The Breakthrough T1D Northern California Center of Excellence is pleased to announce the second round of Trainee-Led Collaboration Awards, designed to foster innovative, cross-institutional science and empower the next generation of T1D researchers.

This seed-funding mechanism supports collaborative pilot studies led by trainees—including doctoral students, pre-doctoral trainees, and postdoctoral fellows—from UCSF and Stanford COE member labs. Projects should advance new hypotheses in type 1 diabetes and be co-led by at least two trainees from two different COE laboratories.

Award Details

• Funding: $5,000–$10,000 (total costs)

• Awards Available: 2–4 projects

• Eligibility: Trainees in UCSF or Stanford COE member labs

• Earliest Start Date: February 1, 2026

Application Requirements

• Trainee PI names, affiliations, and training stage

• A 1-page Specific Aims document including a one-sentence statement on T1D relevance

• Submission Deadline: 5:00 PM on Monday, January 5, 2026

  • UCSF submissions: Myra Gloria (Myra.Gloria@ucsf.edu)

  • Stanford submissions: Jessica Sarthi (jsarthi@stanford.edu)

Awarded teams will provide a brief 6-month progress report.

We welcome trainees who are passionate about interdisciplinary T1D research to apply.

For questions, please contact Dr. Qizhi Tang (Qizhi.Tang@ucsf.edu) or Dr. Seung K. Kim (seungkim@stanford.edu).