Faculty
You redefine what is possible in patient care and biomedical science
DGSOM faculty elucidate biological processes and solve medical mysteries, gaining the insights necessary to heal humankind—one breakthrough at a time. Find the resources you need to fuel research regardless of your career level or line of inquiry.
K Program
Training program for junior faculty (including clinical instructors) at UCLA and partner institutions. It also provides a K Bridge award for those who applied for a K award and received competitive scores.
See more about the K program
R Bridge Award
This is for new investigators who received a competitive score on their first R01 award.
See more about the K Bridge Award
We provide support on research initiation, laboratory set-up, growth of research program, staffing, contract and grant strategy, and regulatory and compliance support. To initiate the process, please email Laura Benscoter.
Dean’s Physician-Scientist Leadership Academy
DGSOM’s in-house program to develop holistic leadership competencies of the current and future generations of MD scientists.
Career coaching and counseling
As a junior faculty, you may schedule a 30-min counseling call to discuss your career plans and mentorship needs. For more information, please email Physician-Scientist Program for office hours and appointments.
Funding Opportunities
Seed Grant Program: An effort to promote the assembly of new teams of scientists that are well-positioned to perform innovative, high-impact research and ultimately compete for large team science grants from federal agencies and private foundations.
Keck Foundation Award: To develop a novel strategy for promoting and supporting high-impact biomedical research, the W. M. Keck Foundation made a gift to the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) aimed at supporting junior faculty in the DGSOM and in other schools engaged in biomedical research at UCLA.
Drown Foundation Award: Two years of research support to a promising MD (not MD-PhD) assistant professor who is within her or his first six years as a faculty member.
UCLA Internal Funding Opportunities
Find funding opportunities from across the UCLA and UCLA Health Sciences ecosystem.
Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute Seed Grant
Anticipated Due Date:
Amount: $30,000
The UCLA Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute (CDI) Seed Grants provides awards of up to $30,000 for one year for junior faculty conducting child health research to generate preliminary data needed for subsequent applications to federal and private funding agencies. Eligible faculty for Principal Investigator must hold a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at the level of Clinical Instructor, Assistant Professor, or Associate Professor. At least one Co-Investigator must be a faculty member whose primary appointment is outside the Department of Pediatrics. Substantive collaboration with multiple UCLA schools and departments is emphasized for this award. The CDI, established in 2013 at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, encourages innovative and multidisciplinary child health research and research training at UCLA across the spectrum of basic, translational, clinical, and health services research.
CNSI Noble Family Innovation Fund Seed Funding Program
Anticipated Due Date: April
Amount: $250,000
The Noble Fund will focus on identifying, supporting and accelerating high-risk, high-reward research, from basic to translational, with promise for commercialization and societal impact. Our goal is to create a model for academic research and entrepreneurship that enables strategic investment to seed discoveries that have the potential to be translated for the public good.
DGSOM Seed Grant
Anticipated Due Date: July
Amount: $250,000
The David Geffen School of Medicine Research Themes have been charged with increasing the impact of basic, translational, clinical, and community research at UCLA in high-priority and broadly defined research areas; our aim is to promote the assembly of teams of researchers that are well-positioned to perform innovative, high-impact research and ultimately compete for large team science grants from federal agencies and private foundations.
Faculty Career Development Award
Anticipated Due Date: April
Amount: $15,000
This research funding is provided to assist faculty as they advance an on-going research project, creative activity, or as they embark on a new project, with emphasis in equity, diversion and inclusion.
Global Health Seed Grant
Anticipated Due Date: October
Amount: $50,000
The primary goals of this Seed Grant Program are to: (1) support multidisciplinary teams of faculty from across schools and departments to perform research in low- and middle-income countries; (2) establish or further build global research partnerships that address pressing health questions; and (3) build the capacity of early career researchers at both UCLA and global partner sites.
Keck Junior Faculty Grant
Anticipated Due Date: July
Amount: $500,000
The goal of the W. M. Keck Foundation Junior Faculty Awards is to support outstanding early career scientists who are 4-6 years into their first assistant professor position.
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) Interdisciplinary Seed Grant
Anticipated Due Date: Any time
Amount: $40,000
This program of the Cousins Center for PNI, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior is an open application with submissions welcomed at any time, and supports new and innovative research in the area of brain, behavior and immunity that builds bridges between basic biomedical science and clinical sciences.
SPORE, Brain Cancer, Developmental Research Program
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $50,000
The Developmental Research Program encourages high risk/high impact projects that take advantage of new research opportunities in the brain cancer research field and promote multidisciplinary collaboration between basic, preclinical and clinical programs.
SPORE, Brain Cancer, Career Enhancement Program
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $50,000
The Career Enhancement Program supports M.D. or Ph.D. junior faculty and established researchers who wish to commit their research interests to or refocus on translational approaches in the brain cancer research area. Exceptional postdoctoral fellows with plans to transition to a faculty position within a year may also apply but must submit a letter from an institution supporting their transition to faculty.
SPORE, Prostate Cancer, Developmental Research Program
Anticipated Due Date: June
Amount: $50,000
The Developmental Research Program supports pilot projects focusing on innovative and interdisciplinary translational research with emphasis on high risk/high impact projects that take advantage of new research opportunities in the prostate cancer research field and promote multidisciplinary collaboration between basic, preclinical and clinical programs.
SPORE, Prostate Cancer, Career Enhancement Program
Anticipated Due Date: June
Amount: $50,000
The Career Enhancement Program supports M.D. or Ph.D. junior faculty and established researchers who wish to commit their research interests to or refocus on translational approaches in the prostate cancer research area. Exceptional postdoctoral fellows with plans to transition to a faculty position within a year may also apply, but must submit a letter from an institution supporting their transition.
UC Drug Discovery Consortium Grant
Anticipated Due Date: June
Amount: $50,000
This early-stage funding helps accelerate projects to a position of seeking advanced stage funding or investment to advance the creation of drugs that address important unmet medical needs.
Global Health Seed Grant Program
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: Varies
Formerly known as the UCLA AIDS Seed Grant Program. Each year the AIDS Institute provides seed funding to support specific projects, the work of particular labs, and to cover part or all of the salaries of newly recruited faculty members.
UCLA Digestive Diseases Research Center Core Grant
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $35,000
The UCLA Digestive Diseases Research Center Core Pilot and Feasibility Studies provides funding for high quality and innovative research in the biology, function and diseases of the digestive system, with emphasis on receptor and signal transduction mechanisms, brain-gut interactions, gastrointestinal and pancreatic physiology, pathophysiology and inflammation, and mechanisms underlying diseases of the digestive system.
UCLA TDG Innovation Fund - Therapeutics Track Grant
Anticipated Due Date: April
Amount: $200,000
Focusing on advanced therapeutics, medical devices/diagnostics, and digital health technologies, the UCLA Innovation Fund speeds technologies from idea to market, bridging the funding gap between academia and industry.
UCLA TDG Innovation Fund - MedTech Track Grant
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $200,000
Focusing on advanced therapeutics, medical devices/diagnostics, and digital health technologies, the UCLA Innovation Fund speeds technologies from idea to market, bridging the funding gap between academia and industry.
UCLA/UCSD Diabetes Research Center Grant
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $50,000
The UCLA/UCSD Diabetes Research Center Pilot & Feasibility Projects mechanism will fund innovative new projects that will explore the feasibility of novel testable concepts and enhance the endocrine/diabetes research scope within the institutions, with a special emphasis on promoting promising junior faculty involved with diabetes research.
VCR Racial and Social Justice Seed Grant
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $30,000
These Racial and Social grants are designed to help launch and support research projects demonstrably centered on exploring the sources and consequences of racial inequities and social justice, with the goal to facilitate investigators’ preparedness for attaining extramural funding.
VCR Transdisciplinary Research Acceleration Grant
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $30,000
The purpose of these grants is to catalyze transdisciplinary research and creative activities by supporting early stage projects with the specific goal of facilitating investigators’ chances for attaining extramural funding.
VCR Public Impact Award
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $10,000
The purpose of the awards is to recognize Senate faculty whose research and/or other creative work has had a significant scientific, social, cultural, political, or other form of public benefit (locally, nationally, or globally).
JCCC Fellowship Award
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $10,000 to $30,000
The goal of the Fellowship program is to provide research funding to Post-Doctoral Fellows and Graduate Students from all areas of cancer research, including basic, translational, and clinical and population science, with support and guidance to fellows so they can use it as a tool towards developing and submitting an NIH F-grant application.
SPORE, Brain Cancer, Career Enhancement Program
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $50,000
The Career Enhancement Program supports M.D. or Ph.D. junior faculty and established researchers who wish to commit their research interests to or refocus on translational approaches in the brain cancer research area. Exceptional postdoctoral fellows with plans to transition to a faculty position within a year may also apply but must submit a letter from an institution supporting their transition to faculty.
SPORE, Prostate Cancer, Career Enhancement Program
Anticipated Due Date: June
Amount: $50,000
The Career Enhancement Program supports M.D. or Ph.D. junior faculty and established researchers who wish to commit their research interests to or refocus on translational approaches in the prostate cancer research area. Exceptional postdoctoral fellows with plans to transition to a faculty position within a year may also apply, but must submit a letter from an institution supporting their transition.
Summer Mentored Research Fellowship
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $6,000
To provide funding to doctoral students during the summer in order to release them from outside UCLA employment and/or loan obligations that might delay progress in graduate study.
UCLA Digestive Diseases Research Center Core Grant
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $35,000
The UCLA Digestive Diseases Research Center Core Pilot and Feasibility Studies provides funding for high quality and innovative research in the biology, function and diseases of the digestive system, with emphasis on receptor and signal transduction mechanisms, brain-gut interactions, gastrointestinal and pancreatic physiology, pathophysiology and inflammation, and mechanisms underlying diseases of the digestive system.
JCCC Fellowship Award
Anticipated Due Date: May
Amount: $10,000 to $30,000
The goal of the Fellowship program is to provide research funding to Post-Doctoral Fellows and Graduate Students from all areas of cancer research, including basic, translational, and clinical and population science, with support and guidance to fellows so they can use it as a tool towards developing and submitting an NIH F-grant application.
UCLA Digestive Diseases Research Center Core Grant
Anticipated Due Date: March
Amount: $35,000
The UCLA Digestive Diseases Research Center Core Pilot and Feasibility Studies provides funding for high quality and innovative research in the biology, function and diseases of the digestive system, with emphasis on receptor and signal transduction mechanisms, brain-gut interactions, gastrointestinal and pancreatic physiology, pathophysiology and inflammation, and mechanisms underlying diseases of the digestive system.