Call for Applications, Proposals, and Papers from NIA Supported Centers and Networks

• The Center to Accelerate Population Research in Alzheimer’s (CAPRA) Pilot Core is seeking novel, population-based Emerging Scholar Pilot Proposals that address CAPRA’s main thematic areas including health policy and healthcare system impact on acute and long-term care outcomes; diffusion of new diagnostics and drugs into practice; heterogeneity in disease risk, care access, and outcomes across populations; or innovative applications of population data.  Learn more and submit your application by March 2, 2026.  

  
  

• The Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA) announces a call for applications for its Research Fellows program. This two-year mentored pilot project program is designed to provide early career scholars with resources to complete a small project in Year 1 and develop a grant application to the NIA in Year 2. Learn more and submit your pre-proposal by March 2, 2026.  

  
  

• The State Alzheimer’s Research Support (StARS) Center is currently accepting letter of intent (LOI) for the Dementia Care Innovation Grants.  They are seeking proposals that advance the provision, understanding, documentation, and evaluation of dementia care services, with a priority focused on dementia care service coordination projects. Learn more and submit your letter of intent by March 12, 2026.  

  
  

• The Hopkins Economic of Alzheimer’s Disease & Services Center (HEADS Center) is currently accepting pilot proposals related to their themes to identify and quantify the range of AD/ADRD care needs and related economic consequences or examine how the organization and financing of services and technology affect accessibility, affordability, and quality of AD/ADRD care. They encourage applicants who are Early-Stage Investigators, new investigators who have not yet received a major R or K grant, and those new to AD/ADRD research. Learn more and submit your complete proposal by March 13, 2026. 

  
  

• The Center on the Economics & Demography of Aging at the University of California, Berkeley is currently accepting applications for both the Emerging Scholars Pilots and the Innovation Pilots. Emerging Scholar Pilots will support early career researchers while the Innovation Pilots will support researchers at any stage who are highly innovative research for which pilot funding is necessary to test ideas and demonstrate feasibility to support strong extramural grant proposals. The next deadline for the Emerging Scholars Pilot is on April 1, 2026, while the Innovation Pilots is on a rolling basis. Learn more and submit your applications.  

• NIA IMPACT Collaboratory is accepting applications for their Health Care Systems Scholars Program. The Health Care Systems Scholars Program is a 1-year mentored experience designed to support immersion of mid-career investigators (MD, PhD, or equivalent) within a health care system to foster durable partnerships, advance system-informed research priorities, and lay the groundwork for future embedded pragmatic clinical trials in dementia care.  Learn more and submit your letter of intent on April 2, 2026.  

• Gateway to Global Aging Data announced a research hackathon for early-career researchers from July 27-30 in Washington, D.C.  The hackathon is a team-based competition where participants will collaborate on a study investigating the role of education in determining risk, resilience, and disparities in non-communicable diseases, with a special interest in cognition. Winners will receive financial support for attending future conferences to present the work and journal article submission or publication costs. Learned more and submit your research proposals and CV by Friday, April 17, 2026.