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Greetings,

 

We are excited to share this limited submission opportunity from the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The aim of the inaugural ACS-Moore Postdoctoral Bridge Award in Quantum Materials program is to support exceptional postdoctoral researchers in quantum materials who face financial challenges in their current postdoctoral appointment or in securing their next career opportunity. Harvard is permitted to nominate up to six postdoctoral researchers for this limited submission opportunity. This announcement is labeled as short notice because the nomination deadline occurs in fewer than two weeks. More information about the award and the internal selection process 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. 

 

ACS-Moore Postdoctoral Bridge Award in Quantum Materials

  • Internal Harvard Application Deadline: July 31, 2026
  • OSP Deadline, if selected: August 11, 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, if selected: August 14, 2026; nominations must be submitted by a senior institutional official 
  • Award Amount: $95,000 stipend and $5,000 for travel and/or research expenses over 12 months
    Indirect costs are not allowable expenses. While this falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy, these are early career awards and 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 inaugural ACS-Moore Postdoctoral Bridge Award in Quantum Materials is a partnership between the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Moore Foundation). The Moore Foundation is funding the program through its Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) Initiative. This program will provide one year of bridge funding, professional development, and networking opportunities that sustain research momentum, foster interdisciplinary collaboration across physics, chemistry, and materials science, and strengthen the pipeline of talent advancing fundamental discoveries in quantum materials. 

 

This program addresses a critical gap for outstanding researchers who face unexpected disruptions at one of the most vulnerable points in an academic career. For researchers whose Principal Investigators lose funding, or who face unexpected disruptions to their own appointments, this transition can mean not just career uncertainty, but the loss of research momentum built over years of highly specialized work. By providing flexible bridge funding alongside a structured cohort experience, the program is designed to protect research momentum and accelerate postdocs' transition to independent academic leadership.

 

Eligibility Criteria

 
To be eligible for a Harvard nomination, the following requirements must be met: 
  • Institutional Base: Must be a current postdoctoral researcher based at Harvard. Open to all nationalities and citizenships.
  • Research Focus: Must be conducting outstanding research in an eligible quantum materials class:
    • Strongly correlated systems, including but not limited to unconventional superconductors, Mott insulators, multiferroics, and correlated oxide heterostructures
    • Frustrated magnets and other solids exhibiting novel or exotic magnetic properties
    • Topological materials
    • Two-dimensional crystals and layered systems, including but not limited to graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and van der Waals structures
    • Other low-dimensional systems, including but not limited to quantum wells and quantum wires with emergent electronic properties
    • Hybrid quantum materials created by the integration of dissimilar component materials or through external stimuli
    • Organic-based materials exhibiting emergent electronic properties, along with hybrid systems that incorporate organic components
    • NOTE: Cold-atom assemblies or photonic systems that can emulate properties of real materials (‘quantum simulators’) are outside the scope of this call for proposals.
  • Broader Contributions: Candidates must demonstrate strong potential for significant contributions to the scientific community and future academic leadership.
  • Funding Status: Must be facing financial challenges regarding their current appointment or in securing their next career transition (e.g., termination of a fellowship or appointment, loss of funding to the research advisor that affects postdoctoral support, or a lack of bridge funding between appointments or career transitions).
  • Exclusions: Postdocs are not eligible if they are currently supported by a 2025 EPiQS cost-extension, a Moore Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Commitment, or the following 2026 EPiQS awards: Material Synthesis Investigator; Moore Fellow Synthesis; OR 2026 Experimental Investigator awards. Cold-atom assemblies or photonic systems that can emulate properties of real materials (‘quantum simulators’) are outside the scope of this call for proposals.
 

Internal Harvard Application Materials

  • Candidate Curriculum Vitae (CV) including a complete publication list.
  • Statement of research, including key findings and future research directions.
  • Two letters of support: (1) from the research advisor, and (2) from the Department Chair.
  • Brief description of the financial challenges regarding the candidate’s current appointment or in securing their next career transition, if this is not included in one of the letters of support.
  • Please email all application materials directly to Clare Ploucha with the subject line "ACS-Moore Postdoc Nomination - [Candidate Name]".
 

Limited Submission Details

 
This is a limited submission opportunity and Harvard has been invited to submit nominations for up to six postdoctoral researchers. Because the final institutional submission requires a centralized package endorsed by the Provost’s Office, the Harvard Quantum Initiative (HQI) is running an expedited internal selection process, managed by HQI faculty leadership, to select the Harvard cohort of nominees. To be considered for a Harvard nomination, potential applicants must submit their nomination materials to Clare Ploucha by July 31, 2026. HQI review and selection will take place August 1, 2026 through August 7, 2026. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research will then review the nomination package starting August 7, 2026 for submission by August 14, 2026. Nomination materials must be uploaded into GMAS for OSP review by 9:00 AM on August 11, 2026. Funding decisions from the sponsor will be communicated in October 2026; approximately thirty postdoctoral researchers will be selected for funding in 2026. 
 

Additional Information and Resources

 

Please view the ACS-Moore Postdoctoral Bridge Award in Quantum Materials webpage for more information and FAQs.

 

Questions from FAS or SEAS postdocs about this opportunity may be directed to Clare Ploucha.

MAILING LISTS

Sign up to join the mailing list for FAS Funding Focus, a resource series tailored to help FAS faculty and staff navigate the ever-evolving landscape of grants and funding. Previous editions of FAS Funding Focus (FFF) are accessible in the FFF archive. To receive additional announcements from FORA, including the monthly On Your RADAR (Research Administration Developments & Announcements Rundown) newsletter and invitations to the FORA Forum, a monthly meeting for Harvard research administrators, please sign up for the FORA listserv here.
 

RESOURCES

Research Development maintains a Sample Proposal Library of successful proposals from recent award recipients that are available to FAS and SEAS faculty by request; please email Research Development to request to view a proposal. For more information on Research Development's resources—including lists of internal funding programs, early career funding programs, and sabbatical fellowships—please visit the Funding Opportunities web page. 
 

SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PIVOT

All Harvard affiliates can search for opportunities and set up alerts using Pivot, a searchable database of federal and private funding opportunities. Information on Pivot, including a one-page user guide, and other funding opportunity databases available to the Harvard community can be found on the Funding Databases web page.
 

PIVOT CURATED SEARCHES

Curated funding opportunity lists are funding search topics of broad interest. The following curated lists can be further refined in Pivot based on your funding needs. To view the results you must be on a Harvard network or logged in to your Pivot account. Information on setting up a Pivot account can be found in our one-page user guide. 

 

 

 

 

Quantum Science and Engineering 

 

Additional curated lists are available on the Funding Databases web page. We continue to add to and refine these lists based on feedback. Please feel free to reach out to us at research_development@fas.harvard.edu with any suggestions you may have.
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