With limited resources generously provided by the tinnitus community, we have a responsibility to invest research funding where it has the greatest potential to deliver meaningful benefits for patients in the shortest possible timeframe. We fully recognize the critical importance of basic science in driving future breakthroughs, and the research we support will build on advances made in that area. We also work with other research funders and institutions to ensure our efforts complement, rather than duplicate, existing work.

Over the years, most clinical research on tinnitus has prioritized approaches to alleviate tinnitus symptoms via sound therapy, education, and behavioral training. These approaches are low-risk, non-invasive and can be helpful. However, our funding will focus on interventions designed to silence the noise of tinnitus rather than improve one’s compensation to their tinnitus. To this end, we will be funding drug- or device-based therapies that target the biological mechanisms responsible for precipitating or generating the phantom sound of tinnitus rather than therapies based on masking, compensation, or habilitation.

We are emphasizing near-term translation into treatments for patients, so we are especially eager to fund applications using human research participants. But we recognize that promising therapies often lie in novel drugs or devices that must first be evaluated in preclinical models. We will encourage proposals using human research participants where possible but will fund proposals on preclinical models for exciting early-stage ideas, if these concern therapy concepts that can (at a later stage) also be tested directly in human participants.

Rigorous, well-controlled studies will be necessary to establish any therapy that is widely effective beyond the benefits provided by placebo. But it isn’t strictly necessary to invest the time and effort into more complicated experimental designs if there isn’t a large effect – a “signal” – to control for. To move things forward at a faster pace with smaller budgets, the initial funding will support the research necessary to determine whether a given intervention produces a signal that warrants further investigation. If an encouraging signal is found, we will support the research team in question to secure a second round of funding to replicate the treatment effect with pre-registered outcome measures and perform additional controls; with regulatory and commercial requirements in mind to ensure a speedy path to market.

Clinical research typically measures tinnitus burden and loudness using subjective self-report measures (for example, THI, TFI, and loudness matching). These approaches are rapid, widely used, and provide important information about the patient’s lived experience of tinnitus. However, all outcome measures can be influenced by placebo effects, making careful study design essential.

Objective measures may offer certain advantages, including potentially greater resilience to some forms of bias, but their relationship to the perceived loudness or salience of tinnitus remains less well established. Because both subjective experience and biological measures can provide valuable insights, Tinnitus Quest encourages researchers to use standard self-report measures alongside rigorous placebo controls and, where feasible, secondary objective outcome measures. The optimal approach will depend on the specific study design, scientific rationale, scope, and available budget.

Pre-clinical research can provide important insights because it allows scientists to directly measure biological processes that may contribute to tinnitus or help reduce it. However, pre-clinical models also have limitations. They cannot fully capture the human experience of tinnitus, including the emotional and psychological effects that can accompany severe tinnitus, nor can they accurately reflect how tinnitus develops and changes over time in people.

For this reason, we encourage pre-clinical studies to evaluate treatment success by directly measuring biological processes linked to the generation of tinnitus, particularly when those measures may later be translated into non-invasive methods used in humans. Behavioral approaches that are specifically designed to assess awareness of a phantom sound can also provide valuable information, although these methods can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. By contrast, simple reflex-based responses are generally considered less informative because they do not directly measure the underlying tinnitus process or the perception of the phantom sound itself.

We will gladly accept applications from researchers with primary appointments at non-profit institutions that offer sufficient research infrastructure to complete the work. We expect applications from established tinnitus research labs, but we also encourage proposals from researchers new to tinnitus with proven expertise in related fields. Applications will not be accepted from persons on the Executive or Innovation Boards of Tinnitus Quest, though colleagues at their institution may apply. Awardees are expected to participate in our annual Tinnitus Hackathon and to frequently engage with the broader tinnitus community around project milestones.

The overall goal is to lessen the onerous time investment associated with writing grant proposals and to make the evaluation process more interactive and informative for the applicant and the review panel. After completing a brief application form (Letter of Intent), we evaluate applications based on feasibility, capabilities, degree of innovation, and fit with our mission. Selected applicants are invited to a ‘pitch’ meeting where they present their idea to a panel of researchers and patients from our various boards. Successful applicants will then receive a conditional grant offer and undergo a due diligence process, before the grant agreement is signed.

Our goal is to provide sufficient funds to complete the work in a timely fashion by offering flexible grants up to — and in some exceptional cases beyond — USD $200,000. Additional details on award size and number of awards are published in our annual RFPs and depend on our success during the current fundraising period.

Our Innovation Board is responsible for creating the framework for our grants program – this means determining who and what we fund and how we will successfully put our grants program into action. Our Executive Board – consisting of three tinnitus patients and two tinnitus researchers – makes final decisions on the allocation of research funding, with input from the other boards (Innovation Board, Scientific Advisory Board, and Patient Advisory Board). Thus, patients are uniquely strongly represented in Tinnitus Quest. This sets us apart from all other tinnitus research funders and is meant to ensure that we only fund research with optimal potential benefit for tinnitus sufferers.

We will communicate openly about the research that we fund. Unlike what is typical in academia, where patients often must wait for years to hear about the outcomes, we will ask our research collaborators to update you quarterly along the way, so that you can truly be a part of our research journey. We will be transparent on both our successes and failures, as both can yield important insights that bring us closer to a cure.