James S. McDonnell Foundation
/OVERVIEW: Not to be confused with the McDonnell Family Foundation, which is considerably smaller, the James S. McDonnell Foundation dedicates millions of dollars per year to understanding the human brain and studying complex systems.
IP TAKE: McDonnell has a fairly narrow focus. When applying for a grant, avoid projects that, according to the foundation, attempt “too wide a leap in a single bound.” The foundation’s funding appears to support colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education worldwide exclusively. It does not make grants to nonprofits or other types of organizations.
The foundation provides a helpful chart comparing grant types. It is important to remember that organizations “can only submit one application every three years on behalf of the named Researcher.” However, a single institution is allowed to apply on behalf of multiple different researchers at the same time.
Like a handful of other sizable science funders, JSMF prioritizes funding diverse paths of research over more mainstream projects and ideas. Additionally, McDonnell emphasizes its belief in supporting “the acquisition of new knowledge and in the responsible application of knowledge for solving the real-world problems,” and asks grantseekers “to keep this in mind when preparing proposals.”
PROFILE:
Established in 1950, the James S. McDonnell Foundation (JSMF) was founded by aerospace and aviation industry leader James S. McDonnell, founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. It seeks to “improve the quality of life […] by contributing to the generation of new knowledge through support of research and scholarship, and by encouraging knowledge-based solutions to important societal issues, especially in the St. Louis region.” The foundation prioritizes support for human cognition and understanding complex systems.
Grants for Brain & Cell Research
The McDonnell Foundation funds human mind/brain grantmaking through the Understanding Human Cognition program, which supports researchers and scientists who study “how neural systems are linked to and support cognitive functions and how cognitive systems are related to an organism’s (preferably human) observable behavior.” Through this program, foundation funds a teacher development award, the Teachers as Learners grant, which offers $2.5 million 5-year grants for research into “motivators and causes of systematic improvements in teachers’ instructional practices.” A second grantmaking program, the Opportunity Award, supports studies addressing new questions about cognition and behavior in dynamic, complex real-world contexts. These grants are awarded in amounts of up to $250,000 for a period of two to four years and do not support “already established research programs.” The foundation runs an open application program for its Opportunity Grants, with a due date that usually falls in April.
Grants for Science Research
McDonnell’s other funding area makes grants toward Understanding Dynamic & Multi-scale Systems, a highly technical grantmaking program that supports “scholarship and research directed toward the development of theoretical and mathematical tools that can be applied to the study of complex, adaptive, nonlinear systems.” The foundation anticipates that the research funded through this program will benefit fields as diverse as biology, biodiversity, climate, demography, epidemiology, technological change, economic development, governance, or computation. The program’s primary focus is on “the development and application of theoretical models used in these research fields and not on particular fields per se.” Currently, the program’s only offering is a Postdoctoral Fellowship, of $200,000, available to Ph.D students who are within 18 months of finishing their graduate training.
Grants for Diseases
While the James S. McDonnell Foundation does not make grants that specifically address brain tumor research or treatment, it is a member of the Brain Tumor Funders’ Collaborative, “an international group of philanthropic and advocacy organizations who remain committed to seeing meaningful improvements in brain tumor treatment and outcomes.” BTFC releases a Request for Proposals approximately once every four years. These RFPs are highly specific and competitive. For information about the types of projects supported, see the organization’s funded grants page.
Important Grant Details:
Grants from the McDonnell Foundation are limited in number but range significantly in size, with the largest awards surpassing $2 million and the smallest around $30,000. The foundation is transparent with regard to its recent awards (click on each project’s link for a full description), as well as its searchable database and geographic grantee map.
For higher education institutions, the foundation is clear that it does not fund “undergraduate tuition, stipends, scholarships, fellowships, research or travel expenses, or other educational expenses.” With some exceptions, the same rule applies to funding for graduate students as well.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
