Award Opportunities for Scientists
Development Project Awards
The center has a competitive development project program and awards up to $100,000 each year. This program enables both new and established investigators to generate pilot data that can be used to advance Alzheimer’s research and enhance their ability to be competitive for extramural grants.
2025-26 UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Development Project Application Instructions
Research Education Component (REC) Scholar Program
The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s (ADRC) Research Education Component offers funding to support junior investigators and those new to the field of Alzheimer’s disease research. The goal of the program is to support AD research training for clinicians and researchers who will advance research on cognitive decline, dementia, and AD over the coming decades. The UC Davis ADRC supports a broad range of disciplines and approaches such as basic science, neuropathology, brain imaging, clinical and cognitive science, and social sciences. This program provides a one-time stipend that may be used for Alzheimer's disease-related research expenses and/or travel to present at an Alzheimer's disease-related conference.
Applicants must be:
- Graduate, postdoctoral, early career or new to field faculty
- Participate in 1-2 years of focused research training (depending on year)
- Provide an AD-related research project proposal, budget and budget justification
- Attend and present at ADRC research meetings
- Complete a progress report
- Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
This program application is closed. For more information, please contact Oanh Meyer, Ph.D. at olmeyer@ucdavis.edu
Meet Our Current REC Scholars
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Alex Posis, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Learn MoreAlex Posis is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Posis’s research interests include identifying social determinants and modifiable factors of brain health and cognitive aging. Prior to joining Dr. Rachel Whitmer’s lab, he earned his BS in Neuroscience from the University of California, Santa Cruz, MPH in Epidemiology from San Diego State University, and PhD in Public Health (Epidemiology) from the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health at San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego.
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Michelle Cohn, Ph.D.
Learn MoreMichelle Cohn is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the UC Davis Phonetics Lab, associated with the Department of Linguistics. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at UC Davis in 2018. Her postdoctoral training includes a 2.5 year Social, Behavioral, and Economics (SBE) Postdoctoral Fellowship through the National Science Foundation. From 2022 to 2024, Dr. Cohn was also a Visiting Researcher with the Google Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technologies group. Dr. Cohn’s research program aims to uncover the cognitive mechanisms that underlie how people produce, perceive, and learn speech patterns with voice technology. In 2024, she started as one of two REC Scholars at the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, working with Dr. Alyssa Weakley.