Simons Foundation—2023 New Neuroscience Collaborations


March 8, 2023

We now seek vision statements to identify new, emerging breakthrough areas of neuroscience that are poised for high-impact funding by the Simons Foundation. We are interested in bold and cutting edge, idea-generating research that focuses on basic principles of brain function and may be overlooked or too risky for other funding organizations. 

We will prioritize cross-disciplinary collaborations that integrate many levels of analysis, methodologies, ways of thinking, and scientific communities. We endeavor to encourage conversations within and across fields while bringing together diverse groups of researchers to investigate important questions about the basic principles of brain function. Investigators in a Simons Collaboration are expected to openly share data, code, analysis pipelines, protocols and reagents. We expect proposals to include junior investigators and investigators from a diversity of academic disciplines, genders, races and ethnicities in a Simons Collaboration. 

Vision statements should clearly outline the big idea and hypotheses that the proposed neuroscience collaboration will address, including high-level overviews of the methods and approaches that will be used. Why is this work uniquely suited for Simons Collaboration funding? Why should this collaboration be funded now? Why is it difficult to obtain funding to investigate these questions from other funding agencies and foundations? Vision statements should address why and how the support of a large collaborative research project from the Simons Foundation will transform our understanding of how the brain works. Please propose investigators who may be included in the collaboration and an estimated anticipated overall yearly total cost. 

Vision statements should be no longer than two-pages, single-spaced, 11 pt New Times Roman font, 0.5 in margins plus one page (if needed) of figures, references, the anticipated overall yearly total cost and list of proposed PIs. 

Deadline: March 8, 2023 

Dollar Amount: Simons Collaborations will be funded for 10 years (with a review at year 5). The total budget for the new Neuroscience Collaborations will be $25 million per year. We anticipate identifying up to three collaborations, with the funding level of each collaboration determined by the proposed scope and aims of the project. As a guideline, we suggest budgets of between $5–12 million per year, inclusive of 20 percent indirect costs. 

Eligibility: All investigators must hold a Ph.D., M.D. or equivalent degree and have a faculty position or the equivalent (eligible for receiving grant funding) at a college, university, medical school or other research facility. In addition, eligible applicants must have independent research space at their institution. 

Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign nonprofit organizations; public and private institutions, such as colleges, universities, hospitals, laboratories and units of state and local government; and eligible agencies of the federal government. There are no citizenship or country requirements. 

Full RFP: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/neuroscience-collaborations-vision-statements-call/?mc_cid=863787484b&mc_eid=c8c69b055b