The Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) program provides opportunities for assistant professors to bring multidisciplinary approaches to the study of human infectious diseases. The goal of the program is to provide opportunities for accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level to study what happens at the points where the systems of humans and potentially infectious agents connect. The program supports research that sheds light on the fundamentals that affect the outcomes of these encounters: how colonization, infection, commensalism, and other relationships play out at levels ranging from molecular interactions to systemic ones.
PATH is a highly competitive award program that provides $505,000 over a period of five years to study pathogenesis with the intent to give recipients the freedom and flexibility to pursue new avenues of inquiry, stimulating higher-risk research projects that hold potential for significantly advancing understanding of how infectious diseases work and how health is maintained.
Deadlines:
- Required Letter of Intent: July 17, 2025 by 3 pm
- Invited Full Proposal: November 13, 2025
The ideal candidate is an accomplished investigator at the mid-to-late assistant professor level with an established record of independent research in a tenure-track position or its well-supported equivalent in non-tenure offering departments. Very few newly appointed assistant professors are competitive for this award. Most should consider applying later in their career.
Applications must be approved and signed by an official responsible for sponsored programs (generally from the grants office, office of research, or office of sponsored programs) at a degree-granting institution. Candidates will generally have a Ph.D. and/or a clinical doctorate (M.D., D.V.M., etc.).
- Candidates must have an established record of independent research.
- Citizens and non-citizen permanent and temporary residents of the U.S. and Canada who are legally qualified to work in the U.S. or Canada are eligible. Candidates who are temporary U.S. residents must hold a valid U.S. visa (J-1, H1B, F-1 or O-1 visas). Temporary Canadian residents must hold a valid Canadian visa (Study Permit, C-43, C44, C-10, or C-20 work permits/ visas).
- Candidates who will be promoted to Associate Professor by November 13, 2025 are not eligible to apply.
- Candidates who have completed a Burroughs Wellcome Fund career development award (CAMS or CASI) are encouraged to apply but must contact BWF before writing the LOI. Having had BWF travel, career guidance for trainees, preterm birth, regulatory science, or PDEP grants does not impact PATH support.
- Microbiome-related proposals must be infectious disease-focused to compete well in this program