Between April and July 2019, RCP managed the peer review of several dozen proposals submitted to the ALS Association. The ALS Association, a non-profit organization leading the fight to treat and cure ALS through global research and nationwide advocacy, is the largest private funder of ALS research worldwide. Its efforts have led to some of the most promising and significant advances in ALS research.
The proposals received were for three different grant competitions: Multi-year Grants, Starter Grants, and the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship. Multi-year grants provide up to $100,000 per year for up to three years for ALS researchers with strong preliminary data, while the Starter Grant is geared towards investigators newly entering the field of ALS research and awards up to $50,000. Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Grants fund new scientists working with senior mentors on research relevant to ALS.
Postdoctoral and Starter applications were independently reviewed by two external reviewers with expertise in relevant fields, yielding two individual reviews per application. Multi-year proposals were reviewed by panels consisting of three experts and a single consensus review was written for each proposal. All proposals were evaluated against a rubric and were provided with narrative feedback that included big picture recommendations to help ALSA in making funding decisions as well as specific recommendations helpful to the applicants.