Foundation for Women’s Health Grant

The Foundation for Women's Health is a private foundation dedicated to addressing critical gaps in women's health research funding. This organization takes a holistic approach to examining the funding landscape across the entire female life cycle, strategically identifying areas where funding opportunities do not currently exist. Their mission focuses on achieving gender equity in health by supporting the most promising studies that fill significant holes in women's health research, particularly targeting diseases that present the largest burden to women while receiving the lowest current amounts of research funding in both public and private sectors. The Foundation's second annual Request for Applications seeks innovative studies to optimize the health of girls and women across the continuum of the female life cycle. The program prioritizes research addressing diseases and conditions that continue to represent huge burdens on the lives of women and girls while remaining grossly under-funded. The Foundation has identified six specific priority areas for year two funding based on their Medical Advisory Board's annual assessment of the funding landscape, with these priorities changing year to year as the body of rigorous research for women's health builds and as funding priorities shift in both private and public sectors. The priority research areas include adolescent girls' mental health, focusing on investigating gender differences in the brain's response to stress and social exposures, particularly examining the exponentially greater prevalence of mental illness in adolescent girls compared to boys. Uterine cancer research is prioritized to investigate the cause and epidemiology of increasing incidence and racial disparities while developing screening mechanisms. Cardiovascular disease research will investigate protective mechanisms from cardiovascular disease in pre-menopausal women and indicators of future cardiovascular disease in pregnant women. Additional priority areas include vaccine uptake research for innovative approaches to increase uptake in vaccines for adolescent girls and pregnant women, autoimmune disease research aimed at mechanisms that reduce sex-based differences, and uterine fibroids research investigating drivers of difference in severity and burden while developing minimally-invasive or non-invasive treatments. Eligibility is restricted to researchers conducting their work at institutions within the United States, though the populations being studied may be located abroad. Non-US citizens are eligible to apply provided they are conducting research at American institutions. This geographic restriction ensures compliance with the Foundation's current funding capabilities while maintaining global research impact through US-based institutions. Interested candidates must submit a complete application package including applicant contact information, a one-page letter of intent, and a CV or NIH biosketch. The letter of intent must cover a summary of current research, long-range research goals and plans for future research with specific aims included in bold, and a brief budget overview specifying how pilot funds would be used. Applications undergo review by the Foundation for Women's Health Medical Advisory Board using specific evaluation criteria including the potential of the applicant's work to advance research in women's health, credentials of the applicant, and alignment with the Foundation's mission. Grant awards range from $100,000 to $200,000, providing substantial funding for pilot studies and innovative research initiatives. The Foundation permits up to 15 percent of any funding for a specific purpose or project to be used by recipient organizations for general operational, administrative, overhead, or other indirect cost purposes. Indirect costs support entire operations and are shared across multiple projects, applying to both primary award recipients and subawardees. General operating support grants and endowment grants are not eligible for indirect cost recovery, and indirect costs must be specified in project budgets and may not be charged against equipment costs or travel. All letters of intent must be received by September 2, 2025, and selected finalists will be invited to submit full proposals by the end of the year. Complete applications should be emailed to info@foundationwomenshealth.org, and additional information about the Foundation for Women's Health is available at www.foundationwomenshealth.org. This funding opportunity represents a significant chance for US-based researchers to advance women's health knowledge in critically under-funded areas while contributing to the Foundation's mission of achieving gender equity in health research.