GoKawiilThe Novo Nordisk Foundation is one of the philanthropic organizations funding research, such as that at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen.Credit: Novo Nordisk Foundation
Jim Simons, a US hedge-fund manager, used mathematical modelling and algorithms to make huge returns on financial investments. By the time Simons died in 2024, he was worth an estimated US$31 billion. In 1994, he and his wife, the economist Marilyn Simons, established the Simons Foundation, a major philanthropic funder of mathematics and basic science in the United States. By contributing billions of dollars to the foundation and other philanthropic causes during his lifetime, he hoped to continue generating scientific returns on his investment for many years after his death.
For decades, philanthropic organizations have been growing in importance as a source of science funding. Between 1980 and 2023, the share of funding for basic and applied research done at US universities and non-profit research organizations provided by philanthropic foundations increased from 10% to 16%, and the federal government’s contribution fell from 66% to 50%, according to the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a New York City-based coalition of private philanthropic funding organizations. Across the Atlantic, spending on medical research by members of the Association of Medical Research Charities in the United Kingdom grew from less than £1.3 billion (US$1.7 billion) to almost £2 billion between 2012 and 2022.
Nature Spotlight: Philanthropy and awards
Several factors are probably behind the rise in philanthropic funding, says network scientist Louis Shekhtman at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. “These include the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few individuals, some of whom have made money through technology and science and are wanting to give something back,” he says, as well as a reduction of US government funding on an inflation-adjusted basis. There is also an increase in the number of organizations providing support. The Science Philanthropy Alliance, for example, has grown to more than 40 member foundations since it launched in 2014. But competition for the research funding that foundations provide is also on the rise.
Wellcome, the largest independent science-funding foundation in the United Kingdom, for example, received almost 4,300 applications for grants through its open competitive schemes in the 2024–25 period (October 2024 to September 2025), up from around 2,700 the previous year (see go.nature.com/4snk2kd). Ben Murton, who runs Wellcome’s funding for early- and mid-career researchers, says that as well as rising demand, a small part of this increase could be due to variations in the numbers and types of scheme on offer. “We are one of many research funders seeing an increase in grant applications,” he says. “The intel we’ve got is that the number of applicants has been going up across the sector in recent years.”
As both the number of philanthropic foundations and the demand for their support grows, it has become increasingly important for researchers to understand these organizations’ funding processes. Nature spoke to representatives of three foundations to identify the type of research they prioritize and how those seeking this financing can maximize their chances of success.
Models of support
The levels of support that scientists receive from philanthropic foundations vary a lot by country. So, too, do the ways in which the foundations fund research. Philanthropic funding can include grants to universities and institutes; funds for cutting-edge equipment and facilities; payouts from endowments to institutions; and competitive funding opportunities open to individuals or project-based collaborations.
Foundations also have varying priorities when it comes to the disciplines and subjects that they support. “Learn as much as you can about the foundations that are relevant to your research, and identify which ones have visions and missions that your work can contribute to,” says Steffen Pierini Lüders, chief corporate affairs officer at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, a philanthropic organization in Hellerup, Denmark, which owns 28.1% of the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
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