W.M. Keck Foundation Research Program

Keck Foundation Portal

The Office for Research and Innovation and the Office of Advancement invite pre-applications for the W.M. Keck Foundation Research Program. The program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting Basic Science Research projects that are distinctive and novel in their approach, question the prevailing paradigm, or have the potential to break open new territory in their field. Stony Brook University can submit up to THREE applications per cycle. 

Please see below for details.  If you are interested in applying, you must submit a pre-application via the Keck Foundation Portal in InfoReady by Monday, October 26, 2026 at 9:00 am.  Pre-applications for internal review and selection must be uploaded to the portal as a single PDF document.

Keywords: Basic Science, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Instrumentation Development, Engineering Approaches

What it Funds: The foundation looks for projects that aim to deliver pioneering and fundamental scientific discoveries in important and emerging areas of research. The foundation funds high-impact research in basic physical, life, and biomedical sciences, including instrumentation development and engineering approaches in service of answering basic scientific questions. Projects should have novel approaches that are distinctive, innovative, field-expanding, and challenge existing paradigms. High-risk, high-reward proposals are welcome. 

What it Does NOT Fund: The Foundation is not a funder of disease-specific research, translational or applied work, optimization of existing techniques, or incremental extensions of established research directions or methods. The Foundation generally does not fund research in Geosciences. The Foundation specifically does not fund the following:

• Medical devices or bench-to-bedside translational research
• Projects solely focused on engineering equipment, tools, or materials
• Engineering for efficiency, optimization or cost reduction
• Clinical trials, therapies, procedures
• Drug discovery, development, or delivery
• Disease biomarker screening
• Digital twin implementations
• User facilities or equipment for shared facilities
• Supplements, renewals, or follow-on funding
• Conferences or science policy
• Resubmission of declined proposals
• Applied/translational research (e.g. research focused more on process optimization than on exploratory work; any research with a translational component)
• Capital Projects
• Commercialization (projects with filed provisional patents, mass production or scalable projects, an economic impact component)
• The purchase of new tools or instrumentation (unless it ties into significant breakthrough science)
• Single-investigator projects
• Infrastructure related projects
• Projects that are already close to making a discovery (e.g., new drug or technology development in final stages, close to completion)
• Survey work
• Projects that the foundation has previously funded
• Projects that are part of a larger project
• General operating expenses, endowments, or deficit reduction
• Grants to individuals
• General and federated campaigns, including fundraising events, dinners, or mass mailings
• Book publication and film productions

Applicant Requirements:  PIs must be tenure-track faculty or equivalent (normally eligible to submit proposals without exceptional approvals). Past grantees may apply on significantly different projects. PIs may not resubmit declined proposals. 

Award: Typical grants are awarded $1M to $1.3M over 3 years. 

Cost Share: Indirect costs are not allowed —institutions provide in-kind support by waiving indirects. Up to $25K per student annually can be budgeted for tuition and fees, not to exceed 10% of the total budget; the institution matches any gaps. OR&I cannot guarantee a contribution to cost share. Researchers must discuss cost share contribution needs with their School Dean or Department Chair to secure cost share before submitting a proposal.

Foundation Deadline: December 7, 2026

A complete pre-application should comprise of the following:

• Project Narrative (No more than three pages): Required sections in this order, using these exact bold headers:
  • Scientific Question: State the scientific question motivating this work in terms accessible to a scientist outside your field. Do not include methods, instruments, or field-specific frameworks.
  • State of the Field and the Gap: Describe the current state of understanding in the field. What dominant paradigm, prevailing model, or standard assumption does this work test, extend or break. What is currently impossible or unknown? Why has the gap persisted?
  • Approach: Open with one sentence stating how the proposed work would answer the scientific question stated above. State the central hypothesis or idea. Identify the specific goals or aims of the work. For each aim: What will be done? How? What does success or failure look like? Identify the methodological, theoretical, or instrumental advances that distinguish this approach from existing work.
  • Feasibility: Evidence supporting the feasibility of the proposed work. For early-stage proposals, articulate the feasibility argument from related results, team capability, or theoretical grounding. Absence of preliminary data is not disqualifying.
  • Potential Impact: If the scientific question is answered, what changes? Provide two distinct downstream consequences. 
• Bibliography
• Other Support document in in NSF or NIH format
• Biosketch/CV for PI

Review

A pre-application will undergo an initial evaluation by the Office of Advancement to confirm program fit. If a pre-application does not fit what the Keck Foundation is looking for, it may be returned to the PI without further review. If a pre-application is determined to fit what the Keck Foundation is looking for, then it will move on to the next stage of review. 

All pre-applications that comply with these guidelines will be peer-reviewed based on the criteria below. Please note that all reviewers will be internal to SBU and may not be experts in the specific field of the research topic. Applicants should develop the narrative in such a way that colleagues in related fields can clearly understand.

1. Overall fit for the Keck Foundation: How well does the pre-application as a whole fit what the Keck Foundation is looking for (See ‘Prospective Applicant Information’ on sponsor website for details on what the foundation does and does not fund)?
2. Bold/Innovative Concept: To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
3. Potential to transform the field: To what extent does the project have the potential for transformative impact, such as the founding of a new field of research, enabling of new observations, or altering perception of a previously intractable problem?
4. Is the project high-risk, high-reward? How well does the project demonstrate a high level of risk due to unconventional approaches or challenge to the prevailing paradigm?
5. Basic Science: Does the project focus mainly on basic science rather than translational or applied science? Note: The Keck Foundation will consider research to be translational or applied if there is any translational component, if it appears to focus more on process optimization than exploratory work, or if there is any mention of commercialization, industry partnerships, economic impact, patents, mass production, or scalability (yes/no).

Examples of Awarded Projects

View abstracts of past W.M. Keck Foundation Research Program Awardees

Keck Foundation FAQ