How we work with faculty

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

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Research

For Early-Career Faculty

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.

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By The Numbers

$60.6 million

foundation support to BU in FY25

430

proposals the Foundation Relations team helped faculty submit in FY25

38

“Meet the Funder” events organized by the Foundation Relations team over past four years

BU + Foundations in the News

Numerous faculty members from across the University receive foundation support.  Here are a few recent examples.

News

Study lead by Terry Ellis, Professor and Department Chair of Physical Therapy, receives $2M grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation

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 […]

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News

Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development (IECOHD) receives Rapid Response grant from William T. Grant Foundation

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 […]

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News

Assistant Professors Hadi Nia and Brianne Connizzo announced as Hevolution/AFAR New Investigators in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research

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 […]

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News

Sarah Davies, Associate Professor of Biology, receives 2025 Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship

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 […]

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News

Sargent College Assistant Professors receive 2025 American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation awards

Kimberly Crespo, Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, has received the New Investigators Research Grants for her project "Learning While Sleeping: Statistical Word Learning and Consolidation in Children with and without Development Language Disorder". Jennifer Zuk, Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, has received the […]

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