California Institute of Technology

Call for pre-proposals for grants of up to one million dollars to support activities that are likely to have a strong long-term impact on science and/or technology.

The Administration and the De Logi Approval Committee (DLAC) are announcing the third round of grantmaking for the De Logi Science and Technology Grants, with the expectation to award a grant of about USD 1 million ‒ or several grants totaling about USD 1 million ‒ by the beginning of the 2026-2027 academic year.

The first step in the decision process is a request for brief pre-proposals, from which (if any are sufficiently compelling) several will be selected to be evaluated in greater depth via interviews with the proposers and more detailed proposals. Pre-proposals should be submitted via email at [email protected].

Indirect Costs: If invited to submit a full proposal, awards will be subject to Caltech's minimum overhead rate based on the award’s annual gross funding.

Details of this call for pre-proposals are:

• Total Award: Up to $1,000,000
• Eligible applicants: Research Faculty, Tenure-Track Faculty, Tenured Faculty
• Discipline(s): All Divisions
• Deadline: February 1, 2026
• Maximum length: 500 words (about one page) of text, plus figures if any, PDF file.
• What can be proposed: Any activity (including instrumentation) that is likely to have a large, long-term impact on science or technology. This includes but is not limited to high-payoff, high-risk projects that are hard to fund in other ways (as stipulated in the De Logi bequest). These funds can be combined with other funds to reach some goal, but that is not at all necessary. If you are uncertain as to whether a proposed activity qualifies for consideration, it very likely does.
• Budget: state the total amount sought and explain very briefly how the funds are likely to be spent.

Dr. Walter De Logi was a remarkable man. His PhD research at Caltech (1975-1978) spanned electrical engineering and theoretical physics. After a diversion to Harvard Business School, he became an entrepreneur and created and led a sequence of biotech companies. He was driven by wide-ranging curiosity about issues in science and technology (with emphasis on biology, chemistry, physics and cosmology), and also art and architecture. De Logi died unexpectedly in 2014, leaving half of his estate (after living expenses for his family) to Caltech, to support “activities that are likely to have a strong long-term impact on science and/or technology”. These funds are currently coming to Caltech from the De Logi Trust at an anticipated rate of about $350,000 per year, with the likelihood of large additional funds in the future. Under the terms of his Trust, decisions about how to spend these funds are made jointly by the Caltech Administration and a self-perpetuating De Logi Approval Committee (DLAC), which receives its authority from the Trust although it consists of Caltech professors. DLAC members are ineligible to apply for grants. To learn more visit here.

Questions about the application process may be directed to: [email protected].