Our Funding Priorities

Our Research Priorities

We define and shape our many programs and initiatives through an aggressively funded Strategic Research Agenda centered on four pillars which guide our single, urgent goal: to end Parkinson’s.

• Clearer Disease Diagnosis: We support research that explores the biology driving Parkinson’s neurodegeneration and symptoms to enable more precise disease detection and prediction.
• Better Treatment Pipelines: We support scientists at all stages of new treatment development to de-risk promising therapeutic ideas that target the diverse needs (and underlying biology) of people with Parkinson’s.
• Faster Clinical Trials: We support new and better biomarkers and other measurement tools, as well as modern clinical trial designs to make drug studies smarter, more efficient and more likely to deliver answers quickly.
• Catalyzed Communities: We empower patients and families by encouraging research participation and fuel collaboration and connection between researchers that spurs discovery.

Research Support That Meets Your Needs

Every Parkinson’s challenge needs the right solution to make meaningful progress, so we deploy our funding and resources through multiple channels:

• Funding Programs: Whether broad to cast a wide net or targeted to address a specific gap, our funding programs seek novel and innovative ideas across the spectrum of Parkinson’s research.
• Tools and Resources: We develop and distribute many laboratory tools, biosamples and patient data to accelerate research and drug development.
• Foundation-driven Initiatives: Our Foundation sponsors and/or coordinates our own studies, including the landmark Parkinson’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

Learn more about our open programs, resources and initiatives.

We Fund Research across the Field

For our funding programs, we look for projects built from sound scientific rationale and clear relevance for people with Parkinson’s disease. Depending on the program, we may support academic researchers, industry scientists at small biotech and big pharma, healthcare professionals, or other key field experts and contributors. We look at hundreds of ideas annually to ultimately support a portfolio that spans basic, translational and clinical research. And we do this at a global scale — 30 percent of funded work goes to international applicants.

Our application guidelines provide details on our review process and criteria. Get a sense of the scope, ambition and diversity of work we support by browsing our funded studies database.

We Partner for Success

Support from MJFF goes beyond funding. MJFF-funded projects benefit from our in-house team of formally trained PhDs, business specialists and project managers — a model we built from day one. You may be invited to join a consortium and/or attend virtual and in-person meetings with others working in the same research area who may enrich or even partner on your project. We can also guide you on additional tools and resources that may further enable your research.

Get more details about our collaboration model.
Find a consortia opportunity that’s right for you.
Access our data resources.

Ready to Accelerate Your Research?

Browse our open funding programs below. Sign up for researcher email updates to be notified when new programs open.

See funding and resource opportunities.
Sign up for researcher funding news.
Questions? Get answers using ChatFox or email our team.