Pilot grants for trainees
Fund your postdoctoral or dissertation research
The Wendy Klag Center sponsors competitive research grants to doctoral students at the Bloomberg School and postdoctoral trainees at the Bloomberg School or Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. We offer two separate funding mechanisms for trainees:
- Postdoctoral research funding: Research project funding up to $15,000 can be requested. Applicants must hold a postdoctoral position in the BSPH or Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and be mentored by (1) faculty with a primary BSPH appointment; or (2) a current Wendy Klag Center faculty affiliate. Consistent with the mission of the Wendy Klag Center, research proposals must have a population-based orientation as opposed to a clinical focus. Applications submitted by WKC affiliates who do not have primary appointments at BSPH should include collaborators from the school.
- Doctoral student dissertation funding: Research project funding up to $15,000 can be requested. Eligibility is restricted to full-time BSPH doctoral students in good academic standing who have passed the preliminary written examination. The award is intended to support the doctoral student’s dissertation work. Funds may support laboratory assays, supplies, travel, or software not covered via other mechanisms. Funding may be used to support student effort but, if used as effort during years of guaranteed funding, it is required to be used toward base compensation and not as supplemental pay.
For both types of awards, the maximum duration for funding is 12 months.
Information for 2025 grants
- March 3, 2025: Call for research proposals announced
- April 4, 2025: Research proposals due
- July 1, 2025: Funding begins
- Please contact Michelle Landrum Trice, mlandru5@jhu.edu, for more information.
Students receiving these awards will be designated as Wendy Klag Scholars, continuing a tradition of scholarship already in place through the Wendy Klag Memorial Fund. All awardees must agree to engage with the growing community of investigators focused on autism and developmental disabilities across BSPH, JHU, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. This includes seminars, journal clubs, and symposia held throughout the year.
How to apply
For both the postdoctoral and dissertation proposals, reviewers are looking well-formulated, innovative research projects that are consistent with the center’s mission, particularly research showing the power of public health approaches in autism research.
For postdoctoral applicants: Applications require a project summary (30 lines of text), specific aims (1 page), research strategy (no more than 6 pages), an itemized budget, a detailed budget justification, and a NIH-format biographical sketch.
The research strategy should include significance, innovation, approach, and any relevant preliminary data. The significance section should include how this work will bring something new to the field of autism and developmental disabilities. Proposals should be targeted to a broad audience so that reviewers from different backgrounds can understand what is planned and why.
Applications from postdoctoral trainees should include a letter of support from the BSPH faculty advisor who will supervise the project. The faculty advisor must be a full-time faculty member in the BSPH.
If the proposed activity is part of a larger grant or existing funded work there should be an explicit explanation of the larger grant and how this proposal fits into it or addresses a scientific gap.
Completed applications should be compiled into one PDF document and emailed to mlandru5@jhu.edu.
For doctoral student applicants:
Please submit your approved dissertation research proposal (no more than 6 pages).
Applications must include a letter of support from the BSPH faculty advisor who will supervise the project, affirm that the applicant has the relevant skills to complete the project, and include a statement that the applicant has passed the preliminary written examination. The faculty advisor must be a full-time faculty member in the BSPH.
If the proposed activity is part of a larger grant or existing funded work there should be an explicit explanation of the larger grant and how this proposal fits into it or addresses a scientific gap.
Completed applications should be compiled into one PDF document and emailed to mlandru5@jhu.edu.
Meet our prior Klag Scholars
Elizabeth Stone, a predoctoral candidate in the Department of Health Policy and Management, is investigating “The role of state agencies in mental health services for individuals with co-occurring intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental illness.”
Xueqi “Snow” Qu, a predoctoral student in the Department of Mental Health, is investigating “Association of carnitine and acyl-carnitine in maternal and cord blood with ASD in offspring.” She will be working with the Boston Birth Cohort led by Dr. Xiaobin Wang.