MDA is requesting applications for MDA Research Grants (RG). MDA Research Grants are awarded to independent,
established investigators to accelerate progress toward understanding and treating neuromuscular diseases and total no
more than $100,000 per year for one to three years.
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. Incomplete or improperly prepared applications will not be reviewed.
An application will be considered incomplete if: (1) it is not prepared and submitted according to instructions; or (2) the
information it contains is not sufficient to permit an adequate review.
Deadline for Receipt of Completed Application
A Letter of Intent is required by December 9, 2024. The Letter of Intent must be completed and submitted through
ProposalCentral. The completed application must be submitted by March 7 for a grant to begin the following September
1. The application must be submitted online through ProposalCentral.
The application must be RECEIVED on or before the deadline date. Once the deadline has passed, the submit button will
no longer be available. You may view the deadline at the top of each section of your application.

Application Submission Requirements
 Applications and ALL supporting documents MUST be submitted in English.
 Applications must include one of the named diseases in MDA’s portfolio or request an exception from MDA staff
prior to application submission. See https://www.mda.org/disease/list
 Applications will be accepted for one to three years of support not to exceed $100,000 per year.
 Proposed project costs may only be requested in U.S. Dollars (USD).
 Avoid abbreviations wherever possible.

 Appendix material is limited to (1) unpublished manuscript. Additionally, you may upload unlimited preprints
and manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published. Please ensure that these items are uploaded
with the corresponding acceptance letter or correspondence. Do not attach manuscripts, abstracts, or reprints
that have already been published, as these will be removed from your application.
 A resubmission must be accompanied by a Resubmission Statement responding to the previous reviewers’
concerns.
Review Process
To ensure support of meritorious neuromuscular disease research, applications are peer‐reviewed to assess their scientific
merit and to evaluate their relevance to MDA's goals. MDA's Board of Directors has the sole authority to award Research
Grants.
LETTER OF INTENT
MDA requires a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the Research Grant (RG) funding opportunity. The deadline for the LOI is
December 9, 2024.
MDA is implementing a new triage process at the LOI stage. The Research Plan (2‐pages) will be reviewed by MDA’s
Research Advisory Committee (RAC) to determine whether applicants should be invited to submit a full grant
application.
The LOI must be submitted online via ProposalCentral and include the following:
 Project title;
 Resubmission status;
 Applicant and institution information (to determine eligibility);
 LOI Research Plan (two pages, size 11 Times New Roman Font, MDA template required);
o Background
o Overview of Project (high level description of project, method and goals)
o Specific Aims (include preliminary data if available)
o Timeline (project how aims will be completed in a 3‐year timeframe)
o Significance and Innovation
 Abstract, Impact Statement, Disease area, and Research Category;
 A PI biosketch (not to exceed five pages in length, template provided)
 (Non‐traditional applicants only) Support letter from institution department chair to confirm eligibility,
independence, and access to resources to conduct the research project.
The following criteria will be used to assess your LOI submission by our review committee:
Relevance: Does the proposed project fall under MDA’s mission?
Applications should focus on new understanding of disease etiology and pathogenesis for neuromuscular
disorders and/or accelerating therapy development for disease(s) in our portfolio. Such projects may include:
 Disease understanding (e.g. pathogenic mechanisms, gene discovery)
 Translational research (e.g. new target discovery, target validation)
 Development and application of new models and technologies
 Clinical research projects (e.g. analysis of patient biospecimens, clinical read‐outs). No clinical trials
allowed.
Please reach out to grants@mdausa.org if you are unsure of your project eligibility.

Potential impact: If the project was successful, would the results be an important/impactful contribution to the field or
a specific disease area? Is this research direction unique within the field? Can research discoveries lead to translational
or clinical advances?
Scientific merit: Is the proposed project both strong and innovative?
Feasibility: Is the design of the study adequately developed and preliminary data strong enough to support the aims of
the study? Is the timeline feasible?
The LOI must be submitted by the deadline to be considered and full applications will be made available to applicants
who pass the LOI triage process.
FULL APPLICATION
SECTION 1
Title Page
Please enter a title that accurately and concisely captures the proposed project’s aims. Please also indicate Early‐Stage
Investigator and Resubmission status. Whenever possible, the title should include the name of the neuromuscular
disease or class of neuromuscular disease to which the research is most related.
Early‐Stage Investigator
An Early‐Stage Investigator, is a new investigator who has completed his or her terminal research degree or medical
residency—whichever date is later—within the past 10 years and has not yet been awarded a substantial, competing
NIH research grant.
Resubmission
If you have marked the application as a resubmission, please put the date of the previous submission. In a case where it
is the 2nd resubmission of a grant, please indicate the most recent submission prior to the current application.
At the bottom of this page, your previous application(s) should appear. Please click on the previous proposal for which
you are resubmitting.
A resubmission application will be required to upload a “Resubmission Statement.” The Resubmission Statement should
address the previous reviewer’s concerns and any changes you have made to the current application. The Resubmission
Statement must not exceed one (1) page.
SECTION 2
Download Templates and Instructions
This section contains ALL templates that are required to be completed or which might be necessary for the full
submission of your application.
For all templates, Times New Roman font size 11 and 0.5” margins on all sides are required. Changing the font size,
margins or removing the template headers will disqualify the application for review.
Research Plan
The Research Plan template provided must be used in this section. To facilitate proper review of the application,
remain succinct and limit the application describing your Background/Rationale, Specific Aim(s), and Experimental Plan to a maximum total of seven (7) pages including figures and legends.
Biosketches
A biosketch template is provided. The maximum number of pages for each biosketch is 5 pages. Biosketches are
required for each of the following if they are included on the grant and should be uploaded in the Key Personnel Section:
 Co‐PI
 Collaborator
 Consultant
 Post‐Doctoral Associate who will be responsible for the execution of this project.
A biosketch is not needed for graduate students, technicians, or coordinators. Biosketches should not exceed five (5)
pages in length.
References for Literature
The References for Literature Cited template is a required section of the application with no page limits.
SECTION 3
Enable Other Users to Access this Proposal
This section is used specifically for providing access rights to other people to access the application. You may choose
their access as “View” or “Edit.” “Edit” access will allow for uploading of documents or adding attachments in your
absence.
If an individual is marked as “Auto Notify” this means each time an email is sent to you through ProposalCentral, the
individual will automatically receive a copy of the email.
SECTION 4
Applicant/PI
This section of the application asks for the Principal Investigator’s information. All fields that are marked with asterisk
(*) are required fields. If a professional profile already exists in ProposalCentral, the required fields will be
automatically populated and filled in. Please review all fields carefully to confirm the information is correct.
Additionally, please link your ORCiD ID to your ProposalCentral account as instructed on this page. Please be sure to
make MDA and ProposalCentral “trusted organizations” when asked to allow grant award information to be included in
your ORC record.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
Any potential conflict of interest the Principal Investigator(s) or collaborator(s) may have relating to the project must be
disclosed. Such conflict would include, but may not be limited to, having a proprietary interest that may be affected by
the outcome of a research project. It is expected that MDA grantees will observe the highest ethical standards in the
conduct of research. Please complete the PI Conflict of Interest explanation section if a conflict of interest exists.
Upload the PI biosketch in this section.
SECTION 5
Institution Contacts
This section contains the information of the applicant institution and defaults to the institution linked to the Principal
Investigator. If the institution is incorrectly linked to the Principal Investigator, click on the “Change Institution” button and search for the correct institution. The asterisks (*) denote required fields. Please make sure that all information on
this page is correct, including the IRS EIN number and ACH payment information. The IRS EIN number should be 9 digits
in the following format XX‐XXXXXXX. Do NOT include letters or additional separators.
NOTE: Applicants from a non‐U.S. institution/university without an EIN number, will enter in N/A in the space provided.
The applicant may already have contacts listed under their profile. Contacts that are required on all grants are marked
with an asterisk (*) and cannot be removed. These contacts are generally institutional officials, financial officers, PR
(public relations), or grant and contract personnel. To add a contact, enter their email address in the space provided and
click the “Add” button.
It is also necessary to add the institution’s Technology Transfer contact and a Public Relations contact.
SECTION 6
Key Personnel
Principal Investigator: The Principal Investigator is the one person responsible for the scientific and technical direction
of the project. An application may have only one Principal Investigator. If a collaborator(s) is involved with the project, a
signed Letter of Collaboration on institutional letterhead explaining the role of the project partner is required.
Other Key Personnel: Collaborators are defined as internal or external scientists needed to assist with research aims and
whereas co‐PIs usually come from the PI’s institution and share the PI’s area of expertise and provide a significant
contribution to the project. Both must be listed in the key personnel section.
ALL personnel required to submit a biosketch must be listed in this section including: Co‐PI; Collaborators; Consultants;
and Post‐Doctoral Researchers. Insert their email address in the space provided and click “Add.” Complete all required
fields and click “Save” when completed. The biosketch for each key person should be uploaded in this section if it is
required based on their role on the project.
SECTION 7
Patent Information
If the applicant has filed for or obtained a patent, please complete the information in this section. Please use the date
format of M/D/Y. Please leave this section blank if a Patent has not been filed or obtained.
SECTION 8
Lay Summary and Abstract
Please provide a succinct and non‐technical Lay Summary of the proposed project in non‐scientific terms that would be
understood by a general audience. Since this summary will be public information, do NOT include any proprietary or
confidential information in this section. Do NOT summarize past accomplishments or cite literature in this section.
The Lay Summary section is limited to 1,500 characters, including spaces. Information entered in this section must be
text only. Scientific notations, special characters, special fonts and other rich‐text formatting (i.e. bold, italics, underline)
cannot be saved or displayed. Do NOT insert carriage returns at the end of each line. Type continuously until completed
or starting a new paragraph.
The Scientific Abstract should be a succinct summary in scientific terms that would be understood by a technical
audience. Since this summary may be public information, do not include any proprietary or confidential information.

In concise terms state: (1) the long‐term objectives; (2) the specific aims; (3) the primary methodology and principal
organism, tissue, or preparation being used.
Do NOT summarize past accomplishments or cite literature in this section. Limit the Abstract summary to 1,500
characters or less, including spaces. Information entered in this field must be text only: scientific notations, special
characters, special fonts, and other rich‐text formatting (e.g. bold, italics, underline) cannot be saved or displayed. Do
NOT insert carriage returns at the end of each line. Type continuously until completed or starting a new paragraph.
Impact Statement
Please state how this project will promote major advancement in the understanding of neuromuscular disease,
accelerate treatments and cures or optimize patient care. What is the potential for the proposed study to advance the
field? If successful, is this work likely to lead to subsequent grant proposals? How would this idea potentially improve
the lives of neuromuscular disease patients? If applicable, address how the project could improve how patients feel,
function or survive and how the results will be communicated to the public. This should not include formal research
publications in peer‐reviewed journals. If applicable, please describe how this application will address issues of health
disparities/equity. Please limit this statement to 1,500 characters or less including spaces.
Open Access/Data Sharing
If applicable, please describe the plan to share resources and make data from this project available to the
neuromuscular disease research field. MDA requires applicants to make publications resulting from MDA‐funded
research available via open access within 12 months of the grant termination date.
Research Category/Disease Code
The bottom of this section includes a listing of the main categories under the MDA umbrella of neuromuscular diseases.
Under the general category, you will find the disease‐specific categories. You may choose multiple categories under this
section. Please choose only one (1) Primary Disease Code. Under the Secondary Disease Codes, you can choose one
disease or multiple diseases. Please note that the disease(s) you have chosen will appear to the right of the boxes.
Please choose these categories carefully as they will be used to help facilitate the selection of scientific peer
reviewers.
SECTION 9
Budget Period Detail
You will need to enter the Start Date and End Date of each Budget Period. To change to a new Budget Period, click on
the buttons at the top of the page for “Period 1,” “Period 2,” or “Period 3.” You will need to complete each section of
the Detailed Budget for each year of support for which you are requesting funds.
The Budget Summary (Section 10) will auto complete itself once you have completed the Detailed Budget.
Personnel must be listed by name, role, and percentage effort devoted to project. The Principal Investigator’s salary is
permitted, equivalent to the ratio of effort up to 25% but not more than $15,000, plus a proportionate ratio of fringe
benefits. The Principal Investigator's specific role(s) in the proposed research must be described under “Proposed Budget
Justification.”
If salary is requested for Co‐PI’s in addition to the PI, the total combined salary may not exceed $15,000 plus a
proportionate rate of fringe benefits for both.
The “Institutional Base Salary” should be the Principal Investigator’s total base salary and “Fringe Benefits” listed should be the proportionate percentage of the Principal Investigator’s benefit cost.
Equipment, whether capital or not, must be listed in this section. Along with a full justification, identify the manufacturer
and model number under budget justification section. Computer equipment is limited to $5,000 per grant. Laptop
purchases are limited to one (1) per grant and must be fully justified on the Budget Justification page.
Supplies There is no maximum cost for supplies. The total request should include all supplies that will be purchased for
this project. “Other” supplies expenses such as shipping, printing, or office supplies should be limited to a maximum of
$600 per year. You do not need to group expenses by the type of supplies. You may enter a total amount for Consumables.
Travel to attend foreign or domestic scientific or medical meetings to present the results of MDA‐supported research is
permitted. Also, funds for travel required in conducting the specific aims of the research project may be requested. All
travel must be fully justified in the proposed budget justification; however, must not exceed $2,000 per project year and
is restricted to personnel listed on the Budget in the Personnel Cost category.
Subcontract(s) must be listed in this section of the budget. A separate “Subcontract Detailed Budget” must be submitted
for each subcontract in this section. To create a subcontract budget, select “add new”, name the subcontract, and select
the subcontract name in the right side dropdown menu as you add new line items to the budet. The default is the primary
budget. The page can be filtered to only view the subcontract budget as needed. The subcontract budgets may NOT
include indirect costs as they are absorbed through the main budget “indirect costs” and will be disbursed by the lead
institution.
Other expenses may include items such as publication costs, computer use fees, and equipment maintenance. The need
for each item must be justified in the budget justification section. If fees for consultants are requested, their names and
institutional affiliations must also be given.
Indirect Costs are limited to a maximum of 10% of all direct costs. For example: if requesting a budget with indirect costs
at the maximum 10%, and the total budget of $100,000 for one year, the direct costs should be $90,901 with indirect costs
of $9,090.
Unauthorized Expenses. The following expenses are not permitted under MDA's research program:
 Salaries, travel and/or housing related to sabbatical leaves;
 Salaries for administrative, secretarial and/or clerical staff;
 Life and Disability insurance fees;
 Purchase or rental of office equipment; (i.e., furniture, filing cabinets, and copy machines);
 Expenses normally covered by the indirect cost of the Principal Investigator’s institution i.e. General Liability
Insurance, General Auto Insurance;
 Fees for tuition, registration or other fees relating to academic studies;
 Fees for or related to obtaining visas or citizenship status;
 Membership dues, subscriptions, books or journals; and/or
 Expenses for or related to moving from one institution to another.
Justification of Proposed Budget
A justified budget is required and should be completed by fully justifying all expenses listed on the main Detailed Budget
page. Justify the funds being requested for each item in the budget. Describe in this section the relationship of each
item in your proposed budget to all other sources of support for that item. This section is limited to 3,000 characters
including spaces.
SECTION 10
Section 10 (Budget Summary) will automatically complete itself once you have completed the Detailed Budget section.

SECTION 11
Other Support
ALL sources of current and pending research support ‐ including other MDA projects ‐ must be identified in this section
for the Principal Investigator only. This includes all public, private, or institutional funding sources.
SECTION 12
Organization Assurances
If the applicant requests support for research involving human subjects, tissues or materials, then this section MUST be
completed. If the IRB or FDA approvals are “pending”, please indicate this by clicking the “Pending” button. An approval
must be on file with MDA before payment can be authorized for a funded project.
MDA‐funded projects MUST be in compliance with all policies, rules, and regulations governing clinical trials, including
those of the federal regulatory agencies, the respective university and institution, and MDA. MDA must be notified
about any amendments to the original research protocol occurring prior to the commencement of or during the course
of the research project.
If the applicant requests support for research involving experimental drugs or devices, this section MUST be completed.
If an FDA approval is pending, please indicate this by clicking on the “Pending” button. An approval must be on file with
MDA before payment can be authorized for a funded project.
If the applicant requests support for research involving vertebrate animals or materials derived there from, this section
MUST be completed. If Animal Care and Use Committee approval is pending, please indicate this by clicking the
“Pending” button. An approval must be on file with MDA before payment can be authorized for a funded project.
Continue down the list of the assurances, marking them either “Yes” or “No.” Click on the “Save” button in the corner to
save all changes.
SECTION 13
Facilities
Please list all facilities available for conducting the proposed research project. Include laboratory space, clinical facilities,
animal facilities, computer facilities, office space, clerical staff, and major equipment available. Identify by name and
address any facilities that are not part of the sponsoring institution and describe the arrangements made for using those
off‐site facilities. Please limit this statement to 6,000 characters or less including spaces.
SECTION 14
Research Plan and Supporting Attachments
SPECIFIC AIMS, RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE, BACKGROUND AND PLAN
You must use the “Research Plan” template for the body of this section. You may have up to 7 pages in size 11 Times
New Roman font INCLUDING FIGURES AND LEGENDS. DO NOT exceed seven (7) pages in a size 11 font with 0.5
margins. Do not remove template headers. Your application will not be forwarded for review if the page limit is
exceeded and template is not used.
MDA has adopted NIH’s recent guidelines for enhancing reproducibility through rigor and transparency and reviewers
will assess whether these areas have been appropriately addressed by the applicant.

Give the specific aims of the project, prioritized chronologically, and an estimate of the time you expect will be
necessary to complete each aim. State the rationale for the project and explain its significance, i.e., how the anticipated
results will help solve important problems in the field. This section should clearly provide the reader with succinct
information on the research you are proposing, why it is important and how it will advance the neuromuscular disease
research field.
Summarize the key results and major conclusions from published, in preparation and/or unpublished studies that
specifically relate to your proposed project. Applicants should describe the general strengths and weaknesses of the
prior research being cited to support the application. It is expected that this consideration of general strengths and
weaknesses could include attention to the rigor of the previous experimental designs, as well as the incorporation of
relevant biological variables and authentication of key resources. For example, basing one's proposed research on
previous publications that lacked statistical power, were not blinded, lacked detail on the sex of animals or
authentication of cell lines would be considered a weakness of the application if it does not identify these weaknesses
and propose ways to improve going forward. Likewise, conclusions drawn from prior research that used a small sample
size may not adequately support the next phase of research, such as moving to a higher species of animals or to
humans.
Describe the experimental design and any novel laboratory procedures required to accomplish the specific aims of the
proposed project. For a new methodology state its advantage over existing methodologies. Applicants should describe
how they will achieve robust and unbiased results when describing the experimental design and proposed methods.
Sample sizes should be clearly delineated and justified using power analyses. Sex as a biological variable should be
factored into research designs in vertebrate animal and human studies. Strong justification from the scientific literature,
preliminary data or other relevant considerations must be provided for applications proposing to study only one sex.
Succinctly state the potential difficulties and limitations of the proposed procedures in achieving the specific aims of the
project. Discuss how data will be analyzed and interpreted. Point out any procedures, situations, or materials that may
be hazardous to personnel and the precautions to be taken for their protection.
FOR CLINICAL TRIAL APPLICATIONS
Describe how this application incorporates “patient‐focused outcome measures” into this clinical trial. Where
applicable, note how the application supports greater diversity of trial participants, expanded access where feasible, and
smaller placebo arms or use of natural history data instead.
APPENDIX
Appendix material is limited to (1) unpublished manuscript. Additionally, you may upload unlimited preprints and
manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published. Please ensure that these items are uploaded with the
corresponding acceptance letter or correspondence. Do not attach manuscripts, abstracts, or reprints that have already
been published, as these will be removed from your application.
SECTION 15
PI Data Sheet
This section is voluntary and will not be used as part of the review process.
SECTION 16
Validate
AFTER you have validated the document, you MUST click “SUBMIT” for the application to be submitted. Validating the
document DOES NOT submit the application to MDA. Please make sure that the application is now marked as submitted.
SECTION 17

Required E‐Signatures
The applicant/PI will type their name in the space provided and click Sign to comply with stated assurances. Following
the e‐signature of the PI, the applicant’s Signing Official must type their name and click Sign to comply with stated
assurances. It is also possible to save your application to PDF before submitting to MDA.
SECTION 18
Submit
To submit your proposal, click the Submit button on this page. You will be unable to submit if you have not provided all
the required information. Any missing information will be listed on the screen. If your submission is successful, you will
receive a confirmation message on the screen and a confirmation email from pcsupport@altum.com will be sent to the
applicant.
IMPORTANT NOTE
One copy of your completed application should be filed with the business office of the sponsoring institution to alert
them to your pending request for MDA support. Hardcopies are not to be sent to MDA.
Email any questions to grants@mdausa.org.