FOUNDATION RELATIONS

The Thriving Cultures Program seeks to foster the conditions in which artists, culture-bearers, designers, and media-makers of color can maximize their potential as leaders, agents of social change, and designers of just systems and communities. 

Please note, Surdna is not currently accepting unsolicited LOIs for this program, but expects to in early 2019.

View the Thriving Cultures opportunity

The Inclusive Economies Program seeks to foster the creation of an inclusive and equitable economy in which people of color can maximize their potential as leaders, creators and innovators across sectors. This program supports business start-up and growth, as well as equitable economic development.

Please note, Surdna is not currently accepting unsolicited LOIs for this program, but expects to in early 2019.

View the Inclusive Economies opportunity

The Sustainable Environments Program seeks to support communities of color and low-wealth communities to direct infrastructure and land use investment dollars, drive decision-making processes and design policy solutions because those who are disproportionately impacted by environmental and climate inequity have the most powerful solutions to resolve these inequities. The Foundation focuses on two core areas: environmental and climate justice, and land use through community power.

View the Sustainable Environments opportunity

This award program accepts inquiries throughout the year, and it's three core programs include: Criminal Justice, Youth Justice, and Workers' Rights.

Link to opportunity

The program is intended to support high-risk theoretical mathematics, physics and computer science projects of exceptional promise and scientific importance on a case-by-case basis.

Link to opportunity

Studies could include:

• Ethnographic accounts of BIPOC organizations as they enhance, expand or innovate their efforts;    
• Documentation of implementation of new programmatic and/or organizational work and its impacts across a range of BIPOC arts organizations;       
• Social network analyses of staff, leaders, boards and funders across the sector using existing or new sources of data;    
• Landscape/census studies to document the field using existing or new sources of data; and    
• Other studies to be developed.

This Request for Qualifications will identify the group of researchers selected to be invited to submit a proposal in April-May 2021. Researchers should have a strong record of publications and of supporting practice in the field of arts organizations. Studies funded may range from $500,000-$3,000,000.  

View the Studying BIPOC Arts Organizations Request for Qualifications opportunity

The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience supports innovative research designed to bring science closer to the day when diseases of the brain can be accurately diagnosed, prevented, and treated. The McKnight Scholar Awards encourage neuroscientists in the early stages of their careers to focus on disorders of learning and memory. Applicants for the McKnight Scholar Awards must demonstrate interest in solving important problems in relevant areas of neuroscience, including the translation of basic research to clinical neuroscience. Awards are given to exceptional young scientists who hold the M.D. and/or Ph.D. degree and who are in the early stages of establishing an independent laboratory and research career. 

View the Neuroscience Scholar Awards opportunity

The Zenith Fellows award provides a vehicle for research support for donors with a substantial personal commitment to the advancement of Alzheimer’s and all other dementia research. The proposed research should address fundamental problems related to early detection, etiology, pathogenesis, treatment and/or prevention of Alzheimer’s and all other dementia. The proposed research must be “on the cutting edge” of basic science or biomedical research and thus may not conform to current conventional scientific wisdom or may challenge the prevailing orthodoxy.

Basic biology: these are bench science projects involving in vitro or animal work pertaining to the causes of dementia; early and accurate detection and diagnosis; animal models; treatments; and prevention. This may also include computation studies, such as mining existing datasets for genes linked to risk or other such studies. Please note that in vitro work involving human samples falls into this category.
 
Clinical investigations: projects in which the majority of data is derived directly from studies involving active participation of human subjects. Examples include pilot studies of new therapies; neuropsychological testing; drug administration; biomarker collection; imaging technology; and risk factors including genetics, cardiovascular issues, diabetes and metabolic factors and lifestyle issues. In vitro projects conducted in human samples should be categorized as basic biology rather than clinical investigations. Note that this definition of clinical investigation does not extend to clinical trials which will not be considered for funding under the Zenith program.

LOIs are due January 5, 2021. Invited full applications will be due February 25, 2021.

View the Zenith Fellows Award program

The purpose of the Physician Scientist Fellowship (PSF) program is to: 1) support physician scientists in subspecialty training to lead and conduct an outstanding clinical research project; 2) ensure research time protection to enable development of research skills; and 3) facilitate strong mentorship relations. The PSF award aims to support research during final years of subspecialty fellowship and aid in the transition into a research faculty appointment.

A clinical research project, defined as the scientific investigation of the etiology, prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of human disease using human subjects, human populations or materials of human origin, must be proposed in any disease area. Included in the definition are studies that utilize tissues or pathogens only if they can be linked to a patient.

View the Physician Scientist Fellowship opportunity

The Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Awards are two-year research grants to be awarded to cancer scientists at the beginning of their investigative careers. These grants are intended to support scientists who have little or no established funding "track records" and who have not yet qualified for significant external research support at the time of submission. The Cancer Research Foundation is particularly interested in funding research focused on decoding the mechanics of cancer, its development, diagnosis and treatment, using genomics, informatics, molecular engineering, or image-oriented research, among other scientific disciplines.

View the Young Investigator Awards opportunity 

This call seeks to fund pilot studies that investigate the biological effect of traditional locally fermented foods on key microbiome, gut, and health biomarkers in local populations. The goal is to provide investigators in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with the resources to build local capacity to investigate fermented foods as novel maternal nutrition interventions. In particular, sequencing technology – a transformative tool that has enabled in-depth investigation of microbial communities – will be provided to all investigators to democratize the ability to investigate foods and health effects, and build local capacity. Ultimately, the goal is to empower local communities to develop geography and culture specific interventions powered by fermentation, in country.

View the Integrating Tradition and Technology for Fermented Foods for Maternal Nutrition opportunity

View the Hannah H. Gray Fellows Program opportunity

This program supports research to help resolve an important emerging or unanswered problem in clinical, biomedical or public health decision-making, policy, or practice. The program aims to fund projects that promote the Foundation’s vision and mission through innovative bioethics research that will have a real-world, practical impact. 

The Foundation is particularly interested in proposals that address the ethical and policy issues raised by the following priority topics:

• The COVID-19 pandemic and other public health crises;
• Bias and discrimination against patients or clinicians, which may be based on a broad range of characteristics and which may involve institutional and systemic contributors to bias and racism as well as health disparities or social determinants of health;
• Developments in artificial intelligence;
• Responses to the opioid epidemic; 
• Healthcare access, costs, and resource allocation. 

Projects may be empirical, conceptual, or normative. Successful teams commonly involve a bioethics scholar and persons with on-the-ground experience with the bioethics dilemma, for example, in clinical care; biomedical research; biotechnology, pharmaceutical, big data, and artificial intelligence companies; or public service.

LOIs are due January 8, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due March 17, 2021.

View the Making a Difference in Real-World Bioethics Dilemmas opportunity

These grants are intended to provide support for the investigation of key unresolved research questions in autism, particularly those that connect etiology to brain function and behavior. Risk and novelty are welcome but are not required criteria for the proposal to be considered meritorious. Competitive applications will have preliminary data or other relevant groundwork that justifies substantial investment on the proposed topic

View the SFARI Research Award opportunity

The mission of the Leakey Foundation is to increase scientific knowledge, education, and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival. Current funding priorities include 1) paleoanthropology of the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene; and 2) primates (old and new world), including evolution, behavior, morphology, ecology, endocrinology, genetics, isotope studies, and modern hunter-gatherer groups.

Most grants range between $3,000-$15,000. Proposals of up to $25,000 will be considered.

Applications are accepted on January 10th and July 15th annually.

View the Research Grants on Human Origins opportunity

The Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship Program is a globally competitive fellowship program for early career researchers aiming at improving the development and living conditions of children and youth. This includes, but is not limited to educational sciences, psychology, economics, sociology, family studies, media studies, political sciences, linguistics, neurosciences, and medical sciences. Applicants should have received their PhDs within the past 10 years.

Initial applications are due January 11, 2021. Invited extended proposals will be due May 24, 2021.

View the Research Fellowship opportunity.

The Alzheimer's Association offers the following competitions within their International Research Grant Program. 

• Clinician Scientist Fellowship (AACSF), award amount: up to $175,000
• Clinician Scientist Fellowship to Promote Diversity (AACSF-D), award amount: up to $175,000
• Research Fellowship (AARF), award amount: up to $175,000
• Research Fellowship to Promote Diversity (AARF-D), award amount: up to $175,000
• Research Grant (AARG), award amount: up to $150,000
• Research Grant to Promote Diversity (AARG-D), award amount: up to $150,000
• Research Grant--New to the Field (AARG-NTF), award amount: up to $150,000
• Research Grant to Promote Diversity--New to the Field (AARG-D-NTF), award amount: up to $150,000

LOIs are due January 13, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due March 31, 2021.

View the International Research Grant Program opportunity

The W. T. Grant Foundation funds research that increases our understanding of the programs, policies, and practices that reduce inequality in youth outcomes, and strategies to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit youth.

View the Research Grants opportunity

This program provides support for career development activities for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows for stellar careers in biomedical or medical research.

View the Biomedical Postdoctoral Enrichment Program opportunity

The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 up through $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method.

The Intent to Apply form must be completed by January 15, 2021. The full proposal is due February 5, 2021.

View the Research Grants on Education - Large opportunity

The Oberkotter Foundation funds programs that promote listening and spoken language for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The Foundation seeks to address the needs, gaps, and barriers families face in locating and accessing information and services in their community.  Grants to universities average $300,000.

LOIs are due January 15, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due March 5, 2021.

View the Program Support Grants for Listening and Spoken Language opportunity

In a collaborative effort, the Arthritis National Research Foundation (ANRF) and the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) are seeking grant applications that focus on studying psoriatic arthritis.

View the Psoriatic Arthritis Grant opportunity

ANRF seeks applications focused on studying arthritis and related autoimmune diseases including, but not limited to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, gout, scleroderma, fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis.

View the Arthritis Research Grants opportunity

The Foundation supports scholarly research in the life sciences. The program is designed for researchers at the assistant professor level who experience difficulty in competing for research funds because they have not yet become firmly established. 

View the Life Science Grants-in-Aid opportunity

The Whitehall Foundation supports scholarly research in the life sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology.

View the Life Science Research Grants opportunity

Note: The timing of this program has changed and will now accept applications every other year. The next sponsor application deadline is January 15, 2022. This is a limited submission opportunity; internal applications are expected to be due in November 2021.

The mission of the Foundation is to support early stage investigators engaged in basic biomedical research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis, or treatment of disease. Mallinckrodt Foundation Scholar award applicants should be in the fifth to eighth year of a tenure-track faculty position. The funds are designed to provide faculty members who hold MD and/or PhD degrees with support to move the project forward to the point where other independent funding can be obtained. Candidates may have an R01. 

View the Scholars Awards opportunity (2020 program solicitation for reference)

The Gates Foundation and the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) are piloting the Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science initiative, which seeks to support projects that harness the power of health data in a safe and trusted way to respond to the current COVID-19 pandemic and have impact, as well as to enhance global health data responses to health challenges in the future. This pilot is part of a larger RFP to be launched in late 2021.

The desired outcome is to fund studies that will facilitate research collaboration among researchers to address major COVID-19 research questions and reduce the harm of the current COVID-19 pandemic, while fostering global, multi-disciplinary collaborations.

Priority will be given to research proposals involving researchers from lower and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

Proposals may focus on one of a range of COVID-19 research areas, including: 1) natural disease history, epidemiology and transmission; 2) vaccines and prophylaxis; 3) infection, prevention and control; 4) therapeutics; 5) clinical management.

View the COVID-19 Data Science Initiative opportunity

This grant is intended to stimulate collaboration in the field primarily through the funding of travel and related expenditures.

View the Collaboration Grants for Mathematicians opportunity

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood supports promising research and development projects that appear likely to improve the welfare of young children, from infancy through 7 years, in the United States. Welfare is broadly defined to include physical and mental health, safety, nutrition, education, play, familial support, acculturation, societal integration and childcare.

Grants are only made if a successful project outcome will likely be of significant interest to other professionals, within the grantee’s field of endeavor, and would have a direct benefit and potential national application. The Foundation’s goal is to provide seed money to implement those imaginative proposals that exhibit the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children, on a national scale. 

Grants are made in the areas of:

• early childhood welfare
• early childhood education and play
• parenting education

Grants typically range between $25,000 and $50,000. LOIs are due January 31, 2021. 

View the Early Childhood Grants opportunity

The Ruth K. Broad Foundation seeks applications focused on advancing understanding of neurodegenerative disorders, with particular interest in the potential relationship to Alzheimer’s disease.

View the Award for Advancing Understanding of Neurodegenerative Disorders opportunity

The Sloan Foundation seeks letters of inquiry for collaborative social science research projects led by early- and mid-career scholars examining critical and under-explored questions related to issues of energy insecurity, distributional equity, and just energy system transitions in the United States.

Proposals must demonstrate the following:

• Collaboration among scholars deploying a range of research methodologies and drawn from multiple social science disciplines, either within or across universities. Relevant disciplines and fields could include but are not limited to: political science, public policy, economics, anthropology, sociology, geography, and energy systems analysis, among others.
• Submissions from diverse teams led by Black, Latino/a, and Indigenous researchers and/or women are strongly encouraged.
• Project leadership by early- and mid-career faculty at the Assistant or Associate Professor (or equivalent) levels.
• Undertaking original empirical data collection and analysis, or combining existing datasets in novel, innovative ways.
• Training of students (racial and ethnic diversity in trainees is of special interest)
• Linking research to practice by engaging a wide range of stakeholders in helping to shape the scope and conduct of research and dissemination efforts used to inform decision-making.
• Potential ability to secure additional financial support

Researchers may participate in a maximum of two proposed projects. Senior researchers and non-U.S.-based researchers may participate in proposed projects and can receive funding as research team members, advisors, or collaborators.

LOIs are due February 1, 2021. Following the invited full proposal round (dates not posted), award decisions are expected to begin in the second half of 2021.

View the Energy and Environment Equity program

The Jane Coffin Childs (JCC) Memorial Fund for Medical Research supports research into the causes and treatment of cancer. The Fund has taken a broad approach to the study of cell growth and development, emphasizing the study of the basic biology and chemistry of the underlying processes. Applicants in general should not have more than one year of postdoctoral experience and MDs should not have received their degree more than three years prior to the date the application is due. 

View the Medical Research Fellowship opportunity

The goal of this program is to enhance quality of life for individuals and their families living with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) through grants to support innovative programs/projects that improve participation and independence. Areas of focus include: assistive technology, education, employment, independent living, rehabilitation, and arts, sports and recreation.

LOIs are due February 1, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due April 23, 2021.

View the Creating Opportunity & Independence Grants opportunity 

The Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award supports independent young physician-scientists conducting disease-oriented research that demonstrates a high level of innovation and creativity. The goal is to support the best young physician-scientists doing work aimed at improving the practice of cancer medicine.

Note: Investigators must be nominated by the institution in order to apply.

View the Clinical Investigator Awards opportunity

The ADDF offers funding to researchers for Alzheimer's drug discovery, clinical trials, and biomarker development research. Core request for proposals include:

• Program to Accelerate Clinical Trials (PACT), award amount: up to $3,000,000
• Neuroimaging and CSF Biomarker Development, award amount: up to $600,000
• Prevention Pipeline, award amount: up to $3,000,000
• Drug Development, award amount: up to $600,000 

LOIs are due February 5, 2021. If selected to move forward, full proposals will be due April 16, 2021.

View the Core Requests for Proposals opportunity

The Leukemia Research Foundation exclusively funds New Investigators – individuals beginning to establish their own laboratories that are no longer under the tutelage of a senior scientist mentor. Preference is given to proposals that focus on leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and/or MDS . New Investigators are considered to be within seven years of their first independent position. 

LOIs are due February 5, 2021. Invited full applications will be due April 5, 2021.

View the New Investigator Grants opportunity

The David & Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowships for Science and Engineering provide the nation’s most promising early career scientists and engineers with flexible funding and the freedom to take risks and explore new frontiers in their fields of study. Packard Fellows must be faculty members within the first three years of their faculty career who are eligible to serve as principal investigators engaged in research in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering. Recipients will receive individual grants of $875,000 distributed over five years.

Beginning with the 2021 Packard Fellows, the Foundation will pilot a program to offer addition funding support to Fellows for activities that will help increase diversity and representation in science and engineering – whether in their research group, department, university or scientific fields.

This is a limited submission opportunity. Internal letters of intent are due February 8, 2021. If selected to move forward, the sponsor deadline will be April 20, 2021.

View the Fellowships for Science and Engineering opportunity

The Joyce Foundation invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region. The Foundation accepts applications in the following program areas:

• Culture
• Democracy
• Education & Economic Mobility
• Environment
• Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform

LOIs are to be submitted at least 6-8 weeks in advance of the full proposal deadline (April 7, 2021). 

View the Joyce Foundation opportunity 

This program supports researchers developing new methodologies or innovative approaches in regulatory science that will ultimately inform the regulatory decisions the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and others make. Individuals trained in mathematics, computer science, applied physics, medicine, engineering, toxicology, epidemiology, biostatistics, systems pharmacology, food safety and nutrition, etc, are encouraged to apply.

View the Innovation in Regulatory Science opportunity

These awards are presented to highly promising, early career scientists and are aimed at advancing cutting-edge investigations in basic or clinical research that may lead to a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The fellowship awards promote higher risk projects.

View the Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience opportunity

Through this call for proposals, RWJF intends to support research that advances policy and programmatic solutions to help families gain equitable access to needed supports during and after the current COVID-19 crisis and ensure that a Culture of Health with health equity for all families remains front and center in the national dialogue.

For this call for proposals, RWJF is particularly interested in research exploring issues that cut across policy domains. The Foundation is primarily interested in policy responses that may persist beyond the immediate crisis. RWJF hopes this research will draw attention to the ways that innovations at the federal, state, and local levels can sustain or expand families’ access to supports, promote the healthy development of young children, and prevent deepening of inequities, especially in the context of a public health and economic crisis and in its aftermath.

Research funded under this opportunity may focus on questions suggested in this CFP or related questions that
applicants propose, including questions about how to address inequities in access to supports as a result of
structural conditions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

View the Building Cross-Cutting Evidence on Supports for Families with Young Children opportunity

This Request for Applications (RFA) aims to advance technology directed at the goal of obtaining near-atomic resolution readouts inside the cell. This RFA is explicitly aimed at technology development. It is not intended to support question-driven basic or translational research, clinical trials, or drug development. Preliminary data is encouraged but not required.

Examples of research themes include:

• Hardware and software development to enhance contrast and resolution for electron tomography, high-resolution correlated light and electron microscopy (CLEM), and FIB-SEM. 
• Sample preparation improvements for electron tomography, or high-resolution correlated light and electron microscopy (CLEM) approaches, and FIB-SEM.
• Software development or development of new computational techniques and algorithms for identifying protein molecules inside cells or segmenting cellular sub-structures.

Award amounts will be determined on a per project basis.

View the Visual Proteomics Imaging opportunity

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) is soliciting applications from early career investigators for Innovator Awards to be used for exploring the basic biology and translational potential of stem cells. The goal of this initiative is to foster bold and innovative scientists with the potential to transform the field of stem cell research, and advance understanding and use of stem cells in the development of treatments for human disease.

For this application year, NYSCF is extending its eligibility criterion to be within 6 years of starting a faculty (professorship) position on June 1, 2021 due to the pandemic.

View the Stem Cell Investigator Awards opportunity

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) is soliciting applications from early career investigators for Innovator Awards in Neuroscience. The goal of this initiative is to foster truly bold, innovative scientists with the potential to transform the field of neuroscience. Applicants are encouraged in all areas of neuroscience and do not need to be working in areas related to stem cells. Investigators must have completed their MD, PhD, and/or DPhil degree and be within 6 years of starting a faculty or comparable position on June 1, 2021. An additional year of eligibility was added this year due to the pandemic.

NYSCF especially encourages applications from neuroscientists whose research is focused on human systems. This might include research using patient-derived model systems and approaches using samples or data (genomic, epidemiological, imaging, real-world data, etc.) collected from individuals or human populations.

View the Neuroscience Investigator Awards opportunity

This award supports research projects directed towards the molecular biology of pain and/or basic science topics related to the development of new analgesics for the management of pain due to terminal illness. Eligible candidates will have completed their training and provided persuasive evidence of distinguished achievement or extraordinary promise in basic science research in pain. Candidates should be within the first three years of their appointment at the faculty level.

The application portal for the 2020 award will open on November 20, 2019. 

View the Award in Pain opportunity

The Thomas Jefferson Fund supports cooperation among the most promising young French and American researchers, and fosters forward-looking collaborative research that addresses the most pressing global challenges. The Thomas Jefferson Fund aims to encourage innovative research of the highest quality and new collaborations, and especially seeks to support projects involving young researchers (post-docs, PhDs). Applications are accepted in: Humanities and Social Sciences; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; and Science for Society (interdisciplinary STEM-HSS projects). Awards are up to $20,000 over two years.

View the Thomas Jefferson Fund opportunity

Production and Presentation Grants assist organizations with the production-related expenses that are necessary to take a project from conceptualization to realization and public presentation. These projects include, but are not limited to, publications, exhibitions, installations, films, new media projects, conferences/lectures, and other public programs.

If applying for publication support, the organization should have a committed publisher for the work, that is, a publisher with whom you have a contractual agreement to publish your project.

View the Grants to Organizations opportunity

The Hearing Health Foundation accepts applications for its Emerging Research Grants program in seven priority areas: general hearing health, central auditory processing disorders, hearing loss in children, hyperacusis, Meniere's disease, ototoxic medications, tinnitus, and Usher syndrome. Only early career scientists may apply in the general hearing health category. 

View the Emerging Research Grants opportunity

Note: This program is paused. No call will be issued for the 2021 review period. An update is expected in late 2021.

The Lyle Spencer Research Awards Program supports intellectually ambitious research projects oriented to improving the practice of education with budgets between $525,000 and $1 million and durations of up to five years. The Foundation envisions a broad conception of educational practice that encompasses formal and informal learning as well as the institutional, policy, and normative frameworks that influence and are influenced by learning and developmental processes. Proposals must have a clearly articulated commitment to lasting improvement.

LOIs are due February 27, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due at a to-be-determined date.

View the Lyle Spencer Research Awards opportunity

The Mark Foundation Endeavor Awards support collaborative research projects that bring together investigators with diverse areas of expertise to tackle challenges in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. These grants are awarded to teams of three or more investigators to generate and integrate data from diverse lines of research and transform those insights into advances for cancer patients that could not be achieved by individual efforts.

The submission window for LOIs will open on January 6, 2021. LOIs are due March 1, 2021. Invited full applications will be due in July 2021.

View the Endeavor Award opportunity

The Fund intends to enable and enhance development of identified gifted and talented children and adolescents, and encourage promising psychologists to continue innovative research and programs in this area. The Fund supports activities on the advancement and application of knowledge related to the psychological understanding of gifted and talented children and adolescents, including research, pilot projects, and research-based programs.

View the Esther Katz Rosen Fund Grants opportunity

The Small Research Grants Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. The Foundation's goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research. This program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career.

View the Research Grants on Education - Small opportunity

Furthermore grants assist nonfiction books having to do with art, architecture, and design; cultural history, the city, and related public issues; and conservation and preservation. The organization looks for work that appeals to an informed general audience, gives evidence of high standards in editing, design, and production, and promises a reasonable shelf life.

Applications are accepted on March 1 and September 1 annually.

View the Grants in Publishing opportunity

The Translational Research Program (TRP) puts recipients on the bench-to-bedside fast track when it comes to finding better treatment and cures for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds new and innovative research that shows high promise for translating basic biomedical knowledge to clinical application.

LOIs are due March 1, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due April 19, 2021.

View the Translational Research Program opportunity

The Career Development Program offers the opportunity to take part in basic, clinical, or translational research to help understand and treat hematologic malignancies and relevant premalignant conditions.

Eligibility forms due March 1, 2021. Abstracts are due March 15, 2021.

View the Career Development Program opportunity

The Digital Art History Grants program is intended to foster new forms of research and collaboration as well as new approaches to teaching and learning. Support may also be offered for the digitization of important visual resources (especially essential art history photographic archives) in the area of pre-modern European art history; of primary textual sources (especially the literary and documentary sources of European art history); for promising initiatives in online publishing; and for innovative experiments in the field of digital art history. 

LOIs are due March 1; if selected to move forward, full proposals will be due April 1.

View the Digital Art History Grants opportunity

The Conservation program supports the professional practice of art conservation, especially as it relates to European art of the pre-modern era.

LOIs are due March 1; if selected to move forward, full proposals will be due April 1.

View the Conservation Grants Program opportunity

The History of Art program supports scholarly projects that will enhance the appreciation and understanding of European art and architecture.

LOIs are due March 1; if selected to move forward, full proposals will be due April 1.

View the History of Art Grants Program opportunity

The Wayne F. Placek Grant encourages research to increase the general public's understanding of homosexuality and sexual orientation, and to alleviate the stress that lesbian women, gay men, bisexual women, bisexual men and transgender individuals experience in this and future civilizations. 

View the Wayne F. Placek Grants for LGBT Issues opportunity

This grant program funds research on novel interdisciplinary approaches for investigating and nurturing wholesome mental qualities related to Prosociality, Empathy, Altruism, Compassion, and Ethics (PEACE). The program supports research projects that advance our understanding of the mechanisms, implementation, and outcomes of contemplative strategies to promote wholesome mental qualities and positive social action. In addition, the Mind & Life Institute encourages the development of measures to rigorously assess these qualities and behaviors in real-world contexts.

Projects do not need to include an actual contemplative intervention, but the research must be able to inform the development of contemplative interventions, or increase our understanding of whether and how contemplative practice might promote PEACE qualities. 

LOIs are due March 3, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due July 30, 2021.

View the PEACE Grants opportunity

The next competition for this program will be held in 2022.

The Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration Grant supports partnerships between academic or organizational researchers and clinical practitioners to conduct collaborative studies in practice settings that are designed to enhance evidence for improving communication sciences and disorders (CSD) services. The funding can be applied to one- or two-year studies.

Proposed studies must address a clinical problem/question that has direct application and is compatible to practice. This grant is designed to support preliminary research that will lead to a larger-scale study. The research question may originate with the researcher or the practitioner, but be of substantial interest to both in their mutual areas of expertise. The collaborative effort is central to this unique funding opportunity.

Applicants must submit an Intent to Submit form by March 4, 2020. Proposals are due April 15, 2020.

View the Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration Grant opportunity.

The next competition for this program will be held in 2022.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHFoundation) invites new investigators to submit proposals in competition for one $10,000 grant underwritten by an endowment fund in memory of the late Dr. Dennis Klatt. The grant can be used to initiate new research or supplement an existing research study. Funds may be requested for a variety of purposes—for example, equipment, subjects, research assistants, or research-related travel. Investigators must have completed a PhD or equivalent research doctorate within the past five years.

Applicants must submit an Intent to Submit form by March 4; proposals are due April 15.

View the Speech Science Grant opportunity

This program will provide support for instrumentation acquisition, development, and maintenance; support for data science collaborations within research teams; and costs for the proposed research programs. 

Proposals should be centered around core biological problems and a research program that is enabled by the dynamic, 3D, and long-term imaging capabilities of advanced light-sheet microscopy. Proposals shall include one-page descriptions of up to 3 distinct research project(s) to which the light-sheet capability will be applied that will represent significant advances within this larger research program. Additional consideration will be given to proposals that include other imaging, sensing, or analysis technologies as an integral part of one or more of the proposed research project(s).

Pre-proposals are due March 6, 2020. Invitations to the full proposal stage are expected to be made in June 2020.

View the Instrumentation Grant for Advanced Light-Sheet Microscopy and Data Science opportunity

The Foundation is primarily seeking letters of inquiry proposing highly innovative work related to the field of civic science, which seeks to promote broad engagement with science and evidence to help inform solutions to society’s most pressing problems. Submissions might draw on the fields of science communication, public support for science, effective science policy, misinformation, institutional trust, deliberative democracy, and related fields.

The Foundation is interested in ideas that bridge research and practice in the civic science field, and submissions that seek to work with underserved audiences and incorporate diverse perspectives are of particular interest.

LOIs are due March 6, 2020. Invitations to the full proposal stage will be made approximately eight weeks later.

View the Civic Science opportunity

These research grants are intended to encourage research that will impact the delivery of services to individuals with communication disorders. Research should directly advance our knowledge of the efficacy of treatment and assessment practices in speech-language pathology and audiology, or investigate the implementation of evidence into practice.

The next competition will be in 2021.

View the Clinical Research Grant opportunity

Grants awarded through this RFA will supplement funding from other agencies for ongoing pregnancy cohorts to broaden biospecimen collection and to extend post-natal family tracking. These cohorts and biospecimen collections can be leveraged in future research to understand the effects of gestational infection and inflammation on autism risk in children.

The maximum budget is $250,000 for projects recruiting at a single site, and $400,000 for projects recruiting at two or more sites.

View the Maternal COVID-19 as a Potential Risk for Autism opportunity

Fellowships are available for theoretical and experimental research relevant to the study of cancer and the search for cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention. Applicants must have completed at least an MD, PhD, MD/PhD, DDS, DVM, or equivalent. Level 1 applicants (basic and physician scientists) must have received their degrees no more than 18 months prior to the deadline. Level 2 applicants (physician scientists-Mc, MD/PhD, DDS, DVM, or equivalent) must have completed their residencies and clinical training, be board eligible, and able to donate at least 80% of their time to these activities.

View the Damon Runyon Fellowship Award opportunity

The McKnight Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Awards (formally the Memory and Cognitive Disorders Awards) encourage research aimed at translating laboratory discoveries about the brain and nervous system into diagnoses and therapies to improve human health. Collaborative projects between basic and clinical neuroscientists are welcome, as are proposals that help link basic with clinical neuroscience.

 View the Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Awards opportunity

• Advocacy: Achieving enduring social change around issues that affect older Americans
• Direct Service: Improve availability and quality of community-based and residential long-term services and supports
• Professional Education and Training: Increase the competency of professionals and paraprofessionals who serve older adults
• Research: Seek causes and solutions to significant problems for older adults

LOIs (optional) are due March 15 annually for the full proposal deadline of May 1.

View the Responsive Grants opportunity.

Academic program funding is available for in-person exchanges such as workshops, symposia, and colloquia that advance scholarship in the field of American art (circa 1500–1980) that take place:

• In Chicago or outside the United States, or
• In the United States, with at least one-third of the participants coming from outside the United States.

Additionally, the foundation welcomes applications for international research groups that involve 2 to 4 faculty members from two or more academic institutions, at least one of which must be located outside the United States. Groups should pursue specific research questions that will advance scholarship and meet in person two or more times. This opportunity excludes projects on architecture and commercial film/animation.

This application cycle is for programs taking place after January 1, 2022. LOIs are due March 16, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due June 15, 2021. 

View the Academic Workshop & Symposium Grants opportunity

The purpose of this program is to encourage the development of medical research in child health by awarding small grants to new researchers. The Fund is open to a wide variety of research topics. They do not focus on a particular disease, but all funded projects deal directly with children's health. Those eligible to apply include physicians who are in a residency/fellowship training program; physicians who completed their residency program no more than one year before the date of submission of the Concept Paper; or postdoctoral researchers who received the doctoral level degree no more than three years prior to the date of submission of the Concept Paper. 

Concept papers are due March 16, 2021. If selected to move forward, full proposals will be due May 7, 2021.

View the Early Career Awards for Children's Health opportunity

The Distinguished Scientist Award (DSA) seeks to provide career and research support to early career scientists who demonstrate outstanding promise for making scientific and medical breakthroughs in the field of brain cancer research. 

Applicants must have received their first independent, tenure-track faculty appointment no earlier than March 1, 2016 and no later than January 1, 2021. The applicant's career track and proposed research should demonstrate potential to generate new knowledge relating to causes, cure or treatment of primary brain tumors/brain cancer.

View the Distinguished Scientist Award - Brain Cancer opportunity

HFSP grants support innovative basic research into fundamental biological problems, with emphasis placed on novel and interdisciplinary approaches that involve scientific exchanges across national and disciplinary boundaries. Research grants are provided for teams of scientists (2-4 members, no previous collaborations) from different countries who wish to combine their expertise in innovative approaches to questions that could not be answered by individual laboratories. Emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring together scientists from different disciplines (e.g., physics, chemistry, computational biology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, nanoscience) to focus on problems in the life sciences.

There are two types of grants:

• Early Career Grants (formerly Young Investigator Grants): Awarded to teams of researchers, all of whom must direct a research group, be within 5 years of obtaining an independent position, and within 10 years of obtaining their first doctoral degree (see guidelines for details).
• Research Grants-Program (formerly Program Grants): Awarded to teams of independent researchers at any stage of their careers. The research team is expected to develop new lines of research through the collaboration.

LOIs must be initiated by March 18, 2021. LOIs are due March 30, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due in September 2021.

View the Research Grants - Science and Engineering opportunity

This grant program advances ALSF’s mission to find cures and better treatments for childhood cancers by providing support to move hypothesis-driven research into the clinic. The Reach Grant provides support for important preclinical projects that are necessary to move a study from the pre-clinical arena into a clinical
trial, thereby supporting late-translational studies.

View the Reach Grant - Pediatric Cancer opportunity

The Young Investigator Grant enables promising investigators in neuroscience and psychiatry to either extend research fellowship training or begin careers as independent research faculty. Funding is intended to help young investigators gather pilot data to apply for larger federal and university grants. All research must be relevant to our understanding, treatment, and prevention of serious psychiatric disorders or early onset brain and behavior disorders.

Applicants must have a doctoral degree and be employed in research training of a faculty research position. Postdoctoral fellows, instructors, and assistant professors (including those who served as a PI on an NIH R1 grant) are eligible to apply.

View the Young Investigator Grant opportunity

This new initiative is designed to help museums, libraries, and other collecting organizations bring forward new and recovered narratives with the Foundation's geographies of Chicago and the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Organizations whose collections illustrate BIPOC communities, LGBTQ+ perspectives, working-class narratives, small community experiences, as well as other underrepresented groups and viewpoints are eligible to apply. Further, emerging, compelling, underrepresented perspectives reflective of collections in the areas of science, public health, and the natural world are eligible.

The Foundation has allocated $750,000 for this new program; individual award amounts have not been specified.

In the Chicago region, contact Kerri Forrest at kforrest@gddf.org to begin the proposal development process. 

View the Collections to Illuminate Underrepresented Narratives opportunity

The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to early career investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals at the assistant professor level who have been in their positions for less than three years. Pew Scholar awards provide a total of $300,000 over four years.

Northwestern's internal application deadline is March 30, 2020. If selected, the sponsor proposal deadline is September 10, 2020.

View the Biomedical Scholars opportunity.

The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) is a global effort to create a reference map of all cell types in the healthy human body in order to generate a fundamental reference for biomedical research and improve our understanding of health and disease. 

This RFA welcomes proposals that will make significant contributions toward single-cell reference data for the community of patients, clinicians, and researchers engaged in pediatric research. It is intended to support active collaborative teams of researchers that have access to established resources and protocols that are ready to be extended and scaled. The opportunity is also intended to support new collaborative teams that will benefit from the experience of existing teams while bringing complementary and differentiated perspectives and resources. The opportunity aims to support a variety of collaborative teams that will all make contributions to the larger community via regular engagement and sharing of learnings, data, samples, and other resources.

View the Pediatric Networks for the Human Cell Atlas opportunity

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invites applications in support of open source software projects that are essential to biomedical research. The goal of the program is to support software maintenance, growth, development, and community engagement for these critical tools. Projects should have already demonstrated impact, can show potential for continued improvement, and expect to deliver added value to the biomedical research community through the proposed activities. Applications will be considered in two categories:

• Domain-specific software for analyzing, visualizing, and otherwise working with the specific data types that arise in biomedical science (e.g., genomic sequences, microscopy images, molecular structures). 
• Foundational tools and infrastructure that enable a wide variety of downstream software across several domains of science and computational research (e.g., numerical computation, data structures, workflows, reproducibility). 

LOIs are due March 30, 2021. Invited full applications will be due May 19, 2021.

View the Essential Open Source Software for Science opportunity

The Another Look grant program provides funding for health-related research projects that can improve the quality of care and the quality of life for adults who are 65 year or older and who are long term residents living in nursing homes, assisted living, and other congregate care facilities. This program requires researchers to rely on existing datasets to address the research question they seek to answer. Limited collection of new data is allowed if it will enhance the utility of the project outcomes to improve quality in care facilities. Researchers applying for this grant must include a stakeholder in the care delivery or policy arena with whom they will collaborate.

Letters of intent are due March 31, 2021. Invited applications will be due June 23, 2021.

View the Another Look opportunity

The APF Visionary Grants seek to seed innovation through supporting research, education and intervention projects and programs that use psychology to solve social problems in the following priority areas:

• Applying psychology to at-risk, vulnerable populations (e.g. serious mental illness, returning military, those who are incarcerated or economically disadvantaged)
• Preventing violence
• Understanding the connection between behavior and health (e.g. wellness, diabetes, obesity)
• Understanding and eliminating stigma and prejudice (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability and socioeconomic status)

Preference will be given to pilot projects that, if successful, would be strong candidates for support from major federal and foundation funding agencies, and “demonstration projects” that promise to generalize broadly to similar settings in other geographical areas and/or to other settings.

View the Visionary Grants opportunity

The Foundation seeks to support projects to develop and test the feasibility of new programs for promoting positive cognitive and/or achievement outcomes for children (birth through 18 years) from underserved groups and/or low-resourced communities (minority ethnic groups, low-income families), as well as projects that evaluate the effectiveness of such programs.

Grants have ranged from $25,000 to $790,000.

LOIs are due April 1, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due August 1, 2021.

View the Brady Education Foundation opportunity 

Grants support studies to develop, refine, evaluate, or disseminate innovative interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate major social, psychological, behavioral, or public health problems affecting children, adults, couples, families, or communities.

Applications are accepted in April and November each year.

View the Research Grants in Human Services opportunity

The goal of the portfolio is to develop sound data to inform and disseminate best practices that produce better outcomes, improving quality of life for people living with spinal cord injury. This research explores the interrelation of behavioral, social and psychological factors that influence participation, health practice, lifestyle, and support systems in community and clinical settings.

Postdoctoral Fellowships are up to $150,000 for two years. Pilot grants are up to $200,000 for two years. Studies and demonstration projects are up to $400,000 for three years.

LOIs are due March 3, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due July 13, 2021.

View the Psychosocial Research Grants opportunity.

The Dreyfus program for Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering provides funding for innovative projects in any area of Machine Learning (ML) consistent with the Foundation’s broad objective to advance the chemical sciences and engineering. The Foundation anticipates that these projects will contribute new fundamental chemical understanding, insight, and innovation in the field.

The award amount is not specified, however, awards averaged approximately $100,000 in 2020. Please see more information about the 2020 awards here.

View the Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering opportunity

This opportunity seeks to advance the understanding of human cognition and behavior via a developmental science approach. JSMF is seeking projects leading to new conceptual and empirical studies of cognition and behavior that: 

• recognize the dynamic nature of cognition and behavior,
• are situated in real world contexts,
• cross levels of analysis,
• unite traditionally separate domains of inquiry (e.g. vision and speech),
• embrace complexity, and
• consider how behavior is influenced by interactions among individuals.

JSMF is encouraging researchers to pursue important questions using conceptual and methodological approaches that takes seriously the trajectories, biological and experiential, contributing to the ongoing development of cognition and behavior occurring across the lifespan. 

Opportunity awards will not provide additional support for already established research programs. 

View the Opportunity Awards - Human Cognition opportunity

The Prostate Cancer Foundation  champions investment in human capital to fast-forward solutions for prostate cancer with the ultimate goal of ending death and suffering from metastatic prostate cancer. Funds from the Young Investigator Awards may be used innovatively and flexibly to advance the career and research efforts of awardees. 

Applications are sought from early-career basic scientists, medical oncologists, pathologists, urologists, radiologists, radiation oncologists, public health experts, bioinformaticians, bioengineers, or professionals from any other field that could contribute to the end of prostate cancer. Applicants traditionally under-represented in science and medicine are highly encouraged.

View the Young Investigator Awards-Prostate Cancer opportunity

The Bridge to Independence award program engages talented early-career scientists in autism research by facilitating their transition to research independence and providing grant funding at the start of their professorships. The award is aimed at Ph.D. and M.D. -holding scientists who are currently in training positions but intend to seek tenure-track research faculty positions during the upcoming academic year.

The BTI Award program welcomes applications that span the breadth of science that SFARI normally supports, including genetics, molecular mechanisms, circuits and systems, and clinical science.

Applications from scientists working on autism-related projects are encouraged, but the award is also open to researchers who are not currently working on autism but who are interested in starting research projects in this area and who have expertise that could be brought to bear on autism.

View the Autism Research Initiative - Bridge to Independence opportunity

The Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB) focuses on the measurement, analysis and modeling of neural coding and dynamics during behavior, with an emphasis on extending our understanding of the arc from sensory perception to action, including the presence and cognitive role of internal brain states. 

SCGB seeks pilot projects that investigate the general principles of global activity across multiple brain regions and its relationship to cognition. Applications using advanced methods for studying the brain at high spatio-temporal resolution in diverse organisms from invertebrates to humans are encouraged. This award is not intended to fund technology development.

LOIs are due April 15, 2021. Invited full proposals are due July 25, 2021.

View the Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain - Pilot Award opportunity

The Foundation supports scholarly research in the life sciences. The program is designed for researchers at the assistant professor level who experience difficulty in competing for research funds because they have not yet become firmly established. 

View the Life Science Grants-in-Aid opportunity

The Whitehall Foundation assists scholarly research in the life sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology. The Foundation does not support research focused primarily on disease(s) unless it will also provide insights into normal functioning.

View the Life Science Research Grants opportunity

The New Century Scholars Research Grant is designed to advance knowledge, tools, and techniques in communication sciences and disorders. While proposal type and content area are not restricted, this grant supports studies that are innovative, have a promise of major impact, or can meet research needs not yet addressed. The funding can be applied to a one- or two-year study. These grants are not intended to provide additional or extended support for an established and funded research effort.

Applicants must submit an Intent to Submit form by March 1; proposals are due April 19.

View the New Century Scholars Research Grant opportunity.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHFoundation) invites new researchers to submit proposals in competition for up to ten research grants of $10,000 each. The New Investigators Research Grant competition is designed to help further new investigators' research activities by funding preliminary studies that could launch larger-scale research investigations. Investigators must have completed a PhD or equivalent research doctorate within the past five years. Research, while not limited in topic, should be focused to match the one-year scope and should have clinical relevance to audiology and/or speech-language pathology.

Investigators planning to apply must complete the Intent to Submit form by March 1, 2021. Applications are due April 19, 2021.

View the New Investigators Research Grant opportunity

MJFF seeks applications with the potential to increase knowledge about Parkinson’s disease in populations that have been excluded from or underrepresented in research. Though no definitive evidence exists that the incidence, morbidity, or mortality of Parkinson’s disease (PD) varies between socioeconomic and ethnic groups, data on traditionally underrepresented groups is either sparse or non-existent. 

This request for applications (RFA) to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in Parkinson’s research is open to proposals that will increase inclusivity and broaden our understanding of PD. Such projects will help accelerate the discovery of strategies for reducing risk and developing treatments for all people. Applications should focus on studies in underrepresented populations around one or more of the following Parkinson’s areas: 

• Disease burden
• Risk and pathology
• Assessments
• Clinical course
• Access to care

Pre-proposals are due April 21, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due August 5, 2021.

View the Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Parkinson’s Disease Researchh opportunity

The Gates Foundation is seeking innovative solutions that accelerate the improvement of coverage, reach, efficiency, and effectiveness of health campaigns. Specifically, the Foundation is looking for innovations in approaches, practices, or tools that dramatically improve planning and microplanning that will lead to improved effectiveness of campaigns. It is also looking for innovative tools and technologies to more effectively identify and reach the most vulnerable populations when countries are designing and implementing mass campaigns. Gates is especially interested in novel approaches that draw on innovation from large-scale delivery models outside of the health sector, which may include interventions used in the private sector.

Solutions should be transformative, novel, or innovative; potentially used by various health campaigns beyond the campaign in which the innovation is originally conceptualized or tested; could be used in various low- and middle-income countries; and more.

View the Innovations for Improving the Impact of Health Campaigns opportunity.

VentureWell is seeking proposals with innovative ideas related to the development of new courses and programs or strengthening existing courses and programs that incorporate key concepts of sustainability and environmental responsibility with the end goal of developing novel inventions and technologies. Special consideration will be given to proposals that demonstrate clear support for student innovations that are dedicated to climate change solutions (i.e. mitigation and/or adaptation, as well as innovations to existing products or systems that address an opportunity to become carbon neutral or net-zero energy).

Internal LOIs are due April 30, 2020. If selected, the sponsor proposal will be due May 20, 2020.

View the Sustainable Design Faculty Grants opportunity.

The Brain Research Foundation’s Scientific Innovations Award Program provides funding for innovative science in both basic and clinical neuroscience. This funding mechanism is designed to support creative, exploratory, cutting edge research in well-established research laboratories, under the direction of established investigators.

Studies should be related to either normal human brain development or specifically identified disease states. This includes molecular and clinical neuroscience as well as studies of neural, sensory, motor, cognitive, behavioral and emotional functioning in health and disease.

Internal LOIs are due April 30, 2020. If selected to move forward, the Sponsor LOI will be due June 25, 2020.

View the Scientific Innovations Award opportunity.

This program supports the digitization of rare and unique content in collecting institutions, holding collections of high value for research, teaching, and learning. 

View the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives opportunity

The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation funds research directed toward identifying new treatments or cures for cancer.

Applications are accepted December 31, April 30, and August 31 annually.

View the Cancer Research Grants opportunity

Post-Ph.D. Research Grants are awarded to individuals holding a Ph.D. or equivalent degree to support individual research projects. The Foundation supports research that demonstrates a clear link to anthropological theory and debates, and promises to make a solid contribution to advancing these ideas. 

Applications are accepted May 1 and November 1 annually.

*Note: No applications will be accepted for the May 2020 deadline due to the COVID-19 situation.

View the Post-Ph.D. Grant opportunity.

The Anna Lalor Burdick Program seeks to empower young women through education about healthy reproduction in order to broaden and enhance their options in life. The program focuses particularly on young women who have inadequate access to information regarding sexual and reproductive health.

Concept papers are due May 1 and November 1 annually.

View the Anna Lalor Burdick Program opportunity 

This program supports research projects related to sustainable solid waste management practices. EREF's long-term strategic plan is to address all areas of integrated solid waste management, with a strong focus towards research that increases sustainable solid waste management practices.

Pre-proposals are due on May 1 and December 1 annually. 

View the Solid Waste Management Research Grants opportunity

Grants awarded through this RFA are intended to produce foundational knowledge about the neurobehavioral differences associated with ASD, which will directly inform the development or refinement of tools needed for translational efforts, such as biomarkers and outcome measures. Special emphasis is placed on objective, quantitative measures that may be used in conjunction with standardized clinical measures and genomic information to better triangulate phenotypic and neurobiological variability within and across individuals with ASD.

View the Autism Research Initiative: Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science opportunity

The Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum (SCIRTS) portfolio focuses on research designed to improve understanding and advance the current treatment of acute and chronic spinal cord injury. The goal of the portfolio is to address gaps in the field and advance novel approaches to improving function and developing curative therapies after spinal cord injury. The program encompasses mechanistic, preclinical modeling, translational and/or clinical research. The Foundation offers postdoctoral fellowships (up to $150K), two-year pilot research grants for new investigators (up to $300K), and three-year senior research grants (up to $600K).

LOIs are due May 3, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due October 1, 2021.

View the Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum opportunity

This special initiative on Decision Making and Human Behavior in Context supports innovative research on decision making across the social sciences that examines causes, consequences, processes, or context from a behavioral or alternative perspective. Scholars in psychology, political science, sociology, and other social science fields who are pursuing questions consistent with the aims of the Foundation are welcome to apply. This initiative complements RSF’s long-standing Behavioral Economics (BE) Program.

For this deadline, RSF will only consider LOIs that satisfy at least one of the following criteria:

• Research on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in the U.S. Specifically, research that assesses the social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences of the pandemic, especially its effects on marginalized individuals and groups and on trust in government and other institutions. The priorities do not include analyses of health outcomes or health behavior.
• Research focused on systemic racial inequality and/or the recent mass protests in the U.S. Specifically, research that investigates the prevalence of racial disparities in policing and criminal justice and their social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences; the effects of the current social protest movement and mass mobilization against systemic discrimination; the nature of public attitudes and public policies regarding policing, criminal justice, and social welfare; and the effects of those attitudes in the current political environment.

LOIs are due May 4, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due August 11, 2021.

View the Decision Making and Human Behavior in Context opportunity

Grants will be made under the following programs: Future of Work / Behavioral Economics / Social, Political and Economic Inequality.

LOIs must address at least one of the following:

• Research on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in the U.S. Specifically, research that assesses the social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences of the pandemic, especially its effects on marginalized individuals and groups and on trust in government and other institutions. The priorities do not include analyses of health outcomes or health behavior.
• Research focused on systemic racial inequality and/or the recent mass protests in the U.S. Specifically, research that investigates the prevalence of racial disparities in policing and criminal justice and their social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences; the effects of the current social protest movement and mass mobilization against systemic discrimination; the nature of public attitudes and public policies regarding policing, criminal justice, and social welfare; and the effects of those attitudes in the current political environment.

LOIs are due May 4, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due August 11, 2021.

View the Regular Programs opportunity

The broad goal of the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program is to produce diverse interdisciplinary leaders who conduct and apply high-quality, community-engaged, action-oriented, equity-focused health research in order to drive improvements in the health of communities. This opportunity seeks teams of researchers and community members who are committed to working together to produce community-relevant, action-oriented research to improve health and well-being. 

The program will recruit and select applicant organizations represented by teams of three people: two mid-career researchers and one community member to become IRL program fellows. IRL teams will join together as a diverse cohort of fellows that will participate in a three-year program.

View the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders opportunity

The W. T. Grant Foundation funds research that increases our understanding of the programs, policies, and practices that reduce inequality in youth outcomes, and strategies to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit youth.

Visit the Research Grants website

The Conference Grant Program provides support to scholars to organize small research conferences, focused symposia, or other forms of convenings around important issues in education. This program is intended to bring together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and other important collaborators whose expertise, substantive knowledge and practice, theoretical insight, or methodological expertise can be engaged in ways that help to build upon and advance education research.

View the Conference Grants opportunity.

This call for proposals focuses on teachers learning to facilitate high quality communication in K-12 classrooms. Proposals should bridge gaps in the topics represented in the currently funded projects or that complement the current projects by focusing on subject matter content or teacher and classroom populations that may be underrepresented. Desired outcomes include refined theories of teachers as learners and, through knowledge acquired by the research, improvements in programs predicated on the factors contributing to teachers’ uptake and effective use of evidence-based educational practices in the context of their classrooms.

Pre-proposals are due May 8, 2019. Invited full proposals will be due August 14, 2019.

View the Teachers as Learners opportunity

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to provide assistance in the form of grants for the development of innovative clinical quality measures (see Appendix A here) that promote excellence in diagnosis of three categories of disease – acute vascular events (e.g., stroke and myocardial infarction), infections (e.g., sepsis and pneumonia) and cancer (e.g., lung and colorectal).

This funding opportunity is part of Moore's Diagnostic Excellence Initiative, which focuses on diagnostic performance improvement and aims to reduce harm from erroneous or delayed diagnoses, reduce costs and redundancy in the diagnostic process, improve health outcomes and save lives.

The scope of the RFP is not aimed at 1) development or evaluation of new diagnostic tests, products, or devices;
(2) development of new clinical guidelines or clinical prediction rules or clinical decision support, or
(3) clinical investigations designed to test a hypothesis.

A webinar on the opportunity will be held on February 16 and April 12. Email diagnosis@moore.org to register for the webinar and receive login instructions.

View the Clinical Quality Measures to Improve Diagnosis opportunity

The goal of this program is to test new approaches and tools that organizations can readily use to improve the value of the healthcare they provide to their patients and communities. In order to be eligible, investigators must partner with an organization that delivers healthcare services. 

LOIs are due May 11, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due August 3, 2020.

View the Greater Value Portfolio opportunity.

This interdisciplinary funding program aims to place current challenges facing shrinking and abandoned "lost cities" in historical context. It focuses not on the question of which factors led to a city's abandonment, but rather on the ways in which lost cities are "read," instrumentalized, and codified in various cultures and periods of time. Applicants should be part of research groups in the humanities and/or social sciences.

View the Lost Cities Funding Programme opportunity.

This program funds historical research into conflict histories surrounding the correct order and just society. The theme of "Democracy as Utopia, Experience and Threat" expands the program beyond the classic fields of protest and revolutionary history, or the history of constitutions, elections and political parties – which are likewise part of it all – to include a multiperspectival history of conflict and culture surrounding the right order in society and politics. Applicants should be research groups in the humanities and/or social sciences.

View the Democracy Funding Programme opportunity.

The One Mind Rising Star Awards identify and fund pivotal, innovative research on the causes of and cures for brain disorders by supporting the most promising emerging leaders in the field of neuropsychiatry. Proposals for studies on any of a wide range of neuropsychiatric conditions are in scope, with studies focusing on bipolar disorder of special interest, including applications that would advance therapeutics for bipolar disorder, ranging from biomarkers to promising therapeutic modalities including neurostimulation.

View the Rising Star Awards opportunity.

The Therapeutic Pipeline Program is open to investigators proposing novel approaches to Parkinson's Disease or repositioning approved or clinically safe therapies from other disease indications. Pharmacological interventions as well as biologic, gene therapy, surgical and non-invasive/non-pharmaceutical approaches are appropriate. MJFF is particularly interested in early stage drug discovery efforts for novel PD relevant targets for which there are limited drug campaigns currently active and efforts focused on developing therapeutics that alleviate non-motor symptoms.

Grants are up to $500,000 over 1-2 years for pre-clinical programs and up to $2,000,000 over 2-3 years for clinical programs.

View the Therapeutic Pipeline Program opportunity.

*Note: The deadline for this opportunity has been extended from April 23 to May 14.

The goal of the program is to develop biomarkers that can support therapeutic development for priority pathways in Parkinson's Disease. Specifically it is aimed at (1) sensitive measurements of pathway activation/dysfunction and (2) improving technologies for analyzing the target/pathway of interest. MJFF considers priority pathways to include: mitochondrial function, lysosomal function, autophagy, inflammation, protein handling, protein trafficking, etc.

View the Parkinson’s Pathway Biomarkers opportunity.

*Note: The deadline for this opportunity has been extended from April 23 to May 14.

The Target Advancement Program seeks to build conclusive evidence to rationalize biological targets and pathways for Parkinson’s disease (PD) therapeutic development. Funding will support projects focused on validating targets and defining pathways implicated in PD pathological processes and/or symptomology. Targets and pathways proposed for study should have a reasonable initial link to PD, such as demonstrated genetic association, altered expression/function of the target in PD-relevant human tissue, and/or prior clinical trial data. When considering validation studies, MJFF prioritizes applications proposing experimental systems and models with high construct validity to hypothesized pathogenic mechanisms in human PD, such as patient-derived material and/or animal models demonstrating dysfunction in the pathway(s) proposed for study.

View the Target Advancement Program opportunity.

*Note: The deadline for this opportunity has been extended from April 23 to May 14.

The Investigating Environmental Risk Factors that Increase the Risk for Parkinson’s Disease program supports the analysis of large epidemiological datasets to identify environmental risk factors, such as exposure to chemicals, toxic emissions, air pollutants, and dietary contaminants, which are associated with an increased risk of PD. MJFF is especially interested in funding projects that utilize large longitudinal datasets and will prioritize collaborative efforts that bring together teams of investigators with access to multiple diverse datasets. This program is not appropriate for studies that require additional or prospective data collection.

View the Investigating Environmental Risk Factors that Increase the Risk for Parkinson’s Disease opportunity.

*Note: The deadline for this opportunity has been extended from April 23 to May 14.

• Health behaviors to prevent and manage chronic conditions
• Functional cognition
• Safety and injury prevention in home, clinical and community settings
• Technology and environmental supports in home and community
• Development and transitions for individuals and families
• Emotional and physiological influences
• Family and caregiver needs
• Health care experience: access, care coordination, utilization

The opportunity is targeted to principal investigators who do not currently have substantial extramural research awards as an independent principal investigator (e.g., NIH, R01, PCORI, Research Program Project Grant, Veterans Administration Merit Award, and Field-Initiated Project).

View the Occupational Therapy in Parkinson’s Disease Intervention opportunity.

The Simons Foundation invites applications for postdoctoral fellowships to support research on fundamental problems in marine microbial ecology. The foundation is particularly interested in applicants with training in different fields who want to apply their experience to understanding the role of microorganisms in shaping ocean processes, and vice versa, as well as applicants with experience in modeling or theory development. Applicants should have received their Ph.D. or equivalent degree within three years of the fellowship’s start date. Preference will be for applicants with no more than one year of postdoctoral experience.

View the Postdoctoral Fellowships in Marine Microbial Ecology opportunity.

Grant-making interests are focused on nutrition and/or health-related research having a significant impact on issues facing infants and young children from the first year before birth to age 3.

Concept papers are due May 15 and November 15 annually.

View the Pediatric Research Grants opportunity

The mission of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) is to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by funding innovative research of the highest quality and relevance.

The goal of the Pilot Award is to provide early support for exploratory ideas, particularly those with novel hypotheses. Appropriate projects for this mechanism include those considered higher risk but with the potential for transformative results. In particular, the  Foundation seeks applications that propose research to link genetic or other ASD risk factors to molecular, cellular, circuit or behavioral mechanisms of ASD. 

*Note: The 2020 deadline has been extended from April 24 to May 22.

View the Pilot Award opportunity.

This initiative intends to increase the research efforts in Phase I and Phase II (Proof of Concept) clinical trials directed toward Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias internationally. This new grant mechanism aims to fill the gap in Alzheimer’s disease drug development by providing support for early phase studies of potential Alzheimer’s therapeutics; this can include validation of biological markers of disease progression in the context of evaluating a potential therapy.

LOIs are due May 23, 2019. Invited full proposals will be due July 31, 2019.

View the Part the Cloud: Translational Research Funding for Alzheimer's Disease opportunity

The ADDF offers funding to researchers for Alzheimer's drug discovery, clinical trials, and biomarker development research. Core request for proposals include:

• Program to Accelerate Clinical Trials (PACT), award amount: up to $3,000,000
• Neuroimaging and CSF Biomarker Development, award amount: up to $600,000
• Prevention Pipeline, award amount: up to $3,000,000
• Drug Development, award amount: up to $600,000 

LOIs are due May 28, 2021. If selected to move forward, full proposals will be due July 30, 2021.

View the Core Requests for Proposals opportunity

One $100,000 grant is to be awarded for research projects to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions most commonly delivered by physical therapists as determined by current practice standards and developing innovative physical therapist interventions and evaluating their effectiveness.

The Foundation provides support to emerging investigators to promote scientifically based and clinically relevant research related to the effectiveness of physical therapy practice. Research projects in any specialty may be supported. The Foundation supports only those intervention studies in which the interventions are provided by physical therapists, or selected components of the interventions are provided by physical therapist assistants under the direction and supervision of physical therapists.

LOIs are due June 1, 2020, with invited proposals due August 5, 2020.

View the Magistro Family Foundation Research Grant opportunity.

Priority for conference and workshop grants will be given to events that foster the creation of an international community of research scholars in anthropology and advance significant and innovative anthropological research. Workshops, defined as working meetings that focus on developing and debating topical issues in theoretical anthropology, will involve a small group of scholars meeting for a sufficient period of time to deal intensely with the project. It is expected that workshops will result in a publication.

Applications are accepted on June 1  and December 1 annually.

View the Conference and Workshop Grants opportunity.

The Small Research Grants Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. The Foundation's goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research. This program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career.

View the Research Grants on Education - Small opportunity

The Water Environment & Reuse Foundation Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research recognizes outstanding achievement and creative vision through the Paul L. Busch Award. The award seeks to distinguish individuals poised for greater recognition of their innovative, ongoing contributions to water quality advancements.

View the Paul L. Busch Award  opportunity

Support is primarily provided for the historical humanities, in particular to support research projects in the fields of Archaeology, Art History, Historical Islamic Studies, History, History of Law, History of Science, Prehistory and Early History. Candidates can apply regardless of their nationality and place of work.

Grants cover costs for personnel, travel, materials and/or other costs.

Grant amounts are not specified; however, they averaged $25,000 in 2017. See the opportunity for more information.

View the General Research Grants-Projects opportunity

The Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Awards support innovative research from the next generation of leaders in cancer research. These grants are awarded to outstanding early career investigators to support high-impact, high-risk projects that are distinct from their current research portfolio. Applicants must be three to eight years from the start of an independent faculty research appointment. See description for more information about eligibility.

LOIs are due June 4, 2020, with invited proposals due August 24, 2020.

View the Emerging Leader Award opportunity.

The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) Collaborations program funds interdisciplinary, synergistic research efforts across multiple laboratories. Investigative groups within a collaboration will focus on the same conceptually unified topic but will incorporate different scientific disciplines and multiple levels of analysis, and will include a robust data-sharing infrastructure.

For this opportunity SFARI welcomes proposals that will use an array of modern technologies to examine sex differences in brain function, within and across species, including humans, to identify key differences in gene, cell and circuit function that account for the observed differential sensitivities of the two sexes to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A successful collaboration must enhance our understanding of the biological bases for sex-specific differences in ASD and set the stage for development of novel interventions.

*Note: The deadline for this opportunity has been extended from April 21 to June 5.

View the SFARI Collaboration opportunity.

Career Catalyst Research Grants provide opportunities for scientists who have held faculty positions for no more than five years. This program supports hypothesis-driven research projects that have significant potential to advance our understanding of breast cancer, lead to reductions in incidence and mortality, and move us toward the goal of a world without breast cancer.

Visit the Career Catalyst Grants website

This call for proposals (CFP) will provide funding for new research to rigorously test and evaluate innovative solutions to the 'wrong-pocket' problem that persists across health and social service systems. RwJF defines 'wrong-pocket' problems as the outcomes of investments in systems deigned to improve social and economic conditions, but the financial benefits flow elsewhere. 

Each study funded under the S4A program will undertake the following activities:

• Design and implement the proposed study that evaluates the impact of an innovative solution to a wrong-pocket problem involving social service systems, medical systems, and/or public health systems.
• Engage local, state, and/or national stakeholders in the design, implementation, and translation of the research project.
• Work collaboratively with the S4A national coordinating center and other S4A research investigators to identify and leverage potential synergies across research projects and to disseminate results broadly.
• Participate actively both in research dissemination and translation mechanisms organized by the national coordinating center and RWJF, including research-in-progress webinars, blogs, podcasts, research meetings, and policy briefings.
• Identify and pursue opportunities for research expansion, replication, and follow-on studies from RWJF and other research funding agencies.
• Attend RWJF’s Annual Sharing Knowledge Conference and 4Action Conference each year the grant is active.

View the Systems and Services Research to Build a Culture of Health opportunity

The Joyce Foundation invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region. The Foundation accepts applications in the following program areas:

• Culture
• Democracy
• Education & Economic Mobility
• Environment
• Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform

LOIs are to be submitted at least 6-8 weeks in advance of the full proposal deadline (August 4, 2021). 

View the Joyce Foundation opportunity 

The Smith Richardson Foundation sponsors an annual Strategy and Policy Fellows grant competition to support young scholars and policy thinkers on American foreign policy, international relations, international security, military policy, and diplomatic and military history.

At least three research grants of $60,000 will be awarded to enable the recipients to research and write a book. 

View the Strategy & Policy Fellows Program opportunity.

• Advocacy: Achieving enduring social change around issues that affect older Americans
• Direct Service: Improve availability and quality of community-based and residential long-term services and supports
• Professional Education and Training: Increase the competency of professionals and paraprofessionals who serve older adults
• Research: Seek causes and solutions to significant problems for older adults

LOIs (optional) are due June 15 for the full proposal deadline of August 1.

View the Responsive Grants opportunity.

The Catalyst Award Program funds transformational research focused on increasing the impact of the Trust's funding and provide support in moving insights gained from basic science into clinical practice.

• The Catalyst Research Award provides one-year seed funding to help investigators lay the foundation for the Transformational Award. *This RFP seeks applications for this award only.
• The Transformational Research Award provides two-years of additional research funding to support successful projects funded by a Catalyst Award and help them achieve their final goals.

The Catalyst Awards provide an opportunity to conduct preliminary work on high-risk, high-reward research addressing a wide variety of clinical disease areas. The target of the Falk Catalyst’s funding are projects at the intersection of technology and clinical science, intended to move from insights gained from basic science towards creating solutions, techniques and tools that can be transferred to clinical practice in the near term. Catalyst research projects must describe specific milestones and benchmarks that if successfully met, would then enable recipients to apply for additional funding through the two-year Transformational Awards program.

Internal LOIs are due June 16, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor proposal deadline is August 11, 2020.

Open, but not limited to, early career researchers. 

These awards grant support to individuals for cutting-edge biomedical applied research that may potentially benefit children. Based upon submitted nominees, the foundation will select ten investigators to receive a Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award for three years at $100,000 per year. For each nominee selected for funding, the sponsoring participating institution will also receive a Hartwell Fellowship to fund one postdoctoral candidate of their choice who exemplifies the values of the Foundation.

Internal LOIs (required) are due June 17, 2020 and internal proposals are due July 8, 2020. If nominated, the sponsor proposal will be due September 15, 2020. 

See the Office of Research Development for additional information.

The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 up through $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method.

Intent to Apply forms must be completed by June 18, 2020. Full proposals are due July 14, 2020.

View the Research Grants on Education - Large opportunity.

The Building Bridges 2020 Grants Program will support planning and implementation of projects that engage U.S.-based Muslims and their neighbors in online and/or live arts- and media-based experiences designed to advance relationships and understanding for mutual well-being. Through this approach, the program’s larger aim is to contribute toward a more just civil society and greater well-being among people.

Proposed projects or programs should offer immersive and interactive experiences that may be conducted in collaboration with other organizations and are tailored to the needs and interests of the specific intended audience(s). These experiential activities can be conducted online and/or live. There are many ways organizations might design, structure and implement projects that engage U.S.-based Muslims and their neighbors through digital, literary, multimedia, and/or performing arts-based experiences to foster relationships and understanding between communities. Organizations are encouraged to draw upon their core capabilities, knowledge of the selected population(s) and resources in the creation of their proposals. Competitive projects may include, but are not limited to:

• Development of new programs informed by past experience with successful U.S.-based or international programming grounded in the creative arts and;
• Expansion of existing programs that advance Building Bridges Grants Program goals.

Internal LOIs are due June 16, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor letter of interest will be due July 13, 2020.

View the Building Bridges Grants Program opportunity

The mission of this grant program is to support projects in the Chicago area that work with students to enhance learning and increase learning opportunities both inside and outside of school. Special consideration will be given to innovative projects that involve parents, the community, or a collaboration of one or more schools/organizations. Grants may support the following purposes:

• To fund projects that demonstrate the educational and student development value of a specific course of study
• To support demonstration projects that illustrate the value of classroom learning in the context of real-life situations
• To encourage greater family participation in school and community activities
• To expand the use of technology for teaching and learning

View the Student Development and Achievement opportunity.

The Diagnostics Accelerator aims to accelerate the development of affordable and accessible biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal degeneration, and other related dementias. This RFP solicits projects to develop and validate digital biomarkers (defined as objective, quantifiable physiological and behavioral data that are collected, measured and analyzed by means of digital devices such as portables, wearables, or ambient sensors) for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Proposals addressing a range of potential clinical uses are of interest, especially technologies for early assessment and those aiding in diagnosis and monitoring treatment response or rate of disease progression. 

The Diagnostics Accelerator is accepting applications on a rolling basis.

View the Diagnostics Accelerator: Digital Biomarkers Program opportunity.

LOIs are due June 30, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due October 26, 2020.

View the Young Scholars Program opportunity.

The Oberkotter Foundation funds programs that promote listening and spoken language for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The Foundation seeks to address the needs, gaps, and barriers families face in locating and accessing information and services in their community.  Grants to universities average $300,000.

LOIs are due June 30, 20221. Invited full proposals will be due August 31, 2021.

Visit the Program Support Grants for Listening and Spoken Language opportunity

The Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation is focused on funding projects grounded in basic laboratory science and the education of scientists working on breakthroughs directed toward a cure for paralysis or the secondary medical conditions, and technologies associated with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D). Funding is available for laboratory research, clinical and functional studies of the effects of SCI/D, design and development of assistive technology, and fellowships for postdoctoral scientists, clinicians, and engineers. 

View the Research Grants for SCI/D opportunity.

The Innovation Award is designed to provide support for the next generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with "high-risk/high-reward" ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer. This is a two-year award with the potential to be renewed for an additional two years ($800,000 total over four years).

View the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Awards opportunity.

Note: JDRF will not issue an RFA for training awards in FY21.

JDRF is focused on funding and catalyzing research that will lead to a cure of Type 1 diabetes (T1D), improving the quality of life and relieving the burden for people living with T1D, and preventing the disease. These awards are designed to provide crucial support to investigators who plan to pursue a career in diabetes-related clinical investigation. Awards are made in the later stages of training and include the ability for recipients to transition to independent faculty or research appointments. Clinical researchers who have received their first faculty-level appointment less than 5 years before the submission date are eligible to apply for this award. The successful candidate will have an MD or MD/PhD, hold an appointment or joint appointment in a subspecialty of clinical medicine, and conduct human clinical research. 

View the Patient-Oriented Diabetes Research Awards opportunity

Note: JDRF will not issue an RFA for new training awards in FY21.

JDRF is focused on funding and catalyzing research that will lead to a cure of Type 1 diabetes (T1D), improving the quality of life and relieving the burden for people living with T1D, and preventing the disease. The Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship program is designed to attract qualified and promising health scientists, to provide an opportunity to receive full time research training, and to assist these promising individuals in transitioning from a fellowship to an independent (faculty-level) position. Generally, the most recent doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DMD, DVM, or equivalent) will have been received no more than 6 years before the application is submitted. 

View the Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowships opportunity

Note: JDRF will not issue an RFA for new training awards in FY21.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is focused on funding and catalyzing research that will lead to a cure of Type 1 diabetes (T1D), improving the quality of life and relieving the burden for people living with T1D, and preventing the disease. Career Development Awards are designed to attract qualified and promising scientists early in their faculty careers and given them the opportunity to establish themselves in areas that reflect the JDRF research emphasis areas. The Career Development Award is intended for individuals at an early stage of their independent academic career. Researchers who have received their first faculty-level appointment less than 3 years before the submission date are eligible to apply for this award. The applicant must hold an academic faculty-level position (including assistant professor or equivalent) at the time of submission of the proposal. 

View the Career Development Awards opportunity

The William T. Grant Scholars Program awards $350,000 over five years for early career researchers in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. We encourage Scholars to tackle important questions that will advance theory, policy, and practice for youth. Applicants identify new methods, disciplines, or content they want to learn, and propose five-year research plans that foster their growth in those areas. We recognize that early career researchers are rarely given incentives or support to take such risks, so this award includes a mentoring component. Potential Scholars should have a promising track record of conducting high-quality research, but want to pursue a significant shift in their trajectories as researchers.

Please consult the Office of Research Development for internal guidelines.

View the Scholars Program opportunity

The Searle Scholars Program awards research grants to selected universities and research centers to support the independent research of exceptional faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry who have recently begun their appointment at the assistant professor level and whose appointment is their first tenure-track position at a participating academic or research institution. Candidates should have begun their appointment as an independent investigator at the assistant professor level on or after July 1, 2019. 

Internal LOIs are due July 8, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor deadline is September 30, 2020.

View the Searle Scholars opportunity

Note: The deadline is expected to be posted in spring 2021.

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) seek to accelerate and support innovative small molecule and biologic drug discovery programs for FTD. The funding priorities are:

• Lead optimization of novel disease-modifying compounds, including medicinal chemistry refinement and in vitro ADME.
• In vivo testing of novel lead compounds, biologics, or repurposed drug candidates in relevant animal models for pharmacokinetics, dose-range finding, target engagement, in vivo efficacy, and/or preliminary rodent tolerability studies.

LOIs are due July 12, 2019. Invited full proposals will be due August 10, 2019.

View the Accelerating Drug Discovery for Frontotemporal Degeneration opportunity

The mission of the Leakey Foundation is to increase scientific knowledge, education, and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival. Current funding priorities include 1) paleoanthropology of the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene; and 2) primates (old and new world), including evolution, behavior, morphology, ecology, endocrinology, genetics, isotope studies, and modern hunter-gatherer groups.

Most grants range between $3,000-$15,000. Proposals of up to $25,000 will be considered.

Applications are accepted on January 10th and July 15th annually.

View the Research Grants on Human Origins opportunity

This challenge is an open call for breakthrough ideas that harness the power of data science to help people and communities thrive especially in the wake of COVID-19’s economic impact. Areas of particular interest include:

• protecting lower wage workers;
• securing access to capital for microentrepreneurs and small businesses; and
• ensuring economic growth and security in underserved communities.

The challenge will award $10 million total to up to 10 awardees. 

Phase 1 submissions are due July 17. Invited Phase 2 submissions will be due in September 2020, with awardees announced in January 2021.

View the data.org Inclusive Growth & Recovery Challenge opportunity

The Simons Foundation invites nominations for Simons Investigators in Mathematics, (Theoretical) Physics, (Theoretical) Astrophysics and Theoretical Computer Science. Simons Investigators are outstanding theoretical scientists who receive long-term research support from the Simons Foundation. 

The Simons Investigators program aims to provide a stable base of support for outstanding theoretical midcareer scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term investigations of fundamental questions in their fields. The intent of the program is to support these scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing new research directions, providing leadership in the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists.

Internal LOIs are due July 20, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor nomination will be due October 28, 2020.

The Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics is a career development award to enable junior faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research. It supports research that goes beyond current work in bioethics to help resolve pressing ethical issues in clinical care, biomedical research, and public policy, and creates a community that enhances future bioethics research by Scholars and Alumni/ae.  The goal of the program is to develop the next generation of bioethics leaders.

The award provides 50 percent salary support for three years, as well as $5,000 per year for limited project support and travel.

This is a limited submission opportunity managed by the Office of Research Development. Internal LOIs are due July 28, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor LOI will be due September 21, 2020.

The goal of the Luce Initiative on Southeast Asia (LuceSEA) is to strengthen the study of Southeast Asia in American higher education by providing resources for the creation of models, strategies and partnerships that not only bolster existing program structures but also take them in new directions.

LuceSEA aims to encourage innovation in the study of Southeast Asia through support for:

• work in new and emerging areas of inquiry and the expansion of direct engagement with scholars and institutions in Southeast Asia;
• the enhancement of scholarly infrastructure for teaching and research relevant to Southeast Asia; and
• collaborations and networks that link academic centers to each other and with partners outside academia.

Deadlines
Internal LOI Due: July 30, 2019
Internal Proposal Due: August 13, 2019
Sponsor LOI Due: September 27, 2019
Sponsor Proposal Due: January 21, 2020

View the Luce Initiative on Southeast Asia opportunity

CZI seeks to support up to 15 Imaging Scientists who will work at the interface of biology, microscopy hardware, and imaging software at imaging core facilities around the world. “Imaging Scientists” might be engineers, physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, or biologists who have focused on technology development in either light or electron microscopy, medical imaging, or data analysis fields. The primary goal of the program is to increase interactions between biologists and technology experts. The Imaging Scientists will have expertise in microscopy hardware and/or imaging software.

View the Imaging Scientists opportunity

The Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) award supports investigators at the assistant professor level to study pathogenesis, with a focus on the interplay between human and microbial biology, shedding light on how human and microbial systems are affected by their encounters.

Pre-proposals are due July 31, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due November 13, 2020.

View the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease opportunity

The Capita Foundation mission is to support innovative research that works toward the prevention and cure of hearing disorders.

Applications must be received before August 1 annually.

View the Auditory Research Grants opportunity

Engaged Research Grants support research partnerships that empower those who have historically been among those researched in anthropology, rather than researchers themselves.  These partnerships bring together scholars and their interlocutors in the mutual production of anthropological knowledge aimed at combatting inequality and promoting the flourishing of human and more than human worlds.  The program supports projects that promise to make a significant contribution to anthropological conversations through collaborations in which engagement is a central feature of a project from the very start.  

View the Engaged Research Grant - Anthropology opportunity

Note: The timing of this program has changed and will now accept applications every other year. The next sponsor application deadline is August 1, 2021. This is a limited submission opportunity; internal applications are expected to be due in June 2021.

The mission of the Foundation is to support early stage investigators engaged in basic biomedical research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis, or treatment of disease. Mallinckrodt Research Grant applicants should be in the first to fourth year of a tenure-track faculty position. The funds are designed to provide faculty members who hold MD and/or PhD degrees with support to move the project forward to the point where R01 or other independent funding can be obtained. These awards are usually $60,000 per year for three years. 

View the Research Grants opportunity (2020 program solicitation for reference)

The Foundation seeks to support projects to develop and test the feasibility of new programs for promoting positive cognitive and/or achievement outcomes for children (birth through 18 years) from underserved groups and/or low-resourced communities (minority ethnic groups, low-income families), as well as projects that evaluate the effectiveness of such programs.

Grants have ranged from $25,000 to $790,000.

LOIs are due August 1, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due December 1, 2021.

View the Brady Education Foundation opportunity.

The Rita Allen Foundation Scholars program supports basic biomedical research in the fields of cancer, immunology and neuroscience. Scholars are nominated by premier research institutions and then selected by the Rita Allen Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee. 

Northwestern's internal deadline is August 3, 2020. If selected to move forward, the funder proposal will be due October 21, 2020.

The Beckman Young Investigator Program provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science.

The BYI program funds scientists early in their careers who have not yet received a major award from another organization and are pursuing projects that are truly innovative, high-risk, and show promise for contributing to significant advances in chemistry and the life sciences. 

To be eligible, candidates must have achieved a tenure track appointment after 8/6/2017 and before 8/6/2020.

View the Young Investigator Program opportunity

The W. T. Grant Foundation funds research that increases our understanding of the programs, policies, and practices that reduce inequality in youth outcomes, and strategies to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit youth.

View the Research Grants opportunity

Grants will be made under the following programs: Future of Work / Behavioral Economics / Social, Political and Economic Inequality / Race, Ethnicity and Immigration.

LOIs must address at least one of the following:

• Research on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in the U.S. Specifically, research that assesses the social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences of the pandemic, especially its effects on marginalized individuals and groups and on trust in government and other institutions. The priorities do not include analyses of health outcomes or health behavior.
• Research focused on systemic racial inequality and/or the recent mass protests in the U.S. Specifically, research that investigates the prevalence of racial disparities in policing and criminal justice and their social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences; the effects of the current social protest movement and mass mobilization against systemic discrimination; the nature of public attitudes and public policies regarding policing, criminal justice, and social welfare; and the effects of those attitudes in the current political environment.

LOIs are due August 5, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due November 19, 2020.

View the Regular Programs opportunity.

The Foundation provides support to emerging investigators to promote scientifically based and clinically relevant research related to the effectiveness of physical therapy practice. Research projects in any specialty may be supported. The Foundation supports only those intervention studies in which the interventions are provided by physical therapists, or selected components of the interventions are provided by physical therapist assistants under the direction and supervision of physical therapists.

Opportunities in 2020:

Acute Care Research Grant - Awarded to an emerging investigator seeking to advance the practice of acute care physical therapy. ($40,000)

Moffat Geriatric Physical Therapy Research Grant - Awarded for research on the practice and impact of front loading and treatment intensity of physical therapy home visits for geriatric patients. ($70,000)

Physical Therapy Education Research Grant - Awarded to an emerging investigator for education research related to methods for promoting the uptake of research findings into education. More specifically, the purpose of this grant mechanism is to design educational interventions to address the gap between evidence and practice. ($40,000)

View the Physical Therapy Research Grants opportunity.

The goal of CZI’s Imaging program is to visualize and measure them across biological scales and in their biological context. This RFA aims to drive development of imaging technology focused on obtaining cellular resolution readouts anywhere in complex living organisms. Visible light does not penetrate through most tissues. To overcome this barrier, this grant program will advance the field of deep tissue imaging, which aims to obtain cellular resolution in complex tissue and through skin and bone.

Pilot awards will be $1M over a 2.5 year period. Successful pilot projects will be eligible to apply for an additional $10M over a four-year period.

LOIs are due August 6, 2020. Invited full applications will be due September 22, 2020.

View the Deep Tissue Imaging opportunity

The Medically Trained Scientists Program (MTS) is open to eligible scientists who hold an MD, a DO, or an MD, PhD degree, and have prior research training in discovery science and plan to pursue an academic career devoted to basic, fundamental research in a biomedical discipline. Fellows will focus on research and have minimal or no clinical activities for the duration of the award.

An MTS fellow will receive a grant for two to four years of postdoctoral training and, upon a successful scientific review, may continue to be supported for up to four years in an independent faculty position as an HHMI scientist. Applicants must be accepted to join a mentor’s research program as a postdoctoral fellow at an eligible US research institution at the time of application. More information about funding levels and eligibility requirements are available on the program website.

View the Medically Trained Scientists Program opportunity.

Proposals should to explore the cause(s) of sudden hearing loss. Both basic and clinical studies may be proposed that investigate aspects of the auditory system including but not limited to genetics, neurotology, anatomy, and molecular and cellular biology.

View the Causes of Sudden Hearing Loss Grant opportunity.

The Foundation typically funds six (6) to ten (10) regular research grants that investigate various aspects of hearing and balance disorders related to the inner ear. Priority is given to investigators early in their careers who need seed funds to generate results and data that can be used to support applications for larger grants (i.e., NIH grants) in the future. Proposals should relate to the hearing or balance functions of the ear. Both basic and clinical studies may be proposed that investigate aspects of the auditory and vestibular systems including but not limited to genetics, neurotology, anatomy, auditory processing, molecular and cellular biology, therapeutic studies, and investigations of current or experimental devices (i.e., cochlear implants).

View the AHRF Regular Grants opportunity.

The Cottrell Scholar program develops outstanding teacher-scholars who are recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research programs and their academic leadership skills. Eligible applicants are tenure-track faculty members whose primary appointment is in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics. Eligibility is limited to faculty members who started their first tenure-track appointment anytime in calendar year 2017.

*Note: The original deadline for this application was July 1, 2020. The target date for applications remains July 1, but they will be accepted until August 15, 2020.

View the Cottrell Scholars opportunity

Fellowships are available for theoretical and experimental research relevant to the study of cancer and the search for cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention. Applicants must have completed at least an MD, PhD, MD/PhD, DDS, DVM, or equivalent. Level 1 applicants (basic and physician scientists) must have received their degrees no more than 21 months prior to the deadline. Level 2 applicants (physician scientists-Mc, MD/PhD, DDS, DVM, or equivalent) must have completed their residencies and clinical training, be board eligible, and able to donate at least 80% of their time to these activities.

View the Damon Runyon Fellowship Award opportunity.

The Templeton Foundation is focused on 12 strategic priorities for 2019-2023:

• Dynamics of Religious Change
• Intellectual Humility
• Mathematics & Physical Sciences
• Religious Cognition
• Health, Religion & Spirituality
• Cultural Evolution
• Science of Character Virtue
• Science of Purpose
• Public Engagement
• Science-Engaged Theology
• Programs in Islam
• Programs in Latin America

The Foundation is also open to receiving inquiries through its Open Funding Track, in inquiries do not align with the aforementioned priorities.

Small grants are for requests $234,800 and less. Large grants are for requests above $234,800.

View the Research Grants opportunity.

Through this special call for proposals (CFP), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action (E4A) program and Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions team seek to learn from programs, policies, and practices that are advancing gender equity around the world to understand how they can be adapted to improve health and well-being in the United States, and build a national Culture of Health.

Specifically, RWJF seeks to learn from initiatives underway outside the United States whose effectiveness is supported or suggested by empirical evidence and that have the potential to be adapted and implemented in the United States. Some examples of approaches of interest are those that aim to:

• Achieve pay equity;
• Provide supports in the workplace or other social environments for pregnant women, parents and families;
• Counteract cultural stereotypes or expectations that bias women and girls toward low-wage careers or health-damaging jobs or roles;
• Address norms, practices, and resources in ways that reduce gender-based violence, aggression, or harassment;
• Modify social expectations that promote risky behaviors or contribute to poor mental health;
• Build on frameworks about gender, power, and health from groups around the world who have unique traditions and practices related to gender norms and roles;
• Create opportunities for gender minorities to make decisions that affect their lives and communities, and to emerge as leaders in government and other positions of influence; or
• Apply nonbinary interpretations of gender in policymaking, resource allocation, or service provision.

View the Evidence for Action: Approaches to Advance Gender Equity From Around the Globe opportunity

LLS’s Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) grant program is intended to bring together established investigators from one or several institutions to develop a focused research program, foster new interactions and cooperation, and enhance interdisciplinary research among the participants. The overall goal of this mechanism is to enhance the development of innovative strategies for the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of blood cancers. Strategies that move discoveries from the bench to the clinic are of high importance as are integrated translational projects.

LOIs are due August 31, 2019. Invited full proposals will be due February 15, 2020.

View the Hematological Malignancies opportunity

The Templeton Foundation's Ideas Challenge is aimed at exploring novel theoretical, philosophical, or scientific ideas useful for advancing the study of goal-directed, goal-seeking, or goal-suited phenomena in nature. The Foundation invites bold thinking that asks how such exploration might open new avenues for inquiry. A range of topics and disciplines are of interest to the Foundation, including Agency, Life, Mechanisms, Commonalities, Macroevolution, Models, Development, Matter, and Organization. Please see the Challenge call for details on each of these interest areas. The Foundation will also accept ideas outside of these specific interests.

The Foundation may invite winners or entrants to future events and/or to apply for additional grant funding.

View the Ideas Challenge opportunity

The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation funds research directed toward identifying new treatments or cures for cancer.  The average award is $150,000.

Applications are accepted December 31, April 30, and August 31 annually.

View the Cancer Research Grants opportunity

This challenge, supported by Pivotal Ventures, Melinda Gates, and MacKenzie Bezos, and managed by Lever for Change will award $30 million to help expand women's power and influence in the United States. Proposals should be able to increase the rate of change for women's power and influence in the U.S. through at least one of these key indicators:

• Wages and wealth: narrowing the gap between earnings and wealth for women in comparison to men
• Unpaid care: improving the division of caregiving and other household responsibilities done by women in comparison to men
• Share of leadership roles: increasing the percentage of women in senior roles across the public, private, and social sectors
• Content creation: increasing the percentage of intellectual and cultural content created by women
• Public perceptions: increasing the percentage of the public who feel women should have more power and influence

Interested applicants must register by September 1, 2020. Applications are due September 22, 2020.

View the Equality Can't Wait Challenge opportunity

Furthermore grants assist nonfiction books having to do with art, architecture, and design; cultural history, the city, and related public issues; and conservation and preservation. The organization looks for work that appeals to an informed general audience, gives evidence of high standards in editing, design, and production, and promises a reasonable shelf life.

Applications are accepted on March 1 and September 1 annually.

View the Grants in Publishing opportunity

The Conservation program supports the professional practice of art conservation, especially as it relates to European art of the pre-modern era.

LOIs are due September 1. Invited full proposals will be due October 1.

View the Conservation Grants Program opportunity

The History of Art program supports scholarly projects that will enhance the appreciation and understanding of European art and architecture.

LOIs are due September 1. Invited full proposals will be due October 1.

The Digital Art History Grants program is intended to foster new forms of research and collaboration as well as new approaches to teaching and learning. Support may also be offered for the digitization of important visual resources (especially essential art history photographic archives) in the area of pre-modern European art history; of primary textual sources (especially the literary and documentary sources of European art history); for promising initiatives in online publishing; and for innovative experiments in the field of digital art history. 

LOIs are due annually on September 1. Invited full proposals will be due October 1.

View the Digital Art History Grants opportunity

The goal of the program is to conduct original research and evaluate the extent to which health system models of care are advancing health equity for the Medicaid-eligible populations they serve. Projects may be generated from health systems—defined as facility-based provider organizations, or other provider organizations (e.g., public or essential hospitals; federally qualified health centers; integrated delivery systems; community-based organizations)—which primarily serve a high percentage of Medicaid-eligible individuals. Researchers, as well as practitioners and public and private partners working with researchers, are eligible to submit proposals through their organizations.

View the Research to Advance Models of Care for Medicaid-Eligible Populations opportunity

The HHMI Investigator Program supports approximately 300 Investigators at more than 60 research institutions across the United States. Investigators are recognized for pushing the bounds of knowledge in biomedical research. HHMI selects people, not projects, who ask tough questions in science and develop new tools and methods that make it possible to ask previously unapproachable questions.

Applicants must hold an MD or PhD, have a substantial commitment from their institution (such as a tenure-track faculty position), have a track record of peer-reviewed funding, among other requirements. Please see the full program announcement for additional information about the competition and eligibility requirements.

View the HHMI Investigator Program opportunity.

*Note: The 2020 deadline has been extended from March 18 to September 2.

The Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Sciences or Chemical Instrumentation Award Program supports advanced research by postdoctoral scholars within the core areas of fundamental chemistry or the development and build of chemical instrumentation. There are two tracks for fellowships:

• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Sciences will allow chemists to pursue advanced research within the core areas of fundamental chemistry, such as chemical physics, chemical engineering, and chemistry of materials research. The fellowship is not intended to fund proposals that are supported by traditional NIH mechanisms in the fields of chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry.  
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Instrumentation will allow researchers in chemistry to conceptualize, develop and build instrumentation suitable to advanced research in chemistry, chemical physics, chemical engineering, and chemistry of materials science. 

The award amount is $180,000 over two years for salary, fringe benefits and research expenditures; instrumentation fellowships will receive an additional one-time amount of up to $100,000. Fellows receiving the year 3 renewal award will receive an additional $90,000.

View the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Sciences/Chemical Instrumentation opportunity

These grants are intended to foster the early career development of researchers who have transitioned or are transitioning from undergraduate and/or graduate work in the physical/mathematical/computational sciences or engineering into postdoctoral work in the biological sciences, and who are dedicated to pursuing a career in academic research.

Pre-proposals are due September 4, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due January 8, 2021.

View the CASI opportunity

The Bridge to Success for Mid-Career/Senior Investigators awards are targeted to mid-level and senior investigators in sleep and biological rhythms who need ‘bridge’ funding while re-applying for research support.

The Bridge to Success for Mid-Career/Senior Investigators Award is designed to assist established sleep investigators who have been independently supported by the NIH or other government research grants for at least five years, but whose recent grant proposals are unlikely to be funded. A Bridge to Success Mid-Career/Senior Investigator Award will provide support for one year to help an independent investigator stay in the field of sleep and circadian research while reapplying for external funding.

View the Bridge to Success opportunity

The American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF) “Bridge to Success” awards are designed to provide ‘bridge’ funding to promising early-career sleep scientists who have applied for a career development award such as a K-award grant from the NIH, a Career Development Award from the VA, or an equivalent career development grant from another federal or non-federal entity. Individuals who previously submitted an application for review, but whose applications are unlikely to be within the funding range, are eligible to apply.

View the Bridge to Success opportunity

The Institutional Challenge Grant encourages university-based research institutes, schools, and centers to build sustained research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations in order to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. Applications are welcome from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, child welfare, mental health, immigration, and workforce development. 

The online application will open in early June 2020.

Visit the Institutional Challenge Grant website

The purpose of this program is to encourage the development of medical research in child health by awarding small grants to new researchers. The Fund is open to a wide variety of research topics. They do not focus on a particular disease, but all funded projects deal directly with children's health. Those eligible to apply include physicians who are in a residency/fellowship training program; physicians who completed their residency program no more than one year before the date of submission of the Concept Paper; or postdoctoral researchers who received the doctoral level degree no more than three years prior to the date of submission of the Concept Paper. 

Concept papers are due September 14, 2021. If selected to move forward, full proposals will be due November 5, 2021.

View the Early Career Awards for Children's Health opportunity

The David H. and Beverly A. Barlow Grant supports innovative basic and clinical research on anxiety and anxiety related disorders conducted by graduate students and early career researchers. To be eligible, applicants must be a graduate student or early career researcher (no more than 10 years postdoctoral).

View the Barlow Grant opportunity

The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. Fellowships awarded for scholars whose research is in one of the eight SRF fields: chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field. Candidates must be tenure-track, though untenured, as of September 15, 2020.

Note: In order to be considered for a Sloan Research Fellowship, a candidate must be officially nominated by a department head or other senior researcher. No more than three candidates may be nominated from any one department.

Please contact Chloe Taft Kang in OFR if you are interested in applying to this funding opportunity.

If you are a Feinberg faculty member, please contact Michelle Melin-Rogovin.

View the Research Fellowships opportunity

Research grants support new and innovative studies that are relevant to the cause, pathogenesis, or treatment of the hereditary or sporadic ataxias. Grants are offered primarily as “seed monies” to assist investigators in the early or pilot phase of their studies and as additional support for ongoing investigations on demonstration of need.

LOIs are due September 21, 2020, and invited proposals will be due October 19, 2020.

View the Research Grants for Ataxia opportunity.

The Simons Fellows program is intended to make research leaves more productive by enabling their extension from one academic term to a full academic year.

Fellowships will be awarded for up to 50% (max of $100,000) of the Fellow's current academic year salary.

View the Fellows Program in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics opportunity

The Career Development Award provides research funding to clinical investigators, who have received their initial faculty appointment, as they work to establish an independent clinical cancer research program.

View the Career Development Award opportunity

The Targeted Grants to Institutes program is intended to support established institutes or centers in mathematics and physical sciences through funding to help strengthen contacts within the international science community. The aim is to enable institutes to extend and enhance their missions; this program will not provide primary support for operating or establishing an institute.

View the Targeted Grants to Institutes opportunity

This award was created to encourage young clinical and scientific investigators to pursue a career in the field of ataxia research.

LOIs are due September 28, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due October 26, 2020.

View the Young Investigator Awards opportunity

The ACLS Fellowship program invites research applications in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences. The fellowship is open to untenured scholars who have earned a PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences on or after October 1, 2012.

ACLS Fellowships are intended as salary replacement to help scholars devote six to twelve continuous months to full-time research and writing. 

View the Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences opportunity

The Moore Foundation seeks to support outstanding inventors and innovators who create new tools, technologies, processes, or approaches with a high potential to accelerate progress in the Foundation's three main areas of interest: 1) scientific research, 2) environmental conservation, and 3) patient care. The program focuses on supporting scientist-inventors at a critical stage of research to capture opportunities that otherwise might be missed. The Foundation seeks to provide freedom and support to promising inventors with the most compelling ideas to pursue creative work.

Internal LOIs are due October 1, 2020. The sponsor application deadline is December 14, 2020.

View the Moore Inventor Fellows opportunity

The aim of the Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences (MPS) program is to stimulate progress on fundamental scientific questions of major importance in mathematics, theoretical physics and theoretical computer science. The questions addressed by the collaboration may be concrete or conceptual, but there should be little doubt that answering them would constitute a major scientific milestone. 

LOIs are due October 1, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due February 16, 2021.

View the Collaborations in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences opportunity

The Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS) is a highly competitive program that provides awards for physician-scientists, who are committed to an academic career, to bridge advanced postdoctoral/fellowship training and the early years of faculty service. Proposals must be in the area of basic biomedical, disease-oriented, or translational research.

View the Career Awards for Medical Scientists opportunity

The Life Sciences Research Foundation aims to identify and fund exceptional young scientists at a critical juncture of their training in all areas of basic life sciences.

Note: Individuals who have held a PhD or MD degree for more than 5 years at time of application are not eligible.

View the Life Sciences Research Grants opportunity

The Foundation supports scholarly research in the life sciences. The program is designed for researchers at the assistant professor level who experience difficulty in competing for research funds because they have not yet become firmly established. 

View the Life Science Grants-in-Aid opportunity

The Whitehall Foundation assists scholarly research in the life sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology. The Foundation does not support research focused primarily on disease(s) unless it will also provide insights into normal functioning.

View the Life Science Research Grants opportunity

The Small Research Grants Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. The Foundation's goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research. This program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career.

View the Research Grants on Education - Small opportunity

The ADDF offers funding to researchers for Alzheimer's drug discovery, clinical trials, and biomarker development research. Core request for proposals include:

• Program to Accelerate Clinical Trials (PACT), award amount: up to $3,000,000
• Neuroimaging and CSF Biomarker Development, award amount: up to $600,000
• Prevention Pipeline, award amount: up to $3,000,000
• Drug Development, award amount: up to $600,000 

LOIs are due October 1, 2021. If selected to move forward, full proposals will be due December 3, 2021.

View the Core Requests for Proposals opportunity

Post-doctoral fellowship awards are to serve as a bridge from post-doctoral positions to junior faculty positions. Applicants should have completed at least one year of post-doctoral training, but not more than two at the time of application, and should have shown a commitment to research in the field of Ataxia.

LOIs are due October 5, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due November 2, 2020. 

View the Fellowship Awards opportunity.

The Defending Basic Freedoms program helps safeguard the basic freedoms guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, to help eliminate all forms of prejudice and discrimination, and to assist government agencies to be more accountable to the public. The Herb Block Foundation will also consider contemporary societal issues that may arise. 

LOIs are due October 6, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due December 15, 2020.

View the Defending Basic Freedoms opportunity

The Joyce Foundation invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region. The Foundation accepts applications in the following program areas:

• Culture
• Democracy
• Education & Economic Mobility
• Environment
• Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform

LOIs are to be submitted at least 6-8 weeks in advance of the full proposal deadline (December 2, 2020).

View the Joyce Foundation opportunity 

The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage in their careers. Criteria for selection include an independent body of scholarship attained within the first five years of their appointment as independent researchers, and a demonstrated commitment to education, signaling the promise of continuing outstanding contributions to both research and teaching. 

This is a limited submission opportunity. Internal letters of intent are due October 19, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor proposal will be due February 4, 2021.

View the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards opportunity

Note: The deadline for this program has been extended to October 21, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Geographic Society and Microsoft’s AI for Earth program are partnering to support novel projects that create and deploy AI tools to improve the way we monitor, model, understand, and ultimately manage Earth’s natural resources for a more sustainable future. Grants will support scalable projects that use cloud computing to create and deploy open-source models and algorithms that make key analytical processes more efficient in the field. Proposed projects should address challenges related to biodiversity or climate change, such as understanding and quantifying carbon sequestration, extreme weather and climate modeling, or sustainable land-use change. See the RFP for additional topics and requirements. Multidisciplinary teams that span technology and environmental science are encouraged.

View the AI for Earth Innovation opportunity.

This RFP focuses on the gathering and analysis of archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and paleoclimatological data to increase our understanding of human-environmental interactions over time. Proposals should: focus on environmental conservation knowledge, practices, and technologies employed by past societies, and their impact on contemporary populations’ ability to mitigate environmental and/or climatic stress; explore how effective present-day environmental conservation strategies can be improved, diversified, and expanded based on knowledge about past societies’ articulation with the environment; and delineate how the project’s results can be used to create culturally and environmentally suitable conservation strategies at the policy level and/or collaborate with local communities to build sustainable environmental practices and strengthen resilience in the face of climatic change.

*Note: The original deadline of April 22, 2020, has been postponed to October 2020 due to COVID-19.

View the Enduring Impacts: Archaeology of Sustainability opportunity.

With this program, National Geographic Society wants to bring hidden stories to the surface and to understand in rich detail those who have been given far too little consideration in the environmental movement. It seeks stories that illuminate the policies and actions that have brought our global community to an unprecedented moment on the precipice of planetary climate disaster—and show how frontline communities will feel the consequences much more than wealthy ones.

Projects that benefit local audiences or incorporate local voices are strongly encouraged. Additionally, storytellers with unique access or perspective to/on the proposed project because of their personal identity or experience with the community they propose to work with will have higher likelihood of funding. Applicants MUST have strong track records as storytellers (journalists, photographers, videographers, cartographers, etc.) and demonstrated publication success.

*Note: The original deadline of April 22, 2020, has been postponed to October 2020 due to COVID-19.

View the Equity and the Natural World opportunity.

The Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society program aims to amplify the broad potential of doctoral education in the humanities by supporting doctoral faculty as they pursue publicly engaged scholarship and advocate for diverse professional pathways for emerging PhDs. 

Scholars & Society fellowships invite faculty who teach and advise doctoral students to pursue research projects while in residence at a US-based cultural, media, government, policy, or community organization of their choice. The goal of the fellowship year should be to conduct a major research project in the humanities or humanistic social sciences that treats a significant issue or grand challenge in society—such as democratic governance, technological change, racism, climate change, economic inequality, migration and immigration, etc.

Each fellowship carries a stipend of $75,000; plus funds of up to $6,000 for research, travel/optional relocation, and related project costs; $10,000 to support the fellow's host organization; and $15,000 to sponsor on- and off-campus programming in the year following the fellowship.

View the Scholars & Society Fellowships opportunity

Luce/ACLS fellowships support research on any aspect of religion in an international context and encourage scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences to connect their specialist knowledge with journalists and media practitioners. This program welcomes proposals that explore connections between religion and the environment, gender rights, health and medicine, migration and immigration, politics and economic policy, and media and entertainment, among others. The ultimate goal of the research should be a significant piece of scholarly work by the applicant and concrete steps to engage journalistic and media audiences.

This program does not fund creative work (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation, or pedagogical projects.

View the Fellowships for Scholars - Religion, Journalism & International Affairs opportunity

These fellowships are intended to support an academic year of research and/or writing by early career scholars from around the world for a project that will make a substantial and original contribution to the understanding of art and its history. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant. ACLS does not fund creative work (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation, or pedagogical projects.

Applicants must have a PhD that was conferred between September 1, 2015 and December 31, 2019.

View the Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships in the History of Art opportunity

The program provides unrestricted research support of $100,000 CAD to highly-promising early-career researchers in the first five years of a full-time research position to collaborate with colleagues from diverse disciplines. Program components include participating in an interdisciplinary network of fellows, strengthening leadership and communication skills, and increasing impact within and outside of academia.

Scholars’ research interests must complement or contribute to the themes and goals of an eligible CIFAR research program. Programs accepting applications include:

• Boundaries, Membership & Belonging
• Brain, Mind & Consciousness
• Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration
• Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities
• Humans & the Microbiome
• Innovation, Equity & the Future of Prosperity

View the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars opportunity

The purpose of these awards is to help launch the careers of outstanding investigators in the field of marine microbial ecology and evolution who will advance our understanding through experiments, modeling or theory. Investigators must be currently active in research on microbial ecology and/or evolution, excluding research focusing on the microbiomes of animals or plants. Investigators with backgrounds in different fields are encouraged to apply.

Applicants must have held a tenure-track or equivalent independent position in a U.S. or Canadian institution for at least one year and no more than eight years.

Reference letters must be received by October 30, 2020. Letters of intent are due November 5, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due February 19, 2021.

View the Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution Awards opportunity

The Michelson Prizes are awarded to young investigators who are applying disruptive concepts and inventive processes to advance human immunology, vaccine discovery, and immunotherapy research across major global diseases. 

The 2020 Michelson Prizes will focus on transformative research in human immunology, with trans-disease applications to accelerate vaccine and immunotherapeutic discovery. The funders are seeking high-impact and highly innovative research that has the potential to be applied across many diseases and to significantly expand our understanding of the human immune system.

Applicants must be 35 years or younger on October 31, 2019.

Pre-applications are due October 31, 2019. Notifications for full applications will be made in December 2019, with prizes awarded in June 2020.

View the Michelson Prizes opportunity

Through the Science of Purpose funding initiative, the Foundation seeks to identify and fund the development of novel theoretical, philosophical, or scientific concepts useful for advancing the study of goal-directed, goal-seeking, or goal-suited phenomena in nature. Each funding priority (list below) includes a set of questions illustrative of the kinds of concepts or phenomena the Foundation seeks to support.

• Agency
• Commonalities
• Development
• Life
• Macroevolution
• Matter
• Mechanisms
• Models
• Organization

Researchers with proposed topics not in the list above can submit their proposed projects here.

View the Science of Purpose Funding Initiative opportunity

The Howard Foundation supports fellowships in selected fields for early mid-career individuals (applicants should have completed their formal studies in the past 5 to 15 years) who have achieved recognition for at least one major project. Support is particularly intended to augment paid sabbatical leaves. 

The 2021-2022 program will support Creative Nonfiction and History

Subsequent selected fields are as follows:

• 2022-2023: Photography and Film Studies
• 2023-2024: Music Performance and Musicology/Ethnomusicology
• 2024-2025: Emerging Arts and Science and Technology Studies 

View the Arts and Humanities Fellowships opportunity

Post-Ph.D. Research Grants are awarded to individuals holding a Ph.D. or equivalent degree to support individual research projects. The Foundation supports research that demonstrates a clear link to anthropological theory and debates, and promises to make a solid contribution to advancing these ideas.

Applications are accepted May 1 and November 1 annually.

View the Post-Ph.D. Grant opportunity

The Anna Lalor Burdick Program seeks to empower young women through education about healthy reproduction in order to broaden and enhance their options in life. The program focuses particularly on young women who have inadequate access to information regarding sexual and reproductive health.

Concept papers are due May 1 and November 1 annually.

View the Anna Lalor Burdick Program opportunity

Grants support studies to develop, refine, evaluate, or disseminate innovative interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate major social, psychological, behavioral, or public health problems affecting children, adults, couples, families, or communities.

Applications are accepted in April and November of each year.

View the Research Grants in Human Services opportunity

The GRAMMY Foundation Grant Program awards grants to organizations and individuals to support research on the impact of music on the human condition.

View the Scientific Research Projects - Music opportunity

The GRAMMY Foundation awards grants to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the music and recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations.

View the Preservation Projects - Music and Recorded Sound opportunity

The Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies seeks to maintain the vitality of China Studies in North America through fellowships and grants designed primarily for scholars early in their careers. Early Career Fellowships (up to $50,000) are available for scholars who are preparing their PhD dissertations for publication, or who are embarking on new research projects. Collaborative Reading-Workshop Grants (up to $15,000) are available for scholars of different disciplines to investigate texts that constitute essential points of entry to Chinese periods, traditions, communities, or events in contemporary or historical times.

View the Program in China Studies opportunity

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF), in partnership with the Economic Mobility and Opportunity program at the Gates Foundation, seeks research proposals focused on diagnosing and addressing structural barriers to economic mobility in the United States. RSF is interested in novel uses of new or under-utilized data, and creative uses of administrative data. Proposals might include exploratory fieldwork, a pilot study, field experiments, in-depth qualitative interviews, ethnographies, or the analysis of existing data.

This opportunity is designed to support tenure track assistant professors and associate professors who have been in the rank for less than seven years. Applications from underrepresented (including racial, ethnic, gender, disciplinary, institutional, and geographic diversity) scholars in the social sciences will be prioritized. Assistant professors can apply for grants up to $30,000; associate professors can apply for grants up to $50,000. Only faculty who have not previously received a research grant or visiting fellowship from RSF are eligible to apply. 

The funded researchers will be invited to submit their findings at a conference at the Russell Sage Foundation the following year, with investigators, mentors, advisory committee members, and other experts in attendance.

Note: Applicants can either apply to the Pipeline Grants competition or the regular research grant program (deadline 11/11/20), but not both.

View the Pipeline Grants Competition opportunity.

VentureWell awards faculty grants to colleges and universities for the purpose of strengthening existing curricular programs and/or building new courses and programs in invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Through these grant funds, VentureWell supports creative pedagogical approaches that generate student teams working on technology solutions to real-world problems, with the goal of the strongest teams applying to participate in VentureWell’s E-Team Program.

VentureWell encourages proposals that involve students, faculty and advisors from engineering, science, business, design, and liberal arts disciplines, as well as groups traditionally underrepresented in invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship, including women and minorities. Proposals may include plans for creating or improving an individual course, course sequence, minor, major, certificate program, incubator, accelerator, and other co- and extracurricular programs.

Internal LOIs are due October 7, 2020. If selected, the sponsor proposal will be due November 4, 2020.

View the VentureWell Faculty Grants opportunity

The RWJF Health Policy Fellows program provides the nation’s most comprehensive learning experience at the
nexus of health, science, and policy in Washington, D.C. It is an  opportunity for exceptional midcareer
health professionals and behavioral/social scientists with an interest in health and health care policy. Fellows
participate in the policy process at the federal level and use that leadership experience to improve health, health care, and health policy.

The fellowship requires a full-time commitment with a minimum 12-month residence in Washington, D.C., which
prepares individuals to influence the future of health and health care in the nation.

Three reference letters are due November 6, 2020. Preliminary applications are due November 9, 2020. Invited full applications will be due February 8, 2021.

View the Health Policy Fellows opportunity

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is seeking to disrupt the deeply imbalanced system against this generation - and previous generations – of Black, Latino, English Learners (ELs), and students experiencing poverty in the United States, referred to as priority students, as it relates to their Algebra 1 experience in 7th, 8th, or 9th grade, in-class or online.

Submissions are welcome from across the globe for a chance at a Phase 1: Planning and Prototyping grant for $100,000 to develop a pilot study plan alongside our external learning partner, American Institute for Research (AIR). Upon completion of the first Phase, awardees can then apply for a Phase 2: Pilot Study grant for up to $1 million. Applicants are encouraged to consider how their solution could benefit from the expertise of two or more organizations in a partnership or combine with emerging or existing in-market solutions. Partnerships representing collaboration with a full-course Algebra 1 or relevant middle grades mathematics series provider are especially encouraged, as this would represent a clear go-to-market pathway.

View the Balance the Equation - A Grand Challenge for Algebra 1 opportunity

Grants will be awarded to researchers for innovative investigator-initiated glaucoma-related research projects.

The standard award provides significant funding for researchers who have already generated some amount of preliminary data, but are often required to demonstrate additional, significant progress before they can apply to governmental or industrial funding agencies. $200,000/2 yrs

Postdoctoral fellowship awards are intended for young researchers in their final stages of mentored training. This fellowship is available to researchers within four years of degree conferral or end of residency or fellowship. $150,000/2 yrs

View the National Glaucoma Program opportunity

The goal of the program is to accelerate advances in fundamental and translational research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias to understand the mechanisms underlying the etiology and pathogenesis as well as innovative approaches to better diagnose, prevent or delay the progress of the disease. Preference is made for exciting pilot projects that would not, at their present stage, be competitive for large government or industry awards. Typically, these awards are made to early stage investigators, or to more established investigators who are proposing particularly innovative research.

View the Alzheimer's Disease Research Grants opportunity

Templeton World Charity Foundation has launched a new strategy to support new scientific research on human flourishing and to translate related discoveries into practical tools. Over the next five years, the Foundation will support a range of projects across three distinct stages: discovery, development, and launch. It is hoped that this commitment will lead to the development of innovative solutions and the launch of new practices that make a lasting impact on human flourishing. 

This Request for Ideas seeks to gather broad input to shape the FOundation's priorities for scientific discovery, which may lead to several new portfolios of grants.

Approximately $40M will be invested through the Grand Challenges for Human Flourishing program. Priority will go to interdisciplinary scientific research on humanity's cognitive, affective, social, and spiritual well-being.

View the Grand Challenges for Human Flourishing opportunity

The Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs aims to deepen public understanding of religion by advancing innovative scholarship on religion in international contexts and equipping individual scholars and institutions of higher education with the capacities to connect their work to journalism and the media and to engage audiences beyond the academy. 

Proposals are sought for collaborative projects hosted at US-based accredited institutions of higher education with research and curricular strengths in journalism and communication and in the humanistic and social science fields concerned with the study of global religions (including, but not limited to, anthropology, area studies, history, languages and literature, political science, religious studies, and sociology). Applicants must propose activities that connect humanities and social science programs within their institution with journalism schools, departments, or initiatives, or with external media organizations.

View the Programming Grants - Religion, Journalism & International Affairs Collaborative opportunity

RSF will return to accepting LOIs under the following core programs and special initiatives: Race, Ethnicity & Immigration / Future of Work / Social, Political, and Economic Inequality / Immigration and Immigrant Integration.

RSF will continue to accept letters of inquiry relevant to any of RSF’s core programs that address at least one of the following issues:

• Research on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in the U.S. Specifically, research that assesses the social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences of the pandemic, especially its effects on marginalized individuals and groups and on trust in government and other institutions. Our priorities do not include analyses of health outcomes or health behavior.
• Research focused on systemic racial inequality and/or the recent mass protests in the U.S. Specifically, research that investigates the prevalence of racial disparities in policing and criminal justice and their social, political, economic, and psychological causes and consequences; the effects of the current social protest movement and mass mobilization against systemic discrimination; the nature of public attitudes and public policies regarding policing, criminal justice, and social welfare; and the effects of those attitudes in the current political environment.

LOIs are due November 11, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due March 10, 2021.

View the Regular Programs opportunity

The Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award provides grants to early career physician scientists to facilitate their transition to independent clinical research careers.

Pre-proposal applications are due November 13, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due March 12, 2021.

View the Clinical Scientist Development Award opportunity

Grant-making interests are focused on nutrition and/or health-related research having a significant impact on issues facing infants and young children from the first year before birth to age 3.

Concept papers are due May 15 and November 15 annually.

View the Pediatric Research Grants opportunity

• focus on important and emerging areas of research
• have the potential to develop breakthrough technologies, instrumentation or methodologies
• are innovative, distinctive and interdisciplinary
• demonstrate a high level of risk due to unconventional approaches, or by challenging the prevailing paradigm
• have the potential for transformative impact, such as the foundation of a new field of research, the enabling of observations not previously possible, or the altered perception of a previously intractable problem
• do not focus on clinical or translational research, treatment trials, or research for the sole purpose of drug development
• fall outside the mission of public funding agencies (PIs must already have applied / provide proof from a program officer that project is outside program focus)
• demonstrate that private philanthropy generally, and the W. M. Keck Foundation in particular, is essential to the project’s success.

One-page concept papers are due November 16, 2020. If selected as the nominee, the Phase I application will be due May 1, 2021.

Please contact Sarah Fodor if you are interested in applying for this opportunity.

Research fellowships offer support for research and writing in Buddhist studies for scholars who hold a PhD degree, with priority given to those teaching full-time. These fellowships provide scholars time free from teaching and other responsibilities to devote full-time to research and writing on the project proposed. There are no restrictions as to the location of the work conducted. Applicants must identify a significant scholarly product (monograph, series of journal articles, etc.) that will result from the fellowship.

View the Buddhist Studies Research Fellowship opportunity

NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program supports early career faculty working in critical areas of education research. This non-residential postdoctoral fellowship funds proposals that make significant scholarly contributions to the field of education.

View the Fellowship Program opportunity

This program provides start-up monies for new research projects in the field of neuroscience that will likely lead to extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other outside funding sources. The objective is to support new and innovative projectts, especially those of junior faculty, who are working in new research directions on studies of brain function. This includes molecular and clinical neuroscience as well as studies of neural, sensory, motor, cognitive, behavioral and emotional functioning in health and disease.

Funding is to be directed at pilot research projects that are both innovative and will likely lead to other successful grant applications. Assistant and associate professors are eligible to apply. See program announcement for specific requirements.

Internal LOIs are due November 23, 2020. If selected to move forward, the Sponsor LOI will be due January 5, 2021. 

View the Fay/Frank Seed Grant Program opportunity

The goal of this Policies for Action (P4A) call for proposals (CFP) is to build the evidence base about how national,
state, and local policies can decrease racial inequities in health and well-being in the United States.

The research funded under this CFP must: (1) focus on studying the potential impact of a specific federal,
state, or local policy; (2) be intentional about maintaining a focus on racial equity and racial justice in its
processes and outcomes; (3) use principles of equitable evaluation; (4) incorporate meaningful and authentic
community engagement into the work; and (5) advance community-driven solutions that come from the
groups of people most directly impacted by structural racism.

For this CFP, RWJF encourages, but does not require, that the proposed research examines the impact of policy changes on health and well-being outcomes.

While the budget is not specified, Policy for Action grants are typically funded at $250,000.

LOIs are due November 24, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due April 7, 2021.

View the Public Policy Research to Advance Racial Equity and Racial Justice opportunity

The Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) Grants Program is intended to support education research projects that engage in collaborative and participatory partnerships with project budgets up to $400,000 and durations of up to three years. The Foundation is open to applications from design-based research teams, network improvement communities, and placed-based research alliances. In addition to pre k-12 school systems, the Foundation especially encourages applications from partnerships that include scholars and institutions of higher education, rural geographic locations, and partnerships that deeply engage community-based organizations and families. 

Applicants must complete the Intent to Apply form by November 24, 2020. Full proposals are due December 17, 2020.

View the Research-Practice Partnership opportunity

This research program addresses scholars of all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences in five thematic areas: Challenges of New Technologies; Public Policy and Human Security; Patterns of Conflict Resolution between the State and Traditional Actors; Non-governmental Actors as Partners and Contenders of the State; and Security and Communication Strategies between Doctrine Formation and Implementation.

Grants cover costs for personnel travel, materials and/or other costs.

Grant amounts are not specified; however, they averaged 48,000 euros in 2017.

View the Security, Society, and the State opportunity.

Through Education for American Civic Life, the Foundation seeks to elevate the civic objectives of liberal arts education through faculty-led efforts within the curriculum grounded in the issues that define and challenge American democracy. While grappling with matters of civic knowledge, it is the Foundation’s intention for projects to also mitigate uncivil speech and behavior. Successful proposals are expected move beyond mere additions to the course catalog and reflect an approach to integrative learning that serves the student body and can be sustained beyond the life of the grant. 

Concept papers are accepted on a rolling basis, but applicants are encouraged to apply by December 1, 2018.

View the Education for American Civic Life opportunity

Growing evidence suggests the interrelatedness of the duration of pregnancy, fetal growth, and adverse
pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth, preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, stillbirth, and maternal medical complications including maternal mortality. Other areas of interest are climate change and environmental impact on pregnancy, complications associated with ART, and epigenome-wide association studies. BWF seeks to expand the scope of this award mechanism to capture these and other pregnancy outcomes as the Foundation believes they will be mutually informative and accelerate discovery.

The initiative is designed to stimulate both creative individual scientists and multi-investigator teams to approach healthy and adverse pregnancy outcomes using creative basic and translation science methods.

View the Next Gen Pregnancy Initiative opportunity

Through this program Wellcome LEAP aims to leverage the power of bioengineering to advance stem cells, organoids, and whole organ systems and connections that recapitulate human physiology in vitro and restore vital functions in vivo. 

There are two goals:

• Bioengineer a multiorgan platform that recreates human immunological responses with sufficient fidelity to double the predictive value of a preclinical trial with respect to efficacy, toxicity and immunogenicity for therapeutic interventions targeting cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases.
• Demonstrate the advances necessary to restore organ functions using cultivated organs or biological/synthetic hybrid systems that would result in a doubling of the 5-year survival rate of patients on replacement therapy or awaiting organ transplantation and point to a fully transplantable, non-rejected, human organ within 10 years.

Abstracts are due December 1, 2020. Full proposals are due January 13, 2021.

View the Human Organs, Physiology, and Engineering (HOPE) opportunity

Priority for conference and workshop grants will be given to events that foster the creation of an international community of research scholars in anthropology and advance significant and innovative anthropological research. Workshops, defined as working meetings that focus on developing and debating topical issues in theoretical anthropology, will involve a small group of scholars meeting for a sufficient period of time to deal intensely with the project. It is expected that workshops will result in a publication.

Applications are accepted on June 1  and December 1 annually.

View the Conference and Workshop Grants opportunity

The Foundation established a program designed to recruit outstanding U.S. Specialty Board-eligible physicians into cancer research careers by providing them with the opportunity for a protected research training experience under the mentorship of a highly qualified and gifted mentor after they have completed all of their clinical training.

View the Physician Scientist Training Award opportunity

The goal of the Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust (CART) fund is to encourage exploratory and development Alzheimer's Disease research projects within the United States. This is accomplished by providing financial support for the early and conceptual plans of those projects that may not yet be supported by extensive preliminary data but have the potential to substantially advance biomedical research. These projects should be distinct from those designed to increase knowledge in a well established area unless they intend to extend previous discoveries toward new directions or applications.

View the CART Fund opportunity

• Advocacy: Achieving enduring social change around issues that affect older Americans
• Direct Service: Improve availability and quality of community-based and residential long-term services and supports
• Professional Education and Training: Increase the competency of professionals and paraprofessionals who serve older adults
• Research: Seek causes and solutions to significant problems for older adults

LOIs (optional) are due December 1 annually for the February 1 full proposal deadline.

View the Responsive Grants opportunity.

This program supports research projects related to sustainable solid waste management practices. EREF's long-term strategic plan is to address all areas of integrated solid waste management, with a strong focus towards research that increases sustainable solid waste management practices.

Pre-proposals are due on May 1 and December 1 annually. 

View the Solid Waste Management Research Grants opportunity

The Foundation seeks to support projects to develop and test the feasibility of new programs for promoting positive cognitive and/or achievement outcomes for children (birth through 18 years) from underserved groups and/or low-resourced communities (minority ethnic groups, low-income families), as well as projects that evaluate the effectiveness of such programs.

Grants have ranged from $25,000 to $790,000.

LOIs are due December 1, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due April 1, 2022.

Visit the Brady Education Foundation opportunity 

The Foundation is exploring new data streams that might improve our understanding of factors driving changes in malaria epidemiology or be used to optimize the choice of interventions modelled. One of these new data streams is serological, genetic, and / or genomic data which arises from malaria molecular surveillance (MMS). The purpose of this call is to identify new and innovative approaches to integrating MMS into malaria surveillance and programmatic decision-making in malaria endemic countries.

The Foundation is particularly interested in proposals from respondents working in high-burden malaria settings. All proposals must include a principal investigator or co-investigator from a malaria-endemic country.

View the New Approaches to Integrating Molecular Surveillance into Malaria Control Programs opportunity

Academic program funding is available for in-person exchanges such as workshops, symposia, and colloquia that advance scholarship in the field of American art (circa 1500–1980) that take place:

• In Chicago or outside the United States, or
• In the United States, with at least one-third of the participants coming from outside the United States.

Additionally, the foundation welcomes applications for international research groups that involve 2 to 4 faculty members from two or more academic institutions, at least one of which must be located outside the United States. Groups should pursue specific research questions that will advance scholarship and meet in person two or more times. This opportunity excludes projects on architecture and commercial film/animation.

This application cycle is for programs taking place after September 1, 2022. LOIs are due December 3, 2021. Invited full proposals will be due February 15, 2022.

View the Academic Workshop & Symposium Grants opportunity

The Parkinson’s Foundation seeks clinical, pre-clinical or basic research proposals that will directly impact the understanding of Parkinson’s or its treatment from promising early career scientists. Successful projects should include novel PD research hypotheses and be inventive in methodology or approach. The award acts as a bridge to ensure promising early career scientists stay in the Parkinson’s research field, helping to solve, treat, and end the disease.

LOIs are due December 4, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due February 19, 2021.

Visit the Stanley Fahn Faculty Scholar Award - Parkinson's Disease opportunity

The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience supports innovative research designed to bring science closer to the day when diseases of the brain can be accurately diagnosed, prevented, and treated. These awards encourage and support scientists working on the development of novel and creative approaches to understanding brain function. The Endowment Fund is interested in how a new technology may be used to monitor, manipulate, analyze, or model brain function at any level, from the molecular to the entire organism. 

LOIs are due December 7, 2020. If selected to move forward, full proposals will be due April 26, 2021.

View the Technology Awards opportunity

Applications to this program are made jointly by a U.S. and an Israeli researcher(s) who would like to work together. Prior cooperation between the PIs is not a prerequisite, and the establishment of new research teams is welcomed by the BSF. The following areas are eligible for submission:

• Exact and Physical Sciences: atmospheric, ocean, and earth sciences; chemistry; computer science; energy research; environmental research (air, water, soil); materials research; mathematical sciences; physics
• Social Sciences: economics; psychology (except psychobiology); sociology

View the Regular Grants opportunity

In partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network seeks applications to support multidisciplinary research teams to join the newly established collaborative. Proposed research projects should address key knowledge gaps in the basic mechanisms that contribute to Parkinson's development and progression.

Further, applications should focus primarily on circuitry and brain-body interaction, inclusive of genetic and neuro-immune contributors to disease. The RFA is aimed at investigations focused solely on underlying disease biology, using the NINDS definition of basic research. Studies may be performed in vitro, in animals, or in humans.

Pre-proposals are due December 11, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due April 13, 2021.

View the ASAP Collaborative Research Network opportunity

This special program is designed to support education research projects that will contribute to understanding and ameliorating racial inequality in education. Studies should aim to understand and disrupt the reproduction and deepening of educational inequality in education, and seek to remake and imagine anew forms of equitable education. The Foundation is also interested in research projects that are working to reimagine educational opportunities in a multiplicity of education systems, levels, settings, and developmental ranges and that reach beyond documenting conditions and paradigms that contribute to persistent racial inequalities.

Like other Spencer Foundation programs, this program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not required to be developed around a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or geographic location. 

LOIs are due December 15, 2020. Invited proposals will be due January 12, 2021.

View the Racial Equity Special Research Grants opportunity

The History of Art program supports scholarly projects that will enhance the appreciation and understanding of European art and architecture.

LOIs are due December 15th; if selected to move forward, the full proposal will be due on January 15th.

View the History of Art Grants Program opportunity

The Conservation program supports the professional practice of art conservation, especially as it relates to European art of the pre-modern era.

LOIs are due December 15th; if selected to move forward, full proposals will be due January 15th.

View the Conservation Grants Program opportunity

AFAR provides awards to junior faculty (M.D. and Ph.D.) to conduct research that will serve as the basis for longer term research efforts.

LOIs are due December 15, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due in early April 2021.

View the Junior Faculty Grants - Aging Research opportunity 

This initiative provides timely support to a small number of research projects that are relatively high risk but which offer significant promise of yielding transforming discoveries in the fundamental biology of aging. 

LOIs are due December 15, 2020. Invited full proposals will be due in April 2021.

View the Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award opportunity

This program supports digitally based research projects in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences.

View the Digital Extension Grants opportunity

The Henry Luce Foundation’s Theology Program invites new inquiries for projects seeking to advance public knowledge on the topic of race, justice, and religion in America.

The Luce Foundation aims to support collaborative, experimental, and field-shaping initiatives that enliven the practice of public scholarship on—and promote public understanding of—race, justice, and religion in America. We invite inquiries for projects that seek to rethink received understandings of religion and race in America, to imagine alternative possibilities, and to alter the terms of public discourse.

The Foundation especially encourages the submission of inquiries for projects that will:

• Revisit and interrogate accepted histories of race and American religion
• Critically examine connections between religion, racism, and white supremacy
• Strengthen understanding of the role of religion in movements for racial justice
• Work across religious, racial, cultural, disciplinary, and/or institutional boundaries
• Draw on diverse knowledge communities and amplify underrepresented voices
• Attend to transnational movements, flows, engagements, and influences
• Deepen and extend efforts to build a more just, equitable, and democratic future

Grants may fund a wide range of possible activities, including (but not limited to):

• Public-facing humanities and social science scholarship
• Media initiatives and other forms of public and community engagement
• Support for early career scholars and emerging public thinkers
• Creative uses of digital technologies and new publication platforms
• Multi-institutional collaborations and partnerships of various kinds

Internal LOIs are due December 21, 2020. If selected to move forward, the sponsor LOI will be due February 15, 2021.

View the Advancing Public Knowledge on Race, Justice, and Religion in America opportunity

Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health seeks proposals from scientists, anthropologists, artists, urban planners, community leaders—anyone, anywhere who has a new or unconventional idea that could alter the trajectory of health, and improve health equity and well-being for generations to come. 

RWJF is particularly interested in breakthrough or unconventional ideas that address any of these four areas of focus: Future of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of Work. Additionally, it welcomes ideas that might fall outside of these four focus areas, but which offer unique approaches to advancing health equity and our progress toward a Culture of Health.

Average grants in this program in 2019 were about $315,000 over one to three years.

View the Pioneering Ideas Brief Proposal opportunity.

The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation funds research directed toward identifying new treatments or cures for cancer.

Applications are accepted December 31, April 30, and August 31 annually.

View the Cancer Research Grants opportunity