Simons Collaborations in Ecology and Evolution – Request for Applications 2027

The Simons Foundation’s Life Sciences division is now seeking vision statements to identify new, emerging breakthrough areas of ecology and evolution that are poised for high-impact funding by the Simons Foundation. We are interested in idea-generating research that focuses on basic principles of ecological and evolutionary dynamics, especially their interface, and that may be overlooked or too risky for other funding organizations. To enable bold, cutting-edge and innovative research, each collaboration will be funded for five years, with the potential of one renewal.

We will prioritize cross-disciplinary collaborations that integrate levels of scale, for example from genes to species to communities, from local to global processes, or across ecological and evolutionary time scales. We are particularly interested in projects that cut across boundaries, whether these boundaries entail fields and subfields, diverse methodological approaches and/or the geographical regions from which investigators work. We expect that outstanding collaborations will catalyze impactful conversations by bringing together unique combinations of expertise to generate fundamental understanding of the genetic, ecological and evolutionary factors that shape the dynamics of organisms and/or the communities in which they are embedded.

Investigators in a Simons Collaboration are expected to openly share data, code, analysis pipelines, protocols and reagents. We expect proposals to include investigators at multiple levels of seniority and across academic disciplines.

Vision statements should clearly outline the big idea and hypotheses that the proposed collaboration will address, including high-level overviews of the methods and approaches that will be used. Which disciplines and subdisciplines will be brought together, and how will the research efforts extrapolate across scales to address your research challenge? Why is this work uniquely suited for Simons Collaboration funding and why would its initiation be timely? Why would it be difficult to obtain funding to investigate this question from other funding agencies and foundations?  Vision statements should address why and how the support of a collaborative research project from the Simons Foundation will transform our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of organisms, communities and/or ecosystems in the natural world. Please propose investigators who may be included in the collaboration and an estimated anticipated overall yearly total cost, although these may be refined at a later stage.

The total budget for 1-3 new Ecology and Evolution Collaborations will be $8 million USD per year. We anticipate identifying up to three collaborations, with the funding level of each collaboration determined by the proposed scope and aims of the project. As a guideline, we suggest budgets of between $1–4 million USD per year, inclusive of twenty percent indirect costs.

Vision statements will be reviewed by the Simons Foundation with input from outside reviewers. 10–20 spokesperson PIs will be invited to submit a full proposal including a more detailed scientific narrative, finalized list of investigators and a detailed budget. Full proposals will be reviewed with input from outside reviewers, and finalists will be invited to make a presentation to the review committee, after which awardees will be selected.

Please note that in the event of budgetary or other considerations, The Simons Foundation, Inc. (“the Foundation” or “SF”) reserves the right to refer an application to The Simons Foundation International, Ltd. (“SFI”) for consideration and funding. SFI and SF have entered into an agreement pursuant to which SF provides program operations and grant administration services, including payment processing, to SFI. SFI grant recipients are subject to SF Policies and Procedures.

All investigators must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree and have a faculty position or the equivalent (eligible for receiving grant funding as a PI) at a college, university, research institute or other research facility. In addition, eligible applicants must have research space at their institution.

Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign nonprofit organizations; public and private institutions, such as colleges, universities, laboratories, institutes, units of state and local government; and research-oriented agencies of the federal government. There are no citizenship requirements for PIs.

SF and SFI do not provide funding to institutions in China (including institutions in Hong Kong), or to fiscal sponsors or agents of institutions in China or Hong Kong. This includes funding to support subcontracts at institutions in China or Hong Kong or consultants residing or working for institutions in China or Hong Kong.

Simons Foundation employees who receive a W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement) from the Simons Foundation, including employees of the Flatiron Institute, may not apply as a principal investigator (PI) to any Simons Foundation or Simons Foundation International Requests for Applications (RFAs) released by the Simons Foundation. PIs and any project personnel listed on the application who will receive funding for salary, travel, support for students, postdocs or research staff, lab equipment, computing time or other individual expenses may not be employees of the Simons Foundation, which includes the Flatiron Institute.

Vision statements must be submitted electronically via the Simons Award Manager (SAM) by the Spokesperson PI for the proposed collaboration.

The deadline for vision statement submission is October 16, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern time.

Please refer to the How to Apply instructions and FAQ for further details.

Many of the greatest ideas and discoveries come from a diverse mix of minds, backgrounds and experiences. The Simons Foundation is committed to advancing basic science and mathematics to benefit humankind and expand our collective understanding of our world. As part of our mission, we support partners, programs and initiatives that seek to broaden the scientific community and open pathways to science and mathematics careers.

The Simons Foundation provides equal opportunities to all applicants for funding without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic disposition, neurodiversity, disability, veteran status or any other protected category under federal, state and local law.