The Novartis Foundation is not the research and development arm of the pharmaceutical company Novartis. It is a separate, autonomous nonprofit organization focused on global public health — and it does not fund or conduct commercial drug discovery. Researchers searching for Novartis-branded funding will actually find several distinct programs under the “Novartis” name; this guide explains what the Novartis Foundation specifically does, how it differs from Novartis AG’s commercial R&D and from other Novartis-branded grant programs, and what practical options exist for researchers who want to engage with any of them.
What the Novartis Foundation Is — and Isn’t
The Novartis Foundation (novartisfoundation.org) describes itself as a not-for-profit organization and an autonomous legal entity separate from Novartis AG. It is funded by Novartis but is, in its own words, “drug agnostic and unrelated to Novartis Group’s commercial operations.” In practice, this means the Foundation does not evaluate, fund, or influence Novartis’s pharmaceutical pipeline, and its programs are not vehicles for promoting Novartis products.
This distinction matters for anyone doing due diligence on a funding source: the Foundation is a philanthropic, public-health-focused body, structurally separated from the commercial company whose name it shares, in the same governance pattern used by many corporate-affiliated foundations (an independent legal entity, funded by but not directed by the parent company’s commercial interests).
Current Strategic Focus: Urban Health, Data, and AI
As of its current programming, the Novartis Foundation concentrates on improving cardiovascular and broader health outcomes in cities, using data, artificial intelligence, and cross-sector partnerships. Its stated approach is to help cities “use data, AI, and cross-sector collaboration to develop blueprints of a healthier future,” connecting health and non-health sectors (housing, transport, urban planning) with predictive analytics to identify and address the drivers of poor health outcomes in low-income urban populations.
Two initiatives anchor this work:
- CARDIO4Cities — uses data and AI to design and target cardiovascular-health interventions through multisector, city-level partnerships. It builds on the Foundation’s earlier Better Hearts Better Cities program, which addressed hypertension and its underlying risk factors in low-income urban communities in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Dakar (Senegal), and São Paulo (Brazil), working with multisector partners including a technology-advisor partnership with Intel.
- AI4HealthyCities — applies predictive analytics to identify the social, economic, and environmental factors driving health disparities within cities, feeding that evidence into program and policy design.
The Foundation also periodically runs open calls for external partners, such as a recent Social Innovation Challenge focused on women’s cardiovascular health — these are the closest thing the Foundation offers to an open, competitive call that researchers or innovators outside its existing partner network can apply to.
A History Rooted in Neglected Disease and NCD Prevention
Before its current urban-health focus, the Novartis Foundation was known for a multi-decade commitment to leprosy elimination — over 30 years of work supporting people affected by leprosy, including a post-exposure prophylaxis strategy that was subsequently incorporated into World Health Organization global guidelines for leprosy prevention. It has also worked on hypertension and other non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention in low-resource settings, digital health, and broader NCD program design in low-income populations. Researchers encountering older references to the Foundation’s malaria, leprosy, or general NCD portfolio are looking at this earlier phase of its work; current program pages should be checked directly for what the Foundation is actively running today, since global-health foundations of this kind periodically re-scope their strategic focus.
Not a Traditional Investigator-Initiated Grant-Maker
Unlike a research council or a foundation such as the Simons Foundation or the John Templeton Foundation, the Novartis Foundation does not generally run an open, standing call for individual investigator-initiated research proposals. Its model is program-driven and partnership-based: it designs and funds multisector initiatives (city governments, health systems, technology partners, academic and implementation partners) rather than issuing recurring open RFPs that any individual researcher can apply to. Researchers interested in engaging with the Foundation’s work are more likely to do so as a named partner or evaluator within one of its city-level programs, or by responding to a specific, time-limited open call (such as a Social Innovation Challenge) when one is posted, than by submitting an unsolicited research grant application.
This is a genuinely common point of confusion, because two other Novartis-branded programs do offer direct, application-based research funding — and neither of them is the Novartis Foundation:
Other Novartis-Branded Funding Programs: How They Differ
| Program | Run by | Who it funds | Typical mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novartis Foundation | Independent nonprofit, funded by Novartis, legally separate from Novartis AG | Cities, health systems, multisector partners | Program partnerships; occasional open innovation challenges |
| Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research | A separate Swiss grant-making foundation housed within Novartis Pharma AG in Basel | Individual biomedical researchers at Swiss institutions | Direct competitive grant applications, three deadlines a year |
| Novartis Global Scholars Program | Novartis Biomedical Research (the company’s own R&D function) | Researchers at invited partner institutions only | Invitation-only, translational biomedical funding |
| Novartis external/educational funding (by country) | Novartis AG commercial/medical affairs functions | Healthcare professional education, independent medical education | Country-specific corporate giving requests, not investigator research grants |
Because these programs share the “Novartis” name and sometimes overlapping subject matter (biomedical and health research broadly), it is worth confirming which specific entity a call for proposals, guideline document, or contact email actually belongs to before investing time in an application.
Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research
This is the program most likely to be directly relevant to an individual investigator, but it is restricted to researchers at Swiss institutions. Per its published 2026 guidelines, it offers Research Project grants (for established researchers) and Young Investigator Grants (for researchers with fewer than eight years of academic experience since completing a PhD), both funded up to CHF 80,000 for one year. There are three application deadlines per year (23 January, 17 April, and 11 September 2026 in its current cycle), decisions are communicated roughly 14 weeks after each deadline, funded projects may not involve any Novartis products, and the reported acceptance rate is in the 5–10% range. Applicants who are unsuccessful may reapply after 12 months, and awardees are ineligible to reapply in the same grant category for five years. Full guidelines are published at the foundation’s own site (stiftungmedbiol.novartis.com) and should be checked directly for the current cycle’s deadlines before applying, since these are set annually.
Novartis Global Scholars Program
Run by Novartis’s own biomedical research function rather than the Foundation, this program funds “breakthrough science” with an explicit goal of translation toward drug discovery or clinical research, providing up to USD 1 million over three years per scholar. Access is limited to researchers at institutions Novartis has specifically invited into the program — it is not an open call, and applications are not accepted from outside that partner network.
Practical Guidance for Researchers
- Confirm which entity you’re actually looking at. Check the domain and the “about” or “governance” section of whatever page you’re on — novartisfoundation.org (the Foundation), stiftungmedbiol.novartis.com (Medical-Biological Research), or novartis.com (the company’s own scholars/external-funding programs) are three different application processes with different eligibility rules.
- If you’re at a Swiss institution and doing biomedical research, the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research is the most accessible direct-grant route; budget for a competitive process (single-digit-to-low-double-digit acceptance rates) and plan your submission around its published annual deadlines.
- If your institution has an existing partnership with Novartis’s R&D function, ask your research office whether it has been invited into the Global Scholars Program — it is not something you can apply to cold.
- If your work is in urban health, cardiovascular disease, or health-systems innovation and involves city governments or multisector implementation partners, monitor the Novartis Foundation’s own site for open innovation challenges and program partner calls; this is a program-partnership model, not a standing grant line, so timing matters more than for a traditional funder.
- Treat “Novartis funding” as a category, not a single program, when writing a data management plan, funder-compliance section of a proposal, or a grants-office intake form — record the specific entity (Foundation vs. Medical-Biological Research foundation vs. company R&D) rather than “Novartis,” since compliance and reporting obligations differ by entity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Novartis Foundation the same as Novartis the pharmaceutical company?
No. The Novartis Foundation is a separate, autonomous nonprofit legal entity. It is funded by Novartis but describes itself as “drug agnostic and unrelated to Novartis Group’s commercial operations” — it does not fund or direct Novartis’s commercial pharmaceutical R&D.
Does the Novartis Foundation fund individual researchers directly?
Generally not through a standing open call. Its model is program- and partnership-based (city-level, multisector health initiatives), with occasional time-limited open innovation challenges. Individual investigator-initiated grants are more likely to come from the separate Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research (Swiss institutions only) or, for invited institutions, the Novartis Global Scholars Program.
What does the Novartis Foundation currently fund?
Its current strategic focus is urban health, primarily cardiovascular health, through data- and AI-driven multisector partnerships under initiatives such as CARDIO4Cities and AI4HealthyCities. It has a documented history in leprosy elimination and broader NCD and hypertension prevention work in low-income urban populations.
How much can the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research award?
Per its published 2026 guidelines, up to CHF 80,000 for a one-year project, across both its Research Project and Young Investigator Grant categories, with three deadlines a year and a reported 5–10% acceptance rate. This is a separate Swiss grant-making foundation, not the Novartis Foundation itself.
Where do I check current, authoritative program details?
Always confirm current focus areas, open calls, and deadlines directly on the relevant organization’s own site — novartisfoundation.org for the Foundation, or stiftungmedbiol.novartis.com for the Medical-Biological Research foundation — since both re-scope programs and reset deadlines periodically.
Related CASRAI Resources
This guide is part of a series profiling major private and philanthropic research funders. See also: the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Volkswagen Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Simons Foundation, and John Templeton Foundation funder profiles, the broader Private and Nonprofit Medical Research Funders landscape guide, and the Gates Foundation Open Access Policy guide. For background definitions, see research funder and foundation grant in the CASRAI dictionary.
