Closed Limited Submissions

Slots: Three total. One each for Chemical Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Life Sciences.

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: Friday, October 13, 2023, 5pm PT Under review.

Nomination Deadline: November 29, 2023

Letter of Support Deadline: December 13, 2023

Award Information

Award Type: Grant

Estimated Amount: $250,000 in unrestricted funding

Who May Serve As PI: The nominee must:

• Have been born in or after 1982.
• Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).
• Currently hold a tenured or tenure-track academic faculty position (or equivalent) at an invited institution in the United States.
• Currently conduct research as a principal investigator in one of the disciplinary categories in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, or Chemistry.

Nomination of underrepresented populations in STEM
In spite of tremendous advancements in scientific research, information, and education, opportunities are still not equally available to all. Women, persons with disabilities, and individuals identifying as Black, American Indian, or Hispanic/Latinx continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields^1,2. The Blavatnik Awards strongly encourages all those submitting nominations to the Awards—including institutional nominators, Scientific Advisory Council members, and past Blavatnik Awards Laureates—to diversify the population of candidates nominated for this Award.

Age Limit Exceptions
Age limit exceptions will be considered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in exceptional circumstances upon a detailed written submission from the nominating institution received by the New York Academy of Sciences by Wednesday, November 8, 2023. For more information, please contact us at blavatnikawards@nyas.org. We strongly encourage institutions considering nominating candidates born prior to 1982 to contact us as early as possible during the nomination period.

Dual or Joint Appointments
For nominees holding a dual or joint appointment at more than one institution, the nominee must be employed by the nominating institution at least 50% full-time effort.

Returning Nominees
Non-winning nominees from prior Blavatnik Awards nomination cycles are eligible to be re-nominated by their institutions as one of their three nominees, provided they still meet all eligibility requirements.

Re-Nomination of Past Finalists
Nominees previously recognized as Finalists of the Blavatnik National Awards are eligible for re-nomination by their institution for the 2024 Blavatnik National Awards, provided they meet the following requirements:

• Returning Finalists must still meet the eligibility requirements for the 2024 Blavatnik National Awards. For Returning Finalists born prior to 1982, age limit exception requests must be submitted and approved by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, as described above.
• Nomination of Returning Finalists must be pre-approved by the New York Academy of Sciences. A letter outlining the nominee’s significant new achievements since their last recognition by the Blavatnik National Awards must be submitted, along with an updated CV as described on the Nomination Materials & Instructions page.

Returning Finalists will count towards an institution’s limit of three nominees.

All relevant materials listed above must be submitted to blavatnikawards@nyas.org  by the institution’s official nominator by Wednesday, November 8, 2023, and must be approved by the New York Academy of Sciences before submission of nomination materials.

We strongly encourage institutions considering nominating a Returning Finalist to contact us as early as possible during the nomination period.

Link to Award: http://blavatnikawards.org/awards/national-awards/

Nomination Submission Link: https://blavatniknational.smapply.io/

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template

Materials to submit include:

• (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
• (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)

Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

Purpose

The Blavatnik National Awards honor America’s most innovative young faculty-rank scientists and engineers.

These awards celebrate the past accomplishments and future potential of young faculty members working in the three disciplinary categories of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry.

Nominees and their work as independent investigators will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.
• Impact: The extent to which the work addresses an important problem, advances scientific progress, and is influential in the nominee’s field, related fields, or beyond, and/or has the potential to benefit society.
• Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, establishes a new field or considerably expands on an existing field, employs original methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.
• Promise: The nominee has potential for further significant contributions to science, and the research program will generate further impactful and novel discoveries.

Nominating institutions are encouraged to consider candidates across the institution, focusing on the scope of the candidate’s work and its relevance within a given scientific category.  For example, an institution can nominate a Chemistry nominee who is not based in the Chemistry Department, but is leading a research program in one of the disciplinary categories covered by the Chemistry section of the Blavatnik Awards. Nominating institutions seeking more guidance may contact the Academy at blavatnikawards@nyas.org.

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.

Slots: University presidents may nominate one junior and one senior scholar. Regardless of title, a junior scholar is defined as someone who received a PhD within the last 10 years (2013–2023, for the 2024 fellowship program). 

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: Friday, September 22, 2023 Nominees chosen.

LOI: N/A

External Deadline: November 15, 2023

Award Information

Award Type: Grant

Estimated Number of Awards: 24-28

Anticipated Award Amount: $200,000

Who May Serve as PI: The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is open only to citizens or permanent residents of the United States whose names have been forwarded by a nominator designated by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Candidates must have a Ph.D., hold a terminal degree, or be a high-level professional working outside of academia. Nominators include heads of independent research institutes and societies, university presidents, leaders of some of the nation’s preeminent think tanks, and directors of major university presses, as well as editors of leading newspapers and magazines. Individuals may not apply for the fellows program via self-nomination.

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program prohibits a fellowship winner from accepting a fellowship of equal caliber or at a comparable level of funding as the Carnegie fellowship, especially awards that have specific time requirements. However, smaller grants and project support are acceptable on a case-by-case basis. 

Link to Award: https://www.carnegie.org/awards/award/andrew-carnegie-fellows/

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template

Materials to submit include:

• (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
• (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)

Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

Purpose

In June 2023, Carnegie Corporation of New York announced a second phase of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program and a new focus on political polarization in the United States. For at least the next three years, the program will ask scholars to help Americans understand how and why our society has become so polarized and what we can do to strengthen the forces of cohesion in American society. The next class of fellows will be announced in spring 2024. 

The fellows program was established in 2015 to provide philanthropic support to extraordinary scholars and writers for high-caliber research in the humanities and social sciences. During its first eight years, nearly 250 scholars received fellowships of $200,000 to explore a range of important and enduring issues.

After a one-year pause in 2022, the program has resumed with the focus on political polarization. The issue is characterized by threats to free speech, the decline of civil discourse, disagreement over basic facts, and a lack of mutual understanding and collaboration. In combination, these factors fracture our society, cause Americans to abandon the middle ground, and ultimately undermine our democracy.  

Fellowships of $200,000 are awarded annually to 30 exceptional scholars, authors, journalists, and public intellectuals. The criteria prioritize the originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the field, and the scholar’s plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience. The funding is for a period of one or two years with the anticipated result of a book or major study. The fellows are selected by a distinguished panel of jurors, chaired by John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, and comprised of academic and intellectual leaders from some of the nation’s most prominent educational institutions, foundations, and scholarly societies.  

The fellows program is a continuation of the mission of Carnegie Corporation of New York, as founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911, to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Through the study of political polarization in the United States, the Corporation seeks to raise awareness in the philanthropic sector, guide public policy, and help inform the foundation’s grantmaking in democracy, education, and international peace and security. 

Nominations are evaluated by the jury based on the following criteria: 
• Originality and promise of the idea 
• Quality of the proposal 
• Potential impact on the field 
• Record of the nominee 
• Plans to communicate findings to a broad audience

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.

Slots: 1 faculty member (Assistant or Associate Professor)

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: October 6th, 2023, 5pm PT Closed.

LOI: November 21, 2023, 5pm PT

External Deadline: March 15, 2024

Award Information

Award Type: Grant

Anticipated Award Amount: Each total grant is limited to $80,000 (direct costs) for a two year grant period.

Who May Serve as PI: To be eligible, PI must be a full-time Assistant or Associate Professor at an invited US academic institution, working in the area of 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. The grant proposal must detail a new research project that is not funded by other sources. This grant is not to be used as bridge funding.

Investigators at institutions that are affiliated with a medical school or university are eligible to apply only through the institution where they hold a full-time faculty position.

Scientists that have previously received a BRF Seed Grant may not receive the award for a second time unless all grant requirements from all previous awards are met. Only one PI may apply per application.

Ineligibility: 1.) PI is ineligible if they are not a full-time faculty member at the institution in which they are applying under.
2.) PI is ineligible if they are a Full Professor.

3.) PI is ineligible if they are a research assistant professor or research associate professor.

4.) PI is ineligible to submit more than one BRF Seed Grant proposal in a funding period.

5.) PI is ineligible if they have BRF funding that will overlap this grant period.

6.) PI is ineligible if they have been awarded prior BRF funding, but have failed to submit progress and financial reports at the end of their grant period.

7.) PI is ineligible if they are a member of the BRF Scientific Review Committee.

8.) PI is ineligible if they are a relative of BRF a representative, including the SRC, as defined by the Foundation.

Link to Award: https://www.thebrf.org/seed-grants/

Link to Guidelines: https://thebrf.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2024-SG-Guidelines.pdf

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template

Materials to submit include:

• (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
• (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)

Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

Purpose

The objective of the BRF Seed Grant Program is to support new and innovative projects, especially those of junior faculty, who are working in new research directions. BRF Seed Grant awards are not intended to supplement existing grants.

Brain Research Foundation’s Annual Seed Grant Program was initiated in 1981. The purpose of our program is to provide 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.

Funding Specifics:

Funding is to be directed at pilot research projects that are both innovative and will likely lead to successful grant applications to NIH and other public and private funding entities.

Assistant Professor – Junior faculty with a new research project that will generate pilot data that will lead to RO1 funding or a comparable outside grant will be first priority.
• Must provide abstract and specific aims for current grants and indicate if there is any overlap.

Associate Professor – Faculty who are pursuing new research directions.
• Must explain how the project is a new research direction.
• Must provide abstract and specific aims for current grant(s) and indicate if there is any overlap

A new technique is not considered a new direction unless it pertains to a different area of
study.

Grants are NOT to be used for bridge funding between grants.

Budgetary Requirements:

100% of these BRF Seed Grant funds must be utilized for direct costs.

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.