Brandeis Alumni, Family and Friends

News

Kellogg Foundation Launches Racial Equity 2030

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation’s Lever for Change program, recently announced the launch of Racial Equity 2030, a $90m global challenge to build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in the systems and institutions that perpetuate racial inequities. Early-stage ideas are welcome: in addition to $15-20m scaling grants, the program will award up to 10 one-year $1m planning grants, which includes nine months of capacity-building support to further develop their project and strengthen their application. The registration deadline is January 28.

Rose Art Museum Receives COVID Relief Grant from Frankenthaler Foundation

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation recently awarded a grant to Brandeis' Rose Art Museum, part of a $5m Covid-19 relief effort announced last spring, designed to aid small art museums and provide direct support to artists. The remainder of the latest $1.5m round of funding involves new two-year grants that promote equity in and access to the arts, including digital initiatives and professional opportunities for college students and recent graduates.

Other Upcoming Deadlines

Art History

The Kress Foundation History of Art Grants Program provides $6,000-$50,000 to support scholarly projects that will enhance the understanding and appreciation of European art and architecture. Grants are awarded to projects that create and disseminate specialized knowledge, including archival projects, development and dissemination of scholarly databases, documentation projects, museum exhibitions and publications, photographic campaigns, scholarly catalogs and publications, and technical and scientific studies. The deadline for applications is Jan. 15.

Neuroscience

The McKnight Foundation supports innovative research in neuroscience through three competitive annual awards that seek out investigators whose research shows promise in bringing society closer to prevention, treatments and cures for many devastating diseases. There are two awards with upcoming LOIs:
     - The Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards provide $200,000 over two years to encourage and support scientists working on the development of novel and creative approaches to understanding brain function. The deadline for LOIs is Dec. 7.
     - The Scholar Awards provide $225,000 over three years to encourage emerging neuroscientists to focus on disorders of learning and memory. The deadline for applications is Jan. 4.
 
The Whitehall Foundation, through its programs of research grants and grants-in-aid, assists scholarly research in neuroscience. Research grants offer between $90,000-$225,000 for up to three years, and grants-in-aid offer $30,000 over a one-year period. The foundation emphasizes the support of young scientists at the beginning of their careers and productive senior scientists who wish to move into new fields of interest. The deadline for LOIs for both grants is Jan. 15.

Teaching

The Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation awards fellowships to present and prospective teachers, with an emphasis on teachers currently working at the college or university level, to enable them to study abroad or at some location or locations other than that with which they are most closely associated. The aim is to stimulate and broaden the minds of teachers so as to improve and enhance the quality of their instruction. Grants of $5,000 are primarily for travel and related expenses and not as salary substitutes, scholarships or grants in aid. The deadline for LOI submissions is Jan. 8. 

View more upcoming RFPs on our RFP calendar.

News

ASAP Announces First Round Grantees of Collaborative Research Network

Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) has announced its first round grantees of the ASAP Collaborative Research Network (CRN) to bring together investigators across disciplines, institutions, career stages, and geographies seeking to tackle key knowledge gaps in Parkinson’s development and progression. $161 million will be distributed over three years to 21 projects focusing on two areas: the biology of associate genes and neuro-immune interactions. 13 projects include researchers from higher education institutions, and their projects will attempt to unravel the biology of LRRK2 (the most common mutated gene in inherited Parkinson’s disease) and uncover the molecular mechanisms in the neuro-immune system. 

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced its newest cohort of five Moore Inventor Fellows, early-career investigators (10 years or less past terminal degree) pursuing inventions at an early stage that could lead to proof-of-concept work or advance an existing prototype of technology that tackles an important problem in scientific research, environmental conservation, or patient care. Each Fellow receives $675,000 over three years. An internal deadline for institutional nomination for the 2021 Moore Inventor Fellows competition is October 9 to limited-submissions@brandeis.edu.

Teagle Foundation Partners with NEH to Promote Humanities in Gen Ed

The Teagle Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities have jointly pledged $7 million to fund Cornerstone: Learning for Living Cornerstone: Learning for Living, a grant program to revitalize the role of humanities in general education. The initiative is dedicated to the proposition that reading transformative texts—regardless of authorship, geography, or the era that produced them—in community and under the guidance of an excellent humanities teacher, gives students the tools to interrogate themselves and their cultures and connect with the world democratically. The program offers planning grants up to $25,000 and implementation grants up to $350,000. 3-5 page concept papers are due December 1.

In 2019, the Teagle Foundation awarded Brandeis a three-year grant to support the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT), now a nationwide model of undergraduate civic engagement. 

Gates Foundation Awards $4.5 Million Grant for Evaluation of Family Planning in Africa

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a three-year, $4.5 million grant to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The maternal and child health researchers will conduct process evaluation research for the foundation’s family planning portfolios in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Gates Foundation emphasizes family planning as a key part of the broader commitment to empowering and improving family health. 

Hewlett Foundation Supports AidData with $1 Million

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced a $1 million grant to The College of William and Mary’s AidData, a search engine to improve how sustainable foreign aid is monitored and evaluated across sectors and disciplines. This grant will fund the second phase of AidData, to expand the database’s content to include project documents and donors. AidData is part of the William & Mary’s Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations. 

Mellon Foundation Awards $15 Million for the Institute for the Study for Global Racial Justice

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced a five-year, $15 million grant to establish the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University. This institute will use humanistic theories and approaches to study global issues of race and social justice, which could impact K-12 education and criminal justice reform. 

Upcoming RFP Deadlines

Art History

The Kress Foundation History of Art Grants Program provides $6,000-$50,000 to support scholarly projects that will enhance the understanding and appreciation of European art and architecture. Grants are awarded to projects that create and disseminate specialized knowledge, including archival projects, development and dissemination of scholarly databases, documentation projects, museum exhibitions and publications, photographic campaigns, scholarly catalogs and publications, and technical and scientific studies. The deadline for applications is Jan. 15.

Biomedical Science

The CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program provides funding and support to help scholars build their network and develop essential skills to become the next generation of research leaders. Researchers within the first five years of their first academic appointment from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply. The two-year award provides $100,000 in research support. The deadline for applications is Oct. 30.

Neuroscience

The McKnight Foundation supports innovative research in neuroscience through three competitive annual awards that seek out investigators whose research shows promise in bringing society closer to prevention, treatments and cures for many devastating diseases. There are two awards with upcoming LOIs:

1. The Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards provide $200,000 over two years to encourage and support scientists working on the development of novel and creative approaches to understanding brain function. The deadline for LOIs is Dec. 7.
2. The Scholar Awards provide $225,000 over three years to encourage emerging neuroscientists to focus on disorders of learning and memory. The deadline for applications is Jan. 4.

Social Sciences

The Russell Sage Foundation's Special Initiatives grants provide up to $175,000 over two years, primarily for graduate assistants and research costs. Principal Investigators can get a 1-month summer salary or, for non-faculty researchers, up to $20,000/yr for salary support. The deadline for LOI submissions is Nov. 11.

News

Arnold Ventures Funds UC Comprehensive Prison Violence Study

Arnold Ventures recently awarded the University of California, Irvine $2.7 million to conduct the most comprehensive study yet into the sources and consequences of prison violence. UCI’s Prison Violence Consortium will collect information through a systematic evaluation of policies, procedures, and staff training, as well as interviews with impacted individuals and key correctional and behavioral health professionals. The grant reflects the foundation’s mission of investing in evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice.

Knight Foundation Awards $1.7 Million for Internet Governance Research

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is handing out 20 grants totaling $1.7 million to support research on the rules, norms, and governance of the internet and digital platforms. The 14 grants going to higher education institutions will fund projects ranging from tech companies influencing behaviors through interface design and language choices to applications of due process principles to nongovernment digital platforms.

Carnegie Corporation Grant Supports Computational Social Science at The Ohio State University

With a 1:2 match from the Political Science Department, the two-year, $200,000 award will fund graduate students to assist with research at the Modeling Emergent Social Order (MESO) Lab, which studies and models the mutual relationship between international order and international conflict to inform policy. The grant will accelerate work on four different research areas, including developing a rigorous way of defining membership in the "liberal international order" and new ways of analyzing computationally the relationship between international conflict and domestic political order.

Notre Dame and IBM Launch Tech Ethics Lab

The University of Notre Dame, in partnership with IBM, launched the Tech Ethics Lab to research and promote models of ethical applications of technology in the tech, business, and government sectors. With a ten-year, $20 million commitment from IBM, the lab will bring together a diverse group of Notre Dame faculty and scholars to discuss technology-related ethics questions and evaluate frameworks and ideas.

Finalists Named MacArthur Foundation's Second 100&Change Grant Competition

The six finalists for the $100 million grant are proposing to scale programs that address ocean health, homelessness, oxygen therapy, health disparities, news deserts, and mosquito-borne disease. Only one is hosted by a university: Project ECHO, a program at the University of New Mexico that deploys telemedicine to deliver care to underserved communities. Macarthur will promote all 100 semifinalists on its Bold Solutions Network, which has attracted an additional $419 million to date from other funders and philanthropists to 100&Change runners-up.

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Awards $4.5 Million to Advance Innovative Approaches to Fighting Neurodegenerative Diseases

CZI’s Neurodegeneration Challenge Networks (NCN) program has committed $4.5 million to support 30 pairs of researchers from 16 universities to collaborate and apply novel approaches for gaining greater insight into neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. NCN brings new ideas and scientists together from different disciplines to understand the basic cellular mechanics of neurodegenerative diseases. Over the next two years, scientists will begin to study an emerging link between mitochondria and Parkinson's disease, as well as utilizing early cell death to mitigate widespread neurodegeneration.

Henry Luce Foundation Funds Virginia Tech Project on Humanity and Technology

The $500,000 grant from Luce’s Theology program will support “Future Humans, Human Futures,” a three-year research project based at Virginia Tech’s Center for Humanities. The project brings religious and ethical perspectives to bear on what it means to be human in our technological era, and the grant will fund research institutes that bring together experts in synthetic biology, cybernetics, religion, and theology. Sylvester Johnson, the PI, serves as executive director of Tech for Humanity, which focuses on human-centered approaches to technology and innovation through artificial intelligence.

Upcoming RFP Deadlines

Art History

The Samuel Kress Foundation devotes its resources to advancing the history, conservation and enjoyment of the vast heritage of European art, architecture and archaeology from antiquity to the early 19th century. There are two grants with deadlines of Oct. 1.

• The Digital Resources Grants program supports efforts to integrate new technologies into the practice of art history and the creation of important online resources in art history, including both textual and visual resources. The awards range from $25,000-$100,000.

• The History of Art Grants program supports scholarly projects that will enhance the understanding and appreciation of European art and architecture. The awards range from $6,000-$50,000. 

Biological and Physical Sciences

The Eppley Foundation for Research funds innovative, risky scientific research in "pure or applied science…in chemistry, physics and biology," with awards ranging between $10,000 and $35,000. Recent grants reflect an interest in ecology and environmental science. Brief LOIs should be received by Sep. 15.

Child Health

The Charles H. Hood Foundation Child Health Research Awards Program awards two-year grants of $150,000 to early-career faculty. Grants support hypothesis-driven clinical, basic science, public health, health services research and epidemiology projects focused on child health. The deadline for applications is Sep. 15.

Neuroscience

The Whitehall Foundation, through its programs of research grants and grants-in-aid, assists scholarly research in neuroscience. Research grants offer between $90,000 and $225,000 for up to three years, and grants-in-aid offer $30,000 over a one-year period. The foundation emphasizes the support of young scientists at the beginning of their careers and productive senior scientists who wish to move into new fields of interest. The deadline for LOIs for both grants is Oct. 1.

Social Sciences

The Russell Sage Foundation's Special Initiatives grants provide up to $175,000 over two years, primarily for graduate assistants and research costs. Principal Investigators can get a 1-month summer salary or, for non-faculty researchers, up to $20,000/yr for salary support. The deadline for LOI submissions is Nov. 11.

View more upcoming RFPs on our RFP calendar.

News

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Makes Second Round of Essential Open Source Software for Science (EOSS) Grants

CZI's EOSS program funds the maintenance, further development, and visibility of the open-source software tools that biomedical scientists rely upon in their research, with one-year grants of $50,000-250,000. The 32 first-round awards (December 2019) supported common software tools for reproducible research and data analysis, as well as domain-specific libraries used by thousands of researchers in specific fields of biomedicine. The 23 second-round awards expand the portfolio to include open-source tools used in clinical medicine, two established libraries for biomedical workflows and pipelines, foundational support for real-time collaboration in notebooks, and widely used libraries to accelerate data analysis via parallel computing, graph analysis, and multidimensional data representation. Applications for the third round of EOSS funding open on June 16. 

Templeton Foundation Awards $3.9 million to Villanova for Theology/Science Engagement

Villanova University has received a three-year, $3.9 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to explore how the theology engages and draws upon human biology and social science to understand human nature. The new interdisciplinary research initiative “Collaborative Inquiries in Christian Theological Anthropology” will bring scholars from Villanova together with researchers from 13 other colleges and universities to address topics such as human flourishing, moral agency, freedom, and the development of virtue.

Gates Foundation Awards Round 24 of Grand Challenges Explorations

Eleven projects will receive $100,000 each to improve the coverage, reach, efficiency, and effectiveness of public health campaigns.  The four university-based projects range from developing computational and organizational learning tools to improving vaccine delivery for low-and middle-income countries.

Universities Partner with Facebook on COVID-19 Data Research

The University of Maryland and Carnegie Mellon University are partnering to design a worldwide survey to help areas most impacted and assist public health officials in their response and prevention efforts, for Facebook to distribute to its over 2 billion active monthly users. With an interdisciplinary group of faculty members, the survey will focus on symptoms, social distancing behavior, and demographic information, with the initial of develop reopen plans for countries hit hard by COVID-19.

Astellas Pharma and Harvard Establish Strategic Research Alliance

The three-year strategic alliance will support multiple, multi-year, faculty-initiated research projects aimed at research and development of innovative therapeutics and technologies. Tokyo-based pharmaceutical conglomerate Astellas will issue “challenges” and select Harvard faculty proposals based on scientific rationale and projected patient impact.

Five Early-Career Researchers Selected for the 2020 William T. Grant Scholars Program 

Young social, behavioral, and health scientists at Brown and BU are among the 2020 cohort of William T. Grant Foundation Scholars, who will receive $350,000 to strengthen their interdisciplinary research skills, as well as participate in professional development with fellow scholars, foundation staff, and other senior researchers.

Carnegie Corporation of New York Names Winners of Andrew Carnegie Fellowships

The 2020 cohort’s research topics include civic engagement, factors driving economic disparities, environmentalism, climate change, and online radicalization. Carnegie Fellowships enable faculty in the humanities and social sciences to devote significant time to research, writing and publishing on questions that address pressing and urgent social issues. Brandeis is invited to nominate one candidate each fall. Brandeis’ successful 2019 nominee Sarah Lamb is using her $200,000 award to advance her cross-cultural research on aging.

Upcoming RFPs

Astronomy/Chemistry/Physics

The Cottrell Scholar Award 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. Cottrell Scholar Awards are for three-year projects in the amount of $100,000. Eligible applicants are tenuretrack faculty members whose primary appointment is in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics, and who started their first tenuretrack appointment anytime in the calendar year 2017. The deadline for preproposals is Jul. 1.

Biomedical Science

The Vilcek Foundation will award three prizes of $50,000 each to young (born on or after Jan. 1, 1981), foreign-born biomedical scientists who demonstrate outstanding early achievement. Eligible work may be in basic, applied and/or translational biomedical science. The deadline for applications is Jun. 10.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation provides research support to young chemistry and life sciences faculty in the early stages of their academic career. As part of the Beckman Young Investigator Program, applications are encouraged to propose innovative advances in their fields, which is also distinct from previous research. Typical projects are funded for four years up to $600,000. The deadline for LOIs is Aug. 3.

The Human Frontier Science Program Is awarding three-year postdoctoral fellowships with an emphasis on novel research. Proposals are encouraged to be interdisciplinary in nature and potentially transformative in the life sciences. Fellowship is offered through two tracks: cross-disciplinary (i.e. physics, chemistry, mathematics) and long-term (biological that is significantly different from previous work). The deadline for application is Aug. 27.

Cancer Research

The Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award supports the next generation of creative, “high risk/high reward” ideas that have the potential to impact our understanding and approaches to the diagnosis and/or treatment of cancer. This award is available to tenure-track assistant professors for $400,000 over the first two years, with the opportunity for up to two additional years of funding. The deadline for applications is Jul. 1.

Foreign Policy

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. The Foundation will award at least three research grants of $60,000 each for recipients to research and write a book. The deadline for applications is Jun. 15.

Social Sciences

The William T. Grant Foundation Research Grants program supports theory-building and empirical research projects on reducing inequality or improving the use of research evidence. Research grants on reducing inequality typically range from $100,000 to $600,000 and cover two to three years of support. Improving the use of research evidence grants will range from $100,000 to $1 million and cover two to four years of support. The deadline for LOIs is Aug. 4.

The Russell Sage Foundation Research Grant provide a maximum of $150,000 over two years to support innovative projects that collect or analyze new data to illuminate issues that are highly relevant to the foundation’s program areas of behavioral economics; race, ethnicity, and immigration; social inequality; and immigration and immigrant integration. The foundation encourages projects that are interdisciplinary and combine both quantitative and qualitative research. The deadline for LOIs is Aug. 5.

View more upcoming RFPs on our RFP calendar.

News

W.T. Grant Foundation Announces 2020 Institutional Challenge Grant Winners

The W.T. Grant, Spencer, and Doris Duke Charitable Foundations recently awarded $650,000 each to the University of California, Berkeley, Boston College, and Northwestern University to build partnerships with public agencies and nonprofit organizations to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. Boston College’s School of Social Work will partner with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley to evaluate a recently piloted intervention to prevent homelessness and mitigate its impacts on K-12 students. Applications for the fourth round of Institutional Challenge Grants open in early June.

Lever for Change Launches $10 Million Climate Action Competition

The new grant competition seeks the most impactful and durable solutions to cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the building, industrial, and/or transportation sectors by 2030.  Lever for Change is the  Macarthur Foundation's umbrella initiative for large-investment, "big bet" grant competitions to address the world's most pressing challenges, including improving the lives of the refugees, improving the economic health of low-income families and increasing women's influence in the US. It builds on the foundation's $100 million 100&Change grant program. 

Foundations and Corporations Continue to Steer Resources to COVID19-Response

During April, foundations and corporations continued in their commitments to address the COVID-19 Pandemic. While many have committed resources to support underserved communities (Mitsubishi, Chan Zuckerberg, Mellon Foundation, Barr, Kresge, Mott, Citi) including those who are food insecure (Citi, Project 100), other organizations are prioritizing medical supplies and training (Rockefeller, Citi, Helmsley); and some are harnessing contact tracing and other data points to address and slow the spread of future pandemics (Bloomberg, Rockefeller).

Upcoming RFPs

Astronomy/Chemistry/Physics

The Cottrell Scholar Award 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. Cottrell Scholar Awards are for three-year projects in the amount of $100,000. Eligible applicants are tenuretrack faculty members whose primary appointment is in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics, and who started their first tenuretrack appointment anytime in the calendar year 2017. The deadline for preproposals is Jul. 1.

Biomedical Science

The Vilcek Foundation will award three prizes of $50,000 each to young (born on or after Jan. 1, 1981), foreign-born biomedical scientists who demonstrate outstanding early achievement. Eligible work may be in basic, applied and/or translational biomedical science. The deadline for applications is June 10.

Social Sciences

The Russell Sage Foundation Project Awards provide a maximum of $150,000 over two years to support innovative projects that collect or analyze new data to illuminate issues that are highly relevant to the foundation’s program areas of behavioral economics; the future of work; race, ethnicity, and immigration; and social inequality. The foundation encourages projects that are interdisciplinary and combine both quantitative and qualitative research. The deadline for LOIs is May 21. 

View more upcoming RFPs on our RFP calendar.