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Healthy Aging Pilot Grant

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Overview. The Healthy Aging Initiative at Harvard Chan is pleased to announce that it is now accepting proposals from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty for our healthy aging pilot grant program, supported by Danone Institute North America (DINA).

Over the past century, public health and medicine have dramatically increased life expectancy. The next frontier is making those added years healthy by extending healthspan (years lived disease-free and functional). Recent advances in wearable technology, aging biomarkers, multi-omics, computational biology, and artificial intelligence are accelerating research poised to transform our understanding of what constitutes healthy aging and how we can achieve it. This is an unusually promising moment for research on healthy aging.

Harvard Chan is uniquely positioned to lead public health efforts to promote healthy aging and extend healthspan by leveraging its strengths in aging biology, nutrition, metabolism, microbiome science, environmental science, infectious diseases and immunity, epidemiology/demography, behavioral science, statistics, and health policy—within a public-health framework focused on translation and impact.

To spearhead critical new research in healthy aging, DINA and the Harvard Chan Healthy Aging Initiative are partnering together to launch a pilot grant program to provide seed funding to catalyze new, formative research related to healthy aging.

Award Amount: $10,000-50,000. Funding can be used to cover research-related expenses, such as investigator and research staff salary support, obtaining access to existing data, collecting or generating data, supplies, publication fees, and travel. Budget requests should be limited to only what is needed to perform the proposed project.

Award Duration: 1-2 years, depending on the complexity of the research

Number of Awards: 3-6 anticipated

Deadline: 5 pm Eastern time on Thursday,December 3, 2026

Anticipated Notification of Award: First week of January 2026

Anticipated Award Start Date: February 1, 2027

AI Based Application Success Predictor

Category	Details
Organization type	Private, non-profit academic institution
Country	United States
Government/Federal or Non-Profit/Corporate	Non-profit academic institution; receives funding from federal agencies, foundations, and other sponsors. HMS Office of Research Administration (ORA) +1
Primary research areas	Epidemiology, global health, biostatistics, environmental health, nutrition, health policy, infectious diseases, and non-communicable diseases.
Relevant funding programs	Faculty seed grants, interdisciplinary research grants, pilot grants, career development funding, and external sponsored research awards. Harvard Chan School of Public Health +1
Previous success predictors	1. Scientific quality and significance. 2. Innovation and originality. 3. Interdisciplinary collaboration. 4. Potential to generate preliminary data for larger external grants. 5. Public health relevance and potential population-level impact. 6. Methodological rigor and feasibility. 7. Investigator expertise and research environment. 8. Alignment with the funding program's objectives. 9. Appropriate budget and project timeline. 10. Eligibility and compliance with institutional and sponsor requirements. Harvard Chan School of Public Health +1
Historical success rate	Not verified; application and award counts for a specific program and year are needed to calculate it.

Excel-ready entry — Previous Success Predictors

Scientific significance; innovation; public health impact; interdisciplinary collaboration; preliminary data generation; potential for future external funding; methodological rigor; feasibility; investigator expertise; research environment; alignment with grant objectives; budget justification; and eligibility compliance.

Specialties

Geriatrics & Gerontology

Eligibility Requirements

Faculty of all ranks are eligible to apply. The contact PI must be a faculty member at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). Co-PIs and collaborators do not have to be affiliated with HSPH. If you are unsure about your eligibility, please contact the Initiative’s Program Manager, Kelsey Hunt, at khunt@hsph.harvard.edu.

Funding Priorities: All innovative research proposals related to healthy aging are encouraged. Priority will be given to projects that are interdisciplinary, involve collaboration across departments, generate preliminary data for future external funding, and/or incorporate food, nutrition, or dietary approaches as a key component of the research. Please note that funding is limited to non-animal research. Eligible research may include in vitro models, including human and animal-derived cell lines, organoids, computational approaches, and ethical human clinical research. Research involving live animals is not eligible for funding.

Selection Process and Criteria: Proposals must have the potential to generate data likely to lead to future external funding. Submitted grants will be peer-reviewed by a panel using a pre-defined rubric. The panel will consist of faculty affiliated with the Harvard Chan Healthy Aging Initiative and representatives from Danone Institute North America. Proposals will be evaluated based on the potential to catalyze new areas of inquiry related to healthy aging; the quality of the proposed research; the potential to generate external funding; and the potential to positively impact public health.

Proposal Guidelines: Please submit a proposal of no more than 3 pages, single-spaced, that covers the following:

Title of the Project
Name and department/school of the PI(s)
Detailed project proposal, addressing the following:
1. Project aims
2. Any pre-specified hypotheses
3. Importance of the project
4. What has already been done in this area
5. How the project will advance the aims of this pilot grant program
6. Methodology, including any statistical or quantitative methods
7. Timeline for completing the work. Note that the project must be completed by December 31, 2028.
8. The end-product and deliverables, which may include: (1) development of novel methods; (2) development of new interventions to extend healthspan; (3) identification of novel pathways or factors that affect aging; (4) presentation of findings at national meetings; (5) publication of manuscripts in peer reviewed journals; and/or (6) preparation of larger grant proposals for external funding.
A statement on Human Subjects/IRB. All research involving human subjects must have approval from the applicable institutional IRB. If you are awarded funding, we will need either the IRB protocol number or exemption number before an account can be set-up. IRB approval must be obtained within six months of the award.

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

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