The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Science program announces its Summer 2025 Cycle Open Call for Science Events and Gatherings.
Donor Name: Heising-Simons Foundation
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Program
Deadline: 08/15/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
For this call, they welcome applications for grants to support meetings, workshops, conferences, summer schools, research collaboration gatherings, and other events related to the fields of astronomy, planetary science, cosmology, fundamental physics, climate change science, and/or increasing the representation and retention of underrepresented groups in these fields.
Through this funding, the Science program has three main goals:
- Enable basic scientific research
- Connect key stakeholders
- Communicate scientific results.
Funding Information
Up to $400,000 of funding is available, with each grant being between $20,000 and $80,000.
Grant Period
October 31, 2025 and October 31, 2026.
Eligibility Criteria
All applications must meet the following criteria:
- The request must be related to organizing or hosting an in-person, hybrid, or virtual event (e.g., conference, meeting, symposium, workshop, summer school, etc.) related to the fields of astronomy (including planetary science), cosmology, fundamental physics, climate change science, and/or increasing the representation and persistence of underrepresented groups in these fields.
- Events focused on science communication are ineligible for funding in this call.
- For events related to climate change science, they seek proposals that focus on the physical mechanisms, drivers, and/or impacts of climate change that manifest in the various Earth system components such as changes in extreme weather, droughts or ecosystem shifts, or changes in ocean or cryosphere dynamics. Events that include related topics such as climate resilience or adaptation are eligible as long as the focus of the event is on climate science research.
- In-person events must take place in the U.S., including U.S. territories.
- The duration of the event must be 15 days or less.
- Eligible applicants must be described in Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) Section 509(a)(1) or 509(a)(2), which includes:
- an organization with an un-revoked determination letter from the IRS that the organization is exempt from income tax under IRC Section 501(c)(3) and is not a private foundation under IRC Section 170(b)(1)(A) or 509(a)(2)
- a U.S. or state government, government possession, or political subdivision of a government, under IRC Section 170(c)(1)
- an instrumentality of an IRC Section 170(c)(1) governmental unit (regardless of whether such instrumentality’s income is tax-exempt under IRC Section 115)
- Applicants at universities must work with their office of sponsored projects or affiliated foundation to gather the necessary information to apply.
For more information, visit Heising-Simons Foundation.
