The Boston University Foundation Relations team, within the Office of Development & Alumni Relations, 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. See this overview for additional details of how we work.
“Without the help of Foundation Relations, none of these projects would have happened. They tirelessly sought out funding opportunities. Once a grant was secured, they made it their personal mission to make sure that we kept in good standing with the foundation and continued to receive funding year after year.”
—Casey Taft, PhD, Professor, Psychiatry
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.
For more on the impact of foundation support to BU, see this report.
foundation support to BU in FY23
proposals and LOIs the Foundation Relations team helped faculty submit in FY23
“Meet the Funder” events organized by the Foundation Relations team over past three years
Numerous faculty members from across the University receive foundation support. Here are a few recent examples.
Assistant Professor Meg Younger and Postdoctoral Scholar Florencia Fernandez-Chiappe will study mosquitoes' olfactory systems and how mosquito-borne diseases affect young children.
Ana Fiszbein, Assistant Professor of Biology, and Jeroen Eyckmans, Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, both received $2 million research grants to investigate the foundational mechanisms behind biological aging.
Dr. Teplensky’s research focuses on engineering nanotechnology to control immunological cell connectivity.