Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health
Ideas for an Equitable Future
What can we do today to create a healthier, more equitable future?
We live in a dynamic world. Major health events, new technologies, scientific discoveries, climate change and economic and demographic shifts shape where and how we live, learn, work and play. These changes profoundly impact health equity in our society. What dramatic changes might we see in the next 5 to 15 years? What can we do today to create a better, more equitable tomorrow?
We seek to answer these questions and support unconventional approaches and breakthrough ideas that can help lead the way to a future where everyone in America has the opportunity to live their healthiest life possible.
Purpose
This funding opportunity seeks proposals primed to impact health equity moving forward. We are interested in ideas that address any of these four areas of focus: Future of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of Work. Additionally, we welcome ideas that might fall outside of these four focus areas, but which offer unique approaches to advancing health equity and our progress toward a Culture of Health.
We want to hear from scientists, anthropologists, artists, urban planners, community leaders—anyone, anywhere who has a new or unconventional idea that could alter the trajectory of health and improve health equity and wellbeing for generations to come. The changes we seek require diverse perspectives and cannot be accomplished by any one person, organization, or sector.
Total to be Awarded
- The average Pioneering Ideas for an Equitable Future grant in 2019 was $315,031.
- However, there is not an explicit range for budget requests.
- Grant periods are flexible, though generally range from 1 to 3 years.
Eligibility & Selection Criteria
Preference will be given to applicants that are tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or Type III-supporting organizations. Applicant organizations must be based in the United States or its territories. Submissions from teams that include both U.S. and international members are eligible, but the lead applicant must be based in the United States.
Applications will be evaluated based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:
- Strength of health equity focus: How will this project increase opportunities for everyone to live their healthiest life possible, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make?
- Strength of insight: How will this project help us anticipate, adapt to, and influence the future in 5 to 15 years?
- Strength of idea: Is this project pioneering in one or more of these ways?
- Offers a new take or perspective on a long-running, perplexing problem;
- Challenges assumptions or cultural practices;
- Takes an existing idea and gives it a new spin—or a novel application;
- Applies ideas from other fields;
- Explores how an emerging trend will shape the future; and/or
- Describe in which other way you see your project as pioneering
Key Dates
Beginning February 1, 2024, proposals will be accepted throughout the year on a rolling admission. All applications will be reviewed. We strive to get back to all applicants as quickly as possible.
We will take a four-month break from reading submissions between October and February. This scheduled downtime lets us focus on closing the year and preparing to start the new year with renewed energy.
We will close submissions at 5 pm EST, Tuesday, October 1, 2024, and reopen for submissions on Monday, February 3, 2025. This means you will not be able to submit new applications or work on “in progress” applications in our portal during this period. If you have any applications “in progress,” please be sure to save your work offline before October 1. Applicants will not be able to submit “in progress” applications once we return online.
There is no rush to submit your idea before October 1, 2024. Your likelihood of receiving funding through this call for proposal is not dependent on whether you submit before or after our annual downtime. Additionally, there is no guarantee that projects selected for funding will be funded in the year they are submitted and may be funded in the following calendar year.
Depending on the volume of proposals received at any given time, applicants can expect a response as early as one month and no later than six months, indicating whether their application has been accepted for further consideration, which could include request for additional information or an invitation to submit a full proposal, or turned down.
If you have any questions about this notice, please email: pioneeringideas@rwjf.org.
Frequently Asked Questions for this Call for Proposals
Proposals must be submitted via the RWJF online system. To apply, use the application button located on the left-hand side of this page. If you have not already done so, you will be required to register at my.rwjf.org before you begin the application process.
Here’s an overview of how the review process works for the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health Call for Proposals:
Your submitted proposal (called “brief proposal”) goes through an eligibility screening and up to two rounds of reviews before a decision is made to either turndown or request a full proposal for consideration.
Eligibility screening of brief proposal: At this stage, an RWJF staff member will determine whether your brief proposal is eligible for funding, that is whether it falls within both the guidelines of what the Foundation funds and the broad scope of the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals. If your brief proposal is not eligible, you will receive notice of turndown via email from myrwjf@rwjf.org.
First review of brief proposal: At this stage, your eligible brief proposal is reviewed by at least two RWJF Pioneering Ideas for an Equitable Future team members. If your brief proposal will not move to the second review, you will receive notice of turndown via email from myrwjf@rwjf.org.
Second review of brief proposal: At this stage, your brief proposal is discussed at a Pioneering Ideas staff meeting. If the Pioneering Ideas team decides to move your brief proposal forward, one of two next steps will occur: (1) a Pioneering Ideas program officer will contact you to request additional information or (2) you will receive a request for a full proposal for consideration. If your brief proposal will not move to either next step, you will receive notice of turndown via email from myrwjf@rwjf.org.
Requests for additional information after third review of brief proposal: If this stage applies to you, a Pioneering Ideas program officer will contact you to discuss your brief proposal either via email or through a scheduled call. The program officer will ask you to talk through your idea in more detail, ask questions that emerged during the review process, and discuss next steps. After this conversation, the Pioneering Ideas team will determine whether to invite a full proposal. If your brief proposal will not move forward, you will receive notice of turndown via email from myrwjf@rwjf.org.
Full Proposal Stage
At this stage, you will receive an email inviting you to submit a full proposal for consideration through our online proposal management system. A full proposal application requires detailed information about your organization, your project’s goals, activities, and sustainability as well as a detailed budget and budget narrative.
Once your full proposal has been submitted, it will be reviewed by RWJF staff members and up to three people outside of RWJF. External reviewers may be experts in the field of study the proposed work pertains to and/or may be reviewing the proposal with an additional equity lens. Your full proposal will also be reviewed by RWJF’s legal and finance teams. After these reviews, there may be additional questions or conversations with you. Once all reviews are completed, the Pioneering Ideas team director makes a decision about whether to recommend funding to RWJF senior leadership.
The Pioneering Ideas for an Equitable Future team will keep you updated on the status of your application as it moves through our review process. Please reach out to pioneeringideas@rwjf.org if you have a question about the status of your application.
Yes. Here is a sample application.
You can learn about grants the Pioneering Ideas for an Equitable Future team has made by visiting RWJF’s Grants Explorer and selecting “Pioneering Ideas…” in the Program Area field. This list includes grants that come through the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals and grants sourced by program officers.
The best way to see if your idea is a good fit is to read the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals and look over the application. You may also want to see if one of RWJF’s other current funding opportunities is a better fit for your work.
Please note: as we are constantly exploring new ideas and spaces, the grants we have funded are not necessarily indications of current funding priorities.
Yes. If your specific project team is working on more than one pioneering idea OR if there are multiple groups at your organization interested in submitting a brief proposal, please feel free to submit more than one application.
Please note that each application should represent a unique project. Submitting multiple applications for the same project or for a set or series of projects is discouraged and will not improve likelihood of funding.
No. The Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals funds proposals on a rolling basis and is open year round. Depending on when your application is submitted, the funding decision itself may not be made until the next calendar year due to the steps in our review process but the likelihood of success is not affected by the time of year submitted.
Out of 1,201 applications received in 2022, we expect to fund 13 of those. We do not cap the number of grants made through our Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health open call for proposals.
To put this number into context, the overwhelming majority of submitted applications do not fall within the guidelines of either what the Foundation funds or the broad scope of the Pioneering Ideas for an Equitable Future team as described in our call for proposals. Only about 49 of the 1201 submissions received in 2019 made it to the second review (see FAQ #2).
Please note that this low historical funding rate does not necessarily reflect our expected funding rate for the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals this year or in the future.
In 2022, we made 37 awards. Over the last three years, we made an average of 34 awards per year. These include both awards that have come through our call for proposals and proposals sourced by program officers. There is no cap on the number of grants made through the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals.
If you have a question that is not answered in these FAQs or in RWJF’s general FAQs, please feel free to email us at pioneeringideas@rwjf.org. If you have already applied to the Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health call for proposals, please be sure to include your applicant ID, the name of the applicant organization, the project director, and the applicant organization’s contact information in your communication.
Additional Resources
Awarded Grants
Who develops our grant programs? What criteria and objectives must be met? Learn what makes up our grant process and the types of programs and activities we support.
Grantee Stories
Meet the people working to advance health equity from the ground up, applying innovative ideas and solutions to help us build a future where health is for everyone.