Funding: $200,000 over 2 years per pair of faculty member
(Keck Scholars) and graduate student (Keck Fellows)

Purpose:

This one-time funding is designed to:

• Rapidly deploy bridge funds to assist researchers who may be
  especially vulnerable to sudden shifts in traditional funding mechanisms.
• 
  
  Support retention of early- to mid-career principal
  investigators (Assistant or Associate Professors as of January 2026) and their
  PhD students.
• 
  
  Fund projects aligned with the W. M. Keck Foundation's
  mission to advance high-impact basic science research 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 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

 Limited Submission Instructions

Please submit a 1 page project summary with ½” margins in 11
point font with the following:

1) Project Title

2) Personnel summary

Keck Scholar (faculty member) - Full name, title,
department; year of appointment, snapshot of current funding by agency, project
title and direct costs, # of current PhD students, # of current postdocs. Brief
bio with degrees, expertise.

Keck Fellow (graduate student) - Full name, program, year
and candidacy status. Current and past funding of student. Brief bio with
degrees, expertise, awards.

3) Project overview

Overarching goals and alignment with the Keck Foundation’s
mission

Brief approach with models/methods and expected results

4) Summary budget for $200k over 2 years: personnel ($75k/yr
minimum for PhD student, including up to $25k towards tuition, fees, and
student travel), equipment, supplies and travel.

Questions may be directed to Kelly Kraus-Lee, Senior
Director of Foundation Development at kelly.krauslee@ucr.edu

Please do NOT contact the Keck Foundation directly.

Note: This is a one time call and not available on the Keck website.