Biswas Family Foundation Fast Grants Program 2026

The Biswas Family Foundation is offering Fast Grants to support researchers working at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and health. These grants provide quick, flexible funding for innovative ideas that traditional grants may not easily cover, such as compute time, dataset access, or specialized software. The program aims to accelerate health breakthroughs by providing researchers with the necessary seed capital to explore promising avenues.

Understanding the Fast Grants Program

The Fast Grants program is designed to be a streamlined way for researchers to obtain funding for projects that require rapid turnaround. The foundation recognizes that many scientific advancements are hindered by the slow pace of traditional grant applications and the difficulty in acquiring specific resources like model-training credits or coding agent tokens. By offering “fast-turnaround gifts,” the Biswas Family Foundation aims to close this gap and empower scientists to pursue their curiosity-driven research more effectively.

Key Themes for Funding

The program encourages research proposals that align with several core themes. These include the training, fine-tuning, or evaluation of AI models using biomedical data. Applicants can also propose projects focused on exploring or creating datasets that could lead to new clinical or biological insights. Furthermore, the foundation is interested in the development of AI tools or agents that can increase a scientist’s capacity, as well as pilot experiments designed to de-risk larger funding requests. Any project that uses AI or data-driven approaches to achieve a health breakthrough with modest, fast capital is also considered.

Grant Amounts and Cycles

The Biswas Family Foundation plans to conduct two funding cycles annually, with a total of up to $3 million to be awarded each year. Each cycle is structured to support a variety of project scopes and sizes. Specifically, the program intends to fund approximately 20 projects with $25,000 each, suitable for small curiosity sprints, and is the only tier open to undergraduates. Additionally, 10 projects will receive $50,000 for pilot experiments, and 5 projects will be awarded $100,000 for more ambitious undertakings.

Eligibility Criteria

Researchers at any stage of their career, affiliated with academic institutions globally, are encouraged to apply. The foundation particularly welcomes applications from early-career faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. Undergraduates are also eligible, but they must have faculty sponsorship and can only apply for the $25,000 grant tier. A key requirement is that applicants must be affiliated with an institution that is eligible to receive charitable gifts from a U.S. private foundation. This includes U.S. 501(c)(3) public charities like universities and non-profit research institutes, as well as qualifying hospitals. For non-U.S. institutions, they must be the foreign equivalent, confirmed through equivalency determination or a U.S.-based fiscal sponsor. For-profit companies, individuals receiving funds personally, and institutions under OFAC sanctions are not eligible.

Application Process and Requirements

The application for the Biswas Family Foundation Fast Grants is designed to be straightforward and concise. Applicants must adhere to a specific bullet-point format for each section. The required sections include a Project Title, a one-sentence summary (under 200 characters), and a description of the core question or idea, presented in 3-5 bullet points (around 50 words). Applicants also need to detail their proposed approach or experiment in 3-5 bullet points (around 50 words), explain why the project is timely and why their team is suited for it in 2-3 bullet points (around 30 words), and provide a budget breakdown totaling the requested amount ($25k, $50k, or $100k) with a 12-month project period and indirect costs not exceeding 15%. Finally, applicants should list intended public outputs in 1-2 bullet points (around 20 words) and include a brief biography detailing their role, institution, and 2-3 representative works in 3-4 bullet points (around 80 words). The deadline for applications is June 15, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Biswas Family Foundation Fast Grants Program?

It’s a program offering quick, flexible funding for researchers working on AI and health projects that need rapid support for resources like compute time or data access.

What kind of projects are funded?

The program supports training AI models with biomedical data, creating new health datasets, developing AI tools for scientists, and pilot experiments to test ideas.

Who can apply for these grants?

Researchers at academic institutions worldwide are eligible, including early-career faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates with faculty sponsorship for smaller grants.