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Brown Investigator Award

General Information

Description

The Brown Science Foundation seeks to support bold ideas for curiosity-driven basic research. The Foundation believes that there is a reservoir of great scientists who have demonstrated their talent and capability by earning tenure at leading US universities, but who cannot pursue their most daring ideas because of the often conservative nature of government funding. Therefore, the Foundation intends to provide significant funds to a small number of such scientists in the fields of Physics and Chemistry with few funding restrictions and limited reporting requirements. Because the Foundation wants to support basic research, which may have an eventual technological impact, it has chosen to award grants to investigators working in atomic and condensed matter physics and fundamental areas of chemistry.

Limitation

Schools may submit one (1) application for Penn’s internal competition.

Eligibility

  • Mid-career researchers having received tenure within the past 10 years (since July 2013). 
  • If in chemistry department, must be working in fundamental areas of chemistry. 
  • If in physics department, must be working in atomic and condensed matter physics. 
  • For any sponsored research projects, the applicant must be eligible to serve as Principal Investigator for the project, unless otherwise noted in the LSO. Please see Penn’s PI Eligibility requirements to ensure you are eligible. 

Award Information

  • A research award of $2,000,000 over five years.
  • For experimentalists ($1,250,000 for theorists).
  • The funds may be used for support of postdoctoral research staff, graduate students, non-faculty technical staff, supplies, equipment, user fees, and indirect administrative costs up to 10% of the non-equipment portion grant amount.
Apply Here

Review Process

Selection Criteria

The University has been invited to nominate one (1) faculty member. A committee established by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) will determine the final nominee(s) to represent the University. Nominations must be faculty members in the Chemistry or Physics departments.

What Brown Science Foundation Will Fund

We make grants to universities to fund exceptional faculty members. Candidates must pursue new research avenues that are highly creative, and for which conventional sources of research funding may not be readily available. These investigations may include not only the exploration of new phenomena, but also the development of new approaches to the collection of new data for use by future researchers, the development of new and original techniques to detect or measure properties and processes, and new ideas for the analysis of newly observed phenomena. 

What Brown Science Foundation Does Not Fund

The Foundation seeks to support curiosity-driven basic research that might have eventual technological implications. Areas not under consideration: 

  • Biomedical research
  • Applied or engineering research
  • Astronomy
  • Astrophysics
  • Particle physics

OVPR Internal Review Process

Applications must include the following:

  1. Letters of Recommendation (maximum 1 page): Three (3) Letters of Recommendation assessing the scientific abilities and potential of the applicant are required and must be uploaded to the application at the time of submission.
  2. Research Proposal (maximum 4 pages): including citations; single-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins). A proposal describing the proposed research in the areas of chemistry or physics. The proposal should include the project title, aims, and objectives. The research statement should also explain why funding from government agencies for the proposed research is especially difficult to obtain. The review committee is composed of both physicists and chemists, so it is important that the research statement be accessible to this broad audience. References should also be included to support the proposal but are not counted in the four-page limit.  
  3. Curriculum Vitae (CV) (using NIH Format, if relevant) (maximum 5 pages): which includes educational background, professional appointments, awards, and honors. Include all current research support (start-up and external) and pending support, including dollar amounts and start/end dates.
  4. Documents should be saved as BROWN_applicant LAST name_applicant FIRST name.