit travel; capital equipment, computers, and software require Senior Director pre-approval. Indirect costs at collaborating institutions are capped at 20% of total direct costs.

For the 2026 cycle, pre-proposals were due March 3, 2026, full proposals were due May 5, 2026, and funding is scheduled to start July 1, 2026. Approximately 10 total new awards are expected across both Development and Pilot tracks combined. The 2026 submission window has closed; investigators interested in the 2027 cycle should monitor qfastr.hms.harvard.edu and may contact Senior Director Dr. Ifat Rubin-Bejerano at ifat_rubin-bejerano@hms.harvard.edu for guidance on proposal development.