Funder: Simons Foundation
Due Dates: November 12, 2026, noon Eastern (LOI) | February 9, 2027, noon Eastern (Invited full application)
Funding Amounts: Up to $320,000 annually per institution for five years ($1,600,000 total), including indirect costs
Summary: Institutional grants support junior tenure-track HBCU faculty through teaching buyouts for research in mathematics, neuroscience, physics, and ecology and evolutionary biology.
Key Information: Institutions apply, not individual faculty, and must guarantee a genuine minimum 50% teaching reduction for each fellow.
Description
Funded by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation, this fellowship supports junior tenure-track faculty at up to five accredited HBCUs. Protected research time enables fellows to develop independent research agendas, publish findings, pursue federal funding and mentor students. Institutions may nominate up to four fellows across the eligible fields.
The program prioritizes ambitious computational, data-driven and theoretical basic science and mathematics. Interests include computational neuroscience and interdisciplinary research connecting ecological and evolutionary processes or linking them to other STEM fields. Primarily observational or experimental research is less competitive; work supplementing a primary computational or theoretical program may be considered exceptionally. The fellowship seeks to strengthen research productivity, collaboration and student pathways into graduate STEM programs.
