The Principal Investigator (PI) is the lead researcher responsible for the project and all scientific reporting. The Administrative Contact (may include individuals from Development, Foundation Relations, Sponsored Programs, Grants Administration) is the liaison to the foundation and coordinates all institutional applications, including the nominations process. The Signing Official is authorized to execute the grant agreement if funding is awarded.
All grant awards are made for three (3) years.
Our expectation is that applying organizations will thoroughly review the website in its entirety. Questions not addressed here can be submitted to support@mathersfoundation.org.
Resubmitting declined applications is strongly discouraged and will not be given preference in the review process.
We cannot provide contact information for the Mathers Board or the Scientific Advisory Board. For all grant-related items, please email grants@mathersfoundation.org.
Eligibility
Organizations must be tax-exempt 501(c)(3) independent or educational institutions conducting scientific research. If a higher education institution is not a 501(c)(3) but has a qualifying foundation or entity, applications should be submitted through that 501(c)(3) organization. Additionally, organizations must employ their own researchers with labs.
No. Organizations must hire their own researchers with independent labs. We provide grants directly to researchers at their universities or institutions and cannot fund intermediaries or other organizations.
Collaboration with organizations based outside the United States is discouraged.
No. Organizations that meet our eligibility requirements and successfully register in the portal may submit Institutional Nominations to apply.
Registration
Yes. A one-time registration in the portal is required for anyone attempting to access the Mathers Foundation grants application and instructions, including Principal Investigators (PIs), Administrative Contacts, Signing Officials, and Additional Contacts or Financial Officers. Anyone new serving as an Administrative Contact or Principal Investigator must register by the grant cycle registration due date. Returning users will not need to re-register.
This may occur for two reasons: 1) you are not from a 501(c)(3) organization, or 2) you represent a third-party organization. For more details, visit our eligibility criteria.
No. Individual institutional emails must be used to register in the portal.
Registration is a manual process and may take up to 5 business days. If you have not received your registration within this time, please contact support@mathersfoundation.org.(Note: During peak application periods, processing may take longer.)
No. Each PI must have a unique registration record. Instructions for registration can be found here.
If the person is new to the Mathers Foundation, they must first register in the portal. Once they have successfully registered, their name will appear in the Organization Information drop-down list. Individuals already registered in the portal will automatically appear in the drop-down list.
Institutional Nominations
Yes, an Institutional Nomination is required to apply. Each institution may nominate up to three researchers (Principal Investigators) per cycle. The designated Administrative Contact must email the nominees’ names and project titles to grants@mathersfoundation.org by the Nomination due date.
Institutions are expected to conduct a limited internal competition to select nominees.
The Foundation’s nomination process is by institution unless entities within the institution have separate federal ID numbers. In that case, contact support@mathersfoundation.orgfor next steps.
All nominees must be submitted in a single Institutional Nomination by the Administrative Contact. We cannot accept multiple submissions, even if fewer than the three-candidate limit are included. Please provide the names of the selected researchers (PIs) along with their project titles and submit this information to grants@mathersfoundation.org.
Yes, the Administrative Contact should be the only person responsible for submitting all nominations.
Each organization is different, however, we recommend consulting with the Office of Foundation Relations/Grants Management/Office of Sponsored Programs at your institution and our website for clarification.
No. Late nominations will not be accepted.
No. However, a nominated researcher can collaborate on another application in the same cycle.
No. Your institution must nominate you and submit the nomination by the current cycle dates located in the Grant Timeline & Due Dates..
No, U.S. citizenship is not required to apply. However, applicants must include their education and training information in their biosketch or CV. If selected for a formal application, proof must be provided that their institution will support them throughout the grant period.
No. Official letters for nomination are not required.
Letter of Inquiry (LOI)
Co-Investigators and Multiple Principal Investigators (MPI) are not permitted on applications; however, collaborators may be included. Only one Principal Investigator (PI) can be named in an application and grant agreement.
Collaborations between multiple organizations are allowed, but if funded, the grant will be awarded to a single PI and cannot be split across organizations.
Yes; however, the primary organization is responsible for managing all aspects of the sub-award. The award will be made to the primary organization. All grant funds will be sent to the primary organization, and all reporting will be handled through the primary organization. Total indirect costs on the grant cannot exceed 10%, regardless of institutional guidelines.
Supplementary information can be uploaded as additional document(s) to the Documents section of the application. Examples include references, proofs, collaborators’ information, CVs, letters of support, and figures. If you realize after the LOI has been submitted that a document was inadvertently omitted, please email the document(s) to grants@mathersfoundation.org and it will be uploaded for you. Do not submit another LOI.
The Mathers Foundation does not support projects that rely solely on AI-generated data—defined as data created by artificial intelligence models rather than obtained through direct biological experimentation (e.g., simulated omics data, synthetic biological images, or text/data generated by large language models).
While the use of artificial intelligence, including large language models (LLMs), is acceptable for supporting tasks such as literature review, data organization, or hypothesis generation, core scientific findings must be based on empirically derived data. Projects in which LLMs are used to generate, synthesize, or simulate primary research data—rather than to assist with interpretation or communication—may fall outside the scope of eligible support.
Projects that, in our judgment, rely too heavily on AI-generated data may not be considered for funding. As each project is evaluated on a case-by-case basis, we are unable to make conclusive determinations in advance.
We cannot provide definitive guidance since each project is unique. The Mathers Foundation supports basic science, some with a translational component. We reserve the right to decline projects that we interpret as clinical or pre-clinical research. If there is an intervention or interaction with subjects for the collection of biospecimens or data, (including health or clinical data, surveys, focus groups, or observations of behavior), or if identifiable biospecimens will be obtained, used, studied, analyzed, or generated for the purpose of this study, it may be considered inappropriate for funding purposes.
In addition to the budget field, include a brief description (no more than 1–2 sentences) of major budget items (e.g., personnel, supplies, equipment) in the Project Summary to provide a broad overview of the anticipated budget allocations.
The Foundation does not have a preference for actual salary vs NIH (or other) salary cap; however, if the Foundation feels the salary submitted is unreasonable, we may not allow the full amount requested.
We cannot provide a definitive answer because fringe benefit rates vary widely across institutions. We recommend including what your university deems reasonable, and we will consider it along with the other requirements. Your institution would be allowed to cover the unmet fringe costs if we felt the rate was too high.
Indirect costs should be based on the total cost of the project. The total project budget cannot exceed $700,000, inclusive of indirect costs per our guidelines.
To calculate the indirect costs at 10%, multiply the total project costs by 0.10.
No. We do not allow cost-sharing on a project. The total cost of the project should be no higher than $700,000, which is our grant budget limit.
No. All project budgets must cover a 3-year timeline.
If a formal proposal is invited and a grant is awarded, approximately one-third of the approved amount is distributed annually, with the exception that ~10 % is withheld in year three pending final reports.
Send an email with your request to support@mathersfoundation.org. We will upload it for you. Please do not submit a new application.
Applicants are notified about the status of their submission approximately one (1) month after the LOI due date.
No. Due to the number of applications we receive and the time allotted for each review, our review board does not prepare personalized feedback for each application during the LOI phase. However, feedback is provided during the formal proposal review phase when requested.
If this project were approved for a formal proposal, the total budget should cover the costs for the collaborator. There is no limit on collaborator expenses; however, the roles of the PI and the collaborator(s), and the reason(s) why the experiments need to be performed externally should be clearly explained.
The Foundation and its reviewers keep all information in strictest confidence. The more information we have, the easier it is for the review committee to make final determinations for invited formal proposals.
We do not encourage resubmissions that have been declined. It is strongly advised that any re-application proposes a different direction or emphasizes some new potential translational aspects of the research.
No. The Foundation supports all levels of researchers, including early, mid-career, and senior researchers. Applicants must have their own independent and fully equipped labs. They should focus on novel, basic research projects with translational potential that would not be suitable for federal support, as described in theresearch funding section of the website.
No. We receive hundreds of applications each cycle, so please carefully review the instructions on our website. If you still have questions, send them to support@mathersfoundation.org.
No. To maintain fairness, we do not provide advice on proposed research projects. Please review the detailed information on our website regarding what we have funded before submitting your application.
Research projects that are currently or have previously been supported with federal funds may receive lower priority for funding.
Not without prior disclosure and notification of other sources of funding for postdocs and/or graduate students directly involved with the project.
There is no minimum effort for the PI or collaborators. Our investigators must contribute to the grants for which they are awarded. We understand that endowed chairs or HHMI positions cover some salaries and that should be disclosed in the grant application.
Formal Proposal
Construction design, building costs, renovations, etc.
Cost Sharing– The total cost of the project should be no higher than $700,000 (budget limit including indirect costs)
Student Tuition– including fees, etc.
Equipment Costs over $5,000
Computers, computer-generated systems/and AI data generation
Benefits and fringe rates, including health insurance, may be approved on a case-by-case basis, regardless of any agreements with other agencies, such as DHHS.
Major expenses such as Personnel, Supplies, Core expenses*, and Equipment.
Supervisors for graduate students assigned to the project
Potential sources of support for post-doc salaries or graduate students
Sub-awards if applicable. Only the primary institution is funded by the Foundation.
Indirect costs should include, but are not limited to insurance, computer storage, glass washing, and administrative costs.
*Expenses for core services (e.g. Cryo-EM, sequencing) may not be be approved if considered excessive.
We do not have formal guidelines for formatting the PDF. The font and margins used should be reasonable and easily readable. Arial or Times New Roman are good choices.
No. Decisions by our scientific review panel are final, with no appeals or reconsiderations. The Mathers Grant Award Program is a limited competition, with a set number of grants available each cycle. Proposals are ranked based on factors such as transformative potential, and only a small fraction of applications receive funding.
Yes, the narrative can be all text. Figures and other materials can be included as supplemental information, as long as all documents are combined into a single PDF and the narrative does not exceed seven (7) pages.
If requested by the applicant, the Foundation’s reviewers will provide feedback.
The Foundation will make grant award decisions within 3 months of the application deadline.
The proposal narrative should be a standalone document for reviewers, following the order of the required sections listed in the portal. Avoid duplicating information from the portal in the PDF. Instead, use the PDF to expand on key aspects of the project, such as the Aims or Proof of Concept, that are important for the scientific review board to consider.
No. The Foundation does not have a preferred budget form. Your institution’s budget template will suffice.
Both a detailed budget and a budget justification document should be included.
Reporting
Progress reports are due annually on the anniversary of your grant start date and at the end of your grant. Financial reports are due within 60 days of the anniversary of your grant start date and at the end of your grant. Payments are contingent upon receipt of reports. Reporting dates and instructions are available in the portal.
You should contact the Foundation as soon as you are aware of any significant changes to your project. This includes:
Adding or removing personnel
Please notify us of any personnel changes. If new personnel are added, send their roles and responsibilities, along with CVs for anyone devoting 30% effort or more, to grants@mathersfoundation.org .
Personnel receiving additional funding
If any key personnel receive additional funding that may impact the budget or effort allocation for your Mathers award, please inform us with relevant details.
Changes to project aims or direction
If your project’s aims shift or its overall direction changes, email a summary of these updates to grants@mathersfoundation.org.
These updates should be submitted promptly—not deferred until your annual report is due. Early communication ensures transparency and helps maintain alignment with Foundation expectations.
Extensions are generally allowed, but they must be requested. When requesting an extension, please include the reason for the request and the time frame you need to complete the report. Send extension requests to grants@mathersfoundation.org.
Below is an example of our template with instructions for completion. All amounts should be in currency format, and any budget categories that are over or underspent by more than 30% must include an explanation in the Comment column. If you have further questions after careful review, please email support@mathersfoundation.org.
Budget Reallocations
Budget reallocations should be requested if any category deviates by more than 30% of the original budget. Requests may be sent to support@mathersfoundation.org.
Please provide the following on institute letterhead:
A clear explanation for why the reallocation is necessary
Detailed information on how the affected budget categories will change, including both the current year and any future years impacted
An updated budget reflecting the proposed adjustments
Each request will be reviewed individually and approved or denied at the Foundation’s discretion.
No-Cost Extensions (NCEs)
A NCE is required if you need more than three months beyond your grant end date to complete your project. Submit the request as soon as possible, and at least one month before your final report is due.
To request an NCE, please provide the following on institute letterhead and send to grants@mathersfoundation.org:
Project title and grant number
An explanation for why the NCE is needed
A plan for using the remaining funds
How much time is needed to complete the project (up to 12 months)
A current financial report using our template (available for download in the portal).
NCE requests will be determined on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of the Foundation Board.
A NCE is required if you need more than three months beyond your grant end date to complete your project. Submit the request as soon as possible, and at least one month before your final report is due.
No. Our guidelines allow for one (1) NCE request for up to one (1) year.
Next Steps After Your Grant Ends: What to Do Now
Once your grant has concluded and you have received the final payment, we may consider a new LOI application from you. However, several criteria must be met before submitting a new application. We recommend reaching out to the foundation at grants@mathersfoundation.org for more information.
We do not require anything from former grantees. If you’ve been invited to join the Scientific Advisory Board, we may ask you to continue serving as needed. We also welcome any updates on your research that you’d like to share with us.
The status of remaining funds at the end of a grant is determined on a case-by-case basis. Please do not automatically return these funds to the Foundation. Instead, email grants@mathersfoundation.org for guidance.
