OVERVIEW: The Kavli Foundation is a science funder. The foundation supports science research in four fields, Science and Society, and has funded 20 Kavli Institutes across the world, including million-dollar Kavli Prizes, which are awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Science research addresses work in astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience and theoretical physics.
IP TAKE: Kavli is extremely selective about who receives funds, but those awarded enjoy tremendous freedom and often receive long-term support. That tendency makes this a crowded and competitive grantmaking space. All Kavli programs are by invitation only, so new grantseekers will want to network here with someone who can nominate them. Consider networking with previous Kavli grantees to get on the foundation’s radar. Otherwise, this is an approachable and risk-taking funder.
PROFILE: Created in 2000 by Fred Kavli, a scientist and businessman, the Kavli Foundation gained notoriety in 2004 when three of the researchers, funded by an endowment through the Kavli Research Institute, won Nobel Prizes in one year. The foundation seeks to “advance science for the benefit of humanity.” Grants and endowments are given through a series of high-profile, highly exclusive programs, whose small number of beneficiaries win an impressive combination of cash and are given a lot of discretion in their research. The Kavli Foundation focuses on ‘big’ question research in astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics.
Grants for Science Research and Brain Research
One of the foundation’s signature programs is the Kavli Prize, given to researchers in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience every other year, with a cash award of $1 million. Anyone is able to present a nomination, as long as the nominee is still living and the person is not nominating him/herself. Past grantees can be seen at the prize’s website. The Kavli Institutes, a high profile series of research centers at universities across the globe, is the foundation’s largest expenditure. The foundation initially established each institute with a $7.5 million grant to a university’s endowment. This work evolved into several phases of foundational funding, as well as university contributions. Today, all of the Kavli Institutes amount to tens of millions in grants and endowments, which total more than $450 million and counting. Each institute’s annual payout varies annually, sometimes as high as $2 million or more.
In 2013, the institute announced that it would increase the contribution to each future institute up to $10 million, which provides about $1 million a year in unrestricted funds when matched. Funds are fully discretionary, with no strings attached.
In contrast to program-specific funding, the Kavli Institute seeks to leverage the resources of an existing university with a respected staff and its own core funding to explore edgier projects that are more ambitious or might not yield short-term results or applications.
The other Kavli outlets for science research are a series of symposia and meetings (by invitation only) that gather researchers from these same fields to share ideas and begin collaborations. Separately, there are seven Kavli Professorships established at six universities. The foundation was also one of the early supporters of the BRAIN initiative, a combined government-foundation-private-sector-funded initiative “focused on revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain.”
Grants for Journalism
In addition to its research funding and other science goals, the Kavli Foundation also grants several awards through it’s Science and Society program, which makes investments in Ethics, Science, and the Public; Public Engagement and Science; Science Policy, and Science Journalism.
The AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards, endowed and given globally, are administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for outstanding reporting on the fields of science, engineering or mathematics.
Important Grant Details:
Grants may range from $100,000 to $1 million. While access to funding is clearly restricted, grantseekers can contact the foundation for more information about its programs.
Grantseekers must be nominated by an eligible nominator. For most of its awards, nominations must be made through the organization that administers the award rather than the Kavli Foundation.
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