Research Awards

21st Century Research Awards are designed to support research projects with a high probability of generating new knowledge and insights. Projects submitted for funding consideration should be at an early, even preliminary stage of development, and should be intended to break new ground or to revisit commonly-held assumptions. Projects submitted should be sufficiently cross-disciplinary or heterodox to have a strong likelihood of influencing the development of new ways of thinking about important problems.

21st Century Research Awards provide adequate, flexible funding over a sufficient time period to allow investigators to pursue and develop new directions to their research programs.

A maximum of $450,000 total costs can be requested and the funds can be expended over a minimum of 3 years to a maximum of 6 years. Please Note: Smaller amounts of money expended over shorter amounts of time may be requested to help investigators pursue pilot projects or test the feasibility of an experimental approach.

The applicant can apply the grant funds towards any research-based expense, including travel, equipment, and supplies. Funds can be used to support collaborative research projects. A percentage of the funds can also be used to support small workshops organized by the applicant where the goal of the workshop is to gather expertise in support of the research objective.

Grantee institutions must agree to waive all indirect and administrative costs.  The rationale for this JSMF policy can be found here.

Representatives of the Foundation will not advise applicants on the scientific merits or how well proposed projects fit the goals of JSMF grant programs.  We believe these decisions are best made by potential applicant institutions after careful review all JSMF web-posted materials. All projects must qualify for one of the 21st Century Science Initiative's two program areas (see below) awarding 21st Century Initiative Research Awards.