DISC4 Awards
Supporting Multidisciplinary, Collaborative Research
Important Update: New Program Announcement and Focus Area
DISC4 Focus Area (Fiscal Year 2026/2027) is Immune-Tissue Interplay in Disease, Homeostasis, and Repair.
The DISC4 pre-submission form is now available.
Pre-submissions are due by June 18, 2 PM (PT)
Discovery Programs at CIRM
The mission of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is to accelerate world class science to deliver transformative regenerative medicine treatments in an equitable manner to a diverse California and world. In support of this mission, CIRM’s governing board approved a structured, data-driven Strategic Allocation Framework (SAF) in 2024 to prioritize resources and maximize the impact of CIRM’s funding.
Designed in response to this framework, CIRM’s new Discovery Programs include complementary funding opportunities that support research at different scales and levels of maturity, emphasizing multidisciplinary innovation, knowledge sharing and leveraging synergies across CIRM-funded programs. These new funding opportunities support comprehensive, discovery research across a diverse range of diseases and bottlenecks to accelerate the development of potential therapeutics and biomarkers in regenerative medicine.
DISC4 Awards: Key Information
Expected Outcomes
Funded projects are expected to achieve one or more of the following outcomes:- Discovering novel mechanistic insights or advance our understanding of human diseases;
- Extending understanding of disease mechanisms to all affected human populations;
- Identification and validation of novel therapeutic strategies, targets, and/or biomarker(s).
Award Amount & Duration
The maximum total funding for a DISC4 Award is $13 million per award. The maximum award duration is four years.Applicant Teams
Applicant Core Teams must be multi-institutional and include at least five California-based investigators: one Principal Investigator (PI, main point of contact with CIRM) and four or more Co-investigators (Co-I). Together these investigators are referred to as the “core team.”
Funding Allocation
CIRM anticipates funding six DISC4 awards during fiscal year 2026-2027.
Focus Area (Fiscal Year 2026/2027)
Immune-Tissue Interplay in Disease, Homeostasis, and Repair
CIRM is seeking multidisciplinary proposals focused on elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which the human immune system interacts with and influences tissues, particularly in the context of pathology, injury or regeneration. See PA for illustrative examples. While priority will be given to proposals aligned with this focus area, proposals outside this area may be considered if they represent a compelling opportunity to advance DISC4 program goals.
Project Eligibility
To be eligible, proposals must fulfil all the following requirements:- Address a knowledge gap or research bottleneck in the study of human diseases;
- Include studies that employ human stem cells or genetic research as part of the central approach or hypothesis;
- Provide strong justification for any proposed use of non-human models.
Pre-Submissions
All applicants must first submit an online pre-submission form (see below) which includes a short proposal outline upload and core team biosketches.Download the DISC4 Program Announcement (PA) for more details regarding award eligibility, review criteria, and application information.
Important: All prospective DISC4 applicants must first complete a pre-submission form.
To complete a Pre-Submission Form:
Log in with your existing CIRM Username and Password. If you do not have a Username, click on the “New User” link and follow the instructions to Create a CIRM Username and password.
Navigate to “Open Programs”. Click on “Start a Pre-submission Form for prospective DISC4 applicants”.
Click on the “Done with Application” button. The “Done with Application” button will be enabled when all the mandatory sections have been completed. Please note that once this has been selected, you will no longer be able to make changes to your application.
Select the tab labeled “Your Applications” and check the table under the section labeled “Your Submitted Applications.” You will see your pre-submission number and project title listed once the submission process has been completed.
The DISC4 pre-submission form is now available. Deadline is June 18, 2026, at 2 PM (PT)
CIRM Grants Policies, FAQs, and Primers
DISC4 FAQs
The applicant organization must be a California organization per CIRM’s definition. A “California Organization” is a for-profit or non-profit organization or is a California-domiciled wholly owned subsidiary of a non-California organization (any entity that does not qualify as a California Organization) that meets all of the following criteria:
- Employment and Payroll: Employs at least one W-2 employee; and more than 50% of its W-2 employees, whether part-time or full-time, who are paid in any manner (e.g., wage, salary, commission, equity), must be domiciled full-time in California and be required to file California state income taxes due to their employment with the organization.
- Management of Award Activities: The Principal Investigator (PI) must be physically located in California while overseeing all project activities.
- Intellectual Property Rights: In the case of a California-domiciled wholly owned subsidiary of a non-California organization, the subsidiary must retain exclusive rights to any intellectual property arising out of the CIRM-funded project as well as any pre-existing IP rights held by the parent organization.
All DISC4 applicant must first complete and submit a DISC4 pre-submission form through CIRM’s online grant portal. The pre-submission form includes the following sections:
- Online intake section.
- Short proposal outline upload. Proposal outline must use provided template.
- Biosketch upload for core team members.
Approximately 24 Teams will be invited to submit a full application based on pre-submissions. For more information on the pre-submissions, see program announcement.
Please see the Quick Guide for information about the pre-submission process and the Program Announcement for full details.
To be eligible, the proposed project must satisfy the following requirements:
- The proposed project must address knowledge gap(s) or research bottleneck(s) in the study of human diseases
- The proposal must include studies that employ human stem cells or genetic research as part of the central approach or hypothesis
- Strong justification must be provided for any proposed use of non-human models
The core applicant team must be multi-institutional and include at least five CA-based investigators – one Principal Investigator and at least four Co-investigators. The broader team may include any number of additional key personnel – including collaborators, consultants, subcontractors, etc.
All core team members (Principal Investigators and designated Co-investigators) must be employed by California-based organizations. In addition, Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators must commit at least 15% (PI) or 10% (co-I) effort respectively to working on this project and all effort must be expended in California.
The broader team (which includes key personnel) must include at least one data project manager, at least one member with relevant clinical expertise, at least one member with industry/translational experience, and at least one member with relevant computational biology or bioinformatic expertise.
Non-CA-based investigators are not eligible to serve as PI or Co-I on DISC4 awards. However, DISC4 applicants are allowed to budget grant funds to support a non-CA-based collaborator through a grant subcontract, provided the out-of-state organization DOES NOT retain the intellectual property or independent publication rights of any intellectual property (e.g., invention, technology, data) arising out of the CIRM-funded project.
In addition, collaborating non-CA investigators and organizations may contribute research activities to the overall project at no cost to the team (in-kind contribution). While non-CA investigators and organizations will not receive CIRM funds in this arrangement, the contributed research may qualify as matching funds, which would allow the applicant team to request additional CIRM funding. Applicants should refer to the section on “Matching funds” in the RFA or contact CIRM staff to learn more.
An investigator cannot be listed as a Principal Investigator on more than one application. An investigator may be included in the core team of up to two applications. For instance, a researcher may be listed as a Co-Investigator on two applications OR a Principal Investigator on one application and a Co-Investigator on a second application.