Celiac Disease Foundation/NASPGHAN Foundation Celiac Disease Pilot Grants

The Celiac Disease Foundation/NASPGHAN Foundation Celiac Disease Pilot Grants are designed to encourage and fund pilot projects in North America that address critical issues related to celiac disease and gluten-free diet management. The intent with this grant is to support celiac disease and gluten-free diet related innovative research or education proposals focused on: 

• New research areas that could improve the diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease.
• Development of innovative tools or technologies to improve celiac disease management.
• Research focused on understanding and improving adherence to the gluten-free diet among individuals with celiac disease.
• Research activities that have the potential to advance the nutrition care of patients and families of children with celiac disease.

Applicants must: 

• Be a NASPGHAN, APGNN, or CPNP full member in good standing for at least one year. APGNN and CPNP members and post-doctoral fellows are invited to submit grant applications under the clinical mentorship of a NASPGHAN member. 
• The primary investigator must hold a medical or postdoctoral degree (MD, PhD, or equivalent), an advanced nursing degree (BSN with an MS/PhD), or a degree in Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Dietetics/Nutrition, or Social Work and work full- or part-time in a clinical or academic setting.  
• Investigators at all career stages are encouraged to apply. For individuals with independent funding such as R01, P01, or similar, or recipients of K08, K23, or similar, this pilot funding must represent a departure from current areas of funding.   

• Individual projects requesting up to $25,000 for one year will be considered. Grant range expected can be from $5,000 to $25,000. The following expenses are allowable:
  • Salary and benefits of the principal investigator 
  • Salary and benefits of research assistants, laboratory technicians, and/or other key personnel 
  • Biostatistics support 
  • Supplies, equipment, or other materials necessary for the proposed research 
  • Incentives for research participants 
• The following expenses are not allowed:
  • Salary and benefits of the mentor 
  • Indirect costs 
  • Travel costs 
• A complete end-of-year financial statement and summary report are required. 
• Funds for grants awarded in 2026 will be dispersed in mid-December 2026 following submission of Final Protocol, documentation of IRB/IEC approval, regulatory approval (if applicable), exemption, or waiver. 
• All publications resulting from work supported by the Celiac Disease Foundation and NASPGHAN Foundation must acknowledge support by the relevant funding mechanism. 
• All publicity relating to this award will acknowledge the Celiac Disease Foundation. Awardee(s) will affirm the Celiac Disease Foundation has their permission to use their name, likeness, progress reports, and other materials they supply, in promotion of their work and that they agree to be videoed annually regarding their work (with prior approval and not-withstanding infringement upon IP laws and confidential scientific findings/information). 
• The awardee must attend the 2026 NASPGHAN Annual Meeting to accept the award. 

Completed applications must include the following: 

1. Biographical sketch of the principal investigator, key personnel, co-investigators, and/or mentor (if applicable). The 2025 or 2026 NIH biosketch format is required and instructions (non-fellowship) are posted at grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm. The biosketch should list specific aims of all active research funding to permit an assessment of scientific overlap with the investigator’s existing extramural funding. 
2. Research Plan (no application more than THREE single spaced pages will be reviewed) including: 
   1. Specific aims 
      1. Explain the rationale for the study, overall hypothesis, aims, and significance if successful.
   2. Background and significance 
      1. Explain the importance of the problem or critical barrier to progress in the field that the proposed project addresses.
      2. Explain how the proposed project will improve scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice in one or more broad fields.
   3. Innovation 
      1. Explain how the application challenges and seeks to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms.
      2. Describe any novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation or interventions to be developed or used, and any advantage over existing methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions.
   4. Approach 
      1. Describe the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses to be used to accomplish the specific aims of the project. Include how the data will be collected, analyzed including statistical or other relevant analytic plan, and interpreted as well as any resource sharing plans as appropriate.
      2. Discuss expected results, potential problems, alternative strategies, feasibility, timeline, and benchmarks for success anticipated to achieve the aims. A power calculation is encouraged where relevant to underscore feasibility.
      3. If the project is in the early stages of development, describe strategies both to enhance feasibility and address the management of any high-risk aspects of the proposed work.
   5. Future directions, as the application must indicate how the principal investigator will use the pilot data as an extension of their work that will allow them to apply for additional funding through another agency.
3. Detailed Budget and Budget Justification (one page maximum). Salary, equipment, supplies and costs may be budgeted. In accordance with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy, salary requests may not use an institutional base salary in excess of the current federal salary cap at the time of submission (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm). Fringe benefits may be requested if they are treated consistently by the applicant institution as a direct cost to all funding agencies and foundation. Indirect costs are not allowed.

Primary emphasis will be given to scientific strength and innovation of the proposed work and qualifications of the applicant and how the principal investigator will use the pilot data as an extension of their work that will allow them to apply for additional funding through another agency.

The NASPGHAN Research Commitee, Celiac SIG members and invited ad hoc experts (as invited by the Research Commitee Study Section Chair) will review the applications and score proposals using the National Institutes of Health scoring system. This scoring system uses a 9-point scale for the overall impact score and individual scores for (at least) five scored criteria (significance, innovation, approach, investigator, and environment).

Members of the review panel will follow strict conflict of interest guidelines. Contact between the applicant or sponsors with commitee members regarding applications is strictly prohibited prior to grant review and will lead to potential disqualification.

Applications are currently being accepted through the NASPGHAN Foundation Grants Submission Site until July 1, 2026.

This research award is offered in partnership with the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) Foundation for Children’s Health and Nutrition. Learn more at naspghan.org/naspghan-foundation.