Simons Foundation Grants 2026: Open Calls and Deadlines

Simons Foundation grants open now: 12 calls

Grantsights checked the funding opportunities page and 3 program pages on November 10, 2026. All 12 listed opportunities showed as open.

The honest read: Simons is one of the most open large science funders, but every route is a defined program with its own eligibility. If your work doesn't fit one of the 12 calls, there's no general inbox to send it to.

The rules every Simons grant shares

The policies and procedures page, last updated June 2026, sets 5 rules that apply across programs.

1. Institutions only. "Under no circumstances will payments be made payable to an individual." Fellowships are administered by the host institution.
2. Doctoral PIs. "All PIs must hold a Ph.D., M.D. or equivalent degree."
3. 20% indirect cap. "Indirect costs to the primary institution are limited to 20 percent of direct costs," and "The indirect cost rate is nonnegotiable."
4. Foreign organizations. Outside the U.S., the foundation "generally requires that an organization be the equivalent of a U.S. public charity."
5. No China or Hong Kong institutions. The page says the foundation and Simons Foundation International don't fund institutions in China, including Hong Kong.

Awards can move with the PI to another nonprofit or public institution, at home or abroad, but never to a for-profit company.

Three programs in detail

Targeted Grants in MPS funds "high-risk theoretical mathematics, physics and computer science projects." According to the program page, there's no set funding level; awards run up to 5 years and can pay up to 1 month of summer salary per investigator a year, plus postdocs, students, travel, visitors and equipment. The process starts with a letter of intent in the Simons Award Manager, decided within 4 months; a full proposal is by invitation, due no sooner than 3 months after approval. U.S. national labs aren't eligible.

Fellows-to-Faculty, listed under autism and neuroscience, supports scientists moving into tenure-track faculty jobs. The faculty research award is $200,000 a year for 3 years, "inclusive of 20 percent indirect costs," meant to supplement a start-up package. An optional postdoctoral award of up to 2 years pays an $85,000 stipend, $10,000 for career development and $15,000 for benefits each year. Applications are due January 13, 2027.

Travel Support for Mathematicians pays $6,000 a year for travel and research, $1,000 for a department discretionary fund and $1,400 in indirect costs: $8,400 a year for 5 years, starting September 1, 2027. Applications are due at noon Eastern on January 27, 2027.

Common mistake: budgeting your university's federal overhead rate. Simons caps indirect costs at 20% and won't negotiate, so a budget built on a 55% federal rate has to be rebuilt.

Who Simons Foundation grants actually fund

According to Grantsights analysis of the 2024 return, 1,727 grant lines worth $272.0 million went to 432 differently written recipient names. The median line was $72,000, and the middle half ran from $8,400 to $192,000. U.S. institutions received 1,513 lines worth $234.0 million (86.0%), and 214 lines worth $37.9 million went abroad, led by the United Kingdom ($11.8 million), Canada ($5.9 million), France ($5.2 million) and Switzerland ($3.7 million).

The many small lines are mostly the travel grants. Grantsights counted 544 lines of exactly $8,400, worth $4,569,600, each carrying a mathematics project title, which matches the program's yearly amount. Another 48 lines worth $851,000 paid Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Neuroscience.

New York led with 236 lines and $83.1 million (30.6%), followed by California ($43.7 million) and Massachusetts ($35.4 million).

Top recipients on the 2024 return

What it pays for, with named examples

The biggest lines are institutional commitments, not competitive awards. For example, the New York Genome Center received $20,000,000 described as its "2018 new gift," and Stony Brook Foundation received $6,666,667 as a "Simons Infinity Investment matching gift" and $3,498,868 for a Simons math and physics operating fund. Northwestern received $4,125,000 for the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology, UC Berkeley received $3,750,000 for the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, and the University of Edinburgh received $5,146,400 for a major program of autism research.

Named investigator awards fill the middle. Grantsights counted 47 lines for Simons Investigators in Physics, 37 in Mathematics and 24 in Computer Science; 26 of the mathematics lines were exactly $192,000. Collaboration grants recur too, such as 16 lines for Global Categorical Symmetries and 15 for Wave Turbulence.

At the small end, for example, Howard received $8,400 for research collaboration in algebraic and enumerative combinatorics, as did the University of Oklahoma for work on a Sobolev-type inequality. Those travel grants reach far more institutions than the large awards.

2023 for comparison

According to the 2023 return data, the foundation listed 1,962 lines and $291,357,755 paid, about $19.4 million more than in 2024. The 2024 return lists $68,586,980 approved for future payment and assets of $4.48 billion at fair market value.

How to apply to the Simons Foundation, step by step

These 7 steps come from the funding opportunities, policies and program pages as checked November 10, 2026.

1. Find your call on the funding opportunities page. Read the full request for applications (RFA) linked from each listing; many listings don't show amounts.
2. Confirm your institution can receive the grant. It must be a nonprofit or public institution, the equivalent of a U.S. public charity if abroad, and not in China or Hong Kong.
3. Register in the Simons Award Manager. Applications and letters of intent go through it.
4. Build the budget at 20% indirect. Tell your grants office early; the rate is nonnegotiable.
5. For Targeted Grants in MPS, start with a letter of intent. Expect a decision within 4 months and allow at least 3 more months for an invited proposal.
6. Watch time zones and office closures. Several deadlines are at noon Eastern, and the Targeted Grants page lists office closures from November 25 to 27, 2026 and December 24, 2026 to January 1, 2027.
7. Plan the next cycle if you miss this one. Most calls are labeled with a year (2027 RFA), which signals a yearly cycle.

What Simons's Funding Pages Don't Tell You

Grantsights checked the Simons pages against the foundation's 2 most recent returns, and 5 things stood out.

Most dollars go to a few big commitments. The 3 lines of $5 million or more and 24 lines of $1 million to $5 million took 30.1% of 2024 dollars, mostly long-standing institutes and gifts. Don't underestimate how small the open-call share of the budget is.

New York and Stony Brook get special treatment. New York institutions took 30.6% of the money, and Stony Brook Foundation alone received $18.3 million in 11 lines. Those reflect the foundation's history, not a preference you can apply into.

The travel grant is the widest door. 544 lines of $8,400 make it the program that reaches the most mathematicians, at modest cost. It's an honest first Simons award for U.S. faculty.

The list can't be read by name alone. The return abbreviates names (MIT, UCSF, UCSD), splits medical schools from their universities (NYU School of Medicine is separate from NYU) and pays some awards through university foundations. A red flag when using the list is assuming a short name means a small grantee.

Simons runs its own research too. The Targeted Grants page bars Flatiron Institute staff who are foundation employees from applying as PIs, because the institute is part of the foundation. Its research spending isn't on the grant list, so outside researchers compete only for the grant portion. Don't confuse it with the Flatiron NoMad Partnership, a separate organization that received $100,000 and $120,000 on the 2024 list.

Where to look beyond Simons

Simons calls are specific, so most researchers also need federal and other private money.

Federal research funding: NSF's CAREER program page (opens in a new tab) lists the next deadline as July 28, 2027 and estimates 500 awards a year; see the NSF CAREER award guide, the NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships guide and the NSF grants complete guide. Autism researchers should read the NIH grants complete guide. Search all open federal calls on Grants.gov's search page (opens in a new tab).

Other private science funders: the John Templeton Foundation grants guide covers science and big-questions research, and the Dreyfus Foundation grants guide covers chemistry faculty awards. For institutional strategy, see best grants for universities.

Grantsights tools: the Simons Foundation funder page summarizes the grants on its recent 990-PF filings, and the Grantsights grant search helps an institution check open federal and state programs. Grantsights' education funder lists group private foundations that gave for education by state.

How Grantsights Checked This Guide

Grantsights checked 5 Simons pages and 2 Simons returns on November 10, 2026. ProPublica's record and the return header both show EIN 13-3794889 for the Simons Foundation Inc in New York.

Simons's grant list is public because federal law requires it. According to IRS guidance on the private foundation annual return (opens in a new tab), every private foundation files Form 990-PF by the 15th day of the 5th month after its year ends, which is May 15 for a calendar-year foundation; the 2025 return wasn't on ProPublica when Grantsights checked. To read a grant list yourself, see how to read a 990-PF.

Sources

• Simons Foundation: Funding Opportunities (opens in a new tab)
• Simons Foundation: Policies and Procedures (opens in a new tab)
• Simons Foundation: Targeted Grants in MPS (opens in a new tab)
• Simons Foundation: Fellows-to-Faculty (opens in a new tab)
• Simons Foundation: Travel Support for Mathematicians (opens in a new tab)
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Simons Foundation filings (opens in a new tab)
• National Science Foundation: CAREER program (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov: Search Grants (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: Private Foundation Annual Return (opens in a new tab)