The Simons Foundation is a private foundation, established in New York in 1994 by mathematician and Renaissance Technologies founder James (Jim) Simons and Marilyn Simons, that has grown into one of the largest private funders of basic research in mathematics and the sciences in the United States. Unlike a broad-mission general grantmaker, the Foundation is organized around a small number of distinct research divisions, each with its own program officers, funding mechanisms, and application conventions — which means a research administrator advising a faculty applicant needs to know which Simons division actually fits the proposed work before looking at any specific program’s mechanics. This guide covers the Foundation’s main funding divisions, representative program types within each, general eligibility and application patterns, and how Simons funding compares operationally to a federal award.
How the Simons Foundation is organized
The Foundation funds research through several divisions, each scoped to a specific area of science:
- Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) — supports basic research in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science, and related fields.
- Life Sciences — supports basic biological research, with recurring emphasis areas that have included microbial ecology, plant biology, and origins-of-life research.
- Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) — a dedicated program funding basic and translational autism research; SFARI is large enough, and distinct enough in scope and process, that it operates essentially as its own division within the Foundation rather than a subprogram of Life Sciences.
- Neuroscience — supports basic research on the brain, including early-career fellowship and faculty-transition programs.
- Science, Society and Culture — a newer division supporting public engagement with science and, more recently, funding aimed at broadening institutional participation in research, including programs for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The Foundation also operates the Flatiron Institute, its in-house computational science research division based in New York, which conducts internal research across astrophysics, biology, mathematics, computational neuroscience, quantum physics, and related fields rather than making external grants — a distinct arm from the grantmaking divisions above and not itself a source of external funding an outside investigator would apply to. Because divisional scope, program names, and open competitions change from year to year, an administrator advising an applicant should always confirm current programs directly on the Foundation’s own site at simonsfoundation.org/funding-opportunities rather than relying on a prior cycle’s list.
Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS)
MPS is the Foundation’s founding scientific division and funds basic research with no expectation of near-term applied payoff, reflecting Jim Simons’s own background as a mathematician. Representative program types within MPS include:
- Simons Fellows programs (e.g., in mathematics or theoretical physics) — individual-investigator awards, typically supporting a sabbatical-style leave period to concentrate on research free of teaching obligations.
- Simons Collaborations — larger, multi-institution awards that bring a group of researchers together around a specific scientific question over several years, generally requiring a letter of inquiry (LOI) before a full proposal is invited.
- Targeted Grants in MPS and Targeted Grants to Institutes — support for specific projects or for research institutes, again typically opened through a rolling or periodic LOI process rather than a single annual deadline.
- Simons Symposia — funding for small, invitation-structured scientific meetings rather than research grants in the conventional sense.
Life Sciences
The Life Sciences division funds basic biological research, with the Foundation periodically opening focused initiatives within specific subfields — aquatic and microbial ecology and synthetic plant biology have both been active emphasis areas in recent cycles, alongside postdoctoral fellowship programs tied to those same initiatives. As with MPS, specific open programs rotate: an administrator should check the Life Sciences funding-opportunities listing directly for what is currently accepting applications rather than assuming a previously funded program remains open.
Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI)
SFARI is the Foundation’s autism research program and one of the largest funders of autism research in the world, supporting both basic science aimed at understanding the biological mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder and, at points, more translational work. SFARI runs its own recurring solicitations — including a rolling “New Ideas” request for applications aimed at exploratory, higher-risk projects — and maintains research resources beyond direct grantmaking, including SFARI Gene (a curated database of genes implicated in autism) and cohort/data-sharing infrastructure that funded investigators are generally expected to contribute results to. Because SFARI’s scientific scope and review criteria are specific to autism research and differ procedurally from the Foundation’s other divisions, an applicant should work from SFARI’s own program pages and current RFAs rather than assuming a Life Sciences or MPS process applies.
Neuroscience
The Neuroscience division supports basic brain research, including career-stage-specific mechanisms such as junior fellowship programs for researchers transitioning from postdoctoral training toward independent faculty positions. As with the Foundation’s other career-development mechanisms, these programs are typically nomination-based or competitively reviewed rather than open to unsolicited direct application, so eligibility and nomination requirements should be confirmed against the specific program’s current guidelines.
Eligibility and how to apply
Because the Simons Foundation runs multiple divisions with different program types rather than a single unified competition, eligibility and application mechanics vary by program rather than following one Foundation-wide rule. That said, several patterns recur across most Simons programs:
- Applications generally come from, or are affiliated with, an eligible research institution — typically a university, nonprofit research institute, or similar organization — even where the application itself is framed as an individual-investigator submission; the applicant’s institution is usually the entity that formally receives and administers the award.
- Many of the Foundation’s larger or multi-year programs use a staged process, beginning with a brief letter of inquiry or concept description before a full proposal is invited — conceptually similar to the staged model used by other major private foundations that fund high-cost, multi-year basic research (see CASRAI’s guide to the W.M. Keck Foundation’s Research Program for a comparable staged, LOI-driven process at another private funder).
- Some programs are individual-investigator submissions with a fixed annual deadline (e.g., certain Fellows programs), while others run on a rolling or periodic LOI cycle, and others still (junior fellowship and career-transition mechanisms in particular) are nomination-based rather than directly applied for.
- Award size, duration, and indirect-cost (F&A) treatment vary by program and are not standardized across the Foundation the way they are within a single federal agency; as with most private foundations, indirect cost recovery on a Simons award should not be assumed to match a federal negotiated rate, and should be confirmed for the specific program before a budget is built. See CASRAI’s dictionary entry on indirect costs (F&A) for the general distinction this raises for a sponsored-programs office.
Because eligibility criteria, deadlines, and which programs are currently open change from cycle to cycle — and because the Foundation has adjusted specific program structures over time — treat any deadline or eligibility detail found in a search result, a prior year’s institutional guidance, or a third-party grant-database listing as provisional, and verify it directly against the current program page at simonsfoundation.org or through your institution’s sponsored-programs or foundation-relations office before building a submission timeline.
Internal competition and institutional coordination
Several Simons programs, particularly larger institutional awards and programs where the Foundation limits the number of nominations or nominated candidates a single institution may put forward, function as a limited submission at the institutional level even when the Foundation itself does not publish a formal per-institution cap. Where a program is nomination-based or does cap institutional submissions, a sponsored-programs or foundation-relations office typically needs to run its own internal review to select which candidate(s) or concept(s) go forward — the same coordination problem CASRAI covers generally in its guide to managing limited-submission funding opportunities. Building institutional internal deadlines well ahead of the Foundation’s own dates is good practice specifically to leave time for that internal selection step.
How Simons Foundation funding compares to federal grant mechanisms
For a research administrator more accustomed to federal peer review, Simons funding differs in a few structural ways worth flagging to a first-time applicant. Federal competitive grants such as an NIH R01 or an NSF standard grant are reviewed against detailed, scored criteria across a broad applicant pool, generally on a fixed annual or triannual cycle set by the agency. Simons programs are narrower in scope — organized by scientific division rather than by a single agency-wide mechanism — and several of the Foundation’s flagship programs (Collaborations, Targeted Grants) use a staged LOI model that screens fit and ambition before a full proposal is invited, reducing the up-front proposal-writing burden relative to a full unsolicited federal application, but also concentrating early-stage review discretion with a smaller group of program officers than a full federal panel review involves. As with other major private funders, indirect-cost recovery, award duration, and reporting requirements are set at the Foundation’s, and often the individual program’s, discretion rather than following a government-wide regulation such as Uniform Guidance, which governs federal awards. See CASRAI’s Grants Management & Research Funding hub for how private-foundation funding fits into the broader pre-award landscape alongside federal mechanisms.
Frequently asked questions
Can an individual researcher apply to the Simons Foundation directly, without going through their institution?
In practice, no. Most Simons programs are framed as individual-investigator applications, but the applicant’s research institution is typically the entity that formally receives, administers, and is accountable for the award, similar to how most major private research foundations operate. Check the specific program’s guidelines for exactly how institutional involvement is structured.
What is SFARI and how does it differ from the Simons Foundation’s other divisions?
SFARI (the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative) is the Foundation’s dedicated autism research program, one of the largest funders of autism research globally. It runs its own solicitations, review process, and research resources (such as the SFARI Gene database) distinct from the Foundation’s Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Neuroscience divisions, so its eligibility and application requirements should be checked separately from the Foundation’s other programs.
Does the Simons Foundation fund applied or translational research?
The Foundation’s core scientific divisions (MPS, Life Sciences, Neuroscience) are generally oriented toward basic, fundamental research rather than applied or translational work, consistent with the Foundation’s origins funding curiosity-driven mathematics and science. SFARI is a partial exception, funding some translational autism research alongside basic science. Program-level guidelines should always be checked, since scope varies by specific solicitation.
Is the Flatiron Institute a source of external funding?
No. The Flatiron Institute is the Simons Foundation’s in-house computational science research division, staffed by its own scientists conducting internal research; it is not a grantmaking program that outside investigators apply to for funding.
How does the Simons Foundation treat indirect costs (F&A)?
Indirect-cost treatment varies by program and, as with most private foundations, should not be assumed to match a federally negotiated F&A rate. Confirm the specific program’s current indirect-cost policy directly with the Foundation or through your institution’s sponsored-programs office before finalizing a budget.
