This is a nomination-based award. An applicant can be nominated by any of the following individuals:

• Current and former Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize winners

• Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize Advisory Board members

• Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize Governing Board members

• Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize Scientific Review Council members

• Lotus Award Scientific Advisory Board members

If you are otherwise eligible and have a relevant project, we encourage you to reach out to any of the nominators to share your interest and request a nomination, pending their approval.

Yes, nominators are allowed to self-nominate to apply if they have a relevant project and meet the eligibility requirements.

As nominators are allowed to nominate up to two individuals, you can both apply and nominate another PI, if you'd wish.

Please note: If you are a current Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize winner, you must wait until your award term has concluded and final reports have been received.

Multiple PIs from the same institution in the USA may apply as long as they meet the eligibility requirements and have received an nomination to apply.

Unfortunately, no. PIs must hold tenure-track faculty appointments (or equivalent) at academic research institutions in the United States of America and must have at least two (2) years of experience running their own independent laboratories by the start date of the grant. Salaries for postdocs in a PI's lab may be on the submitted budgets.

No, applicants must be full-time, tenure-track (or equivalent) faculty members at 501(c)3 research institutions (or equivalent) in the USA.

Yes, scientists who are in independent research roles at non-faculty research institutions are indeed eligible to apply, should they run their own research program, meet all the other eligibility requirements, and receive a nomination.

No, only one LOI is allowed per PI. PIs should choose their most innovative, high-risk, high-reward project to submit!

Additionally, lead PIs and collaborators can only be on one application—i.e. a collaborator cannot be on multiple applications, a lead PI cannot be a collaborator on another application, and a collaborator cannot be a lead PI on another application.

No, if you submitted an LOI as the lead applicant, you cannot be a collaborator on another application.

Yes, and we encourage you to apply! However, if you do not have demonstrated experience in ovarian cancer research, you must include a collaborator with a background in ovarian cancer.

No, the collaborator can only be included on one application.

No, you do not need to apply with a collaborator (although you're welcome to include one if helpful to the project).

There may only be one lead PI who is the primary applicant as this is a single investigator award, but we absolutely encourage collaboration and require it for lead PIs who do not have ovarian cancer expertise. There is no limit to the number of collaborators that can be included within a proposal as long as they are not included in other proposals.

The lead PI can work with as many collaborators as the needs of their project dictates, and subcontracts at other institutions are allowed (please note: indirect costs in subcontracts are included in the annual indirect cost total, which must not exceed $25,000). Applicants are not required to include the biosketches of collaborators or letters of support. Reviewers will focus first and foremost on the lead PI's accomplishments, background, and work. If these wish to be included, they can be uploaded as additional files. The lead PI is the only one who must meet the eligibility criteria, as well.12Accordionaddexpandmore-dots Title Textparagraphheaderheader-2header-3boldlinkuloltableundoredoPlease email lifesci@persq.org with your nomination. Additionally,6Accordionaddexpandmore-dots Title Textparagraphheaderheader-2header-3boldlinkuloltableundoredoPlease email lifesci@persq.org with your nomination. Additionally, the PI will need to list your name in their application when prompted under the general information form. the PI will need to list your name in their application when prompted under the general information form.

The LOI is a one-page document in Georgia, 11-point font and single-spaced with 0.5-inch (NIH standard) margins.

While neither is required, figures need to be confined to the one-page limit, while references can be appended to an additional page(s)—you’ll have an opportunity to include these in your biosketch, as well. We ask that any figures included remain legible for our reviewers.

No, there aren’t any file naming requirements for the application files. As long as they are submitted as PDFs, applicants can name them whatever they’d like (reviewers don’t see the file name).

Once an applicant registers and begins to create an application on our application submission portal (https://prizeapplication.smapply.io), they will have access to any necessary forms and templates. We do not have an LOI template (just clear instructions), but we do have biosketch and budget templates . Templates can only be accessed once the program has launched.

Please email lifesci@persq.org with your nomination. Additionally,6Accordionaddexpandmore-dots Title Textparagraphheaderheader-2header-3boldlinkuloltableundoredoPlease email lifesci@persq.org with your nomination. Additionally, the PI will need to list your name in their application when prompted under the general information form. the PI will need to list your name in their application when prompted under the general information form.

There is a question on the general information form once you start your application where you can put the first and last name of your nominator. If there are any issues with your nomination, someone from The Pershing Square Foundation will reach out.

The award total is $750,000 over three years, so $250,000/year. This includes the indirect costs (not to exceed 10%), so annually it would be $225,000 in direct costs and $25,000 in indirect costs*.  

 Therefore, the budget should be constructed as follows: 

*PLEASE NOTE: You can absolutely have less than $25K in indirect costs and more than $225K in direct costs. You simply cannot exceed the numbers above, and totals must reach $250K/year.

The award is $750,000 over three years, so the proposed project should be large enough in scope to have a budget that requires the full award amount. We do not accept budgets for amounts smaller than $750,000.

No, we do not have a salary cap, but expect applicants to budget reasonably and responsibly. 

We don’t have a formal policy on this, but budgets are viewed favorably if there is at least a 5% minimum effort.

Budgets should not be designed to have carryover each year, but we do approve carryover as needed and requested in annual grant reporting, with adequate explanation. We also approve no-cost extensions at the end of an award term on a case-by-case basis. More details on this are included in our award terms and conditions, should an applicant be selected for funding.

Yes, applicants absolutely can, but we’d recommend also including some fully published papers so that the reviewers can see the types of journals published in thus far, as that is also helpful. We recommend applicants have at least one last-author publication (in press or in revision is ok) before applying to ensure their application is competitive.

No, the Lotus Award does not have a full proposal stage.

Ideally, it should be the PI applicant, and the email address associated with the application should be that of the PI applicant.

Applicants are unable to edit their applications once submitted. However, if it is before the deadline, please email lifesci@persq.org and we can update it for you. If it is after the deadline, per internal policies, we will not allow any further edits or updates.