OVERVIEW: The Templeton Foundation’s grants support research projects in science, philosophy, theology and economics at elite institutions of higher education. Other areas of grantmaking include medical research, mental health and “the nature of genius.”
IP TAKE: This is an unusual funder in that its grantmaking, which totals about $100 million a year, largely funds research and writing projects that aim to answer a specific set of Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality” in which the foundation maintains interest. The bulk of its grants prioritize elite universities in the U.S. and U.K., as well as faith-affiliated organizations around the world. This is not a major funder for small and grassroots organizations though the foundation states it supports grassroots efforts. Grantees also tend to be very closely aligned with the foundation’s conservative, religious and philosophical interests.
This funder is reasonably accessible, though bureaucratic. It invites prospective grantees to complete an online funding inquiry on its application portal. From these, the foundation selects applicants to submit full proposals. Due dates vary by grant size and program.
PROFILE: The Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation was established in 1987 with a bequest from Sir John Templeton, an American investor who was awarded a Knight Bachelor title after establishing Templeton College, a business school, at the University of Oxford. The foundation describes itself as “a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality.” The foundation maintains an endowment of almost $3.5 billion and makes grants for higher education, humanities research and science through its current grantmaking programs which include Science and the Big Questions, Character Virtue Development, Individual Freedom and Markets, Exceptional Cognitive Talent and Genius, Genetics, and Voluntary Family Planning.
Grants for Higher Education
Institutions of higher education in the U.S. and the U.K. receive the bulk of Templeton’s funding, as a significant portion of its grants support academic research at elite colleges and universities. Higher education funding stems from the foundation’s Science and the Big Questions, Individual Freedom and Free Markets and Genetics funding programs.
About 80% of Templeton’s grants are made through the Science and the Big Questions initiative, which supports research that aims to answer philosophical questions including “Why are we here? How can we flourish? What are the fundamental structures of reality? What can we know about the nature and purpose of the divine?” The initiative names human sciences, natural sciences and philosophy and theology as disciplines through which these questions might be approached and supports a broad range of research projects in these areas. At Arizona State University, the foundation supported a study of the role of cooperation in human nature and cultural evolution. Another recent grant supported research at Harvard University on the role of time in evolution.
Templeton has also supported higher education via its individual freedom and free markets initiative, which funds “education, research, and grassroots efforts to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship.” Recent grantmaking has focused on research and writing on political economy at academic institutions. A researcher at London’s King’s College received a grant of more than $2 million for a project entitled “The Political Economy of Knowledge and Ignorance.” At George Mason University, the libertarian-oriented Mercatus Center was awarded $1 million for a program that trains scholars from various academic disciplines to “explore Adam Smith’s approach to political economy.”
Templeton’s genetics program focuses on “novel approaches and contrarian projects, especially research that is undervalued by traditional funding sources.” Elite U.S. universities appear to receive the lion’s share of the foundation’s genetics research grants. In a recent year, researchers at Harvard University received funding for a study of the ethics of gene editing and an ancient DNA atlas of humanity.
Grants for Humanities Research
The Templeton Foundation supports humanities research mainly through the philosophy and theology subprogram of the Science and the Big Questions initiative. Grantmaking in this area supports research and writing that aims to answer “enduring” questions about divinity, free will and virtue. While grants support projects in almost every academic discipline, a significant number of grants have gone to the fields of theology and philosophy, and in recent years, Islam has emerged as an area of emerging interest. At Marmara University in Turkey, the foundation supported a project examining the philosophy of religion in the Islamic intellectual tradition. Another recent grant supported research on Muslim analytic theology at the Muslim College at Cambridge University. It is also worth noting that studies of religion and philosophy at many Catholic and Jesuit universities receive support from this program, including Fordham University, Loyola University Maryland, the University of Notre Dame, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Villanova University.
Grants for Science Research
Templeton’s Science and the Big Questions initiative names scientific research as a main priority and focuses its grantmaking on the research addressing the origins of life, evolution, the cosmos and the role of mathematics in scientific exploration. In a recent year, the foundation gave over $4 million to support research on novel cryogenic methods in fundamental physics at Northwestern University and $1 million to a study of the thermodynamics of quantum information at the University of Rochester. Non-academic grantees include the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which used funding for its research on mutational biases in evolution, and France’s Samy Maroun Center for Research on Space, Time and the Quantum, which received a grant for its work on the quantum information structure of spacetime.
Grants for Disease, Brain and Cell Research
Grants for brain and cell research stem mainly from Templeton’s genetics initiative, which prioritizes research that is unorthodox or unlikely to receive funding from traditional sources. One recent grant supported research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on “the epigenetic basis of the modern human brain evolution.” Another grant went to a study of “communication between the brain and the male reproductive tract in mammals” at the University of Massachusetts.” Other grantees of Templeton’s genetics program include Australia’s Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Harvard University, Washington State University and the University Hospital of Cologne.
Templeton’s genetics program also supports cancer research, although grantmaking in this area has tapered off in recent years. Past grants have funded research addressing the relationships between obesity, radiation, carcinogens and cancer by scientists at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Haifa. The foundation also recently supported a book-length publishing project that discusses cancer through the lens of “bad luck theory.”
Grants for Global Health
The Templeton Foundation does not support global health per se but names voluntary family planning as a funding initiative. This program works mainly in developing countries with faith-based organizations “that affirm the value of human life from conception until natural death.” Grants support programs that provide information on and access to family planning methods, and strengthening policy related to effective family planning.” Grantees include Pathfinder International, Georgetown University’s Institute for Reproductive Health, the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance and the World Relief Corporation of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Grants for Mental Health
Templeton does not name mental health as an area of grantmaking interest, but some of its character virtue development grants support organizations that work in mental health. One recent grant supported a study of mental healthcare, virtue and “human flourishing” at Boston University, and in Malaysia, Monash University used funding to support of study correlating religiosity, physical health and mental health in elderly Muslim people. Additional grants have supported research and programs at the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, the Catholic University of America and Bowling Green State University.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
Templeton also runs an initiative that supports research on exceptional cognitive talent and genius. This program seeks to “nurture genius” in young people and to support research aimed at identifying and understanding “the nature of cognitive genius.” While grantmaking has tapered off in recent years, some of the program’s largest grants have supported large-scale projects aimed at identifying and cultivating genius in broad swathes of the population. The foundation supported the World Science Foundation’s Cultivating Genius Initiative, as well as a program at Northeastern University that aimed to use “big data to quantify and cultivate genius.” Another grant supported an exhibit, “Seven Days of Genius,” by the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association.
Important Grant Details:
The Templeton Foundation makes about $100 million in grants each year ranging from $20,000 to over $15 million. The foundation’s average grant size is about $250,000. More than half of its recipients are institutions of higher education, and while grantmaking is global in scope, the U.S. and the U.K. appear to be the foundation’s top geographic priorities. While this funder supports organizations of all sizes, grantees tend to be very closely aligned with the foundation’s conservative, religious and philosophical interests. For additional information about Templeton’s past grantmaking, see the foundation’s searchable grants database.
Application for Templeton grants begins with the foundation’s online funding inquiry, which can be accessed through the application portal. If selected, applicants will be invited to submit full proposals. Due dates vary by grant size and/or program; applicants should consult the foundation’s grant calendar and FAQ for further information. General inquiries may be directed to foundation staff via the organization’s contact page.
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