NCF Research Grant Program

NCF Research Grant Program

The National CFIDS Foundation began funding research in 1997, the same year that it was founded as a federally approved nonprofit organization. The goal was to provide research funding to expedite a treatment and eventual cure for ME/CFIDS/FMS. As one of the largest and growing national ME/CFIDS groups in the United States, our research began out of a need to fund research aimed toward patient diagnosis, treatments, and therapies for ME/CFIDS. We recognize the fact that answers to complex diseases have never come about through the political process but only through research efforts that we will make substantial strides in uncovering the scientific truths that will allow us to conquer this devastating illness.

Currently, the NCF is maintaining an open posture with regards to research grant applications and as such grants have no formal application deadline. In the fifteen years since the Lake Tahoe epidemic, there is neither definitive diagnostic testing nor proven patient therapies available. We realize that aggressive research efforts are not underwritten by federal grants. ME/CFIDS remains the next to the lowest funded illness by the National Institutes of Health with only fibromyalgia funding below it. The move, fully approved and lauded by the CFIDS Association of America, to have us moved into the Office of Research on Women's Health is only another step backward. Ovarian cancer, which involves only women, is not placed there nor are any other serious illnesses such as breast cancer (99% women), Lupus (80% women), Sjogren's Syndrome (90% women), etc. yet ME/CFIDS (52% women) was moved from NAIAD to this totally inappropriate
assignation.

Funded projects have three separate categories for research grants:

1) Clinical and Applied Research which include detection studies and therapeutic trials

2) Theoretical Research with Therapeutic Implications to impact new knowledge in the field

3) Original Research Investigation to provide seed money for new researchers and to research new concepts in the field. In 1997, our program began with funding research into clamydia pneumonia. Some of the projects we have funded since then include in-vitro human
herpesvirus-6A/B Antiviral Testing by Drs. Daniel Carrigan and Konstance Knox from the Institute for Viral Pathogenesis, coagulation studies in patients with ME/CFIDS and FMS by David Berg at Hemex Laboratories, and hypercoaguability in Gulf War Syndrome/CFIDS by Dr. Kathleen Hannon.

Researchers may contact the office for a packet of material that will enable them to apply for research grants. To access this information online click here.

The National CFIDS Foundation * 103 Aletha Rd, Needham Ma 02492 * (781) 449-3535 Fax (781) 449-8606