Arc Innovation Investigator & 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.
Open Call for Applications
Arc Institute invites outstanding scientists to apply for the Arc Innovation Investigator Award program.
Current faculty at our three partner universities (Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCSF) are eligible to apply. All faculty ranks (Assistant, Associate, Full Professor) will be considered. The focus areas for this year’s competition are Neurobiology, Immunology, and Machine Learning. To receive full consideration, candidates are encouraged to apply by March 15, 2025.
Arc Innovation Investigator Program
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
Technology Development
Zhenan Bao
K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering and by courtesy, of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University
Technology Development
Iain Clark
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at University of California, Berkeley
Chemical Biology
Nathanael Gray
Krishnan-Shah Family Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University
Technology Development
William Greenleaf
Professor of Genetics, and by courtesy, of Applied Physics at Stanford University
Computational Science
Brian Hie
Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Data Science at Stanford University.
Human Genetics
Isha Jain
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco; Assistant Investigator at Gladstone Institutes
Neurobiology
Anna Molofsky
Samuel Barondes Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco
Chemical Biology
Alanna Schepartz
T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of MCB at University of California, Berkeley
Human Genetics
Jimmie Ye
Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco
Immunology
Theo Roth
Instructor, Department of Pathology. Theo is being recommended for appointment as Assistant Professor of Pathology at Stanford University, anticipated January 2025.
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, UC Berkeley, or UCSF).
Eligibility
Current faculty at our three partner universities (Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCSF) 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 for this year's search are Neurobiology and Immunology.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 cohort of Arc Ignite Awardees include 12 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
Neurobiology
Katrin Andreasson
Professor of Neurology at Stanford University
Neurobiology
Faranak Fattahi
Assistant Professor of Cellular Molecular Pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco
Technology Development
Michael Fischbach
Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University
Neurobiology
Martin Kampmann
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco
Technology Development
Calvin Kuo
Maureen Lyles D’Ambrogio Professor of Medicine - Hematology at Stanford University
Technology Development
Alexander Marson
Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco and Director of Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology
Neurobiology
Alex Pollen
Associate Professor of Neurology at University of California, San Francisco
Computational Science
Xiaojie Qiu
Assistant Professor of Genetics and, by courtesy, of Computer Science at Stanford University
Computational Science
Julia Salzman
Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science, of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Statistics and of Biology at Stanford University
Immunology
Robert Saxton
Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley
Neurobiology
Andrew C. Yang
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Anatomy at University of California, San Francisco
