Misophonia | Implementation

About Misophonia

Misophonia is a condition in which specific sensory sensations lead to a strong physical and emotional response. The stimuli causing the response are often referred to as “triggers,” including the sound of people eating, nasal noises like sniffling, and sounds associated with fidgeting like clicking a pen. Exposure to triggers causes the misophonia sufferer to experience a stereotyped physical and emotional response, which includes an increased heart rate, sweating, and activation of stress or anger response. People describe feeling intense anxiety, rage, fear, or the desire to flee.

Philanthropic capital can play a pivotal role in biomedical research, especially in emerging scientific disciplines like misophonia. Donors’ funding can support pilot studies needed to develop an evidence base that will attract additional research grants from larger grant programs. Since 2018, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy has been working in concert with the Misophonia Research Fund to solicit and fund scientific research aimed at advancing research and alleviating the hardship misophonia causes. To date, the Fund has awarded more than $12 million to support key research with a high potential to yield impactful results. Read more about this partnership here.

Misophonia Research Fund

The Misophonia Research Fund actively solicits misophonia research proposals annually. Each Fall, a Request for Proposals is released describing proposal parameters and soliciting research submissions on an open, global scale. MRF utilizes a two-step process – first requiring a Letter of Intent, then a Full Proposal – to effectively narrow the proposal pool to research ideas yielding impactful results.

The Center for Strategic Philanthropy conducts a rigorous review process that enlists independent experts to evaluate the promise of each proposal and develops funding recommendations based upon review feedback and overarching program goals.

Program Timeline

Since 2019, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy has been working in concert with the Misophonia Research Fund to solicit and fund 26 scientific grants worth over $12 million aimed at advancing research and alleviating the hardship misophonia causes. These grants typically span two years of research and may be led by a lead researcher or a postdoctoral scholar.

Annual Research Meeting

Each year, the Misophonia Research Fund convenes all funded researchers for an Annual Meeting of MRF Funded Investigators. This meeting promotes the sharing of research and development of collaborations across institutions that would otherwise go untapped. 

This meeting also brings together the program’s Scientific Advisory Board to set strategic directions for the Fund, and acts as a forum to identify and develop new initiatives designed to propel the field forward by leveraging the unique strengths of philanthropic funding.

Consensus Definition

In late 2020, The REAM Foundation and Center for Strategic Philanthropy partnered to bring consensus to an otherwise fragmented field through the Delphi Method, a rigorous paradigm that brings experts together to systematically achieve a working definition of a condition.

This paper has led to the development of a unique journal issue around misophonia, expected to be released in mid-2022.