OVERVIEW: The Kavli Foundation supports science research and programs in astrophysics, theoretical physics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and science and society. It has funded 20 Kavli Institutes around the world, as well as the million-dollar Kavli Prize, which is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
IP TAKE: The Kavli Foundation is a major science funder that has a great influence on its giving areas, with many of its grantees achieving tremendous success. It is selective about who receives funds, but those awarded often enjoy tremendous freedom and receive long-term support. As reported by Inside Philanthropy science writer Paul Karon, the foundation began shifting its priorities in 2021 from opening new Kavli Institutes toward funding cutting-edge programs that might be too experimental for other funders, including cross-disciplinary work. Kavli president Cynthia Friend told IP in 2023 that “if someone has an idea that is in its early stages that might seem a little out there, and you’re not sure if it’s going to work or not — that’s the kind of thing that I think philanthropy should fund,” she said. Examples of newer programs at Kavli include Kavli Scholars, which funds science researchers “fleeing dangerous and untenable situations resulting from threats like political persecution, war, climate change, civil unrest or natural disaster,” as well as Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, a multidisciplinary and collaborative program supporting research into how neural systems are impacted by “pollution, habitat depletion, climate change, and other environmental perturbations.”
Many of Kavli’s programs are by invitation only or by nomination, so new grantseekers will want to network with previous Kavli grantees to get on the foundation’s radar. Kavli is a transparent funder. It maintains a list of current and former prize winners, scholars and funded professors on its website, along with regular news articles, features, blog posts and other publications to publicize the achievements of researchers who receive its funding. Kavli maintains a “Funding Opportunities” page that lists current open calls for applications. Grantseekers working within Kavli’s areas of interest should consider subscribing to its newsletter for updates.
PROFILE: The Kavli Foundation was established in 2000 by Fred Kavli, a scientist and businessman, in order to “to advance science for the benefit of humanity.” The foundation gained a degree of fame in 2004 when three Kavli Institute researchers won Nobel Prizes in one year. The foundation’s funding aims to support researchers working on the “big questions” in astrophysics, nanoscience, theoretical physics and neuroscience to identify “potentially transformative ideas and catalyzing opportunities to create lasting impact for science and humanity.” Much of the foundation’s funding is distributed through one of its 20 international Kavli Institutes, as well as the prestigious Kavli Prize and the Kavli Science Journalism Awards, among other forms of science research support. The Kavli Foundation’s approach to grantmaking applies across all grantmaking programs.
Grants for Science Research
The Kavli Foundation makes grants across several areas of research, including astrophysics, nanoscience, theoretical physics and neuroscience — each with multiple subprograms. In addition to these dedicated research areas, Kavli also awards a variety of prizes and professorships, and also supports science scholars and Kavli-run institutes.
- The Kavli Foundation’s signature grantmaking program is the Kavli Prize, awarded in partnership with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.
- Three Kavli prizes are awarded every other year, one each in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience every other year, with a cash award of $1 million.
- Anyone can present a nomination, as long as the nominee is still living and the person is not nominating him/herself.
- Each field has its own selection committee; these provide their unanimous recommendations to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Past grantees can be seen at the prize’s website.
- In addition to the Kavli Prize, the foundation has established 20 Kavli Institutes, a group of highly prestigious research centers around the world. While the majority are in the United States, there are also Kavli Institutes in China, the U.K., the Netherlands, Japan and Norway. 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’ funding amounts 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.
- These institutes award fellowships and grants independently of the Kavli Foundation, with funding opportunities posted on their separate websites.
- 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 and a relatively new program called Kavli Scholars, which seeks to support scholars whose research, livelihoods and perhaps even lives are threatened by war or other catastrophes.
- 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 its Science and Society program, which makes investments in Ethics, Science, and the Public, Basic Science in Society, and Special Projects that further strengthen the relationship between science and society.
- 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.
- Kavli awards Gold ($5,000) and Silver ($3,500) prizes in several categories, including Large Outlet, Small Outlet, In-depth, Video, Audio and Children’s Science News.
- SciPEP, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and The Kavli Foundation, is focused on increasing public understanding and engagement with basic science and research and improving methods of science communication.
Grants for Climate Change
While Kavli does not have a program dedicated solely to climate change research, related work occurs through the Neuroscience program’s sub-program, Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems. Grantmaking related to climate change centers on how “how neural processes — including molecular, cellular, and circuit-level mechanisms — are impacted by or resilient to changing environments.” At the forefront of this research, Kavli staff published a review in Frontiers in Neural Circuits that reflects on several areas that “merit further inquiry to answer fundamental questions about the resiliency of neural systems.” This area of giving reveals a new front in the foundation’s support.
- Kavli-Grass Fellowships, offered through a partnership with the Grass Foundation, invests in early career scientists’ research related to neurobiology and changing ecosystems.
- Kavli Exploration Awards serve to catalyze research related to how nervous systems may enable organisms to adapt to environmental challenges.
Grants related to climate change also occur across the foundation’s support for science journalism and reporting on the changing climate, sustainability in nanoscience, and the ways in which nanotechnology can address climate change. Related funding occurs at nearly every level of grantmaking focus areas.
Important Grant Details:
Grants may range from $100,000 to $1 million, though most grants fall in the $50,000 to $250,000 range. Fellowships at Kavli Institutes vary. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s Kavli Prize laureates for more information on the type of work it rewards.
- Kavli opens a call for nominations for its Kavli Prize every two years. Applicants must be nominated and may not submit themselves for consideration.
- Each of the three Kavli prizes — neuroscience, astrophysics, and nanoscience — has its own selection committee that provides its recommendation to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
- Fellowships at Kavli Institutes are not administered through the Kavli Institute.
- The Kavli Science Journalism Awards are administered through AAAS. Applicants may submit up to three stories per year for consideration. The deadline generally falls in August.
- Grantseekers may reach out to the foundation through its Contact page for further inquiries.
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