Innovative Approaches for the Understanding and Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases
Eshelman Innovation is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity through the Eshelman Innovation Therapeutics Accelerator, designed to support cutting-edge translational science in autoimmune disease research from North Carolina researchers.
Selected applicants will gain access to funding, expert guidance, and a dynamic ecosystem designed to accelerate innovation from concept to commercialization.
For more information, please refer to our proposal guidelines.
This proposal cycle has ended and no more applications can be submitted this year.
Funding Overview
Eshelman Innovation’s Therapeutics Accelerator funds projects aimed at translating novel therapeutic approaches for key unmet medical needs. We are pleased to announce a new funding opportunity, “Innovative Approaches for the Understanding and Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases”, that will provide grants to researchers dedicated to driving forward translational science in autoimmune disease research. Following the insightful discussions at the recent 2025 Autoimmune Summit, we are eager to support innovative research that accelerates the development of autoimmune therapies. This opportunity will seek to fund:
- Novel Therapeutic Target Discovery: research to identify molecular mechanisms of autoimmune diseases and associated drug targets
- platforms utilizing single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
- research incorporating AI and machine learning approaches
- development of advanced computational tools for analyzing complex biological data
genetic screens designed to interrogate autoimmune pathways and their key modulators
- Advanced Preclinical Models: technologies that can bridge basic research and clinical translation
- development of mouse models to enable autoimmune drug discovery, including humanized, conditional, or inducible strains
exploration of T cell exhaustion mechanisms
- Innovative Therapeutic Approaches: drug discovery and cell therapy programs against novel autoimmune therapeutic targets, including small molecule or antibody screening, hit to lead, and lead optimization stages up to animal proof of concept
- research on targeted therapies beyond broad immunosuppression
- combination therapy research
- crossover modalities like CAR T-cell approaches for autoimmune diseases
- Biomarkers, Diagnostics, and Tools to improve clinical treatment strategies
- explore the use of cell-free dna as a biomarker for autoimmune diseases, including investigating bacterial signatures and the role of nuclease enzymes
- both general autoimmune and disease-specific predictive biomarkers; generating molecular signatures for patient stratification, clinical trial recruitment and post-launch companion diagnostics
- patient phenotyping innovation to enable biomarker research and matching with complex omics data
- development of technologies that address primary patient concerns like pain and fatigue
- diagnostics that can predict treatment response in real-time
- development of machine learning platforms to enhance biomarker, diagnostic and clinical treatment research
Opportunity Overview:
- Eligibility: All proposals must include a UNC-CH system faculty or staff member as the Lead or Co-PI. Faculty and staff are encouraged to submit proposals for innovative projects that create or further develop intellectual property or provide commercial opportunities that could support the sustainability of Eshelman Innovation.
- Project Award Period: Projects will be issued funding starting October 1, 2025 and may not exceed 24 months.
- How to Apply: All applicants should read our Grant Guidelines thoroughly before preparing an application. Questions regarding this RFP are welcome and may be sent to eshelmaninnovation@unc.edu.
Important Dates:
- Applications Open: June 2, 2025
- Application Deadline: July 31, 2025
- Review Process: August 1, 2025-September 15, 2025
- Notice of Award Funding Begins:On or before October 1, 2025
Frequently Asked Questions
Faculty and staff from UNC-CH may submit a proposal to the Innovative Approaches for the Understanding and Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases RFP. Innovators not at an UNC-CH system university are also eligible to apply; however, a UNC-CH system faculty or staff member must be present on the award as either Lead or Co PI.
We encourage proposals that include a broad spectrum of scientific engagement through meaningful collaborations across various disciplines, departments, schools, and institutions. Please consider including co-PIs that provide broad scientific or commercial engagement.
Yes, UNC-CH system faculty and staff are encouraged to partner with innovators outside of the North Carolina public university system. However, a UNC-CH system faculty or staff member who is paid by a public North Carolina university must serve as the lead or co-lead PI on the project.
Yes. We highly encourage prospective applicants to discuss their proposals with Eshelman Innovation staff. Please reach out to us at eshelmaninnovation@unc.edu.
All proposal submissions will be reviewed by a panel of scientific and commercial experts with subject matter expertise in the proposal’s area of focus. Proposals and reviewer feedback will be reviewed by Eshelman Innovation Therapeutics Accelerator teams and select projects will be invited to pitch to an expert panel at a Pitch Day.
All grants should fit within a one-to-two-year timeline with various funding ranges reflecting the scope of work. All funding asks will be thoroughly reviewed, so funding asks should be concise to what is needed to complete the project. All funding will be disbursed to PIs based on the completion of their aims and milestones identified in their application.
We will not accept more than two applications per innovator per submission deadline.
Yes, however, we will consider the innovator’s previous participation in abiding by Eshelman Innovation's project management and reporting processes.
Eshelman Innovation no longer offers graduate student and postdoc awards. If a student or postdoc has an innovative idea that meets our strategic focus and has commercial potential, please contact us.
Please ensure that the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Office of Research Administration has worked with you to create and review the budget. Please contact Kathryn Fiscelli at fiscelli@email.unc.edu to receive assistance. A member of the Office of Research Administration must sign off on your budget before submitting your application to the Institute, or your application will be considered ineligible.
For innovators working with collaborators at institutions outside of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Eshelman Innovation requires signed documentation from the innovator’s organization. Please review the grant guidelines for more details on this.
PIs must work with our Project Manager (PM) to craft the project’s aims and milestones. As a first step in the process, PIs must complete an aims and milestones form that will be sent to the Lead/Co-PIs by Eshelman Innovation. The PM will meet with PIs to streamline aims and milestones and Gantt chart project objectives.
Please have your budget finalized before meeting with PM, so they can identify the proper tranche schedule for each aim with you. The final aims, milestones, and Gantt chart that will be provided by the PM to the Lead PI must be uploaded in the proposal application.
Once funded, innovators are issued a Notice of Award outlining our specific funding terms. Disbursement of funds will be contingent on the achievement of the project’s milestones. Once innovators have completed their first milestone, we will disburse additional funding for milestone two and so on. If an innovator is unable to accomplish their milestones, we reserve the right to cancel your project at any time.
Recipients of the Innovative Approaches for the Understanding and Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases grant cycle will receive their funding on October 1.
All funded projects must work with our Project Manager to track the completion of their project’s aims and milestones.
No, we consider proposals the intellectual property of the innovator and do not share them outside of Eshelman Innovation.
