Thrasher Research Fund
/OVERVIEW: The Thrasher Research Fund supports research on pediatric diseases and health. The fund runs awards programs for established and early career medical researchers.
IP TAKE: The Utah-based Thrasher Research Fund focuses on pediatric health and disease research, supporting both established and early career researchers at some of the world’s leading medical schools, research institutes and hospitals. Grants are national and global. Recent areas of interest include medical imaging, nutritional deficiencies and common diseases including asthma, diabetes, malaria, schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS. Thrasher Award recipients are generally established researchers who hold doctoral degrees, while Early Career Awards generally support the work of residents and fellows working at the postdoctoral level.
The fund runs two grant cycles each year and accepts concept papers for two programs. Detailed guidelines, templates and due dates are available at the individual award program pages, and applicants may email the fund’s research managers with questions. Grants are highly competitive, but accessible.
PROFILE: Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Thrasher Research Fund was created in 1977 by the late E.W. “Al” Thrasher, an executive at the Masonite Corporation and an innovator in the lumber industry. In 1972, Thrasher sold over 2,000 acres of second-growth redwood timber and used the proceeds, which amounted to about $14 million, to start his foundation. The Thrasher Research Fund supports “clinical, hypothesis-driven research that offers substantial promise for meaningful advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of children’s diseases, particularly research that offers broad-based applications.” The fund runs two grantmaking programs: the larger E.W. “Al” Thrasher Awards support the research of doctoral degree-holding researchers for up to three years in amounts up to $550,000, and Early Career Awards support postdoctoral researchers and physicians in residencies or fellowships with smaller grants of up to $25,000. Grantmaking is global in scope, with about half of all awards going to U.S.-based projects.
Grants for Science and Disease Research
The Thrasher Research Fund supports disease research through both its E.W. “Al” Thrasher and Early Career awards programs. The fund names diabetes, asthma, cancer, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, cytomegalovirus and genetic diseases as areas of interest. Grants support research on etiology, diagnosis and treatment.
In addition to funding research on childhood diseases, the Thrasher Research Fund supports general research on pediatric health and preventative medicine through its two funding programs. Topics of interest include but are not limited to nutritional deficiencies, brain injury and ear infections. For E.W. “Al” Thrasher Awards, the fund runs two grant cycles and accepts concept papers with due dates in January and July of each year, with invitations for full proposals sent out in February and August. Detailed guidelines, instructions and templates are provided on the E.W. “Al” Thrasher Award program page. In a recent year, E.W. “Al” Thrasher Awards supported research on the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography for abdominal trauma in children at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a study of the effectiveness of vitamin D in the treatment of “complicated severe acute malnutrition” at Queen Mary University in London. Another recent Thrasher Award supported a study of the enhancement of magnetic resonance imaging with ferumoxytol at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. An early career award, meanwhile, went to a study of chronic kidney disease among children in Honduras and Guatemala by a fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. Other recent recipients have pursued research at medical schools and hospitals including Zimbabwe’s Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, the University of British Columbia, Emory University and Monash University in Australia.
For Early Career Awards, prospective grantees must submit concept papers with proof of mentorship. The fund runs two annual grant cycles with due dates in March and September and invitations for full proposals sent out in April and October. Detailed guidelines and instructions are provided on the Early Career Awards program page. Early Career Awards have gone to studies of childhood obesity, folic acid dosing and neurological screening methodologies for neonates.
Important Grant Details:
The Thrasher Research Fund gives away about $5.8 million a year in research grants for pediatric health and diseases. Its E.W. “Al” Thrasher Awards, are typically awarded for a period of between one and three years with a maximum total award of $550,000, while the Early Career Awards are awarded for a maximum of two years and $25,000 plus up to 7% for “indirect costs.”
The fund usually awards between 10 and 15 Thrasher awards and a minimum of 32 Early Career Awards each year. Awardees are generally affiliated with highly reputable medical schools, hospitals and research institutes. The fund maintains a database of current and past grantees on its website.
The Thrasher Fund accepts applications for both of its award programs. Questions about funding and applications may be directed to the fund’s research managers, Aaron Pontsler or Brittni Smith.
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