Research Challenges
Prizes and competitions to help science funding go further.
A new initiative to stir the pot for research ideas.
Make more science happen
Answer The Challenge
Anyone can create a project in response to a challenge. Projects must be submitted before the launch deadline to be eligible. Winners will be chosen when all of the eligible campaigns end.
Peer-Reviewed Proposals
Each project will be reviewed and approved by a panel of science and topic experts. All review comments are transparent and open to the public.
Crowd Leverage
Three is a party, but three hundred is a crowd. By backing a project, backers will receive lab note updates and scientific results from project researchers. This is science by the people, for the people.
Requests for Experiments
View upcoming grants and submit a project.
Biotech for Conservation
Conservation biologists are increasingly turning to new biotechnologies to understand and restore the natural world. The tools are changing as fast as the ecosystems, and we need all the help we can get.
Science Leads: Bridget Baumgartner and Ryan Phelan
Indigenous Futures
Indigenous knowledge holds the keys to rebuilding humanity's relationship with the natural world. The Indigenous Futures fund seeks to empower the Indigenous researchers and innovators who are asking the most pressing questions and bringing that knowledge into action.
Science Lead: Keolu Fox
Augmented Discovery
Science and technology advancements are critical to navigating our way to a healthier planet. Artificial intelligence could help us find the next big breakthrough faster than we could on our own. It's certainly an idea worth testing.
Science Lead: James Weis
Community Science & Environmental Justice
Air, water, and soil pollution issues fall disproportionately on low-wealth Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) populations and communities. Community-based participatory research provides a model and tools for communities to take science and research into their own hands.
Science Lead: Dr. Sacoby Wilson
Negative Emissions Technology
Addressing climate change requires more than just reducing emissions. We need to find a way to remove excess carbon dioxide at scale. We want to help kickstart new questions around how to improve those technologies and measure their effectiveness.
Science Leads: Merritt Dailey and Paul Reginato
Mycological Innovations
Fungi are the basis on which many fundamental living networks rely. Research and experimentation in the field of mycology can help our society to discover new approaches to heal ourselves and our home planet. Science Lead: Antoni Gandia
Ocean Solutions
The Ocean Solutions Fund supports experiments that seek to better understand and/or improve the health of our world's ocean.
Science Leads: Katy Croff Bell, David Lang, Eric Stackpole
Metascience
How can our scientific institutions most effectively encourage progress on society’s most important challenges? The field of metascience aims to develop rigorous, quantitative evidence on this question. If you have ideas of how to do that, we’d like to hear from you.
Cellular Agriculture
Cellular agriculture is moving from science fiction to reality. Important progress has been made over the past decade, but there is still more to learn, study, and invent.
Science Lead: Isha Datar
Want to create your own sponsored research grant?
Submit Your Grant IdeaPast Challenges
These challenge grants have ended and the grant prizes awarded.
| Grant | Projects | Launched |
|---|---|---|
| Hot Science Summer | 8 projects | July 2021 |
| Wildlife Health and Disease Challenge Grant | 9 projects | May 2021 |
| Biosurveillance | 2 projects | April 2021 |
| Kelp | 10 projects | April 2021 |
| Conservation Technology | 13 projects | January 2021 |
| Environmental Citizen Science | 10 projects | November 2020 |
| Wildlife Health and Disease Challenge Grant | 13 projects | August 2020 |
| Wildlife Health and Disease Challenge Grant | 15 projects | June 2019 |
| iGEM 2019 Challenge | 8 projects | April 2019 |
| BBPI Paleontology Grant Challenge | 4 projects | March 2019 |
| Association of Zoos and Aquariums Grant Challenge | 7 projects | February 2019 |
| Entomological Society of America Grant Challenge | 6 projects | February 2019 |
| 2018 iGEM Research Challenge | 5 projects | October 2018 |
| Wildlife Disease Association Challenge Grant | 36 projects | August 2018 |
| Horse Nation Equine Research Challenge | 8 projects | May 2018 |
| Cartography and Mapping | 13 projects | January 2017 |
| Trash, Sustainability, and the Environment | 8 projects | January 2017 |
| Poverty and Development | 7 projects | January 2017 |
| Mental Health | 15 projects | January 2017 |
| Political Science | 6 projects | January 2017 |
| Public Health | 18 projects | January 2017 |
| Evolution | 8 projects | January 2017 |
| Cities & Transportation | 13 projects | December 2016 |
| Benthic Ecology | 6 projects | December 2016 |
| Exercise Research | 7 projects | November 2016 |
| Adolescence | 13 projects | November 2016 |
| Bees | 13 projects | November 2016 |
| Groundwater and Caves | 12 projects | November 2016 |
| Zoos | 13 projects | November 2016 |
| Ornithology | 27 projects | October 2016 |
| Freshwater Science | 10 projects | October 2016 |
| Archaeology | 11 projects | October 2016 |
| Fungi | 8 projects | October 2016 |
| Arachnids | 9 projects | October 2016 |
| Botany | 9 projects | September 2016 |
| Herpetology | 11 projects | September 2016 |
| Wildlife Diseases | 12 projects | September 2016 |
| Coral Reefs | 13 projects | August 2016 |
| Weather and Atmospheric Science | 6 projects | August 2016 |
| iGEM Synthetic Biology | 14 projects | July 2016 |
| Seabirds | 16 projects | July 2016 |
| Sharks, Skates, and Rays | 16 projects | June 2016 |
| Sleep | 10 projects | May 2016 |
| Cats | 21 projects | May 2016 |
| Paleontology Challenge | 12 projects | April 2016 |
| Fish Challenge | 11 projects | April 2016 |
| Animal Superpower Challenge | 20 projects | March 2016 |
| Zika Virus | 13 projects | March 2016 |
| Insects Challenge | 15 projects | March 2016 |
| Liberal Arts College | 18 projects | March 2016 |
| Marine Mammals | 14 projects | February 2016 |