Science

Corporate and Foundation Relations staff circulate a monthly list of grant opportunities for faculty and staff. By making this information available, we encourage you to consider seeking corporate and foundation grant support. Subscribe to receive monthly emails.

To learn more about these opportunities or discuss foundations or corporations that do not have active RFPs, please contact Jared Mouro, Foundation Relations Specialist: ag4956@wayne.edu.


Foundation Program Description Award Amount Deadline
Great Lakes Fishery Commission Fishery Research

Deadline is for pre-proposal; full applications are by invitation only and are due 6/1/2025. 

The purpose of this program is to generate and make accessible a portfolio of science to inform the conservation and rehabilitation of healthy Great Lakes ecosystems that sustain fisheries and benefit society.

Research theme areas describe a broad topic of importance to Great Lakes fishery management and are led by members of the BOTE. The BOTE particularly encourages cross-cutting proposals that demonstrate integration across two or more theme areas. Examples of how themes intersect are given in the program's conceptual diagram. Projects that do not fall under a current theme area may be supported under “non-theme” research.
Human Dimensions of Great Lakes Fishery Management
Re-establishment of Native Deepwater Fishes
Physical Processes and Fish Recruitment in Large Lakes
Energy and Nutrient Dynamics of Great Lakes Food Webs
Council of Lake Committees

Online Application: https://www.glfc.org/fishery-research.php 

$35,000- $400,000 1/15/2025
W.M. Keck Foundation Research Program

Deadline is for Letter of Inquiry; Full Applications are by invitation only and are due subsequently.

The W. M. Keck Research Program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting Medical Research and Science & Engineering projects that are distinctive and novel in their approach, question the prevailing paradigm, or have the potential to break open new territory in their field.

Past grants have been awarded to major universities, independent research institutions, and medical schools to support pioneering biological and physical science research and engineering, including the development of promising new technologies, instrumentation or methodologies.

Funding is awarded to universities and institutions nationwide for projects that are consistent with the Research Program’s funding priorities:

We Fund Projects That:
Focus on important and emerging areas of research
Have potential to develop breakthrough technologies, instrumentation, or methodologies
Are innovative, distinctive, and interdisciplinary
Demonstrate a high level of risk due to unconventional approaches or challenge the prevailing paradigm
Have potential for transformative impact such as the founding of a new field of research, enabling of new observations, or altering perception of a previously intractable problem
Fall outside the mission of public funding agencies
Demonstrate that W. M. Keck Foundation support is essential to the project’s success

Online Application: Research: Application Process - W.M. Keck Foundation (wmkeck.org)

$1,000,000- $5,000,000 5/1/2025
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Technology

Grant-seekers with a relevant research project or meeting idea should submit a Letter of Inquiry of no more than two pages to Program Director Joshua M. Greenberg at greenberg@sloan.org. When Alfred P. Sloan Jr. created this foundation in 1934, he envisioned it would serve as a vehicle for the creation and dissemination of scientific and economic knowledge. Few technological advances have revolutionized those activities more than the development of modern computing and the subsequent explosion in our ability to collect, manipulate, store, analyze, and transmit data. 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.                                                                                                                                            Data & Computational Research: The program goal is to accelerate scientific discovery by helping researchers fully exploit the opportunities created by recent advances in our ability to collect, transmit, analyze, store, and manipulate data.

Scholarly Communication: The program goal is to empower researchers by supporting the development and adoption of new resources for managing the increasingly diverse array of digital communication channels, enabling scientists to more effectively locate relevant research, network with other researchers, and disseminate their work to the scientific community and the public.

Better Software for Science: The program goal is to develop practices, norms and institutions that can better promote the development and adoption of discovery-enhancing software.

Exploratory Grantmaking in Technology: The program goal is to identify areas at the intersection of research and technology where a strategic investment of Foundation resources might be leveraged to empower scholarship.

Emailed Application: https://sloan.org/programs/digital-technology

Varies Rolling
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Energy & Environment

Must coordinate with Foundation Relations. The goal of the program is to inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues.
Programs:

  • Energy Markets and Policy Analysis
  • Net Zero Innovation and Negative Emissions Technologies
  • Transportation and Mobility
  • Energy and Distributional Equity
  • Industrial Decarbonization
  • Energy Systems and Climate Adaptation

Online application: https://sloan.org/grants/apply

$500,000 Rolling
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Matter-to-Life Program Grant-seekers with a relevant research project or meeting idea should submit a Letter of Inquiry of no more than two pages to Program Director Ernie Glover at mattertolife@sloan.org. Sloan's Matter-to-Life program aims to sharpen our scientific understanding of life by supporting curiosity-driven research falling within three focus areas: Building Life, Principles of Life, and Signs of Life. These areas define a broad scientific scope for understanding the physical principles and mechanisms governing living systems, while also highlighting an openness to exploring life broadly conceived by instantiating the distinctive functions of living systems in entities built using various matter platforms. The program will also support scientific meetings that promote information exchange, the development of collaborations, and self-organizing efforts aimed at making a case to other funders for supporting matter-to-life research.
Emailed Application: https://sloan.org/programs/research/matter-to-life
Varies Rolling
Simons Foundation Targeted Grants in Mathematics Must coordinate with Foundation Relations. The deadline is rolling, and an LOI can be submitted at any time. Full proposals are by invitation only. 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.
Online Application: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/targeted-grants-in-mps/
Varies Rolling
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation Environment Grants

Letters of Intent may be submitted at any time and are reviewed on a rolling basis. Full Proposals by invitation only. Must coordinate with Foundation Relations.

Primary Topics:

  • Great Lakes: Stewardship; Agricultural Runoff.
  • Environmental Health, Justice & Equitable Development: Lead; Asthma; Sustainable Development.

Online Application: https://www.erbff.org/programs/

<$2,000,000 Rolling
David and Lucile Packard Foundation Conservation and Science 

The Conservation and Science Program invests in action and ideas that conserve and restore ecosystems while enhancing human well-being. The Foundation welcomes ideas for funding requests under the following programs:

Climate
Ocean
Land
Science
Agriculture
Livelihoods
Conservation

Online Application: https://www.packard.org/grants-and-investments/for-grantseekers/

$47,500,000 Rolling
The Nathan Cummings Foundation Science Climate Program

Supports promising work that addresses climate change by increasing access to modern energy for the world's poor; stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a low level; and improving resilience for those most vulnerable to the negative consequences of climate variability and change.

Online Application: http://ncf.org/what-we-fund/our-focus/climat

$3,000-
$950,000
Rolling