Hevolution commits $8.5 million to support junior investigators in multi-year grant programme with American Federation for Aging Research.
Hevolution Foundation, a non-profit organisation that provides grants and early-stage investments to incentivise research and entrepreneurship in healthspan science, and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) have today announced an international research grant programme to enable early-career investigators to conduct research into healthspan-expanding therapeutics and treatments.
Longevity.Technology: Founded in the belief that every person has the right to live a longer, healthier life, Hevolution Foundation is on a mission to drive efforts to extend healthy human lifespan and understand the processes of aging. With a focus on aging as a treatable process, the Foundation aims to increase the number of aging-related treatments on the market, compress the timeline of drug development and increase accessibility to therapeutics that extend healthspan.
A non-profit organisation headquartered in Riyadh, with an annual budget of up to $1 billion, Hevolution Foundation plans to open hubs in North America and other global locations to support a cutting-edge, global ecosystem of talent to propel aging and geroscience research forward and achieve medical breakthroughs to help humanity live healthier, longer.
Representing Hevolution Foundation’s first deployment of capital into aging research, the Hevolution /AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research will provide up to 18 three-year awards of US $375,000 each. The awards will support research projects into the basic biology of aging and/or geroscience, a research paradigm focused on the biology of aging and the biology of age-related disease. Junior investigators worldwide are invited to apply.
“The goal of our grants programs is to advance geroscience globally across the whole R&D value chain, by funding long-term basic research, accelerating new drug development, expanding therapeutic applications of existing drugs, and working to ensure that innovations in the field are accessible to everyone worldwide,” commented Felipe Sierra, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Hevolution Foundation.
“A fundamental element of this is support of junior researchers, and we are delighted to work with AFAR on this new initiative.”
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Additionally, Hevolution Foundation will establish a Conference Fund, managed by AFAR, to support conferences and scientific meetings on aging research and geroscience.
Dr Sierra concluded: “This collaboration with AFAR is the first of many agreements and partnerships that we hope to form with leading institutions and organizations in aging and geroscience research worldwide. Through such funding, we intend to catalyse the field, enable its growth, and accelerate progress.”
The New Investigator Award recipients will be chosen through a rigorous peer-review process. Applications will be reviewed by established aging researchers who volunteer their time and expertise to select scientists and research projects that have the greatest likelihood of making significant contributions to help us stay healthier longer as we grow older. AFAR and Hevolution Foundation plan to announce the awardees in the coming months.
For more information on the New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience, the Conference Fund, and all AFAR grant programs, please visit www.afar.org/funding-opportunities.
