(NEW) April 2024
The Mathers Foundation Grants Program is a limited competition. Eligible institutions may submit up to four LOI applications per grant cycle. Please visit our website for more information.
LOI application due dates can be found here. Early submissions are encouraged, and late applications will not be accepted. Please send any questions to [email protected].
REGISTRATION
- Before an application can be submitted, the Principal Investigator (PI) and the Secondary Contact, (Institutional Representative/Foundations Relations, Development Office) coordinating all LOI applications for each cycle must register in the Mathers portal. Once the registering individual passes the eligibility requirements, they can submit their registration request. Registration approval may take several business days. On occasion, approval emails are sent by organizational filters to Junk/trash folders. Please check these folders if you have not received login credentials within three business days.
- Registration must be completed using an individual’s organizational email address. Personal (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) or department email registration requests will be rejected. If you have registered before, you will not need to re-register. If you are unsure whether you have previously registered, please send an email to [email protected].
- Once the PI or the Secondary Contact logs into the portal, they can start an application by clicking Apply for a Grant which will open the application form. The applicant can then select the appropriate contacts in the Organization Information section of the LOI. The drop-down list will show all corresponding users that are associated with their respective institutions. If a name does not appear on this list, it means that they have not yet registered in the portal. Either the Primary or Secondary Contact can complete the LOI with the required information and submit the LOI. However, both contact fields must be populated.
- The field for the Primary Signatory (Contract Signing Office) will be necessary only if the LOI is advanced to a Formal Proposal, and ultimately, if a grant award is approved and awarded. It is optional to enter the Signatory in the LOI phase of our process.
LOI APPLICATION REQUIRED INFORMATION
- Title of Project: Enter the title of the project. It should match the nomination information provided to [email protected] by the Secondary Contact two weeks prior to the due date for the cycle. If a meaningful change to the title is made at any time, [email protected] must be notified.
- Project Summary: This field must be completed and should be written so that a highly educated lay audience and a scientific review board can understand the project’s nature and scope. Collaborators should be mentioned here, along with their contributions to the project. (7,000-character limit, spaces are included; Disclaimer: Due to a current technical issue, using the < > symbols is discouraged as these can cause surrounding text to be permanently deleted in the online application. Instead, these symbols should be spelled out, i.e., greater than, etc.)
- Preliminary Budget: Enter the total cost of the project for three years. The total project budget cannot exceed $600,000-750,000, inclusive of 10% maximum indirect costs. Major budget categories such as personnel, supplies, and other expenses should be included in the preliminary budget figure field. The budget categories should be briefly described in the Project Summary or uploaded as a separate document in the Documents Section. Although the maximum award is $750,000, this amount should not automatically be entered. Careful consideration should be given to the actual costs of the project.
- The Foundation will not fund requests for student tuition nor requests for equipment costs over $5,000. (Benefits/fringe rate, including health insurance may be approved on a case-by-case basis, notwithstanding agreements with other agencies, i.e. DHHS)
- If invited to submit a Formal Proposal, detailed line-item costs for all expenses will be required in a budget justification document.
- The Foundation will not fund requests for student tuition nor requests for equipment costs over $5,000. (Benefits/fringe rate, including health insurance may be approved on a case-by-case basis, notwithstanding agreements with other agencies, i.e. DHHS)
- Aims of Project: Experimental Aims, and sub-aims should be included and can be technical in nature. (2,000-character limit, spaces are included)
- Proof of Concept, Previous, or Related Work: Include proof of concept evidence/validation for the project, whether the evidence for the project is “preliminary,” and whether proof of concept has been published in any scientific journals. (2,000-character limit, spaces are included)
- Category of Research: Enter your assessment of the primary nature of the project in a few words or short phrase. There is no drop-down menu for this field. Your answer is intended to help the Foundation compare LOI’s of a similar nature. Some examples of research areas of interest can be found on the Mathers website.
- Brief summary of your most impactful discoveries and/or best publications: This information does not necessarily need to relate to the proposed project. (2,500-character limit, spaces are included)
IMPORTANT
Supplementary information you wish to include with the LOI can be uploaded as an additional document(s) in the Documents section of the application. Examples include additional references, proofs, collaborators, CV’s, letters of support and figures. If you realize after the LOI has been submitted that a document was inadvertently omitted, please email that document to [email protected] and it will be uploaded for you. DO NOT submit another LOI.