Greetings,
We are excited to share this early career funding opportunity from the Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation. The Beckman Young Investigator Program provides research support to the most promising junior faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science.
These applications require two institutional endorsements. Please see below for instructions on requesting these endorsements. Requests must be received by July 20, 2026. More information about the award can be found in the synopsis and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our new Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.
- Deadline to Request Institutional Endorsements (see details below): July 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET
- OSP Deadline: July 28, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator.
- Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (LOIs): July 31, 2026 at 8:00 PM ET
- Award Amount: Grants are in the range of $600,000 ($150,000 annually) for four years.
This Foundation does not provide funding for indirect costs. While this falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy, these are early career awards so FAS/SEAS recognizes this indirect cost limit and does not require further action, such as a waiver or direct charge of other costs.
Program Overview
The Beckman Young Investigator (BYI) Program provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science. Projects proposed for the BYI program should be truly innovative, high-risk, and show promise for contributing to significant advances in chemistry and the life sciences. They should represent a departure from current research directions rather than an extension or expansion of existing programs. Proposed research that cuts across traditional boundaries of scientific disciplines is encouraged. Proposals that open new avenues of research in chemistry and life sciences by fostering the invention of methods, instruments, and materials will be given additional consideration.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be employed by an institution that qualifies as a 501(c)(3) or a similar non-profit organization.
- Applicants must hold a tenure-track faculty appointment or an equivalent structured pathway to permanent faculty status, be within the first four years of that appointment, and maintain an active, independent lab and research program. Tenure-track dates for the 2027 program must start after 1/1/2022, and on or before 7/31/2026.
- Applicants must have no more than 10 years post-terminal degree (PhD earned 1/1/16 or later or for MD or MD/PhD, residency completed no earlier than 1/1/2016), and no more than 5 years’ experience in a non-tenure track (not including postdoc) or industry position. Non-tenure track or industry positions that occurred in 2021 or later are eligible to apply in August 2026 for the 2027 Program.
- Leave of absence/stop-the-clock events will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- Applicants can have no more than $225,000 in direct, annualized external funding grants at the time of application for either this year (Aug 2026-July 2027) or year one of the BYI award (Aug 2027-July 2028). Start-up funds, department-wide instrumentation grants, and "Transition" grants received as a postdoc (such as NIH K99/R00) are not counted toward this total.
- Applicants with pending permanent residency are eligible to apply, but official US citizenship or permanent residency documents are required by the BYI Interview (March 16, 2027).
- The Foundation does not support clinical research, clinical trials, or single-target drug discovery projects. Individuals with strictly clinical appointments are not eligible to apply.
- No individual may apply for a Beckman Young Investigator award more than two times (including submitting a Letter of Intent).
LOI Materials
- In an effort to avoid implicit and explicit bias in its review process, the Foundation will blind all information pertaining to applicants’ name, gender, ethnicity, citizenship status, and institutional information from reviewers during the Letter of Intent reviews. Read the Foundation's full statement on supporting inclusion and instructions for properly de-identifying the LOI. Failure to follow the guidelines for blinding the pre-proposal may lead to application ineligibility.
- LOIs will require:
- PI profile, including scanned copies of documentation of citizenship/permanent residency
- Four-page pre-proposal, inclusive of images, references, and citations
- Biosketch (template provided)
- Current Funding Chart (e-form included in application portal)
- Institutional Endorsements from the Chief Academic Officer and Dean (or similarly authorized signatories). Please note that these are electronic signatures and not Letters of Recommendation.
To request endorsement of the Chief Academic Officer or authorized signatory
- Send an email to Colleen Shanahan, Senior Manager, Proposal Team (colleen_shanahan@harvard.edu) no later than July 20, 2026. This email should have the subject line "Beckman Institutional Endorsement Request" and should include a PDF of the LOI along with a brief note alerting Colleen that an automated email from the Beckman application portal will be forthcoming.
- The online portal will have a section to provide the email address for the Chief Academic Officer or authorized signatory, and applicants should provide colleen_shanahan@harvard.edu as the recipient address for this endorsement.
To request endorsement of the Dean
- FAS Science Faculty: To obtain endorsement from Dean Dave Johnston:
- Send an email to sciencedean@fas.harvard.edu with a cc to laura_wipf@fas.harvard.edu and research_development@fas.harvard.edu no later than July 20, 2026. This email should have the subject line "Beckman Institutional Endorsement Request" and should include a PDF of the LOI along with a brief note alerting the Dean’s Office that an automated email from the Beckman application portal will be forthcoming.
- The online portal will have a section to provide an email address for the Dean, and applicants should provide sciencedean@fas.harvard.edu as the recipient address for this endorsement.
- SEAS Faculty: To obtain endorsement from Dean David Parkes:
- Send an email to dean@seas.harvard.edu with a cc to dhwang@seas.harvard.edu and research_development@fas.harvard.edu no later than July 20, 2026. This email should have the subject line "Beckman Institutional Endorsement Request" and should include a PDF of the LOI along with a brief note alerting the Dean’s Office that an automated email from the Beckman application portal will be forthcoming.
- The online portal will have a section to provide an email address for the Dean, and applicants should provide dean@seas.harvard.edu as the recipient address for this endorsement.
Additional Information and Resources
The Beckman Foundation uses a three-step application process:
- Letters of Intent (LOIs). Three reviewers will conduct a blind review of each LOI and about 100 top candidates will advance to the full proposal round. LOI notifications are expected by November 16, 2026.
- Invited Full Proposals. The submission deadline is January 11, 2027.
- Interviews. Interviews will be held virtually on April 20-21, 2027. Award notifications are expected by May 22, 2027.
Applicants should review Beckman's LOI Instructions, LOI FAQs, and General Guidance and Appropriately Blinded Application Examples. Beckman also provides slides from a recent informational webinar and two examples of successful pre-proposals:
Enabling Enzyme-Like Cooperativity in Inorganic Electrocatalysis and
A modern approach to polar thermoplastics. In addition, a list of all previous BYI awards is available online, along with awardee videos.
Applicants may sign up for Mentor Office Hours on July 7, 2026, at 1:00 PM ET. A recording from the 2025 program cycle Mentor Office Hour Meeting is available as well.
LOIs must be submitted through Beckman's online application portal.
Recent BYI award recipients in the FAS: Jarad Mason (CCB, 2019), Kang-Kuen Ni (CCB, 2015), Amy Wagers (HSCRB, 2007), Hopi Hoekstra (OEB, 2006), Xiaowei Zhuang (CCB, 2003), David Liu (CCB, 2002).
Questions from FAS or SEAS faculty about this opportunity may be directed to research_development@fas.harvard.edu. |
