From the Dana Foundation:

In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for neuroscience research that supports consideration of the ethical, legal, and societal dimensions of neuroscience, including, for example, award terminations of National Institutes of Health research grant awards, the Dana Foundation has developed a rapid response bridge funding opportunity for impacted work that aligns with our mission of advancing neuroscience in alignment with societal goals and human values. 

This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars, practitioners, and teams who are doing work that falls within the Dana Foundation’s mission area of neuroscience and society and whose work has been put at risk due to changes in federal funding – including grant cancellations, reductions, and delays. 

While it is impossible for private philanthropy to close the gap left by federal funders, the Dana Foundation can provide modest grants to mitigate some of the impact on scholars, projects, and project teams. These $25,000 grants are for activities to address immediate needs following grant cancellations, reductions, or delays, including: 

• retaining and supporting trainees and skilled research staff
• completing key data collection
• analyzing already collected data
• thoughtful project closure with community partners
• maintaining interdisciplinary collaborations 

What does it mean to be ‘doing work that falls within the Dana Foundation’s mission area of neuroscience and society’? 

Neuroscience and society is the interdisciplinary study of how neuroscience informs and reflects society, and practical work to put these ideas into action. Neuroscience and society includes fields where neuroscience interfaces with the world, such as ethics, law, humanities, medicine, arts, social sciences, policy, education, journalism, and public engagement. This list is meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive. Another way the Dana Foundation thinks about it: Neuroscience & society is a paradigm for how we can teach neuroscience to people, train people to do societally relevant neuroscience-focused work, and engage diverse communities of people to shepherd the development and application of neuroscience. Visit their website to learn more about their programmatic goals and objectives. 

The Foundation does not fund purely empirical or conceptual biomedical and/or behavioral research projects without a substantive, active emphasis on addressing associated ethical, legal, and/or societal dimensions. For example, an interdisciplinary team working on an empirical neuroscience study would not constitute a responsive application, as the argument that all neuroscience research may ultimately benefit society is arguably true, but does not constitute sufficient alignment with our mission and programmatic priorities. More plainly: please do not submit an application if your work is solely focused on neuroscience research in the lab as this will not be eligible, costing you time to prepare your application and time for us to review your application and determine its ineligibility. 

Who is eligible to apply?

To be eligible for these grants, applicants must: 

1. Be a PI on an award from a federal funding agency such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the National Endowment for the Humanities, etc. 
2. Be negatively affected by changes in funding at that federal agency. 
3. Be doing work that falls within the Dana Foundation’s mission area of neuroscience and society – see full explanation above.

How to Apply

Dana Foundation asks that applicants provide:

• The original funded proposal.
• Documentation of communication from the federal funding agency indicating that the award was terminated, rescinded, or reduced OR that spending is frozen OR that the anticipated yearly renewal of the award is delayed.
• A 2–3-page (no more than 1200 words) narrative memo describing how you would use the $25,000 and how the work aligns with the Dana Foundation’s mission area of neuroscience and society (see full explanation above) and our values.
• A budget for a maximum of $25,000 (no indirect costs).
• We ask that applicants request only what they need within this limit, and to note if they have access to bridge funds at their university. Our goal is to support as many people as possible with our limited funds.

Please send these materials to RapidResponse@dana.org with ‘Rapid Response’ in the subject line. 

Timeline and Logistics

• Applications must be received by Friday, October 10, 2025 (11:59 pm ET).
• A given PI/applicant may only apply once.
• Applications will be reviewed for eligibility.
• All eligible applications will be entered into a lottery, with awardees randomly selected until we reach the $300,000 total we have allocated for this opportunity.
• We expect to conduct the lottery on Thursday, November 6, 2025, with notifications of award sent promptly thereafter. 

Any questions can be directed to RapidResponse@dana.org.