The Office of Foundations Relations is pleased to share this open call for funding from the Sloan Foundation. Please forward the call to interested faculty in your departments and divisions.
UCSC Contact: Sarah Carle, sacarle@ucsc.edu
Funder: Sloan Foundation
Opportunity: Matter-To-Life
Deadline: May 20, 2022, 5pm EDT
Funding: $100,000 – $2,500,000
Overview
Sloan’s Matter-to-Life program aims to sharpen our scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter, and to explore the conditions under which physical principles and mechanisms guide the complexification of matter towards life. This new program supports 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. Please see the program website for descriptions of each focus area. 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.
Award Amount & Terms
- Sloan Matter-to-Life Seed Grant
This grant provides up to $50K/yr. for up to 2 years and is intended to facilitate the
development of a proposal, either to Sloan’s Matter-to-Life program or to a funder with
overlapping scientific interests. One or more PIs may be associated with this grant. It is
unlikely that this award would be renewed. - Sloan Matter-to-Life Theory Investigator Award
This award provides up to $120K/yr. for a fixed term of 5 years and will be awarded either to
a single theory investigator or to a collaboration of theorists. This award is intended to
encourage the development of promising yet less well-established ideas that could have
significant impact but which may take some time to develop. A one-time renewal may be
requested in which case the renewal proposal will compete with other proposals in this
category. - Sloan Matter-to-Life Research Award
This award provides up to $300K/yr. for up to 5 years and is intended to support either a
single investigator or a research collaboration. Supported projects may be experiment-only, experiment combined with theory, or theory-only. Renewal may be requested in which case the renewal proposal will compete with other proposals in this category. - Sloan Matter-to-Life Research Collaboration Award
This award provides up to $500K/yr. for up to 5 years and is intended to support a research
collaboration of two or more PIs. Supported projects may be experiment-only, experiment
combined with theory, or theory-only. Renewal may be requested in which case the renewal
proposal will compete with other proposals in this category.
Eligibility and Fit
- In general, the program will support basic scientific research at the intersection of the four disciplines: biology, physics, chemistry and engineering.
- The program will prioritize projects that pursue research directions not already well supported by federal funders.
- The program will not support biomedical or disease-related research.
- The program seeks to support projects that explore the matter-life boundary in comparatively simple systems, rather than animal-based or social-science experiments that study complex higher-level organism behaviors.
- The program is open to multi-disciplinary and exploratory work when these features are important to advancing the proposed science.
- While scientific excellence is of primary importance, the Foundation has a longstanding and ongoing interest in supporting both under-represented scientists and early-career scientists.
To see a list of recent grants made, please click here.
To apply
Please send the following material to Sarah Carle (sacarle@ucsc.edu), with a cc to Heather Bell (hmbell@ucsc.edu), by May 20, 2022.
- Letter of Inquiry (max of 2 pages): Please address the category-specific requirements outlined in the Matter-to-Life LOI Guidelines.
Special Instructions
Please notify the Office of Foundation Relations if you are interested in applying to this opportunity (cfr@ucsc.edu). Please submit a proposal intake form prior to UCSC’s internal Institutional Deadlines. For support developing your proposal, please contact the Research Development Specialist assigned to your unit or send a request to resdev@ucsc.edu.
Call sent: April 20, 2022
The Office Foundation Relations is a unit of University Relations. The FR team creates and maintains mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with private organizations, matching grant initiatives with educational and research programs and centers. FR supports faculty and staff to identify and approach these and other private foundations and corporations for funding, to assist in strategic positioning of the grant application, and to facilitate funder campus visits.
For a list of recent funding opportunities, please visit the FR website. FR Calls for Funding