"For some of us, the program sounds like a storyline pulled from a speculative fiction novel."
That's one way of describing the Sloan Foundation's new Matter-to-Life program, which aims to fund research that will "sharpen scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter," the New York Times reports.
Between 2021 and 2023, the foundation will award an average of $88 million in grants per year to five program areas: Research ($48.3 million), Higher Education ($12.9 million), Public Understanding ($12.9 million), Technology ($10.5 million), and its NYC Program ($2.6 million), plus $1 million in grants made outside of its established programs.
"We're looking for these interstitial spots in the landscape where there's good or potentially good science that isn't getting funded, and that's the sense in which we can be risk capital," the foundation's president tells the Times.
In an interview with Scientific American, he says the goal is to "create diverse, equitable, and inclusive pathways to and through STEM graduate education and the professoriate."
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
Vietnam’s Enterprise Law has been amended last November and now provides a legal definition of social enterprise. The law also grants social enterprises a number of rights. British Council Vietnam has played a vital role in supporting this amendment.