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The American Pancreatic Association Foundation (APAF) is pleased to offer impactful grant opportunities for advancing pancreatology research valued at $100,000 each.

These grants primarily target basic and translational research in pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer.

Grant Categories:

One APAF & IAP Grant: Co-sponsored by the International Association of Pancreatology, fostering research among emerging international scientists located in institutions outside North America.

Three APAF Grants: Aimed at encouraging research among the next generation of scientists, prioritizing applications related to pancreatitis and the relationship between pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, but also welcomes proposals related to all types of exocrine pancreatic disease. Open to applicants from both international and North American institutions.

Eligibility:

These award opportunities are available for investigators who are in the early stages of their careers. Included are senior post-doctoral researchers, instructors, research associates, and assistant professors, including clinical and research track faculty (MD, MD-PhD, PhD, or DVM).

To enhance the training experience, the support and participation of a senior mentor is required, and the applicant should have substantive new learning experiences and a mentoring/academic development committee.

For the 3 APAF grants, the applicant and mentor must be members of the APA (membership renew or application)

For the APAF/IAP grant, the applicant & the mentors must be members of the IAP.

Applications from individuals not holding U.S. citizenship or immigration, pursuing research in the United States institutions are welcome.

Funds may be used at APAF/IAP-approved sites outside of the United States. Applications by individuals from diverse groups that are underrepresented in medicine and biomedical research are encouraged.

Application Review Criteria:

Applications will be scored based on the experience and goals of the applicant, the quality of the research plan, the qualifications of the mentor, the training environment, and the relevance of the proposal to the scientific goals of the APA. The APA will prioritize applications related to pancreatitis and the relationship between pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, but also welcomes proposals related to all types of exocrine pancreatic disease.

Timeline:

Submissions Close: June 26, 2026

Date of Grant notification: August 1, 2026

Application Checklist : Use 11 pt Arial font, single spaced text, and at least 0.5″ margins. Compile all documents into a single pdf file, and upload on the submission website.

Include the following documents.

Application Cover Page with the applicant’s and institution’s information and signatures.

Abstract (300 words or less)

Applicant’s personal statement (training, project and mentor selection, career goals)

Research plan organized along NIH format (Specific Aims, Background and Significance, Approach and Preliminary results: altogether 4pages in a combined PDF)

Plan for mentoring, new learning, academic development plan

Budget not exceeding $100,000.

Facilities & Environment

References Cited (1page)

Vertebrate Animals (if applicable, 1 page)

Protection of Human Subjects (if applicable, 1 page)

Investigator and Mentor’s NIH Biosketch (maximum 5 pages each)

Mentor’s support letter (1 page)

Note: Budget justification is not required. This award may not be used to support indirect (F&A) cost reimbursement or provide salary support for the mentor.

Award recipients will be recognized in conjunction with the **57th American Pancreatic Association Annual Meeting**, to be held on December 9–12, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach (Los Angeles, CA).

If your grant is selected, applicants must provide institutional authorization to execute contracts and receive funding. We strongly encourage eligible members to apply and help advance the future of pancreatology research.

As President of the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) for 2025, it was my privilege and honour to host the 2025 Pancreas Summit – the combined IAP and Australasian Pancreatic Club (APC) meeting in Melbourne, Australia. The Scientific Organising Committee comprised the APC President Professor Stephen Philcox and myself as Co-chairs, Dr Chamini Perera as Deputy Chair, and Drs George Sharbeen, Sumit Sahni, Dan Croagh, Andrew Metz, Brett Knowles, Tony Pang, Keith Ooi and Saurabh Gupta as committee members. With the help of this enthusiastic hard-working committee, we were able to put on a scientific programme that was highly appreciated by everyone who attended this meeting. We had 265 registrants in total, with 22 international invited faculty as well as numerous national invited faculty. The attendees included pancreatologists not only from Australia and New Zealand but also China, India, USA and Europe making for a truly vibrant meeting with abundant opportunities for the exchange of ideas and sharing of new research. A total of 107 abstracts were submitted to the meeting, a significant number given the location of this meeting. Of note, the IAP funded 23 travel awards – 13 international and 10 national – to enable early career and mid-career researchers to attend this meeting.

The programme consisted of cutting-edge topics such as Artificial Intelligence in pancreatic disease, Fatty pancreas, the role of the microbiome in pancreatic health and disease and novel approaches to therapies for pancreatic pain, acute and chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. An important feature of the program was that each day not only featured concurrent basic and clinical science sessions, but also at least one combined basic and clinical science session offering an opportunity for basic and clinical researchers to exchange ideas and discuss cutting edge research. Another unique feature of our scientific programme was the involvement of dietitians with an interest in optimum nutrition of patients with pancreatic diseases. The dietitians had a one day focussed meeting and also actively participated in the main meeting providing a rare but highly beneficial nexus.

The Pancreas Summit was the first major international ‘exclusively pancreas-focused’ meeting to be held in Australia since 2007 and was appreciated by all attendees as a very successful conference.  We are very grateful for the efforts that were put in by our sponsors as well as by the invited faculty and all the presenters who made this meeting a forum to share ideas, discuss innovative treatment strategies, and collaborate on initiatives that will shape the future of pancreatic disease management and drive progress in our field.

Minoti Apte, OAM

Immediate Past President, IAP