Applying for an Emerging Research Grant
HHF is currently accepting applications for 2025–2026 awards through the Emerging Research Grants Program.
Full applications are due by Monday, March 3, 2025. Please see below for additional details.
Please note that submission of an application requires the approval of an authorized signatory at your institution. Ensure you leave enough time for this step to be completed. Also note that a short LOI (eligibility quiz) must be completed first and is due no later than Thursday, February 27, 2025. Late applications and applications that have not received institutional approval will not be accepted. Please read the full instructions for more details.
Review the Policy on Emerging Research Grants before proceeding for important information on eligibility, allowable costs, and other important program guidelines.
To apply for an Emerging Research Grant you must:
hold an Au.D., M.D., Ph.D., or equivalent degree, and
hold an appointment at a nonprofit educational, governmental, or other research institution located in the United States. Appointments include faculty, postdoctoral fellow, or clinical/research fellow. Current medical residents in otolaryngology may also apply. Other medical residents and Ph.D. students are not eligible.
HHF especially welcomes applications from Early Stage Investigators (ESIs are no more than 10 years from most recent terminal degree or medical residency). Several grant opportunities are also open to senior investigators (to skip to these directly, click here). Please see below for details on all grant opportunities available this year.
FOR EARLY STAGE INVESTIGATORS
Early Stage Investigators are invited to apply to the grant opportunity detailed here and to any of the topic-specific grants listed further below under the heading “For Senior Investigators and Early Stage Investigators”.
Elizabeth M. Keithley, Ph.D. Early Stage Investigator Awards
Formerly “General Hearing Health.” Under this grant opportunity, HHF welcomes proposals on any topic in hearing or balance research, including but not limited to:
Age-related hearing loss
Auditory and vestibular implants; hearing aids
Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of hearing loss and balance disturbance
Epidemiology of auditory and vestibular disorders
Hearing loss in children and pediatric hearing disorders
Human genetics and mouse models of peripheral and central auditory/balance dysfunction
Human otopathology
Hyperacusis
Innovation in cellular and molecular therapies
Ménière’s disease
Physiology of hearing and balance
Tinnitus
Usher syndrome
Vestibular disorders
Several awards are made each year.
The above grant opportunity is restricted to Early Stage Investigators, which HHF defines as investigators no more than 10 years from their most recent terminal degree or medical residency as at the application deadline. Please see the Policy on Emerging Research Grants for additional eligibility criteria. Applications from ineligible applicants will not be accepted.
FOR SENIOR INVESTIGATORS AND EARLY STAGE INVESTIGATORS
Each year a number of topic-specific grant opportunities are available for which HHF welcomes relevant proposals from any eligible investigator, regardless of career stage. The availability and topic of these grant opportunities changes each year.
Topic-specific grant opportunities for 2025–2026:
Central Auditory Processing Disorder *
Pain Hyperacusis ‡
Ménière’s disease
Tinnitus
* HHF defines CAPD as follows: CAPD describes a heterogeneous group of disorders of central auditory processing identified in an ever increasing population, spanning infancy through the elderly and of diverse etiology due to various underlying pathologies, all leading to difficulties in making sense of the sounds that one hears. These include challenges in recognizing which sounds are important and which are background noise; telling one sound apart from another; locating where sounds are coming from; remembering sounds in the order they are heard; and experiencing additional difficulties in understanding after exposure to loud noises. The hearing difficulties associated with CAPD occur despite normal hearing thresholds, thus audibility of sounds per se is not the cause. Consequently, it remains challenging to diagnose, manage and treat, given the wide variety of symptoms grouped under the label, the complex relationship between CAPD and other disorders and disabilities, and uncertainties about its cause(s).
‡ Hyperacusis is a reduced tolerance to sound(s) that are perceived as normal to the majority of the population or were perceived as normal to the person before their onset of hyperacusis. The specific subtype of hyperacusis funded with this grant is that which is acquired (not inborn) and involves sound causing pain and/or experienced as too loud. Further worsening from sounds that exceed a patient’s tolerance, known as setbacks, are a core characteristic of this type of hyperacusis. For additional details, refer to the “What is Hyperacusis” page at our partner Hyperacusis Research’s site.
Research projects shall seek to find the underlying biological causes of pain and/or loudness hyperacusis or develop effective therapies for the treatment of pain and/or loudness hyperacusis. Other decreased sound tolerance conditions such as misophonia, phonophobia, and auditory processing disorder are not eligible, nor are research proposals involving sound therapies, including TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy).
Start an Application
To start an application, you must confirm your eligibility via a short LOI in ProposalCentral. Please download and read the ERG Application Instructions before proceeding.
Please note that LOIs are due several business days in advance of the full application deadline (see the Application Instructions for dates). Failure to submit an LOI by this date will result in the applicant being unable to submit a full application.
To begin the eligibility check (LOI) or to continue an application, please log in to ProposalCentral.
Recently Funded Projects
Below will you will find more information about specific grant opportunities within ERG, including past projects and grantees.
What Happens After You Apply
Every application received from an eligible researcher in one or more of the topic areas below is assigned for review to two members of the Scientific Review Committee, a revolving group of highly qualified researchers and clinicians from across the country. Each proposal will have assigned to it reviewers who are expert in the relevant area and/or methodology. Proposals are assessed on scientific merit, the project’s potential to significantly advance basic knowledge or clinical application, the available facilities and personnel at the PI’s institution, the PI’s qualifications, and the innovative nature of the proposal. Shortlisted proposals are further reviewed by the Council of Scientific Trustees, a standing advisory body comprised of senior research academics and clinicians who oversee the ERG program and set HHF’s research priorities. Finally, the Research Committee of HHF’s Board of Directors (comprised of Directors who hold Ph.D. or M.D. credentials in otology) review the final shortlisted applications.