UPDATE (5/6/2020): The Star-Friedman Challenge will briefly reopen to accept proposals related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the magnitude of the global crisis which emerged shortly after the original deadline in February, the Challenge is interested in expanding its application pool to include high-risk and high-impact research projects in the life, physical, and social sciences with relevance to COVID-19. Eligible faculty members may submit an application following the guidelines in the initial call for proposals. The deadline for submitting COVID-19 related proposals is 5:00pm EST on May 20, 2020.
Award notifications are expected by mid-June 2020. The interdisciplinary Challenge event, originally scheduled for May 7, 2020, has been cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. Future plans will be announced on the Star-Friedman website as they are confirmed.
The Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research (formerly known as the Star Family Challenge for Promising Scientific Research), provides seed funding to interdisciplinary high-risk, high-impact projects in the life, physical and social sciences. Early-stage projects that are unlikely to receive funding from traditional grant-making agencies are encouraged. Established in 2013 by a generous gift to Harvard University at the suggestion of James A. Star, AB (1983), the program expanded in the 2018-19 academic year through a gift from Joshua Friedman, AB (1976), MBA (1980), JD (1982) and Beth Friedman to invite proposal submissions from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) in addition to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).