In 2019, the Nikki Mitchell Foundation partnered with the Pancreas Club to award an annual $20,000 seed grant to a junior faculty member at the Pancreas Club Conference. Junior faculty members hold a Ph.D. degree and carry on active research in the labs under an independent researcher, and they are on the path to being independent researchers with their own research group. Because they don’t have their own research group, junior faculty members struggle to get grants for their research. NMF awards the annual seed grant to junior faculty members specifically so they can begin the process of obtaining grants for their own research groups.