OVERVIEW: The Jain Foundation supports research on dysferlinopathy and related dystrophies.
IP TAKE: The Jain Foundation is an important funder to know if your research addresses any of the rare diseases that fall into the dysferlin family of dystrophies. Jain is a hands-on funder that participates in research design, project management, and helps to develop research tools related to its work. Jain is also a good source of information on current research in the field, and it hosts conferences, meetings, webinars and more, creating opportunities to get to know the foundation’s in-house scientific advisory board. This is a accessible funder that accepts one- to two-page pre-proposals via email at any time.
PROFILE: The Jain Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Ajit Jain and his wife, Tinku Jain. Ajit Jain earned an engineering degree at IIT Kharagpur and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He spent the early part of his career at McKinsey & Co., but later returned to India. His wife, Tinku, inspired a return to the U.S., and Ajit joined Berkshire Hathaway in the mid-1980s. He currently serves as the conglomerate’s Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations. The Jain Foundation was established in 2005 and is currently based in Seattle. Its mission is to “cure muscular dystrophies caused by dysferlin protein deficiency.” This family of dystrophies, referred to collectively as dysferlinopathy, are of personal interest to the couple, as it affects one of their children. Dysferlinopathy is considered an orphan disease, affecting only about ten million people and lacking in research funding.
Grants for Diseases
Jain’s grantmaking is limited to research on dysferlinopathy and to develop viable therapies for treatment. The foundation describes its approach as a non-traditional funding model, which involves:
- An in-house scientific advisory board to review research proposals;
- An interactive project management process that provides ongoing support and input, especially in the area of experiment design;
- Additional support to “eliminate roadblocks” to research, including the development and procurement of research tools and shared information.
The foundation also maintains a Dysferlin Registry of diagnosed patients seeking information about treatments, trials and information about the disease. Jain also hosts conferences, meetings, webinars and a travel grant program for the presentation of dysferlin research at scientific conferences.
Important Grant Details:
The Jain Foundation’s research grants range from about $40,000 to $600,000, although many grantees receive multi-year support for large-scale research projects.
- Giving is limited to research on dysferlinopathy-related diseases, as well as treatments and cures for this rare family of dystrophies.
- Jain is an interactive grantmaker, providing project management support, developing research tools and sharing information with stakeholders and the research field.
- The foundation recommends submitting a one- to two-page pre-proposal “to gauge our level of interest at any time.” These may be emailed to Jain at researchfunding@jain-foundation.org. Additional information about the application process is available here.
- To get a sense of the kids of work the foundation supports, see its active research projects, active clinical projects and past projects pages. Past grantees include researchers and teams at the University of British Columbia, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Duke University and many others.
Submit questions about grants to the foundation via email at researchfunding@jain-foundation.org. General inquiries may be directed to admin@jain-foundation.org. The foundation’s phone number is (425) 882-1492.
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