Research Grants

The Future of Life Institute Call for proposals evaluating the impact of AI 

The Future of Life Institute is calling for proposals for research evaluating in detail how artificial intelligence (AI) has so far impacted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to poverty, healthcare, energy and climate change, and how it can be expected to impact them in the near future. This research can examine either cases where AI is intended to address respective SDGs directly, or where AI has affected the realisation of these goals by its side effects. 

Each paper should select one SDG or target, analyse the impact of AI on its realisation up to the present, and explore the ways in which AI could accelerate, inhibit, or prove irrelevant to, the achievement of that goal by 2030. We acknowledge that AI is a broad term, encompassing systems that are both narrow and general with varying degrees of capability. Hence, for the purposes of this RFP we encourage using this taxonomy as a guide for exploring and categorising AI’s current and future uses.

• Link to full description: Future of Life Institute call for applications
• Link to application: Future of Life Institute grant application portal
• Maximum funding:  15,000.00 USD
• Deadline: 1 April 2024

Loss and Damage Youth Grantmaking Council grants

The Loss and Damage Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC), in collaboration with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) & Open Society Foundations, has opened call for application for its new $275,000 grant cycle aimed at concrete actions to address the impact of climate change in vulnerable communities. By concrete action, we mean tangible measures taken to tackle loss and damage in vulnerable communities within the areas of focus outlined in the section below. Thus, this grant cycle excludes any application with a central focus on capacity building and awareness campaigns unless it’s a highly important component, without which the project fails to achieve its initial goal.

• Link to full description: Loss and Damage Youth Grantmaking Council Grants
• Link to application: LDYGMC grant application form
• Maximum funding:  10,000.00 - 150,000 USD
• Deadline: 15 March 2024

MIT SOLVE 2024 Global Economic Prosperity Challenge

MIT Solve seeks exceptional solutions leveraging technology to increase peace and prosperity. Our focus for 2024 centers on solutions that:

1. Promote and sustain peace by increasing community dialogue, civic participation, reconciliation, and justice efforts; strengthening cyber security, and monitoring or preventing violence, misinformation, and polarization.
2. Foster financial and digital inclusion by supporting access to credit, digital identity tools, and insurance while securing privacy and personal data.
3. Generate new economic opportunities and buffer against economic shocks for workers, including good job creation, workforce development, and inclusive and attainable asset ownership.

• Link to full description: MIT Solve 2024 CHALLENGE
• Link to application: MIT Solve submission form
• Maximum funding:  10,000.00 USD
• Deadline: 18 April 2024

Mama Cash Resilience Fund

The Resilience Fund gives priority to smaller and emerging groups that are doing critically important work  but have limited access to funding. In addition to funding registered, formal organisations, we are open to funding informal or unregistered groups of activists, as well as networks or coalitions. The average grant size under the Resilience Fund is €35,000.

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Work from a feminist, women's, girls, trans rights and/or intersex rights perspective
2. Self-led by the women, girls, trans people and/or intersex people they serve
3. Promotion of women’s, girls’, trans people's and/or intersex people’s human rights as primary mission
4. Push for structural and fundamental change
5. Focus on issues that are under-addressed and/or contested

• Link to full description: Mama Cash Resilience Fund
• Link to application: Mama Cash Application form
• Maximum funding:  5,000 - 50,000 EUR
• Deadline: 17 March 2024

Better World Books 2024 Literacy Grants

The grant offers a unique opportunity for organizations dedicated to fostering early literacy in children from birth to five years old. This year's grants are designed to support Early Reader Projects that make a significant impact on young minds and contribute to building a foundation for a lifelong love of reading.
Better World Books is committed to promoting literacy and education globally, and these grants serve as a testament to our mission. If your organization is actively engaged in initiatives aimed at enhancing early learning experiences, we encourage you to submit your application. Applications will be accepted through the close of business on March 31, 2024.

• Link to full description:  Better World Books 2024 Literacy Grants
• Link to application: Better World Books Literacy Application
• Maximum funding:  Depending on project
• Deadline: 31 March 2024

USAID PRO-WASH & SCALE Small Grants Program

Decolonization of aid. Participatory processes. Community-led programming. These terms are routinely used by humanitarian and development practitioners with an earnest desire to further localization and sustainability objectives. However, many of the tools and approaches that practitioners use (social and behavior change, barrier analysis, community visioning, farmer or youth-led assessments, and others) have been developed outside of the countries and communities where they are ultimately used and may carry with them embedded perspectives, assumptions, and biases of implementer and/or donor mindsets and experience.

Broadly framed, this RFA focuses on examining one or more commonly applied approaches or tools aimed at centering community voices and decision-making to identify their effectiveness and/or limitations in supporting the adoption of practices, behaviors, and ultimately, program outcomes. This may include an examination of the possible effect of implementer and/or donor bias, assumption, or interpretation of community needs and priorities.

• Link to full description: PRO-WASH & SCALE Small Grants Program
• Link to application: Please send applications and attachements to PWS_Research@savechildren.org
• Maximum funding:  100,000 USD 
• Deadline: 22 March 2024

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

The Fund has been established to provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives, recognize leaders in the field and elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate. Its focus is global and eligibility for grants will extend to all plant, animal and fungi species conservation efforts, without discrimination on the basis of region or selected species. 

• Link to full description: Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
• Link to application: The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund grant application form
• Maximum funding:  25,000 USD 
• Deadline: 29 February 2024

American Psychological Foundation Visionary Grants

The APF Visionary Grants seek to seed innovation through supporting research, education and intervention projects and programs that use psychology to solve social problems in the following priority areas:

1. applying psychology to at-risk, vulnerable populations (e.g., serious mental illness, returning military, those who are incarcerated or economically disadvantaged);
2. preventing violence;
3. understanding the connection between behavior and health (e.g. wellness, diabetes, obesity);
4. understanding and eliminating stigma and prejudice (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, and socioeconomic status);
5. furthering racial equity: APA has requested funds from their fund at the Tides Foundation to fund a 2024 Visionary Grant that is focused on furthering racial equity.

Preference will be given to pilot projects that, if successful, would be strong candidates for support from major federal and foundation funding agencies, and “demonstration projects” that promise to generalize broadly to similar settings in other geographical areas and/or to other settings.

• Link to full description: Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
• Link to application: The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund grant application form
• Maximum funding:  25,000 USD 
• Deadline: 29 February 2024

Awards

Joseph A. Burton Forum Award

To recognize outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society. The award consists of $5,000, a certificate citing the contributions of the recipient, and an allowance for travel to the meeting of the Society at which the award is presented. It will be awarded annually.

• Link to full description: Joseph A. Burton Forum Award
• Link to application: American Physics Society Joseph A. Burton Forum Award
• Maximum prize:  5,000 USD 
• Deadline: 3 June 2024

Mildred Dresselhaus Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomaterials

The Dresselhaus Prize recognizes an outstanding scientist in the areas of nanoscience or nanomaterials. The prize is conferred annually and includes a $10,000 stipend, a certificate citing the contributions of the recipient, and a reimbursement of up to $2,000 for travel to an APS meeting to receive the honor and deliver an invited talk.

Nominations for the inaugural prize open on January 1, 2022 and close on the date below. The first Dresselhaus Prize will be conferred at the 2023 APS March Meeting.

• Link to full description:
• Link to application: American Physics Society Mildred Dressel Haus Prize Nomination
• Maximum prize:  10,000 USD 
• Deadline: 3 June 2024