Foundation Funding

 Additional Information:

The McKnight Scholar Awards are given to exceptional young scientists who are in the early stages of establishing an independent laboratory and research career. The intent of the program is to foster the commitment by these scientists to research careers that will have an important impact on the study of the brain. The program seeks to support scientists committed to mentoring neuroscientists from underrepresented groups at all levels of training. Applicants for the McKnight Scholar Award must demonstrate their ability to solve significant problems in neuroscience, which may include the translation of basic research to clinical practice. Each year, up to ten scholars are selected to receive three years’ support. Currently, awards are $75,000 per year. Funds may be used in any way that will facilitate development of the Scholar’s research program, but not for indirect costs. Online Application opens on August 12, 2024.

For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu. 

Learn More about McKnight Foundation—Scholar Awards-Neuroscience

Additional Information:

Through X-Prize Healthspan, $101 million will be available in a 7-year global competition to revolutionize human aging. Traditional medicine focuses on treating symptoms of injury, illness, or disease once they develop. This reactive system extends life, but doesn’t proactively improve health, leaving millions grappling with poor quality of life and related economic challenges in their later years.  *Competition guidelines: https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/5cb25086-82d2-4c89-94f0-8450813a0fd3/e98c4a7b-a2a5-4929-a2fd-5649bb947a08/XPRIZE%20Healthspan%20Preliminary%20Competition%20Guidelines_V1.0.pdf. 

*These are draft guidelines. Final guidelines will be published in 2024, after a six month comment period.

Challenge:

A major differentiating factor for Healthspan is its focus on health and quality of life, not longevity. This includes the development of easily provable biomarkers of aging, accepted by scientists and policymakers alike. We are also working to ensure that the treatment developed is widely accessible to a general population. People are already living longer - the issue we’re addressing is the fact that health degrades significantly in our later years. Many longevity treatments we hear about today are prohibitively expensive for most people or require extensive tests and procedures. If these trials are successful, we will prove that it is possible to improve health as we age. This prize will help us begin to create guidelines and new solutions for healthy aging.  Success would profoundly change our approach to aging and positively affect quality-of-life and healthcare costs. Working across all sectors, we can democratize health and create a future where aging is full of potential.

Ideal Outcome:

The specific goal will be to develop an accessible therapeutic that reduces the risk of chronic age-related diseases, increases human healthspan, and extends quality of life in our later years. The winning team of the $101M XPRIZE Healthspan must demonstrate that their therapeutic treatment restores muscle, cognitive, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years, with a goal of 20 years, in persons aged 65-80 years. The therapeutic treatment must take 1 year or less.

Teams:

Health span in intended to be a “radically collaborative” effort. Prize contestants will be teams, to be formed by those interested in participating in the competition.  Teams will register on the site at:  https://www.xprize.org/prizes/healthspan.  It is anticipated that competitors from biotechnology companies, academic investigators, research networks and institutes, from within and beyond the field of aging and geroscience will compete. Teams can originate from any nation or combination of nationalities. Teams can take the form of a for-profit corporation, a non-profit or academic institution. No government entities are allowed to register. A winning idea can come from anywhere and anyone.  Potentially 100’s of teams are expected to compete.

Prize Categories:

First Milestone:

• After 2 years, up to 40 of the registered teams (as selected by the Judging Panel) will each receive a $250,000 award (total of $10M) to support their ongoing work. The remaining teams are invited to continue in the competition. This award is determined by the judges based upon evidence and materials submitted by teams
• After 3 to 4 years, up to 10 of the registered teams (as selected by the Judging Panel) will each receive a $1M award (total of $10M). The remaining teams are invited to continue in the competition.

Second Milestone:

• After 3 to 4 years, up to 10 of the registered teams (as selected by the Judging Panel) will each receive a $1M award (total of $10M). The remaining teams are invited to continue in the competition.

Grand Prize Awards:

• Any team who conclusively demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the Judging Panel, a functional improvement of at least 10 years in all three systems (muscle, cognition, and immune), compared with controls, through a therapeutic treatment lasting 1 year (or less) is eligible to win $61 Million of the purse. This purse is paid out only if no team achieves the award at the 15 year or 20-year functional restoration level.
• Any team who conclusively demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the Judging Panel, a functional improvement of at least 15 years in all three systems (muscle, cognition, and immune), compared with controls, through a therapeutic treatment lasting 1 year (or less) is eligible to win $71 Million of the purse. This purse is paid out only if no team achieves the award at the 20-year functional restoration level.
• Any team who conclusively demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the Judging Panel, a functional improvement of at least 20 years in all three systems (muscle, cognition, and immune), compared with controls, through a therapeutic treatment lasting 1 year (or less) is eligible to win $81 Million of the purse.
• A bonus purse totaling $10,000,000 will be awarded to the First Place Team on the Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD) Bonus Prize. The best team who conclusively demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the FSHD Judging Panel, an improvement of at least 10 years in muscle function, compared with controls, through a therapeutic treatment lasting 1 year (or less) is eligible to win the $10 Million bonus prize purse.

For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu

Learn More about X-Prize-Healthspan

Additional Information:

XPRIZE Water Scarcity is a $119 million, 5-year global competition designed to drive widespread access to clean water by creating reliable, sustainable, and affordable seawater desalination systems. It is made possible through the support of the Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative, a non-profit organization committed to driving coordinated action to address the growing threat of global water scarcity, founded by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

Traditional desalination methods are unaffordable to low- to medium-income countries, face increasing threats to operations from pollution and climate change, and drive negative environmental impacts, making them an unsustainable solution to mitigating water scarcity. XPRIZE Water Scarcity will generate novel seawater desalination technologies that will be reliable, affordable, and sustainable, increasing access to clean water. If this prize is successful, it will significantly help reduce the risk of water scarcity and help alleviate water stress worldwide, while protecting the environment. New, reliable, cost effective, and sustainable desalination solutions will allow widespread access to clean water. Utilizing seawater desalination technology, allowing us to access more than 96% of Earth's water resources year-round will help drive a world where clean water is equitably and sustainably abundant, enabling people and the environment to prosper.

XPRIZE Water Scarcity is set to revolutionize desalination - reimagining systems, methods, and materials to drive its scalable and sustainable use. We encourage global innovators from various fields to identify solutions to effectively disrupt this industry. XPRIZE competitions are driven by teams of innovative groups and individuals, comprising subject matter experts, enthusiasts, start-ups, student teams, amateurs, and all problem-solvers in between. A winning idea can come from anyone, anywhere. The winning teams will create new desalination solutions to enable future-proof water supply for communities and ecosystems. These solutions must be scalable, cost-effective, reliable, and resilient in a changing climate. They should demonstrate enhanced environmental sustainability across energy and materials and minimize harm to marine life. ??

NOTE: It is essential to form a team of national/international partners for this competition.

Competition Guidelines

https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/5cb25086-82d2-4c89-94f0-8450813a0fd3/de83ea1c-62ff-4de1-901c-f2bfbefb91ff/XPRIZE%20Water%20Scarcity%20Guidelines_Version%201_1March2024.pdf

NOTE: The guidelines are currently in draft form and open to public feedback until June 1, 2024 after which they will be finalized.

How To Win

In addressing global water scarcity, we focus on two strategic pathways:

?    Track A - The New Desalination System – (Award: $70 million, plus $20 million Moonshot Award.) The winning team will reliably and most sustainably generate one million liters of potable water per day (1,000 m3/ day) from seawater at the lowest cost, below a target benchmark to ensure global accessibility, over the course of 1 year.

?    Track B - Novel Membrane Materials – (Award: $9.5 million.)  The winning team will most sustainably and cost-effectively treat seawater to potable water quality using reverse osmosis membranes, demonstrating an operational lifetime of 10 years or more.

For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu. 

Learn More about X-Prize: Water Scarcity Competition

Grant Details:

The Thrasher Research Fund provides grants for clinical, hypothesis-driven research that offers substantial promise for meaningful advances in preventing, diagnosing, and treating children’s diseases, particularly research with the potential for broad-based applications.

The fund invites concept papers for its early-career awards program. Grants of up to $25,000 will be awarded in support of medical research in children’s health conducted by new researchers under the guidance of a mentor. In this funding cycle, the fund anticipates awarding grants to 16 researchers with the potential to become independent principal investigators. The fund is open to various research topics, as it does not focus on a particular disease but on children’s health broadly defined. However, the fund is particularly interested in applicants with great potential to impact children’s health through medical research.

Applicants must be a physician in a residency/fellowship training program, or have completed that program no more than one year before the concept paper deadline; or a postdoctoral researcher who has received a doctoral-level degree no more than three years before the date of submission of the concept paper.

Concept papers are due September 5, 2024, at 12 noon MT, and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, due October 29, 2024, at 12 noon MT.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see website.

For more information, please contact Jess Bitting bitting7@msu.edu

Learn More about Thrasher Research Fund Early Career Awards

Grant Details:

The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Education & Research Foundation awards grants that help advance its vision of a world in which all operative procedures in health care are accomplished with the least possible physical trauma, discomfort, and loss of productive time for the patient.

The foundation works to advance laparoscopic, endoscopic, and other minimal access surgical methods by supporting reproducible scientific research and outcome studies, graduate and postgraduate education, and public information.

The foundation invites applications for projects that align with its mission, goals, or objectives. The foundation will consider grant requests from $1,000 to $100,000 over one year and expects to allocate a total of between $500,000 and $600,000 in 2024-25.

Eligible organizations include those tax-exempt as defined by section 501(c)(3) or section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see website.

For more information, please contact Jess Bitting bitting7@msu.edu

Learn More about SAGES Education & Research Fund Minimal Access Surgical Methods Research Grants

Additional Information:

American public education prepares all students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need to be active participants in a robust democracy and to be successful in the global economy. Under this program, Carnegie has the following Focus Areas:

1. Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning. Improving systems of preparing, recruiting, and developing teachers and education leaders to serve the needs of diverse learners;
2. New Designs to Advance Learning. Developing whole-school models that provide more effective learning environments for diverse learners; 
3. Public Understanding. Supporting research on strategies that can drive parent and family engagement in education;
4. Pathways to Postsecondary Success. Improving alignment in student learning expectations between K-12 and postsecondary education; improving postsecondary education;
5. Integration, Learning, and Innovation. Advancing integrated approaches across the Corporation’s portfolios and the field that enable greater collaboration, coherence, and dynamism.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu

Learn More about Carnegie Corporation of New York - Education

Additional Information:

Evidence for Action (E4A) prioritizes research to evaluate specific interventions (e.g., policies, programs, practices) that have the potential to counteract the harms of structural and systemic racism and improve health, well-being, and equity outcomes. Our focus on racial equity means we are concerned both with the direct impacts of structural racism on the health and well-being of people and communities of color (e.g., Black, Latina/o/x, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, and other races and ethnicities), as well as the ways in which racism intersects with other forms of marginalization, such as having low income, being an immigrant, having a disability, or identifying as LGBTQ+ or a gender minority.

For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu

Learn More about Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Evidence For Action: Innovative Research to Advance Racial Equity

The mission of the Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color. Funding program areas include:
 

• Health Care Delivery System Reform
• Health Care Coverage and Access
• Advancing Health Equity
• Controlling Health Care Costs
• Federal and State Health Policy
• International Health Policy and Practice Innovations
• Advancing Medicare
• Tracking Health System Performance
• Medicaid

Within these programs, preference is given to proposals that seek to: clarify the scope of serious and neglected problems; develop, test, and evaluate the impact of practical, innovative models for addressing such problems; disseminate tools and models of care that have been proven to be effective; or analyze the impact of particular policies or trends. To review descriptions of funding priorities and lists of recently approved grants, please click on the programs above.

For more information, please contact Jess Bitting at bitting7@msu.edu.

Learn More about The Commonwealth Fund - Grants to Improve Health Care Practice and Policy

This funding opportunity seeks proposals primed to impact health equity moving forward. We are interested in ideas that address any of these four areas of focus: Future of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of Work. Additionally, we welcome 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.

We want to hear 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 wellbeing for generations to come. The changes we seek require diverse perspectives and cannot be accomplished by any one person, organization, or sector. 

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu

Learn More about Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health

Responsive Grants provide opportunities to build knowledge and increase understanding of East and Southeast Asia through scholarship and exchange, with an emphasis on strengthening capacity in the United States. They typically support research and training, the creation of scholarly and public resources, and intellectual and cultural exchange between Americans and Asians.  These grants are deliberately broad, allowing the Asia Program to respond to new ideas and keep abreast of trends, needs and priorities relevant to Asia-focused work in our three grant making areas (academic work, foreign policy, public education). Most awards are made to colleges, universities, think tanks, museums and other non-profit organizations based in the United States.

Our interests include:

• Asia-focused teaching and research initiatives, typically for multi-year projects whose benefits extend beyond a single institution to advance the broader field of Asian studies. The majority of our funded work is in the humanities and qualitative social sciences, including projects that seek to reexamine the conventional area studies model and explore new approaches to training and research.
• Development and dissemination of library, archival, research and pedagogical resources, including digital resources.
• Policy dialogues and other projects with policy relevance.
• Efforts to educate and inform non-specialist audiences about Asia, through museum exhibitions, journalism and media offerings, and cultural programming.
• Next generation training and leadership development.
• Collaboration, exchange, and border-crossing initiatives, including across geographic, disciplinary, institutional and/or sectoral divides. This may include work that spans the divides of our own grantmaking areas, such as projects that bridge the gap between academic and policy work, or between scholarship and broader public education

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu

Learn More about Henry Luce Foundation - Asia Program

Mellon’s Public Knowledge program supports the creation and preservation of the cultural and scholarly record—vast and ever-expanding—that documents society’s complex, intertwined humanity. The program works with archives, presses, and a range of university, public, and other local, national, and global libraries that are foundational to knowledge production and distribution in culture and the humanities. The program’s goal is to increase equitable access to deep knowledge that helps to build an informed, heterogeneous, and civically engaged society. We aspire to cultivate networks and maintainable infrastructure, expand digital inclusion, and ensure that more authentic, reflective, and nuanced stories are revealed, preserved, and told.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu

Learn More about Mellon Foundation - Public Knowledge

Additional Information:

From poverty to health, to education, our areas of focus offer the opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people. So we build partnerships that bring together resources, expertise, and vision—working with the best organizations around the globe to identify issues, find answers, and drive change.

Our work depends on grantees and partners across the United States and in more than 130 countries who have on-the-ground expertise, a deep understanding of the issues we care about, and strong ties with the communities in which we aim to make a difference. At the same time, we have learned the value of having foundation representatives based in key regions—to help us build relationships with partner organizations and governments, better understand the policy environment, and remain culturally sensitive.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Additional Information:

We support artist-driven film and new media storytelling projects that explore aspects of inequality, as well as the organizations and networks that support these projects.

JustFilms accepts inquiries for grants year-round, averaging between 800 and 1,000 inquiries annually. We welcome submissions from any region of the world. Our funds are limited, and we are able to support only a small percentage of these projects through direct grants.  All projects submitted for JustFilms grants will be judged on the basis of:

• Artistic excellence
• Contemporary relevance
• Alignment with Ford priorities
• Potential for strategic impact
• Potential to transform stereotypes, beliefs, and value systems
• Creativity and innovation in form
• Potential to build cultural power and voice in marginalized communities

For more information, please contact Larry Wallach at wallach@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Ford Foundation - Just Films Program

Additional Information:

The Henry Luce Foundation believes in the power of visual art to spark dialogue that celebrates creativity, explores difference, and forges common ground. Through our support for museum projects that foreground diverse experiences and perspectives, the Henry Luce Foundation empowers institutions to challenge accepted histories, elevate underrepresented voices, and promote critical conversations. We embrace the role of American art and art collections in realizing more vibrant and empathetic communities.

The Foundation funds projects in three different categories:

• Exhibition Competition – The American Art Program supports scholarly loan exhibitions that contribute significantly to the study and understanding of art of the United States, including all facets of Native American art. The loan exhibition grants advance the Program’s efforts to empower art museums to reconsider accepted histories, foreground the voices and experiences of underrepresented artists and cultures, and welcome diverse collaborators and communities into dialogue.
• Responsive Grants – Through its Responsive Grants, the American Art Program seeks to support a wide range of collection-based projects that advance the understanding and presentation of art of the United States. Eligible collection areas include paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, decorative arts, naïve and outsider art, traditional and studio crafts, architecture, design, and all aspects of Native American arts.
• Support for Individuals – Support for scholarly training in Art History is offered through the annual awarding of dissertation fellowships to doctoral candidates at colleges and universities in the United States. Administered by the American Council of Learned Societies on behalf of the Luce Foundation, the program provides stipends as well as travel and research funds.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu.  

Learn More about Henry Luce Foundation - American Art Program

Additional Information:

The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to deepen understanding of religion as a source of division and a site of common ground, an agent of inequality and a force for social transformation. Our work strengthens knowledge of religion’s complex and contested place in public life; diversifies intellectual inquiry in this area; and promotes more curious and civil public conversations. We build initiatives that creatively engage religion in pursuit of a more just and compassionate future.

The program awards grants primarily to organizations and institutions for dedicated projects, though more flexible funding can also be requested. Those interested in applying for a grant can submit a concept note through our online portal at any time.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu.  

Learn More about Henry Luce Foundation - Religion and Theology Program

 

Additional Information:

Sloan's programs in Digital Technology explore how the internet and computing technology are creating new opportunities to empower the scientific enterprise and expand the public's access to knowledge.  Ongoing specific program areas include:

• Better Software for Science – Software is increasingly central to scientific research, but academia often fails to leverage best practices for software engineering from industry or elsewhere. To realize the full potential of software in advancing discovery—whether in data science, computational modeling, or machine learning—this program aims to adapt and extend approaches from other contexts into academic software development while recognizing the unique workflows and incentives of the research enterprise. Rather than funding individual scientific software development projects, grants in this area focus mainly on tooling, institutions, economic models, and incentives around the production, maintenance, and adoption of research software. 
• Exploratory Grantmaking in Technology – The Sloan Foundation continually explores the intersection of research and technology to identify emerging focus areas where recent innovation, changing contexts, or scarce funding open up potential opportunities for new programs. Exploratory grantmaking is intended to bring community needs and priorities into sharper focus and allow us to determine whether there is a clear strategy and potential impact for the Foundation in a specific area. Supported activities may include workshops and other expert convenings, early software development and prototyping, landscape analyses, development of protocols and standards, initial research on and engagement with potential user communities, and demonstration or other proof-of-concept projects.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu.

Learn More about Alfred P. Sloan Foundation - Technology Program

Additional Information:

Support for basic scientific research lies at the core of the foundation’s mission.  Alfred P. Sloan Jr. felt strongly that future increases in human welfare would be driven by an increased understanding and mastery of the natural world and that it was thus important to support those scientific pioneers who are expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

Because our resources constitute such a small fraction of total societal investment in research, the Foundation must be extremely strategic both in the design of its grantmaking programs and in selecting individual projects for funding. In each of our science grantmaking programs, the Foundation seeks proposals for original projects led by outstanding individuals or teams, which exhibit a high degree of methodological rigor, which have a high expected return to society, and for which funding from the private sector, government, or other foundations is not yet widely available.  Ongoing specific program areas include:

• Economics – To provide public goods, including fundamental research, conceptual breakthroughs, and technical advances, that inclusively strengthen and accelerate U.S. economic progress.
• Energy & Environment – The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Energy and Environment program looks to achieve its mission by supporting research, training, networking, and dissemination efforts in this domain that shape the direction of scholarship by investigating under-explored questions that warrant further attention, advance collaborative and interdisciplinary research across the social and natural sciences, involve early career faculty and train the next generation of students, link research with practice, and partner with other funders to amplify programmatic impact. The program’s predominant geographic focus is the United States
• Matter-To-Life – To sharpen our scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter, and to explore the conditions under which physical principles and mechanisms guide the complexification of matter towards life.

For more information, please contact Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu. 

Learn More about Alfred P. Sloan - Scientific Research Program

Additional Information:

The Foundation supports institutions dedicated to humanist scholarship and artistic excellence through its Humanities, Research Libraries, and Venetian Programs. More information below:

Humanities: The Foundation intends to further the humanities along a broad front. Programs in the following areas are eligible: history; archaeology; literature; languages, both classical and modern; philosophy; ethics; comparative religion; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences which share the content and methods of humanistic disciplines.

Research Libraries: Improve the ability of research libraries to serve the needs of scholarship in the humanities and the performing arts, and to help make their resources more widely accessible to scholars and the general public. Primarily focused on European and American history

Venetian Research: Research focused on Venetian history, society, and culture.

For more information, please contact Cooper Adams at adamscoo@msu.edu or Melissa Anderson at ande2476@msu.edu. 

Learn More about The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation - Programs for Organizations

Additional Information:

To promote fidelity to the Constitution, The Bradley Foundation supports organizations and projects that advance federalism and limit government at the national, state, and local levels. The Foundation recognizes the threat to self-government that results when decision-making is delegated to the administrative state. Finally, the Foundation recognizes the increasing threats to our rights enshrined in the First Amendment and therefore supports organizations and projects that protect free speech; restore election integrity; promote citizen political engagement; uphold the rule of law and Constitutional order; and defend the free exercise of religion.

For more information, please contact Jess Bitting at bitting7@msu.edu. 

 

Learn More about Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - Constitutional Order Program

 Additional Information:

To advance free markets, The Bradley Foundation supports organizations and projects that reduce the size and power of public sector unions; advance free trade within the rule of law; and support deregulation of markets. 

For more information, please contact Jess Bitting at bitting7@msu.edu.

Learn More about Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - Free Markets Program