Foundation Funding

Additional Information

Grants awarded through this call will support institutional pathways from undergraduate programs at Minority Serving Institutions to STEM master’s and doctoral degree programs in astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, data science, Earth sciences, economics, engineering, marine science, mathematics, physics, and statistics.  Grants up to $500K will be awarded to U.S. higher education institutions and organizations developing equitable pathways to STEM graduate education.  The deadline for submitting LOIs is July 1, 2024.

Please note: All projects must have at least one MSI partner. When two or more institutions are the proposed grantees, it is preferred that the primary PI be housed at the MSI to create a direct connection between MSI expertise and project leadership.  For more information, please contact Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu

Learn More about Alfred P. Sloan Foundation - Creating Equitable Pathways to STEM Graduation Education

Additional Information:

The Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award is designed to provide support for the next generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with “high-risk/high-reward” ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.

The Innovation Award is specifically designed to provide funding to extraordinary early career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. It is not designed to fund incremental advances. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.

The Stage 1 award will be for two years, $200,000 per year ($400,000 total) with the opportunity for up to two additional years of funding (up to four years total for $800,000). Stage 2 support for years three and four will be granted to those awardees who demonstrate progress on their proposed research during years one and two of the award. 

Applications will be evaluated based on the following: 

• The applicant’s capacity to conduct bold, exceptionally creative research.
• The novelty and creativity of the proposed research. Incremental research will not be funded.
• The potential of the proposed research to lead to advances that will significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis, treatment or basic understanding of cancer.
• The applicant’s lack of resources to pursue the proposed research.

Eligibility: The awards are $250,000 total over a 12-month term, beginning fall 2024.

• Applicants (including non-U.S. citizens) must be conducting independent research at a U.S. research institution.
• The applicant must have received an MD, DO, PhD, or MD/PhD degree(s) from an accredited institution.
• Basic and translational/clinical projects will be considered.  Applications will be accepted from all scientific disciplines provided that the proposed research meets the selection criteria.
• Applicants with a background in multiple disciplines are especially encouraged to apply.
• Joint submission from two collaborators working in different disciplines will be considered. (The collaborators will share the award.) Each collaborator must meet the eligibility criteria.
• Applicants must belong to one of the following categories:
  • Tenure-track Assistant Professors within the first five (5) years of obtaining their initial Assistant Professor position (Cut-off date: July 1, 2019).
  • Clinical Instructors and Senior Clinical Fellows (in the final year of their sub-specialty training) holding an MD, MD/PhD, DO who are pursuing a period of independent research before taking a tenure-track faculty position.  Such individuals must have an exceptional record of research accomplishment, dedicated laboratory space and the support of their institution.
  • Distinguished Fellows with an exceptional record of research accomplishment identified by their institution to pursue an independent research program and who have dedicated laboratory space.  These candidates are markedly distinct from traditional postdoctoral fellows.  Examples: Whitehead Fellows, UCSF Fellows, Cold Spring Harbor Fellows.
    [Ad Hoc Assistant Professors, Research Assistant Professors, Research Associate Professors, Research Scientists and Postdoctoral Fellows are not eligible.]

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

Learn More about Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation – Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award – Stage 1

Additional Information:

NOTE: This is the first year that the Allen Foundation has a summer grant round.

The policies and priorities of Allen Foundation, Inc.:

• To make grants to fund relevant nutritional research.
• To support programs for the education and training of mothers during pregnancy and after the birth of their children, so that good nutritional habits can be formed at an early age.
• To assist in the training of persons to work as educators and demonstrators of good nutritional practices.
• To encourage the dissemination of information regarding healthful nutritional practices and habits.
• In limited situations to make grants to help solve immediate emergency hunger and malnutrition problems.

The connections between diet and health remain a basic and primary priority, and consideration has always been given to projects that benefit nutritional programs in the areas of education, training, and research. Low priority has traditionally been given to proposals that help solve immediate or emergency hunger and malnutrition problems. The foundation does not under any circumstances sponsor professional conferences, seminar tables, discussion panels, or similar events. The foundation welcomes proposals that develop and advance: (1) the inclusion of mandatory courses in nutrition in medical schools; (2) bringing the promise of nutrigenomics or nutritional genomics to realization; and (3) the promotion of environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsive, and sustainable food and agricultural systems.

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

Learn More about Allen Foundation - Summer 2024 Grant Round

Additional Information:

Organizational capacity grants are designed to increase health-focused, community-based organizations’ effectiveness and sustainability across Michigan. We will prioritize funding for organizations that have an explicit focus on a health issue that aligns with the Health Fund’s priorities.  Requests should focus on internal organizational capacity rather than coalition, community, or program development. Applicants should consider what internal work would be most essential to ensuring the organization’s consistent, effective, and sustainable function within the community it serves.  These grants are intended to assist with startup costs for new cross-sector, collaborative efforts or to expand the scope and health impact of an existing collaborative.

The intent of this grant program is:

• To assist health-focused, community-based organizations in becoming stronger, more effective institutions within their community by meeting basic organizational needs, allowing them to spend more time and energy focused on their mission and collaborative efforts.
• To increase or improve collaboration among providers, service agencies, the business community, and community-based organizations within a community to address health issues in a sustainable way.

An informational webinar will be held on January 3, 2024, at 1 p.m., and the recording will be available on our website following the webinar

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

Learn More about Michigan Health Endowment Fund—2024 Capacity Building Grants- Summer Round

Additional Details: 

This award will fund innovative projects that combine computational and experimental neuroscience approaches to improve understanding of symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychosis. You must address the following research priority: A focus on understanding the development, maintenance or resolution of one or more symptoms associated with anxiety, depression and/or psychosis.  

Researchers must take a symptom-based approach rather than looking solely at diagnostic categories and are required to provide: 

• Evidence that the one or more symptoms chosen are a core feature of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis (broadly defined; the one or more symptoms chosen may be transdiagnostic or specific to one mental health problem).  
• A brief explanation of why the one or more symptoms chosen are important for people with lived experience of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. This could be evidenced through existing qualitative literature and/or focus groups as part of project development.  

Mental health conditions in scope: This funding call is focused on projects that investigate symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychotic disorders. This includes: 

• all types of anxiety and depressive disorders (including obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder) 
• all forms of psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia, postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder). 

We recognise that the current diagnostic categories are imperfect but removing all categories or creating new ones also presents difficulties. Whilst we do not specify any particular diagnostic or classification system, we expect applicants to use a framework and measurement approach that fits the aim of their study and to provide a clear rationale for doing so. 

For more information, please contact Allison Jones?jonesa70@msu.edu

Learn More about Wellcome Trust - Mental Health Award: applying neuroscience to understand symptoms in anxiety, depression and psychosis

Additional Information: 

Our Focus 

 Our grants support the specific types of programs, in specific geographic regions, that we believe address the most pressing needs in the world today. 

 Program Focus 

We believe each of our priority program categories are linked by our overall goal to benefit an entire region. While grants are awarded to some organizations focused on one category, we look for partners who take a more holistic, community-based approach and are committed to delivering positive and sustained results. 

• Agriculture: We support projects working toward agricultural sustainability in developing countries that suffer from the impact of population growth and climate change, poor technology, and policy and management issues. These projects help smallholder farmers with crop management, storage, timely market information, mobile phone-based training services, savings and loan programs, and resource acquisition. 
• Education: We support programs that extend the reach of national education systems to remote and undeserved areas. This includes remedial education, access to technology resources, teacher training, and extracurricular projects. We also support formal and informal education programs in information technology and vocational skills in both rural and city communities that prioritize women and girls. 
• Environment: We support projects designed to address air and water pollution, climate change, soil degradation, exploitation of natural resources, biodiversity loss, deforestation, desertification, and ocean acidification. Our grants focus on projects that ensure water quality and access, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), and eliminating vector-borne diseases and exposure to toxic chemicals. 
• Health: We support community primary health programs as well as maternal and child health care. We also support programs that provided general health education including hygiene, family planning, and birth control. Finally, we support programs that extend the reach of healthcare to remote regions and sectors of countries while also working to extend the reach of national health systems. 

Geographic Focus 

We support US-based organizations serving vulnerable populations and communities in many parts of the developing world, including Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. We prioritize countries in which the need is great and the environment allows for successful outcomes. 

For more information, please contact Allison Jones jonesa70@msu.edu. 

Learn More about THE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION – Grants for Projects Related to Agriculture, Education, Environment, and Health

Additional Information: 

*Please note this is a limited submission opportunity. Only one applicant can be nominated per institution, per year. Please visit the Office of Research and Innovation for institutionally limited proposal instructions. 

The Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented early-career faculty in the chemical sciences at primarily undergraduate institutions. The award, which requires an institutional nomination, is based on accomplishment in scholarly research with undergraduates, as well as a compelling commitment to teaching. Institutions may submit only one nomination annually. All nominations for this award will be reviewed by the VPRI office.  

The Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program is open to faculty who meet all of the following criteria: 

• From academic institutions in the States, Districts, and Territories of the United States of America that grant a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the chemical sciences, including chemistry, biochemistry, materials chemistry, and chemical engineering. 
• In departments that do not grant a doctoral degree. A potential nominee is ineligible if there is active participation or substantial research productivity in a Ph.D. program of another department or institution, or in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. 
• Hold a full-time tenure-line academic appointment focused on the chemical sciences. 
• Are after the fourth and not after the twelfth years of their independent academic careers, and engaged in independent research and teaching primarily with undergraduates. 

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

Learn More about Henry Dreyfus Teacher - Scholar Awards Program

Additional Information:

The Harvest for Health challenge is accelerating the development of underutilized crops to increase the diversity of foods in the marketplace. The initiative focuses on crops that are nutritious and have properties of interest to food and ingredient companies.

Of more than 50,000 known edible plant species, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that only three crops – rice, wheat and maize – account for two-thirds of the world’s food supply. As a result, many nutritious, resilient crops remain underutilized, contributing to poor dietary diversity and health outcomes.

FFAR partnered with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to launch Harvest for Health Challenge to accelerate the development of underutilized crops, increasing the diversity of foods in the marketplace. The model developed through this initiative will predict underutilized crops’ potential as sources of functional and nutritious ingredients that could replace, complement or aid in reformulating the existing food products or developing new ones.

Why Underutilized Crops?
Underutilized crops can help ensure nutritional security in the face of climate change and provide diverse economic opportunities to growers. Additionally, consumers are increasingly seeking healthier, sustainable food products and global flavor-driven food experiences. Introducing new and exciting nutritious foods with various tastes and flavors will expand the food and agriculture industry’s consumer base and contribute to our food system’s health and environmental sustainability.

Breakthrough Crop Challenge
While underutilized crops have incredible functional and nutritional potential, the development of such crops for consumption or use in other products is prohibitively expensive and time-intensive. To attract more private sector investment in underutilized crop development, Harvest for Health is launching the Breakthrough Crop Challenge to develop a predictive model that can screen underutilized crops to determine a crop’s usefulness as a source of functional ingredients or nutrients.

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

Learn More about Foundation for Food & Agricultural Research – Harvest for Health Breakthrough Crop Challenge

Additional Details: 

The Global Science Summit Programme aims to explore the intersection between major global health and sustainability challenges through fostering scientific discoveries that address the combined impact of non-communicable diseases, infectious diseases, climate change, and related enabling technologies. 

The purpose of the Global Science Summit Programme is to catalyse science-based solutions by supporting international interdisciplinary collaborations that address intersectional challenges between at least 2 of the following areas: 

• climate change 
• non-communicable disease, in particular cardiometabolic diseases 
• infectious diseases 
• related enabling technologies. 

The collaboration should provide more than just a compounding of individual skills, but rather strive to synergistically combine perspectives, theories, data, experimental approaches and/or concepts across fields to generate novel results addressing the above-mentioned global challenges. 

Eligibility 

The programme supports collaborations between 2-3 research groups (the main applicant plus 1-2 co-applicants). Proposals must demonstrate interdisciplinarity and international engagement by including co-applicants from different disciplines and potentially from different nations. Disciplines does not refer to the education or formal position of the applicants, but rather their ongoing work expertise. 

Guiding principles on eligibility include: 

• The Global Science Summit Programme seeks to actively engage researchers from all over the world, but applicants must be established investigators and must be employed at the administrating institution registered in the proposal for the duration of the project. 
• The administrating institution/organization must be able to accept and manage the potential grant. Projects can be anchored at any type of non-profit research organization, including universities, hospitals, and other not-for profit organizations. 
• Collaboration with researchers in non-academic sectors is allowed, however industrial partner(s) cannot receive direct funding through this programme. 
• The principal investigator (PI), who leads the project and submits the proposal, is limited to one submission per call as the main applicant. However, co-applicants may participate in multiple proposals, and a main applicant in one proposal may serve as a co-applicant or collaborator in other proposals. 

For more information, please contact Allison Jones?jonesa70@msu.edu.

Learn More about Novo Nordisk Foundation – Global Science Summit Programme 2024

Additional Information:

The John Templeton Foundation funds research and catalyzes conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder. Their funding areas define their philanthropic priorities and advance their aspiration to become a global catalyst for discoveries that contribute to human flourishing. They welcome grant applications to support field-leading research and high impact public engagement programs in these areas:

Character Virtue Development – The Character Virtue Development funding area supports research and catalyzes conversations that seek to advance the science and practice of character, with a focus on moral, performance, civic, and intellectual virtues such as humility, gratitude, curiosity, diligence, and honesty (https://www.templeton.org/funding-areas/character-virtue-development).

Religion, Science, & Society – The Religion, Science, & Society funding area will seek to advance their collective understanding of the ways in which religious and spiritual beliefs and practices affect human flourishing and to apply those insights to society in meaningful and practical ways (https://www.templeton.org/religion-science-and-society).

Public Engagement – The Public Engagement funding area supports content projects that include video, audio, public events, and print media. In addition, JTF seeks proposals that support the next generation of thought leaders, generate durable courses and programming at leading universities (https://www.templeton.org/public-engagement).

Individual Freedom & Free Markets – The Individual Freedom & Free Markets funding area supports education, research, and outreach projects to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship (https://www.templeton.org/funding-areas/individual-freedom-free-markets).

Mathematical & Physical Sciences – In the Mathematical and Physical Sciences funding area, JTF supports research seeking to shed light on the fundamental concepts of physical reality. They also explore the interplay between these sciences and broader human experience (https://www.templeton.org/project/math-physical-sciences).

Life Sciences – The Life Sciences funding area supports projects that seek novel and fundamental insights into the meaning and significance of life processes, by which we can better understand humanity’s place within nature (https://www.templeton.org/funding-areas/science-big-questions/life-sciences).

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

Learn More about John Templeton Foundation – 2024 Research Grants

Additional Information:

The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation is pleased to announce a special initiative to fund demonstration projects that enhance equity, inclusion, and access for students with disabilities in schools of nursing and their affiliated clinical sites. Supporting the inclusion of learners with disabilities will help to build a nursing workforce that is representative of the patients they serve and supports improved quality of care and health equity. This grant has been developed to support the rights of persons with disabilities to participate in an inclusive education system for the full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self-worth.

This opportunity will provide support for projects, ideally centered in the clinical learning environment, that dismantle ableism in nursing education and practice. Proposals selected for support through this initiative will describe, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies to foster usable, accessible, and inclusive learning and working environments in nursing, with the goals of creating lasting institutional change and providing innovative models and examples that other institutions can draw upon to ensure inclusive and equitable learning and working environments. Projects will be funded over three years.

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

Learn More about Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation – Disability Inclusion in Nursing

Additional Information:

Discovery grants are for established scientists with a long history of published work in the maternal fetal health and related fields. These grants are awarded to seasoned researchers seeking to make consequential translational discoveries that will drastically alter clinical care for pregnant women and babies, whether through evidence-based prevention, diagnosis or intervention.  Discovery Grants are funding vehicles for research inquiries that are as practical as they are ambitious, as attainable as they are groundbreaking, and as transformative as they are necessary. These grants are given to researchers with inquiries that have the power to drastically reshape outcomes for mothers and babies in America and strike a decisive blow against the maternal health crisis in this country.

The proposed research should focus on one of these priority topic areas:

1. Late Spontaneous Pre-Term Birth
2. Racial Inequities as they related to morbidity and mortality outcomes for mothers and babies
3. Cardiovascular Health Conditions Developed or Exacerbated During Pregnancy
4. Maternal Stress, Its Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes, and How to Mitigate the Effects

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

Learn More about March of Dimes—Discovery Research Grants

Additional Information:

The Institutional Challenge Grant encourages university-based research institutes, schools, and centers to build sustained research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations in order to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.

To do so, research institutions will need to shift their policies and practices to value collaborative research. They will also need to build the capacity of researchers to produce relevant work and the capacity of agency and nonprofit partners to use research.

Applications are welcome from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, child welfare, mental health, immigration, and workforce development. We especially encourage proposals from teams with African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American members in leadership roles. The partnership leadership team includes the principal investigator from the research institution and the lead from the public agency or nonprofit organization.

Goals

 The award supports research institutions to build sustained research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations in order to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.  Research institutions will need to address four important goals:

1. Grow an existing institutional partnership with a public agency or nonprofit organization
2. Pursue a joint research agenda to reduce inequality in youth outcomes
3. Create institutional change to value research-practice partnerships within research institutions
4. Enhance the capacity of both partners to collaborate on producing and using research evidence

The Award

 The award will provide $650,000 over three years. This includes:

• Up to $60,000 for up to 9 months of joint planning activities (e.g., refining protocols for partnering, selecting fellows, finalizing partnership and data sharing agreements, etc.).
• Funding for two years of a full-time equivalent fellowship. In addition, universities are required to fund one additional year of a full-time equivalent fellowship.
  • Fellowships may be allocated in different ways, for example, by appointing one individual fellow for three years, or three different fellows each for one year, or six half-time fellows for one year each, etc. The minimum appointment level for a fellow is half-time for half of one year.
• Up to three years of support for the partnership to conduct and use research to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.
• Resources to advance the proposed institutional shifts and capacities of both partners.
• Indirect cost allowance of up to 15 percent of total direct costs.

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

Learn More about William T. Grant Foundation – Institutional Challenge Grant

 Additional Information:

Discovery grants are for established scientists with a long history of published work in the maternal fetal health and related fields. These grants are awarded to seasoned researchers seeking to make consequential translational discoveries that will drastically alter clinical care for pregnant women and babies, whether through evidence-based prevention, diagnosis or intervention.  Discovery Grants are funding vehicles for research inquiries that are as practical as they are ambitious, as attainable as they are groundbreaking, and as transformative as they are necessary. These grants are given to researchers with inquiries that have the power to drastically reshape outcomes for mothers and babies in America and strike a decisive blow against the maternal health crisis in this country.

The proposed research should focus on one of these priority topic areas:

1. Late Spontaneous Pre-Term Birth
2. Racial Inequities as they related to morbidity and mortality outcomes for mothers and babies
3. Cardiovascular Health Conditions Developed or Exacerbated During Pregnancy
4. Maternal Stress, Its Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes, and How to Mitigate the Effects

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

Learn More about March of Dimes—Discovery Research Grants

Additional Information:

Discovery grants are for established scientists with a long history of published work in the maternal fetal health and related fields. These grants are awarded to seasoned researchers seeking to make consequential translational discoveries that will drastically alter clinical care for pregnant women and babies, whether through evidence-based prevention, diagnosis or intervention.  Discovery Grants are funding vehicles for research inquiries that are as practical as they are ambitious, as attainable as they are groundbreaking, and as transformative as they are necessary. These grants are given to researchers with inquiries that have the power to drastically reshape outcomes for mothers and babies in America and strike a decisive blow against the maternal health crisis in this country.

The proposed research should focus on one of these priority topic areas:

1. Late Spontaneous Pre-Term Birth
2. Racial Inequities as they related to morbidity and mortality outcomes for mothers and babies
3. Cardiovascular Health Conditions Developed or Exacerbated During Pregnancy
4. Maternal Stress, Its Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes, and How to Mitigate the Effects

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

Learn More about March of Dimes—Discovery Research Grants

Additional Details: 

The Cooperative AI Foundation is seeking proposals for research projects in Cooperative AI. Anyone is eligible to apply, and we welcome applications from disciplines outside of computer science. This call will remain continuously open throughout 2024, and will have four deadlines after which applications will be processed: January 14, March 17, July 30, and October 6. 

The Cooperative AI Foundation's (CAIF’s) mission is to support research that will improve the cooperative intelligence of advanced AI systems for the benefit of all of humanity. As the field of Cooperative AI is emerging and we are in an early stage of our grantmaking, our intention with this call is to keep the scope as wide as possible while staying true to CAIF’s mission. We will consider proposals that meet the following conditions: 

• The proposal must be for a research project (as opposed to, for example, an educational or advocacy project); 
• The proposal must be focused on the development of AI to help address multi-agent/cooperation problems; 
• The proposal must be such that the results could be relevant for the most advanced AI systems, including future systems; 
• The proposal should aim to contribute in a major way to societally beneficial AI development. 

Anyone is welcome to apply to this call, and we welcome applications from disciplines outside of computer science. 

‍Formal training and degrees (such as a doctoral degree) can strengthen your proposal, but are not required. 

• An affiliation can, in many cases, strengthen your proposal, but is not required. Note that processing of applications from unaffiliated individuals may take longer time. 
• You can be located anywhere in the world. For countries with a low Corruption Perceptions Index, processing may take longer due to a more extensive due diligence process. 
• The project you propose can be up to two years long, and should begin within at most one year from the application deadline. 
• For now, we will not process applications for less than GBP 10,000. This may change in the future. 

Our aim is to be able to cover all costs for completing accepted projects. This could include: 

• Personnel costs for research staff; 
• Materials (including software and compute); 
• Travel expenses; 
• Publication expenses. 

We allow a maximum of 10% in indirect costs (overhead). We do not cover personnel costs for teaching. 

‍ We do not have a fixed upper limit on how large funding requests we consider, but cost-effectiveness is important to us and we do reject proposals where the costs do not stand in proportion to the expected impact. The grants we have made so far range from GBP 10,000 to GBP 385,000, with a median size close to GBP 150,000. 

For more information, please contact Allison Jones?jonesa70@msu.edu

Learn More about Cooperative AI Foundation – Research Grants

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

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 Adam Kingston at kingsto9@msu.edu

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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