2026 American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes Grants

Program Overview

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is inviting nominations for the Pathway to Stop Diabetes initiative, which supports innovative basic, clinical, translational, epidemiological, behavioral, or health services research relevant to any diabetes type, diabetes-related disease state, or diabetes complication. The Association seeks exceptional candidates from a broad range of disciplines, including medicine, biology, chemistry, computing, physics, mathematics and engineering. This call for nominations will prioritize translational applications that move knowledge and discovery gained from basic research to its eventual translation into patient and population benefit. The ideal applicant will propose innovative research that will be an important step towards the eventual goal of improving the lives of people at risk of diabetes or living with the disease – and the pathway to this impact is clear. ADA’s vision is to create a pathway to launch the next generation of trailblazers in diabetes research.

Each institution is allowed a maximum of two nominations: one (1) nomination spanning basic through preclinical research and one (1) nomination spanning clinical through public health research. The nominations can be in one of the twoa vailable Pathway award categories (please click on the hyperlinks for each program type’s detail):

• Initiator – For researchers in postdoctoral training (up to 7 years from PhD). Phase One: request up to $100,000 per year, 2 years max. Phase two support (contingent): up to $325,000 per year, 5 years max.
• Accelerator – For early-career diabetes investigators (prior to submitting R01/U01 renewal or second R01/U01 regardless of outcome; may hold first R01 or other NIH funding). Up to 5 years of funding support, not to exceed $325,000 per year (including 30% indirect costs) for a maximum total budget up to $1,625,000 USD over 5 years.

If funded, the PI must agree to devote at least 75% of their total time and overall effort towards research.

Internal Application Process

Pathway awards provide up to $1.625 million per award in combined salary and project support. Since UCI may submit only two proposals across both categories, interested applicants (or their nominator) are asked to submit a preliminary application to the Office of Research by Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 11:59pm (via the UCI Review site), with the following information:

Please upload a single combined PDF with the following content:

• Brief Research Overview (up to two pages, 12 point font) outlining the nominee’s research strategy. Please include the following sections:
  • Scientific Abstract (250 Word Maximum)
    The scientific abstract must be a technical description of the proposed work that includes a background, hypothesis, supporting rationale, specific aims, research design, and relevance to a cure, prevention, and/or treatment of diabetes. The abstract should be written in the third person.
  • Lay Abstract (250 Word Limit) 
    The abstract must be a description of the research strategy(ies), including scientific question(s) and approach(es) and should specifically highlight the relevance to a cure, prevention, and/or treatment of diabetes. The abstract should be written in the third person. Abstracts should not include symbols, such as α. Use the full term instead of the symbol. For example, instead of “α,” use the term “alpha.” Abstracts should not be included as separate attachments or in the Body of the Application. The abstract should be included in the online portion of the application only.
  • Move the Needle (150-word maximum) 
    ADA’s funding emphasis is on transforming the field of diabetes. We are prioritizing exceptional investigators that aim to advance existing knowledge and discovery gained from the basic sciences to its eventual translation into patient and population benefit. The ideal applicant will propose innovative translational research that will be an important step towards the eventual goal of improving the lives of people at risk of diabetes or living with the disease and, the pathway to this impact is clear. In no more the 150 words, applicants must describe how their proposed research has the potential to significantly improve the lives of people at risk of diabetes or living with the disease.
• Names of three references the nominee could ask to write letters supporting their proposal, with title, organization and 1-2 sentences explaining why they would ask them
• Nominee’s Biosketch (no more than two pages).

If necessary, an ad hoc committee will convene to review the preliminary proposals. The selected nominees will be notified in time to develop their full application and meet the ADA nomination deadline of July 23rd, 2025.

For the complete nomination guidelines, please refer to the ADA Pathway nomination guidelines.

For questions regarding the ADA Pathways program, please contact Heather Fessler in Corporate & Foundation Relations (CFR), and for questions regarding the internal competition review process, please contact Mike Gallo in the Office of Research