Arc Innovation Investigators & Ignite Awards

The Arc Institute seeks to foster collaborations built on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, and interdisciplinary science. Arc Innovation Investigators & Ignite Awardees are researchers at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCSF who are awarded unrestricted funding to pursue visionary ideas in curiosity-driven science and technology development.

Our next open call for Innovation Investigator applications will be in Fall 2024.

Arc will launch new calls for applications for Innovation Investigators in fall 2024. To receive updates when applications open, please sign up here.

Arc Innovation Investigator Awards

Innovation Investigators are awarded $1 million in unrestricted funding from Arc over the five-year term of their appointment. During this time, Innovation investigators benefit from access to Arc resources and facilities, including the opportunity to collaborate with our Technology Centers and to use Arc scientific core facilities, while maintaining their lab and position at their university.

Meet Our Innovation Investigators
Arc is delighted to welcome our inaugural cohort of Innovation Investigators.

Zhenan Bao
Technology Development

Zhenan Bao

K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering and by courtesy, of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University

Iain Clark
Technology Development

Iain Clark

Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at University of California, Berkeley

Nathanael Gray
Chemical Biology

Nathanael Gray

Krishnan-Shah Family Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University

William Greenleaf
Technology Development

William Greenleaf

Professor of Genetics, and by courtesy, of Applied Physics at Stanford University

Brian Hie
Computational Science

Brian Hie

Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Data Science at Stanford University.

Isha Jain
Human Genetics

Isha Jain

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco; Assistant Investigator at Gladstone Institutes

Anna Molofsky
Neurobiology

Anna Molofsky

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The University of California, San Francisco

Alanna Schepartz
Chemical Biology

Alanna Schepartz

T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of MCB at University of California, Berkeley

Jimmie Ye
Human Genetics

Jimmie Ye

Associate Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco

Becoming an Innovation Investigator at Arc

Appointment

Arc Innovation Investigators are appointed for five-year terms, which are competitively renewable.

Awardees act as intellectual bridges between the universities and the institute, while maintaining their labs, employment, and appointments at their home university (Stanford University, UCSF, or UC Berkeley).

Eligibility

Current faculty at our three partner universities (Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley) are eligible to be considered.

We encourage innovative research proposals that may be challenging to support via traditional funding sources and are aligned with Arc’s mission of understanding and treating complex human diseases.

Scientific Focus Areas

Focus areas in the past included Neurobiology, Immunology, Computational Science, Human Genetics, Chemical Biology, and Technology Development.

Scientific focus areas may change for future calls for applications.

Funding

The annual direct cost budget for Arc Innovation Investigator awardees is $200K, for a total of $1M over the five-year term of the (renewable) appointment.

Indirect costs will be paid at the negotiated rate between Arc and the university. This will not impact the direct cost budget for Arc’s Innovation Investigators.

Community

We actively encourage and expect Arc Innovation awardees to be active members of our community, including lab participation in Arc’s seminar series and presentations at our annual scientific retreats.

Lab members supervised by Arc Innovation Investigators may visit Arc and collaborate with Arc team members but will remain employees of their home university.

Resources

Arc Innovation Investigators and their groups will have access to our internal Technology Centers and platforms, and will be supported by our University Relations and Academic Affairs team.

In addition, Innovation Investigators have access to flex office and lab space at Arc.

Arc Ignite Awards

The Arc Ignite Award program grants awardees a one-time $100,000 gift to kickstart exciting ideas that would be difficult to fund via traditional funding mechanisms. Our inaugural cohort of Arc Ignite Awardees include 11 faculty from Stanford, UC Berkeley and UCSF with research areas spanning chemical biology, computational biology, human genetics, immunology, neurobiology and technology development.

Meet Our Ignite Awardees

Katrin Andreasson
Neurobiology

Katrin Andreasson

Professor of Neurology at Stanford University

Faranak Fattahi
Neurobiology

Faranak Fattahi

Assistant Professor of Cellular Molecular Pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco

Michael Fischbach
Technology Development

Michael Fischbach

Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University

Martin Kampmann
Neurobiology

Martin Kampmann

Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco

Calvin Kuo
Technology Development

Calvin Kuo

Maureen Lyles D’Ambrogio Professor of Medicine - Hematology at Stanford University

Alexander Marson
Technology Development

Alexander Marson

Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco and Director of Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology

Alex Pollen
Neurobiology

Alex Pollen

Associate Professor of Neurology at University of California, San Francisco

Xiaojie Qiu
Computational Science

Xiaojie Qiu

Assistant Professor of Genetics and, by courtesy, of Computer Science at Stanford University

Julia Salzman
Computational Science

Julia Salzman

Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science, of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Statistics and of Biology at Stanford University

Robert Saxton
Immunology

Robert Saxton

Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley

Andrew C. Yang
Neurobiology

Andrew C. Yang

Assistant Professor of Neurology and Anatomy at University of California, San Francisco

Will Allen
Developmental Biology

Will Allen

Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology