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Limited Submission Funding Opportunities Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Moore Inventor Fellows

September 20, 2021

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announces the seventh competition for Moore Inventor Fellows. The foundation seeks to identify outstanding inventors and innovators who harness science and technology to enhance the conduct of scientific research, strengthen environmental conservation, or improve the experience and outcomes of patient care. The Moore Inventor Fellows fellowship focuses on supporting scientist-inventors at a critical prototyping stage to capture opportunities that otherwise might be missed. We seek to provide freedom and support to promising inventors with the most compelling ideas to pursue creative and disruptive innovations.

The scope of this call is intentionally wide: proposed projects do not need to fall within our current funding priorities but should be broadly within the program areas of foundation interest (science, environmental conservation and patient care). For patient care, inventions should resonate with our focus on improving the experience and outcomes of patients with solutions that improve clinical diagnosis.

We aim to support inventions at an early stage that could lead to proof-of-concept of an invention or advance an existing prototype that tackles an important problem. We seek innovations that promise to make a long-lasting and meaningful impact by addressing underlying problems in their field, but a clear path toward commercialization is not a requirement. We are not interested in supporting fundamental research projects or projects already at a stage where significant venture capital is available. As with all our grants, we seek to measure progress toward a defined goal during the three years of support. The foundation’s policy is that intellectual property that results from a grant must be managed and disseminated in a manner that leads to the greatest impact. Each award will include IP terms to reflect the needs of that project.

We recognize real invention can take surprising turns, so we seek creative individuals who have big ideas, deep knowledge and the courage to take smart risks. We recognize inventors and innovators come from a diversity of backgrounds, disciplines and experiences and seek creative individuals across a broad array of academic programs and research institutions. Examples of such programs include but are not limited to environmental science and conservation, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, big data, climatology, emerging infectious diseases, oceanography, biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, materials science, neuroscience, and public health.

Please read the annual guidelines.

Award:

Each fellow will receive $200,000 per year from the foundation for three years.

In addition, the foundation will provide the host institution with $25,000 each year to cover costs associated with administering the grant, resulting in a total three-year award of $675,000.

Each host institution will be required to contribute $50,000 in annual direct support of the inventor’s work. This can be “in kind” as released time or access to special facilities for which there is normally a charge.

We expect each fellow will be personally engaged in pursuing their invention and we require each fellow to devote at least 25 percent of their own time to their invention. Fellows may use the grant funds to support their own salary to create this opportunity. They may also hire research personnel and purchase services, equipment, or supplies.

Additional information:

  • It is our understanding at Northwestern that the Foundation’s science program is not biomedical, not about curing disease, but about path-breaking fundamental science research. The science program focuses on new tools and techniques and research at the frontiers of science. In addition, the patient care area is also not about drugs or treatment, but outcomes and experience of patients in the hospital system.
  • Please read the Foundation’s annual guidelines 
  • Learn more about the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 Moore Inventor Fellows and their inventions.
  • Visit this link for FAQ https://www.moore.org/docs/default-source/moore-inventor-fellows/moore-inventor-fellows_faq

Evaluation Criteria:

The evaluation criteria that are used by the Foundation will be used in reviewing the internal proposals; as in the annual guidelines 

Eligibility:

  • Candidates must be faculty, research scientists, postdocs or other full-time staff who can receive funding through their institutions. Candidates must be no more than 10 years past receiving the terminal advanced degree in their field (M.S., Ph.D. or M.D. received on or after 2012).
  • Each fellow is required to devote at least 25 percent of their own time to their invention.
  • Each eligible institution can submit two nominations for consideration.

Key Dates:

  • Internal Letter of Intent Due: September 28, 2021 (by 11:59 pm)
  • Internal Proposal Due: October 6, 2021 (by 11:59 pm)
  • Sponsor’s deadline for institutions to provide basic nominee information: November 12, 2021
  • Sponsor Application Due: December 13, 2021

Letter of Intent:

Faculty members interested in applying are required to submit a letter of intent (LOI) by the deadline specified above. If interest exceeds the number of submissions the university is allowed, an internal competition will be held.

  1. Click here to access the LOI form.
  2. Name the LOI as follows: “LOI-LastName-FirstInitial-Moore-Fellows-2022”, replacing “LastName” with your last name and “FirstInitial” with your first initial.
  3. Submit your LOI by completing this web form. Note: Supplemental documents are not accepted.
  4. To receive a confirmation email and copy of your submission, check the box (“Send me a copy of my responses”) and enter your email address.
  5. Click “Submit”.

Internal Proposal Guidelines:

Proposals should be prepared with 1-inch margins all around, 12-point font size and type and are required to contain the following components:

  1. Cover page (1 page limit) with descriptive title, your name and departmental affiliation, NU key personnel, and external partners.
  2. Introduction (ONLY if you previously submitted an internal proposal to this program) that includes the following components (0.5 page, max):
    1. Summarize how your research proposal differs from your previous submission(s).
    2. Summarize how your application as a whole differs from your previous submission(s) (i.e., publications, honors, awards, accomplishments, etc.).
  3. Statement of invention (2 page limit, including citations and figures): The first paragraph should describe clearly and without jargon the invention, the problem it seeks to address, and its potential impact. The statement of invention should also include the following information:
    1. Description of invention
    2. Importance to science, environmental conservation, or patient care
    3. Stage of invention
    4. Current funding
    5. Risk (please describe any technical risks that might lower chances of success and what you will do mitigate these risks. For example, “If A doesn't work, we'll do B.”).
    6. Potential impact.
    7. Approach for measuring progress during the grant term
  4. CV (2 page limit):
    1. Educational and professional background
    2. Key accomplishments, honors and demonstrated areas of expert knowledge
    3. Other background information relevant to this invention
  5. A letter from your department Chair/division Chief. If you are a Department Chair and/or your Department Chair is a key personnel on any proposal for this competition, please provide a letter from your Research Dean. The letter must indicate
    1. That you will have at least 25 percent protected time in pursuit of your invention for the three-year duration of the award.
    2. That the department/school will commit to provide the mandatory $50,000 annual mandatory support (can be in-kind) for the three-year duration of the award.

Uploading the Proposal:

  1. Prepare your proposal as a SINGLE PDF FILE. It should be named ”IP-LastName-FirstInitial-Moore-Fellows-2022," replacing "LastName" with your last name and "FirstInitial" with your first initial.
  2. Click on the web form link provided in the email inviting you to submit the internal proposal.
  3. To receive a confirmation email and copy of your submission, check the box (“send me a copy of my responses”) and enter your email address.
  4. Click “Submit”.

Contact Information:

For questions about this funding opportunity, please contact: 

Sarah Fodor, Executive Director Foundation & Corporate Relations, Alumni Relations & Development, (847) 491- 4584, s-fodor@northwestern.edu

For questions about the limited submission process, please contact:
Fruma Yehiely, Associate Vice President for Research, yehiely@northwestern.edu

Limited Submissions website.

Categories: Fellowships