AUTISM SCIENCE FOUNDATION

The Autism Science Foundation's mission is to support autism research by providing funding and other assistance to scientists and organizations conducting, facilitating, publicizing and disseminating autism research. The organization also provides information about autism to the general public and serves to increase awareness of autism spectrum disorders and the needs of individuals and families affected by autism.

Our goal is to fund all the autism research that can provide answers for our families. We focus on projects that provide useful, actionable information.

Our grant funding is targeted at younger scientists, including pre-doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows and early-career tenured faculty (assistant professor level), enabling them to collect pilot data in new areas of investigation. Many of our grantees have leveraged their ASF funding into much larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies.

ASF conducts workshops and seminars around the country to share the latest autism research with stakeholders, and to foster communication between scientists and families. ASF also provides scholarships to parents, individuals with autism, special education teachers, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to enable to them to participate in the International Meeting for Autism Research.

ASF was founded on relationships between scientists and families. These relationships allow both parties to benefit from the knowledge that the other brings to the table. Working together allows us to increase the pace of research and get answers faster.

Awarded over $540,000 in autism research funding for predocs, postdocs, undergrads and collaborative consortium activities, including the Autism Sisters Projects.

Built a new online tool to help researchers study the single-gene forms of autism.

Registered over 1,500 people for the Autism BrainNet and communicated with families across the US about the importance of postmortem brain tissue donation.

Disseminated a new policy brief on employment needs for people with autism; presented these data at the International Society for Autism Research Meeting.

Completed an internal assessment showing our funded grantees were 80% more likely to remain active autism researchers than those investigators who applied for but didn't receive funding.

Raised a record $350,000 at our annual Ride FAR bike event.

Supported an expanding Baby Siblings Research Consortium, enabling the group to better understand early features of autism and develop biomarkers to diagnose autism before behavioral symptoms emerge.

Hosted our fifth annual Day of Learning, bringing scientists and families together to discuss key autism topics, including sex and gender differences, diet, medical marijuana and adult outcomes. In 2019, we added a second Day of Learning event in San Francisco!