Launching and Leading Scientific Funding Programs
Once a funding strategy has been identified, SPARC advisors work alongside our philanthropic partners to develop programs that transform medical research systems. Each funding initiative is custom designed. Drawing from deep experience, we ensure that best practices and lessons learned from past efforts inform implementation tactics.
Milken Institute Philanthropy SPARC advisors manage the full cycle of a grant process, starting from developing and distributing funding announcements, scientific vetting, making recommendations for and recruiting advisory boards, and managing grant agreement execution with partner organizations.
Once programs are launched, we work to develop community and accelerate the trajectory of research through a variety of field-building activities, such as facilitating targeted collaboration, driving scientific consensus, and hosting scientific convenings.
Active Programs
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease that affects an estimated 350,000 individuals around the world at any given time.
The program addresses knowledge gaps in the basic disease mechanisms of bipolar disorder as well as factors influencing clinical approaches and outcomes.
This program is focused on accelerating the use of computational approaches in translational research and clinical settings to improve the well-being and health of the global community.
This program seeks to understand the state of the FTD research ecosystem and identify where philanthropic investments could be deployed to overcome barriers to scientific progress.
Since 2018, Milken Institute Philanthropy has been working in concert with the Misophonia Research Fund to solicit and fund scientific research aimed at advancing research and alleviating the hardship misophonia causes.
Since 2021, Milken Institute Philanthropy has been working in concert with the Ann Theodore Foundation to solicit and fund research aimed at advancing scientific understanding of sarcoidosis.
Featured Reports
Infrastructure, Readiness, and Resilience: A Long-Term, Biomedical Systems-Based Response to COVID-19This report from SPARC identifies four main areas ripe for greater—and more efficient—philanthropic investment: (1) Accelerating Product Development; (2) Clinical Trial Design and Execution; (3) Resea
The Value of Building an Interdisciplinary Scientific Workforce — A Call to PhilanthropyInterdisciplinary research drives this innovation by bringing together the perspectives, expertise, data, and tools of multiple scientific fields, uniting them toward a common outcome.
Nonprofits: A Growing Force in Drug DevelopmentIn this paper, we explore the multitude of methods that nonprofits use to support the translational drug development process in addition to when and where these models are most appropriate.
Funding Scientific Research - A Giving Smarter GuideThis Giving Smarter Guide is structured to provide points of entry into the pathway of funding scientific research primarily conducted in an academic or medical setting.