The Boston University Foundation Relations team, within the Office of Advancement, helps faculty identify, apply for, secure, and steward charitable gifts and grants from private philanthropic foundations and nongovernmental organizations. We match faculty research and programs with foundations’ priorities, which are often to support pilot projects and high-risk research that may not be attractive to traditional funders such as NIH and NSF. Additional details about how we work can be found in this overview.
“They were a GREAT addition to the process: proactive, professional, detail oriented, rapidly responsive, friendly, and accommodating….In short, they were a key member of our submission team. Truth be told, I am not 100% sure that we would have made the submission deadline without them.”
—Thomas Gilmore, PhD, Professor, Biology
Hundreds of foundation programs are focused on early-career faculty. Their funding can be highly beneficial, helping to seed a new project, confirm proof of concept, or generate pilot data. In contrast to federal funders, private funders are more willing to support high-risk, high-reward projects.
foundation support to BU in FY25
proposals the Foundation Relations team helped faculty submit in FY25
“Meet the Funder” events organized by the Foundation Relations team over past four years
Numerous faculty members from across the University receive foundation support. Here are a few recent examples.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation gave 126 fellowships this year to early-career researchers from 44 institutions in the United States and Canada; the list was selected from more than 1,000 nominations. The prestigious honor (59 fellows have gone on to win Nobel Prizes) has been awarded annually since 1955 to researchers “whose creativity, innovation, and […]
The funding will support a clinical study evaluating motor and cognitive factors associated with changes in walking for people with Parkinson's disease who use MedRhythms' MOVIVE (MR-005), a safe, use-at-home medical device that delivers rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) to support gait rehabilitation and motor function. This study was funded through The Michael J. Fox Foundation's […]
The project, Immigrant Inclusion in the U.S. Tax and Transfer System: Reviewing Evidence to Inform State Policy Action, is lead by Dolores Acevedo-Garcia (SSW), Stephanie Ettinger De Cuba (SPH), and Pamela K. Joshi (SSW), as well as Christopher Wimer at Columbia University. IECOHD and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy (CPSP) at the Columbia […]
The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and Hevolution Foundation announced the third cohort of the Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awardees in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research. This program enables junior investigators with labs in the US and Canada, and with at least three years of independent research, to advance research projects in basic biology of […]
Ali Noorani cut his teeth as a nonprofit leader in Boston. Now he’s back to lead one of the dynamic foundations in the region. By Adrian Walker Globe Columnist,Updated December 10, 2025, When Ali Noorani left Boston in 2008 — after years as a high-profile activist, most notably on immigration issues — he didn’t think […]
The Pivot Fellowship is open to faculty in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, data science and computer science at academic institutions or equivalent positions elsewhere. Pivot fellows receive support to apply their skills and expertise to a new area of research. Fellows receive support for one year of mentored training in their new discipline. The fellowships […]
With the support of a Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship, Wally Fulweiler is spending this school year studying data science and building a new tool that could greatly expand her research as an ecosystems ecologist and biogeochemist.
A new BU STH initiative seeks to give churches across the region a boost of hope by convening groups of ordained and lay leaders to share resources and feel more connected. The New Wineskins Network, funded with a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow initiative, will create small groups of church leaders from […]