HDF Transformative Research Awards

HDF Transformative Research Awards are the Hereditary Disease Foundation's largest research program and sit at the top of its Huntington's disease funding ladder. They support bold, collaborative science that can change the clinical trajectory of HD, which fits the foundation's mission to fund work that could lead to treatments and, ultimately, a cure. The program is meant for ideas with real novelty and a believable route to disease-modifying impact. Awards run from $300,000 to $500,000 a year for up to two years, with a ceiling of $1 million in total and indirect costs capped at 15 percent of direct costs. Academic institutions, companies, national laboratories, nonprofits, and multi-institutional teams can apply, and international researchers are welcome. The contact PI must hold an academic appointment with institutional commitment, may lead only one application at a time, and multi-institutional teams must name a lead PI. Proposals move through ProposalCentral, with an LOI stage before full invitation. The program rewards unusually strong collaboration and unusual ideas. HDF explicitly excludes incremental projects, and the strongest patterns are multi-institutional teams, novel mechanisms, and a clear disease-modifying rationale. Applicants succeed when the science is ambitious but still anchored in a credible plan, because HDF is backing work that can change the field rather than extend it by degrees.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.