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Innovator Awards

Kenneth Rainin Foundation

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation believes that early support for innovative ideas can lead to improvements in preventing, predicting, diagnosing and treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Our Health grantmaking enables researchers worldwide to test ideas, gather and share data, and collaborate to advance the understanding of IBD. In 2022, we consolidated our Innovator Awards and Synergy Awards into one grant program—the Innovator Awards.

Innovator Awards support individual research projects with grants of up to $150,000 and collaborative projects involving multiple investigators with grants of up to $300,000. Grantees who demonstrate significant progress are eligible for up to two years of additional support.

Collaborative applications between scientists and clinicians in a variety of fields and expertise are highly encouraged, including immunologists, microbiologists, gastroenterologists, molecular biologists and computational biologists. The Rainin Foundation encourages also applications for high-impact basic and translational research projects that use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data analytics, and various model systems to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms in IBD and accelerate therapeutic discovery in the field.

Budget Guidelines

Innovator Awards Letters of Inquiry do not require a detailed budget, just an amount requested.

Full Innovator Awards proposals must include a detailed budget. All necessary research costs can be budgeted including personnel, reagents, supplies and equipment. Institutions may use any format they’d like, or download this budget template. See our Innovator Awards FAQs for more information.

Budget Amount

Innovator Awards provide up to $150,000 USD for projects by individual researchers and up to $300,000 USD for collaborative projects involving multiple researchers.
The budget must reflect the total amount requested, which may include up to 10% for indirect costs.
The budget caps of $150,000 and $300,000 USD, respectively, include all indirect costs.

Principal Investigator Salary

The maximum amount allowed for the Principal Investigator’s salary is $10,000 USD, including fringe benefits.
If Co-Investigator(s) are listed on the proposal, the maximum salary support for each of them is $10,000 USD, including fringe benefits.
The maximum salary support for all Investigators combined is $30,000 USD total. This maximum value does not apply to other research personnel (e.g., post-doctoral fellows, research associates, students) to be funded by the award.

Indirect Costs

The maximum indirect or overhead costs that can be requested are 10% of total direct costs.
Once a grant has been awarded, funds cannot be transferred from direct costs to cover indirect or overhead costs, even if the indirect cost was less than the maximum allowed.

Travel To The Innovations Symposium

The Rainin Foundation’s annual Innovations Symposium is a two- to three-day meeting held each year in July.
The Principal Investigator is encouraged to attend the Innovations Symposium in the year of their award. Grantees may be invited to present their work to the event attendees.
Grantees are also encouraged to invite a trainee from each funded project to attend the Innovations Symposium. Early career scientists have important contributions to offer to the field, and their careers will benefit from networking with field leaders at the Symposium.
Transportation costs for the PI and a trainee to attend the Innovations Symposium should be included in the proposal budget.
Eligible transportation costs include economy/coach airfare and ground transportation.
The Rainin Foundation will cover the hotel expenses for grantees and designated trainees.
Innovator Awards funding cannot be used to cover travel to attend other scientific meetings.

Award Period
The award period is 12 months, starting June 1.

AI Based Application Success Predictor

1. Innovation and originality ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is one of the three explicit evaluation criteria and a major predictor of success.

Strong proposals should:

Test a genuinely new idea
Introduce novel technologies or methods
Challenge existing assumptions about IBD
Open a new research direction
Have potential to transform understanding of IBD

Rainin specifically encourages high-impact, innovative research, including projects using AI, machine learning, big-data analytics, and advanced model systems.

2. Direct relevance to IBD ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The project should clearly address Inflammatory Bowel Disease, particularly:

Crohn's disease
Ulcerative colitis
IBD pathogenesis
Disease prediction
Disease prevention
Diagnosis
Treatment
Disease progression
IBD complications

The Foundation's Health program is specifically dedicated to research that can improve the prevention, prediction, diagnosis, and treatment of IBD.

3. Strong scientific merit ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Scientific merit is another explicit Rainin evaluation criterion.

Competitive proposals should demonstrate:

Strong scientific rationale
Clearly defined research question
Appropriate hypothesis
Rigorous methodology
Appropriate experimental design
Feasible research plan
Potentially important findings

Rainin's funded portfolio demonstrates substantial support for mechanistic and translational research addressing previously unresolved questions in intestinal biology and IBD.

4. Investigator capability to execute the project ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is the third explicit evaluation criterion.

Reviewers want confidence that the investigator/team can successfully execute the proposed work.

Important factors include:

Relevant expertise
Research experience
Previous accomplishments
Appropriate technical skills
Adequate institutional resources
Strong collaborators where needed

Rainin specifically lists investigator capability to execute the project as a funding criterion.

5. Potential for transformative IBD discoveries ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rainin is particularly interested in research that could lead to new and transformative discoveries.

Strong projects should have potential to:

Reveal new mechanisms of IBD
Identify new therapeutic targets
Improve prediction or diagnosis
Develop novel treatment approaches
Change understanding of intestinal disease

The Foundation describes its goal as supporting innovative ideas that can ultimately contribute to a cure for IBD.

6. High-impact basic or translational research ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rainin supports both:

Basic research
Translational research
Clinical research

Particularly competitive projects establish a clear connection between fundamental discoveries and potential improvements in IBD care.

For translational projects, the Foundation has shown particular interest in approaches that use human samples and/or datasets.

7. Advanced technologies and computational approaches ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Rainin explicitly encourages innovative approaches involving:

Artificial intelligence
Machine learning
Big-data analytics
Computational biology
Advanced imaging
Novel model systems
Microbiome technologies

These technologies are especially valuable when they address an important unanswered IBD question rather than being included simply for technological novelty.

8. Strong collaboration and complementary expertise ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Collaborative applications are highly encouraged.

Rainin specifically highlights collaborations among:

Immunologists
Microbiologists
Gastroenterologists
Molecular biologists
Computational biologists
Other complementary disciplines

For researchers who are new to IBD research, the Foundation strongly advises including collaborators with established IBD expertise.

9. Early-career investigator potential ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Rainin has a strong history of supporting early-career scientists.

Its 2026 Rainin Visionary Scientist Award, for example, provided $300,000 over two years to exceptional postdoctoral researchers conducting innovative biomedical research relevant to IBD.

The Foundation has also stated that early-career researchers are important because they bring new technologies, directions, and lines of thinking to IBD research.

10. Feasibility and ability to generate meaningful progress ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Although Rainin emphasizes high-risk and innovative ideas, the project still needs to be achievable.

For Innovator Awards, the initial goals should generally be achievable within one year. Investigators demonstrating significant progress may receive up to two additional years of support.

A strong proposal therefore balances:

High innovation + meaningful risk + realistic execution.

Specialties

Gastroenterology

Eligibility Requirements

Researchers

Researchers from any scientific discipline worldwide are eligible for funding.
Typically, the researchers we fund hold advanced degrees (MD, PhD or the equivalent) and academic positions at universities, medical centers or research institutions.
Innovator Awards may only have one Principal Investigator, and funding is awarded to their home institution. Additional investigators may be included as Co-Investigators, and the lead institution can create subawards.
Postdocs are not eligible to apply as a Principal Investigator.
The Foundation welcomes proposals from Investigators from any scientific discipline who want to apply their work to Inflammatory Bowel Disease. If an applicant has not previously received funding for IBD-related research, it is strongly advised to include collaborators with expertise in IBD.
All formerly and currently funded Rainin Foundation grantees are eligible to apply for an Innovator Award.
Investigators may only submit one LOI as a PI, but may be Co-Investigators on multiple proposals.

Institutions

All nonprofit institutions must be classified as “not a private foundation” under Section 509(a)(3).
If a proposal from a nonprofit institution outside of the United States is ultimately recommended for funding, the institution will be required to undergo an Equivalency Determination process. The Rainin Foundation contracts with NGOsource to manage this process. Institutions outside of the United States do not need to provide any documentation during the two-stage application process.
For-profit institutions must demonstrate that their proposed project furthers the Foundation’s charitable mission of advancing biomedical research.
The Foundation may upon occasion make grants to government and public agencies, as well as to independent projects that have a qualified tax-exempt fiscal sponsor.
Institutions can submit more than one proposal at a time for different Principal Investigators.

The Foundation Does Not Fund:

Direct assistance to individuals or individual sponsorships
Sports, athletic events or league sponsorships
Advertising or promotional sponsorships
Deficits or retroactive funding
Fraternal organizations
Organizations that discriminate based on religion, race, sexual orientation or gender

Use Of Human And Animal Subjects
Grant recipients using human or animal subjects must provide documentation of approval from the appropriate review committee within 90 days of award start date.

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: Kenneth Rainin Foundation

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: 2100 Powell Street, Suite 1250, Emeryville, CA 94608

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