Grant Opportunities

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched two requests for proposals through the Grand Challenges Global Call-to-Action initiative. This new member of the Grand Challenges family of initiatives supports locally led research, exemplified by the five malaria projects funded through the request for proposals launched last year, Building Malaria Modeling Capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, there are requests for proposals launched by Grand Challenges Africa, by Grand Challenges Senegal, and by Grand Challenges Canada. All are listed below and open for applications.

Please check the website at the link below for the application deadlines and more information.

• Strengthening Modeling and Analytics Capacity and Ecosystem for Women's Health
• Pathogen Genomic Surveillance and Immunology in Asia
• African Agriculture Climate Adaptation Research System
• Strengthening the Contraceptive Research and Development Ecosystem in Africa: Accelerating Innovations in Non-Hormonal Contraception for Women
• Interventions to Enhance Epidemic Intelligence, Surveillance, and Outbreak Response
• Health Impacts of Climate Change

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invites applications for its Health Policy Research Scholars program. 

The four-year national leadership development program provides support for full-time doctoral students from nonclinical, research-focused disciplines in which policy is a key driver of change (e.g., urban planning; political science; economics; anthropology; education; social work; sociology; engineering; geography; and lab/bench sciences) whose aim is to improve health, well-being, and equity; challenge longstanding, entrenched systems; exhibit new ways of working; collaborate across disciplines and sectors; and bolster their leadership skills.

The goal of the program is to cultivate transformational leaders from diverse backgrounds with doctoral training who represent a wide range of research-focused disciplines and who will inform and influence policy. RWJF strongly encourages applications from non-health-related disciplines; having scholars from diverse fields is critical to advancing a Culture of Health.

To that end, up to 40 scholars will be selected to receive an annual stipend of $30,000 for up to four years or until they complete their doctoral program (whichever is sooner). Home institutions may include an administrative fee of $1,000 per year, $4,000 in total to the grant amount to cover the administrative costs of managing the award. 

Applicants must be full-time second- or third-year doctoral students as of fall 2023 at a degree-granting institution in the United States or its territories; must have at least three academic years remaining in their doctoral program and do not expect to graduate before spring/summer 2026; and must be from populations underrepresented in specific doctoral disciplines and/or marginalized backgrounds. Examples of eligible individuals include but are not limited to first-generation college graduates, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, individuals from communities of color, and individuals with disabilities.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website.

Deadline: Rolling

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has issued a call for proposals for Evidence for Action: Innovative Research to Advance Racial Equity. 

Evidence for Action (E4A), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, funds research that expands the evidence needed to build a Culture of Health, emphasizing advancing racial equity. According to RWJF, achieving racial equity is impossible without focusing on the foundational and structural drivers of health, often referred to as the social determinants of health (e.g., housing, education, built environment, economic opportunity, law enforcement, and others). Therefore, the fund partners with researchers, practitioners, community leaders, advocates, and policy makers to develop evidence about what works to dismantle or remedy unjust systems and practices and produce more equitable outcomes for people and communities of color. 

Evidence for Action 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. The foundation is 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 people, and other races and ethnicities)—as well as how 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.

This funding is focused on studies about upstream causes of health inequities, such as the systems, structures, laws, policies, norms, and practices that determine the distribution of resources and opportunities, which in turn influence individuals’ options and behaviors. Research should center on the needs and experiences of communities exhibiting the greatest health burdens and be motivated by real-world priorities. It should be able to inform a specific course of action and/or establish beneficial practices, not stop characterizing or documenting a problem's extent.

E4A seeks grantees who are deeply committed to conducting rigorous and equitable research and ensuring that their findings are actionable in the real world. In addition to research funding, RWJF also supports grantees with stakeholder engagement, dissemination of findings, and other activities that can enhance their projects’ potential to “move the needle” on health and racial equity.

Applicants' organizations must be based in the United States or territories to be eligible. Submissions from teams that include both U.S. and international members are eligible, but the lead applicant must be based in the United States. Preference will be given to applicant organizations that are either institute of higher education, public entities, or nonprofits that are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or Type III supporting organizations. Other types of nonprofit and for-profit organizations are also eligible to apply. RWJF may require additional documentation.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website.

Deadline: Rolling (Letter of Intent)

Rationale: 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.

Funding and Allowable Expenses: The Targeted Grant in MPS program provides funding for up to five years. The funding level and duration is flexible and should be appropriate based on the type of support requested in the proposal. There is no recommended or assumed funding level for this program.

Eligibility: Applications may be submitted by established U.S. and foreign public and private educational institutions and stand-alone research centers. PIs and co-Investigators must have a Ph.D. and a tenure-track or tenured position at said institutions or centers at the time of application. There are no citizenship or department requirements for PIs. Funding to U.S. national labs or salary support of scientists employed at these labs is not allowed. Scientists employed at national labs may be non-funded participants in a proposal/project and funding may be used to support travel or local expenses related to the participation of the lab-based scientist in activities related to the project.

How to Apply: Applicants must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) via the Simons Award Manager (SAM), https://sam.simonsfoundation.org/. The deadline is rolling, and an LOI can be submitted at any time.

Applications accepted beginning April 5, 2023

Grants awarded through the Cross-Species Studies of ASD request for applications (RFA) are intended to support multi-disciplinary teams of PIs with expertise in both human and animal research to perform coordinated cross-species studies to advance our understanding of ASD-relevant behaviors and their underlying neurobiological mechanisms, with the potential for developing novel biomarkers or interventions.

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.

Scientific software is a critical component of research, enabling scientists to analyze and reduce data, perform simulations, automate tasks, and produce and visualize results. As such, the development and maintenance of broadly-applicable scientific software has become an increasingly important intellectual endeavor. While scientific software experts are crucial members of research ventures, their career prospects beyond postdoctoral-level positions are limited.

The Simons Foundation invites applications for funding to support new research professor positions in existing academic departments (the “host institutions”) to be filled by scientific software-focused researchers. The SSRF Award will support researchers who have a strong track record of leadership in scientific software development. The aim of this program is to stimulate the development and maintenance of core scientific software infrastructure in academic environments through creating a new, long-term, faculty-level career path.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to building a Culture of Health rooted in equity that provides every individual with a fair and just opportunity to thrive, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they have. Unfortunately, some of us don’t have the same opportunities to realize our aspirations for ourselves and our families. A number of policies and legal structures place more value on some lives than others, based on race, class, gender, ZIP Code, and other factors. These structures can limit opportunities within public health, housing, education, work, safety, justice, and wealth-building.

RWJF supports research that identifies the systemic root causes of U.S. health inequities, which have strong links to structural racism and other forms of oppression. RWJF’s approach is to challenge and improve conventional methods and assumptions and source new ideas to generate evidence that can advance equity and justice for communities of color. Along with RWJF’s other signature research programs, Policies for Action (P4A) funds research that can move policy toward the goals of dismantling structural racism and injustice and promote health equity and wellbeing. Efforts to do this include funding diverse researchers and research organizations and disseminating policy research that is equity focused and actionable.

For this P4A call for proposals, the goal is to build the evidence base investigating how preemption policies at the state level may affect racial justice and health equity. Research should focus on how state-level preemption impacts local authority; apply a racial equity lens to the policy research processes and outcomes; and include community groups and/or members, especially those from historically marginalized communities, as leaders or partners in all stages of the research. Research findings are intended to inform and guide legislators; public agencies; public policy advocates; racial and other justice organizations; community organizers; and others who are developing and implementing policies to create thriving, healthy, equitable communities.

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.