News

Application Instructions for the Foundation’s new application cycle are published and available to download.

The Foundation is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, September 22 to discuss the new process and instructions. Sign up and submit questions here.

Important changes to be aware of:

• Concepts: We will no longer be hosting concept consultations
• Deadlines: Submission deadlines in December and June
• Application limits: Up to three applications per institution, not limited to any area of science. The Foundation will not fund more than one project in the same field from the same institution in a cycle.
• Budget: A budget is not required for the initial submission. Applicants selected for further review will submit budget details and a financial narrative through the portal.

In June 2026, the Foundation’s Board of Directors awarded grants to 9 organizations in Southern California, totaling $3.1 million. The Foundation is pleased to share these project summaries from our recent grant recipients who we believe will have a great impact in the years to come.

W. M. Keck Foundation Provides Bridge Funding to Support Early Career Scientists Amid Federal Funding Uncertainty:

The W. M. Keck Foundation announced $76 million in total grantmaking for 2025, including a one-time bridge funding initiative designed to support early career scientists navigating reductions in federal research funding. The special initiative increased the Foundation’s annual investment in basic research grants by over 50 percent.

Through its Keck Scholar-Fellow Bridge Initiative, the Foundation provided two-year grants to 75 pairs of promising faculty members and their Ph.D. students at California institutions, funding doctoral student support and essential research expenses during a period of significant uncertainty in the federal funding landscape.

With this funding the Foundation aims to provide continuity in the research and training pipeline that drives American innovation.

In December 2025, the Foundation’s Board of Directors awarded 13 grants in the Research Program, totaling $15.4 million. Abstracts for these grants have been released. Congratulations to all our grantees this cycle!

In December 2025, the Foundation’s Board of Directors awarded grants to 12 organizations in Southern California, totaling $3.75 million. Summaries for these grants have been released. Congratulations to all our grantees this cycle!

Congratulations to Michel Devoret, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics! Devoret won the prize for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit. The prize rewards the discovery and demonstration that quantum mechanical properties can be realized on a macroscopic scale with behaviors predicted by quantum mechanics. Devoret shares this year’s prize with John Clarke of UC Berkeley and John Martinis of Silicon Quantum Computing. The team’s work has provided a profound positive impact on the development of next-generation quantum technology.

In 2002, the W. M. Keck Foundation awarded a $1.2 million grant to Yale University to support an interdisciplinary project in coherence, control and noise in quantum information systems. Michel Devoret was one of six principal investigators supported by this initiative. The W. M. Keck Foundation is proud to have provided early funding to awardees of 11 Nobel prizes.