Our vision is that everyone impacted by OCD and related disorders has immediate access to effective treatment and support.

The IOCDF provides up-to-date education and resources, strengthens community engagement, delivers quality professional training, and advances groundbreaking research.

-The IOCDF Vision Statement

Through our countless initiatives, programs, and partnerships, we at the IOCDF are proud to help people with OCD and related disorders in the US and abroad. With valuable input from the community, researchers, clinicians, and advocates, we are constantly improving the resources that guide our vision and keep us on our promise to provide help, healing, and hope.

But let’s zoom in on that last, bolded part in our Vision Statement — “advances groundbreaking research.” 

How exactly do we do this? And perhaps more importantly, how can you help?

What is the Research Grant Program?

We advance groundbreaking research into OCD and related disorders through our Research Grant Program. Since 1994, we have awarded 145 research grants that have contributed to the wide body of worldwide research into OCD and related disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), hoarding disorder, and tic disorders.  

Our grants funded research projects that looked at OCD and related disorders through a variety of lenses — from cognitive to neuroscientific, from small-scale studies to international, multi-site projects. Our grants helped confirm how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) are truly effective for treating OCD and related disorders across all age groups, and through virtual and in-person delivery. Research teams have looked into how these disorders affect the brain and vice-versa, and provided insight into how genetics and environmental stresses can lead to them. They have also found areas where treatment and access to it, as well as understanding of these disorders, can be improved.

We have awarded nearly $11 million since the Research Grant Program began. In recent years, we have begun funding large, multi-year grants of up to $500,000, which allows researchers to carry out studies with more equipment, more collaboration, and more time. 

And the best part of all of this? All of that money came from community members like you, who donated to our Research Grant Fund, spread the word, and saw the importance of promoting cutting-edge research.

What kind of awards do we give?

As any researcher will tell you, conducting a study involves lots of time, effort, collaboration, planning, and funding. Ultimately, all of this pays off for them and for the public as a whole — it is through these tests and explorations that we know which treatments work (and which don’t), how OCD and related disorders function, and other vital information that makes these disorders more manageable compared to mere decades ago. 

Currently, there are three categories of Research Grant Awards: the Innovator, Breakthrough, and Michael A. Jenike Young Investigator Award.

The Innovator and Breakthrough Awards

The Breakthrough and Innovator Awards are for large-scale, potentially groundbreaking research projects. The Breakthrough Awards are for [at least] three-year projects, and offer up to $500,000. The Innovator Awards are for three-year projects, and offer up to $300,000. They are both granted exclusively to experienced researchers with extensive contributions to the OCD and related disorder research field.

These awards have been funded by families committed to supporting transformational research studies intended to make a major impact on our understanding of causes, prevention, or treatment for OCD and related disorders.  

Bethany Wootton, PhD — the recipient of the 2019 Innovator Award for a study on internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for OCD — says this about her grant:

Large-scale funding bodies rarely fund research on obsessive-compulsive disorder in Australia. The Innovator Award from the IOCDF allowed us to continue to pursue our research into internet-delivered treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. This particular grant allowed our team to examine the effectiveness of self-guided internet-delivered treatment in a large international sample, as well as examine who this treatment is likely to work best for. We would not have been able to conduct this important work without the Innovator Award and support from the IOCDF.

The Michael A. Jenike Young Investigator Award

The Jenike Young Investigator Award is for early-career researchers who are investigating OCD and related disorders across a wide range of disciplines, and is a one-year award of up to $50,000. This Award is for projects that investigate OCD and disorders such as BDD, hoarding disorder, PANDAS/PANS, tic disorders, and comorbidities. 

The goal of this award is not only to further research, but also to promote the careers of new researchers. Jacob Nota, PhD — the recipient of the 2019 Jenike Young Investigator Award for a study on sleep and OCD — says:

The IOCDF Young Investigator Award absolutely made my research possible; it would not have been without their support. I have worked hard to create a clinically-relevant research program that aims to be innovative and reach beyond what is frequently associated with OCD in peoples’ minds so we can continue to understand all the ways to help people who live with OCD. This kind of research doesn’t get supported at an early stage by many funding bodies. The IOCDF enabled a project that would have never otherwise happened in a clinical setting (and couldn’t be done anywhere else). I am hugely grateful for their support in demonstrating this research can be done, that it can teach us something immediately clinically-relevant, and that I can be a leader in this field.

How you can make a difference 

Each year, thousands of community members like you band together and give to fund these research grant awards. 100% of gifts support the Jenike Young Investigator Awards and the more we raise, the more research grants we are able to award.

Learn more and make a donation to support research today!

Interested in higher level giving opportunities to fund a full research grant award? Contact our Senior Development Manager, Kristen Lynch at klynch@iocdf.org to learn more and discuss your options.