Grants - Fondation Lejeune Research

About this program

Fondation Jérôme Lejeune offers biannual grants to support fundamental, translational and clinical research strengthening understanding or exploring therapies for intellectual disability—the Autumn call (early July–mid August) is dedicated to Trisomy 21, while the Spring call (February) supports other genetic intellectual deficiencies (excluding Trisomy 21 and non-syndromic autism). Two schemes are available: Pilot/exploratory grants (€50,000 over 2 years) for early-stage or complementary projects, and Advanced grants (€80,000 over 2 years) for larger projects with substantial preliminary data. Eligible applicants are principal investigators of any nationality who hold a long‑term academic appointment for the project duration and can demonstrate an excellent track record and an outstanding proposal; applications are submitted via the Foundation’s online system. Projects are reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Board (with external reviewers as needed) and selected for scientific excellence, novelty, feasibility and potential clinical/therapeutic impact; funding cannot be used for human embryonic or fetal tissues, material from abortions/IVF/human cloning, or creation of human germinal cells.