In a bid to offset recent sudden shifts in traditional funding mechanisms, the W. M. Keck Foundation has committed grants totaling $1.4M to seven pairs of faculty mentors and their Ph.D. student mentees at Berkeley.
The Keck Foundation, whose mission is to boost high-impact basic scientific research, invited UC Berkeley to apply to its one-time Bridge Funding Initiative in order to rapidly deploy funding to early- to mid-career faculty and their graduate students who were especially vulnerable to changes in the federal funding landscape.Funding for these projects is meant to ensure that there is no disruption to the career trajectories of graduate students and to help retain faculty in their early and middle career stages.According to the grant’s principal investigator, Vice Chancellor for Research Katherine Yelick, “Berkeley’s research enterprise depends on bold ideas and the people who carry them forward. At a moment of uncertainty in the broader funding landscape, support from the Keck Foundation is especially meaningful — it allows our faculty and their graduate student collaborators to sustain momentum on high-risk, high-impact work that might otherwise be disrupted. These projects reflect the creativity, rigor, and interdisciplinary spirit that define Berkeley, and they underscore our commitment to ensuring that the next generation of scholars can continue to thrive and lead.”
