Grants to USA and Canada researchers affiliated with nonprofit IHEs to study the development of communicable diseases. Applicants must submit a pre-proposal prior to submitting a full proposal. Funding is intended for researchers at the assistant professor level to explore the interaction between humans and microorganisms. The goal of the program is to provide opportunities for investigators, who are accomplished yet still at an early stage in their careers, to study how humans and potentially infectious agents are affected by their encounters.

The Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease program provides opportunities for assistant professors to bring multidisciplinary approaches to the study of human infectious diseases. The goal of the program is to provide opportunities for accomplished investigators still early in their careers to study what happens at the points where the systems of humans and potentially infectious agents connect. The program supports research that sheds light on the fundamentals that affect the outcomes of these encounters: How colonization, infection, commensalism, and other relationships play out at levels ranging from molecular interactions to systemic ones.

PATH provides funding to support investigators at the assistant professor level to study pathogenesis, with a focus on the interplay between infectious agents and their hosts, shedding light on how both are affected by their encounters. The awards are intended to give recipients the freedom and flexibility to pursue new avenues of inquiry and higher-risk research projects that hold potential for significantly advancing understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious disease. Researchers who start from the human host are appropriate applicants, as are those who start from the microbe or virus. Research on under-studied infectious diseases, including emerging diseases as well as well-established ones, is encouraged. Work on fungal, protozoan, and metazoan diseases and emerging infections is especially of interest. In addition, excellent animal models of human disease, including in veterinary research settings, are within the program’s scope. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Work connecting pathogenesis itself to climate change is also encouraged. Work that additionally involves more elements, for example, vector biology, is very welcome. 

Important Notes:

• Microbiome-related proposals must be infectious disease-focused to compete well in this program.
• BWF encourages submissions from those working in protozoan and metazoan parasites, protists, and fungi. Viral, bacterial, immune, and multi-species work is likewise encouraged. Work-related to malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDs is appropriate for this program. BWF particularly encourages human health-relevant applications from veterinary scientists.
  
• BWF encourages submissions focusing on climate change and its impact on the pathogenosis of infectious disease and human health.

The support allocated for research is under the control of the awardee and may be used flexibly for items such as equipment, consumable supplies, travel to scientific meetings, and salaries for laboratory personnel working with the awardee.