Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering

Pitt Nomination Limit: 2
Website: https://www.wmkeck.org/research-overview/
Sponsor: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Pitt Internal Deadline: TBA
Sponsor Deadline: April 20 (historically)
Award Amount: $875,000 total over 5 years
Pitt Select Funder: Yes. Interested groups should contact PAE-CFR for more information.

About the Program

Established in 1988, the Packard Fellowships provide the nation’s most promising early-career scientists and engineers with flexible funding to take risks and explore new research frontiers. Each year, 20 Fellows are selected from 100 applications submitted across the 50 invited institutions. Since inception, the Foundation has awarded over $500 million to 710 scientists and engineers; Fellows have gone on to win Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics and been elected to the National Academies.

Funding Information

$175,000/year for 5 years, subject to reasonable research progress. Of that, $157,500/year supports the Fellow’s research directly; $17,500/year is unrestricted funding for the university to cover administrative costs. Fellows may use their research funds flexibly to advance their work as they see fit — this is not a project-specific budget.

Eligibility

• Must be a faculty member at Pitt, eligible to serve as PI
• Research must fall in the natural and physical sciences or engineering — specifically: physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering
• Social science research is not eligible
• Must be within the first three years of a faculty career
• Well-established, well-funded faculty are explicitly less likely to be selected — this fellowship targets early-career researchers specifically

What the Sponsor Will Not Fund

• Clinical research
• Research tied to large national facilities (e.g., accelerators, space stations)
• Applied research of direct relevance to national security
• The Foundation explicitly directs funding toward fields it considers comparatively under-resourced, avoiding areas it sees as already well-funded elsewhere

Internal Selection Process

Pitt must nominate faculty for this opportunity. If you are interested in being considered as a nominee, please see the limited submission guidelines before submitting a pre-application to InfoReady. 

1. Interested investigators should submit the following materials via InfoReady by: TBA
   • An abbreviated NIH Biosketch (five pages max)
   • TBA
2. Internal applicants will be peer-reviewed on the following criteria:
   • Alignment with the solicitation
   • Approach and design
   • Significance and potential impact
   • Clarity of the pre-application
   • PI qualifications

Key Dates