Rapid-Advancement Innovation Funds
Alzheimer’s Endowed Rapid-Advancement Innovation Fund
A $5M gift will create a named Endowed Innovation Fund that allows faculty members to rapidly pursue promising areas of investigation that would otherwise require years of grant applications, possibly be overlooked by NIH or traditional Alzheimer’s foundation funding, and that would be considered “too early” for pharmaceutical or venture capital funding. Hence this fund would provide seed funding and fill the critical ‘gap’ between classic basic research and more advanced stages of therapeutic development. These funds would be assigned by the Executive Committee with the expectation that the proposed research is milestone based, among the very best at Stanford and nationally, and that the proposed approach, if successful, would attract substantial outside funding.
Alzheimer’s Expendable Rapid-Advancement Innovation Fund
As the endowment fund builds, the immediate research needs will be supported by an expendable fund. This fund will support faculty members’ efforts to discover novel therapies as described above for the Endowed Fund. The initial goal for the Expendable Fund will be $5M and will be created by donors interested in supporting Stanford’s innovative Alzheimer’s efforts with donations that are generally at a level of $5,000 or higher.