About Impetus

  • Thank you! Please email at lada@impetusgrants.org

  • EIN: 87-1540960

    Address: PO Box 720232, 189 Tiffany Ave, San Francisco, CA 94172

  • Check out our new application guide here!

  • Your project doesn’t have to be research (although the majority of what we fund is pure science). We go after projects with the potential to accelerate the field but are unlikely to get funded through existing institutions, including:

    1) Proposals that stress-test popular theories of aging

    2) Proposals that stress-test popular protocols for extending the lifespan

    3) Category-openers or proposals that test novel mechanisms and approaches to reversing aging that hasn’t been tried before

    4) Translation of preclinical findings

    We are also continue looking into creating greater worldwide access to improved model organisms, to make early large-animal studies less prohibitively expensive.

  • Your application will be reviewed by at least two reviewers with more than a decade of experience in aging research, and at least one reviewer who is a topic expert for your proposal. All of our reviewers are under NDA to preserve confidentiality of your proposal. All projects will be evaluated on the clarity and quality of their experimental plans, and on the scope and immediacy of their potential impact on the longevity field. We ask 'could this work' rather than 'could this fail', and are not looking for complete consensus among reviewers; if at least one reviewer is strongly supportive of the project, we will tend to fund it.

  • Yes, we have no limit over the number of proposals (or iterations of a proposal) you can submit.

  • We aim to respond to everyone within 4-5 weeks.

  • No, at this stage we do not fund for-profit efforts.

  • No, you don’t need to be part of academia to get an Impetus grant. But, if you apply with a research project, you need to have facilities to execute the work.

  • team@impetusgrants.org

    Note: If we didn’t respond, then it is likely that your question was already answered here and you didn’t pay attention ;)

Application questions

  • Find our application here.

  • We welcome applications from all academic/non-profit researchers able to apply for grants, including trainees and students - from all around the world. You should have access to appropriate facilities for the work you propose. Researchers from other fields are encouraged to propose projects where their expertise could address important questions about aging biology. Currently, we do not provide funding for companies.

  • We have no limits or preferences. You can share preliminary data but we will happily fund idea-stage projects that you have the resources to execute. If you have a good idea that involves established methods, there is no need for preliminary data. If you're proposing either a new method or a new explanation of aging, you do have to make it plausible. Preliminary data is one way to do this, but not the only way.

  • We would rather fund the work you are most excited about doing, even if it might fail, than work that is certain to produce results but with limited impact on the field. But we realize that proposed projects will be done in the context of existing publication incentives. To promote dissemination of all findings from funded projects, we are collaborating with GeroScience to publish a special issue with short reports from Impetus-funded projects, including null findings. We may also offer other venues to present 'lessons learned' from ambitious projects.

  • There are no requirements for project period.

  • We provide anywhere from $10K to $500K. We DO consider the amount requested during review; all else equal, projects that require less funding will be favored. We will pay a maximum of 10% institutional overhead on top of your requested amount, in line with the Gates Foundation precedent.

  • Yes, you can find the NDA signed by all of our staff and reviewers here .

  • Yes, we have space to indicate co-applicants and you can subgrant your original grant to the institution of your co-applicant

  • Please indicate both active and pending grants in other funding section.

  • Of course! People are the most essential (and usually the most expensive) part of any research project

So you got funded…

  • Do your best work! We will have short periodic form sent to check in on the progress.

    We also ask that the projects we support be submitted as preprints prior to publication, so their impact on the field is not delayed.

  • You and your institution do. The Longevity Impetus Grants make no claims on intellectual property of any kind.

  • No, we can not adjust agreements or overheads.