Zuckerman Travel and Research STEM Fund

2026 Zuckerman Travel and Research STEM Fund at Harvard University

The application deadline has passed. The 2026 guidelines and FAQs remain for informational purposes and are subject to change.

Program Description: 

The Zuckerman Travel and Research STEM Fund at Harvard University aims to support the development of new research collaborations in STEM fields between faculty members and researchers in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences (FAS) and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and their counterparts at research institutions in Israel, including but not limited to: Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion, Haifa University, Hebrew University, Technion, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The intent of this Fund is to support travel and meeting expenses to catalyze new collaborations rather than provide support for the conduct of a research project, the exchange of data or materials, or the generation of intellectual property or confidential information. Visits funded by these awards may not exceed 30 days. The Israeli researcher must be identified in the proposal. Proposals involving Ph.D. student participation are encouraged.

Harvard faculty members and researchers who would like assistance identifying an Israeli research collaborator may contact Boaz Golany, Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program Academic Advisor and Emeritus Professor at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, at boaz.golany@gmail.com.

Award Information:

Proposers may request up to $30,000 in direct costs. Indirect costs, or school assessments, should not be included in the budget request, as they will be accounted for at the time of award. Awards from this fund may be used to support travel and meeting costs (i.e., airfare, hotels, per diem) to allow Harvard and Israeli scientists to explore common research interests and consider new international projects and collaborations. These funds can support travel and meeting costs for either team to locations in the U.S., Israel, or another destination. Awards cannot be used to cover other expenses like salary, materials, equipment, tuition, etc. Awards will have a start date of July 1, 2026, with a project period of two years. Funds may not be used retroactively. All of the expenses must be managed through the Harvard applicant’s research account by their department. All spending must comply with and be within the guidelines set by the Harvard Travel Policy and Harvard Business Expense Reimbursements Policy.

Eligibility Requirements: 

FAS and SEAS faculty members and researchers in STEM fields (defined for the purposes of this program as basic and applied research in the physical sciences, engineering, and life sciences, including psychology) who hold Principal Investigator (PI) rights on a continuous basis as listed on the FAS PI Eligibility webpage, are eligible to apply.

Application Guidelines: 

Applications must be submitted through this program’s online application portal.

To apply, please submit:

• A proposal narrative (up to 2 pages, one-inch margins, 11-point font or larger, PDF format) that briefly describes who will be involved in the proposed collaboration, information about the participants’ shared research interests, and the activities an award would support.
• A biosketch for the applicant and for the collaborating Israeli researcher(s) (up to 2 pages per person, PDF format). There is no prescribed format for presenting this information. In addition, applicants may submit a two-page biosketch for any other collaborators involved in the proposal.
• A detailed budget (PDF format). There is no prescribed format for presenting this information. Applicants are encouraged to work closely with their grant/financial administrators to develop a budget. School assessments and/or indirect costs should not be included in the budget request (these will be accounted for at the time of award).

Evaluation Criteria: 

A small committee of senior faculty members from FAS and SEAS will select projects for funding on the basis of: the potential impact of the proposed collaboration, the scientific value of the research area, the ability of the applicants to successfully carry out a joint project, and the suitability of the budget request.

Priority will be given to projects that:

• propose a balanced exchange between the Harvard and Israeli participants
• demonstrate complementarity between the Harvard and Israeli teams
• include Harvard Ph.D. students

2026 Review Committee:

• Daniel Needleman (committee chair), Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
• Haim Sompolinsky, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Physics in Residence
• Eli Tziperman, Pamela and Vaco McCoy, Jr. Professor of Oceanography and Applied Physics; Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering 

Reporting Expectations: 

While these awards do not have formal reporting requirements, recipients may occasionally be requested to provide an update on their research collaboration or to present a summary of their funded activities at a future event with the Fund’s sponsor. Though the award is intended to fund travel and meeting expenses, and not direct research expenses, if any resulting publications can be attributed to the award, recipients should acknowledge this with the following statement, “Research reported in this publication was supported by an award from the Zuckerman Travel and Research STEM Fund at Harvard University”.