The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is accepting applications for the Climate Change and Human Health Seed Grants to promote growth of new connections between scholars, practitioners, educators, and/or communicators working to understand, spread the word about, and mitigate the impacts of climate change on human health.
Focus Areas
Linking basic/early biomedical science to climate-focused thinking
Sustainability in health care systems, health care delivery outside institutions, and biomedical research
Health impacts and health systems impacts of extreme weather events and other crises
Outreach, communication, and education around climate and human health
Funding Information
In the three years between Fall 2023 and Summer 2026, they will dedicate $1M to supporting small, early stage grants of $2,500–$50,000 toward achieving goals.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications must be submitted by non-profit organizations or degree-granting institutions in the United States or Canada. Applicant organizations may submit multiple proposals, but an individual may only serve as a principal investigator/project director on one application during each review period.
This call focuses on developing partnerships. Proposals from single institutions must develop partnerships that do not already occur naturally: for example, proposals from departments that draw students from the same shared graduate program are not responsive to this call. Proposals from more than one institution are responsive. Academic institutions, professional societies, and advocacy Awards are made to non-profit organizations including degree-granting institutions in the U.S. or Canada. The institutions are responsible for disbursing the funds and for maintaining adequate supporting records and receipts of expenditures. Indirect costs may not be charged against BWF grants. Salaries of support personnel and materials appropriate to administering the work should be included as direct costs. Reasonable and justified consultant costs may be included in the budget. Benefits are direct costs. Institutions must provide an annual progress and financial report. Any unused funds (greater than $500) held by institutions when awards expire or are terminated must be returned to BWF, unless BWF has granted prior permission to retain the remainder. Proposed work should be completed in a single year. One no cost extension will be allowed. organizations are only a few of the appropriate drivers of proposals. Only non-profit institutions may be supported by BWF’s award, but non-profits may involve for profit organizations in their proposals. This program does not support biomedical research projects proposed by individual investigators, but only by collaborative teams.
Eligible proposals will include rationale/vision for the project, including who it is intended to impact.
Individuals may only serve twice as directors (principal investigators/project directors) for proposals supported over time by this program. Current and past awardees from other BWF programs are eligible to apply.
Selection Process
Selection will be based on the logic of the proposed activity, its potential impact on stimulating development of effective partnerships that may influence understanding of the interplay between climate change and human health or model effective approaches to changing how people, systems, places, or organizations think about the impact of climate change on human health.
To be competitive, the proposed support should not be to fund the applicant’s current projects but should be utilized to catalyze new transdisciplinary effort. They expect to support work that brings new collaborators together, pulls fields together in new ways, or combines separate resources into more powerful wholes. They do not expect to support work that, but for funding, is easily within an applicant’s capacity.
Proposals involving gathering people should include a description of a backup plan for proceeding if COVID-19 concerns again limit contact between participants.
Proposals will be reviewed by a standing committee within BWF with advice from expert reviewers drawn from a panel recommended by the National Academy of Medicine. BWF does not provide substantial critiques of unfunded proposals.
