Updated October 16, 2026
Foundation Grants for Biomedical Research
Private foundation and nonprofit grants funding biomedical and life science research. A live alternative-funding list for labs looking beyond the NIH.
More biomedical researchers are looking past the NIH than at any point in recent memory. Federal awards have become dramatically scarcer in 2026, with far fewer new grants issued than in prior years and success rates falling at institutes across the agency. Labs that once ran entirely on federal money are now building foundation funding into their core strategy rather than treating it as a supplement.
Featured grants
Updated automatically from Atom's grant database. Summaries are AI-generated.Career Awards for Medical Scientists
The Career Awards for Medical Scientists by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund support physician-scientists transitioning to independent faculty roles in basic, disease-oriented, or translational biomedical research.
Falk Transformational Research Award
The Falk Transformational Research Award from Health Resources in Action funds advanced translational biomedical research to move discoveries from the lab toward clinical treatments and cures.
Medical and Scientific Research
Medical and Scientific Research supports university researchers through facilities, research resources, and laboratory programs that pursue innovative science to advance knowledge and improve human health.
Private philanthropy cannot replace federal science funding at scale, but the foundation world is deep, and it moved in 2026. Several major foundations raised their annual payouts specifically in response to the federal squeeze, new bridge funding programs have launched, and disease-focused foundations continue to fund basic, translational, and clinical work across nearly every area of biomedicine. Foundation grants also tend to reward things federal review can undervalue: early stage ideas, pilot data generation, and higher-risk directions.
This collection surfaces open grants from foundations and nonprofit funders supporting biomedical and life science research. Expect more variety in process than you see with federal mechanisms. Many foundations require a letter of intent first, some run rolling deadlines, and a few work by nomination. Each listing links to the full details so you can see what the path to funding actually looks like.
Biomedical Research
This grant funds research institutions advancing prevention, treatment, and understanding of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and infectious diseases to benefit San Antonio and South Texas.
Sarnoff Fellowship Program - Research Training for Medical Students
Sarnoff Fellowship Program - Research Training for Medical Students supports medical students in a year of mentored cardiovascular or cerebrovascular research to foster enthusiasm for research careers.
Medical Research
The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Medical Research grant funds innovative scientific studies on major diseases to improve public health in the Pittsburgh region.
Early-Career Scientific Research Grants Program
Early-Career Scientific Research Grants Program supports early-career investigators’ original research in blood banking, transfusion medicine and biotherapies to build data and advance research independence.
Translational Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship
Translational Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship supports postdoctoral researchers in collaborative training that translates laboratory discoveries into clinical approaches to improve patient care.
Translational Medicine Predoctoral Fellowship
Translational Medicine Predoctoral Fellowship supports doctoral students’ thesis research translating discoveries into diagnostic, therapeutic, and computational approaches to address unmet clinical needs.
Translational Research Grant
The Translational Research Grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center funds NC university research teams to advance life sciences inventions toward commercialization and product development.
Emergency Interim Support
Emergency Interim Support helps established investigators in Oregon sustain human health research and generate data for grant renewals, bridging funding gaps so they can regain national support.
Research Funding
The SMA Foundation Research Funding program supports projects that accelerate late-stage translational research or clinical trials for new SMA therapeutics.
Research Grants - Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Research Grants from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation support scientists and clinical investigators pursuing creative clinical and translational research to advance breast cancer prevention, understanding, and treatment.
Seed Grants
Seed Grants support junior faculty pursuing innovative neuroscience pilot projects that generate data for future NIH or other external funding, helping researchers launch new research directions.
Scientific Research Grants
Scientific Research Grants support researchers pursuing innovative breast cancer pilot studies to transform detection and treatment, reduce mortality, and prevent metastasis or relapse.
Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation Grants
Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation Grants support researchers pursuing childhood cancer studies, training, and clinical applications to bring better treatments to children sooner and improve outcomes.
Research Grants - Amyloidosis Foundation
Research Grants - Amyloidosis Foundation support junior scientists' basic biomedical and clinical research on systemic amyloidosis to advance disease knowledge, expedite therapies, and improve patient outcomes.
Pilot Grants
Supports innovative, collaborative research that advances computational and multiscale modeling to deepen mechanistic understanding of immune-related health and disease.
Ruth K. Broad Biomedical Research Foundation Extramural Grant
Ruth K. Broad Biomedical Research Foundation Extramural Grant supports non-Duke faculty’s basic or translational research to prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease.
Bridge Funding for Disrupted Neurodegenerative Research Grant Program (BFDN) Powering the Next Generation of Research
The Michael J. Fox Foundation's BFDN grant supports early career researchers whose neurodegenerative disease projects were disrupted by changes in U.S. federal funding.
Frequently asked questions
Large funders include the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust, alongside hundreds of disease-focused foundations and professional societies that fund research in their areas.
Foundation grants are typically smaller and shorter, with shorter applications and faster decisions. Many start with a letter of inquiry, and some are open only to invited or nominated applicants. They can be well suited to pilot data, high-risk ideas, and bridge funding.
Often only partially. Many foundations cap indirect costs well below federal rates or exclude them entirely. Check each funder's policy and talk with your sponsored programs office before you budget.
They work best as a complement. Pairing a federal application with a few well-matched foundation proposals spreads risk and can generate the preliminary data that strengthens your next federal submission.