The Foundation is bolstering its commitment to the William T. Grant Scholars program. Beginning in 2025, the William T. Grant Scholars award will increase from $350,000 to $425,000 for new awards. The new award is inclusive of 7.5% indirect costs. This increase reflects the Foundation’s continued commitment to supporting the development of early career researchers.
From 2023-2024, we conducted a review of our career development efforts. Part of this review included a comparison between the William T. Grant Scholars program and other career development grant programs.
Our review indicated that the Scholars award is in line with other foundations in the early-career development space when it comes to eligibility criteria, application requirements, and award length. However, the Foundation trailed behind when it came to the amount of funding given to seed career development. While the Foundation has historically increased the Scholars award at regular intervals, our review found that an increase is overdue.
The award increase will begin with the Scholars Class of 2030. While the Foundation does not have the budgetary capacity to increase current Scholars’ awards for the remainder of their grant period, this change will be an important investment in the program’s continuation.
Career development is a cornerstone of the Foundation’s approach to grantmaking. Increasing the Scholars award will play a vital role in strengthening our investment in the growth of promising early career researchers as they take measured risks to significantly expand their expertise.
