David Pérez-Suárez, Co-chair

Pamphile Roy, Co-chair

Jelena Milosevic

Brian Skinn

Kalyan Prasad

Magdalena Wiercioch

Mridul Seth

Robert Coup

Ashley Pace

Lilith Hafner

Nizam Uddin Syed

Smit Lunagariya

Larry Gray

Tim Hoffmann

Alejandro Oliva

Bradly Alicea

Marcel Haas

Paige Bailey

Luke Canavan

Round 1

• Call for Proposals Announcement: February 2, 2024
• Proposal Submission Deadline: March 1, 2024
• Committee Selection Deadline: March 22, 2024
• Notification to Applicants Deadline: April 12, 2024

Round 2

• Call for Proposals Announcement: May 3, 2024
• Proposal Submission Deadline: May 31, 2024
• Committee Selection Deadline: June 14, 2024
• Notification to Applicants Deadline: July 12, 2024

Round 3

• Call for Proposals Announcement: August 12, 2024​
• Proposal Submission Deadline: September 30, 2024
• Committee Selection Deadline: October 14, 2024
• Notification to Applicants Deadline: November 11, 2024

Any NumFOCUS Fiscally Sponsored or Affiliated project is eligible to submit 1 proposal per grant cycle. Each project may receive a maximum of 2 grants per calendar year.

If a project would like to solicit proposals from its internal community, leaders must organize their own review process to select the proposal submitted on behalf of the project. Proposals may be submitted by residents of any country and work can be performed at any university, institution, or company worldwide (U.S. export laws and sanctions permitting).

Projects will be notified via the NumFOCUS internal project mailing lists that the call for proposals has opened. Applicants will be notified of proposal acceptance or rejection via the email address provided on the application on or before the notification deadline.

Grant funds can be used for: 

• Code development 
• Documentation 
• Website updates 
• Workshops and sprints
• Educational, sustainability, and diversity initiatives 
• Any work that directly benefits the project and/or its community
• Travel for community members & developers to project events and conferences

Proposed work must be achievable within one year.

Available program funding is determined and approved annually by the NumFOCUS Board of Directors. A portion of the total funding may be allocated for Off-cycle Grants with the remainder divided equally between the three grant cycles. Up to $10,000 can be awarded for each proposal.

Each proposal should include clear and concise objectives and deliverables. Whenever possible specific timelines should be included. The impact of the proposed work on the project and/or overall scientific computing community should be clearly illustrated.

Each proposal must include a detailed budget justification stating how grant funding will be allocated. As applicable, the following should be included:

• Hourly rates and number of work hours for contractors
• Equipment and/or supply costs if applicable
• Cost of any services
• Travel costs

Suggested guidelines for word count can be found in the proposal application. Enough detail should be provided to give reviewers a clear understanding of the proposal’s objective but should not be so lengthy that it puts an undue burden on the evaluation process.

Proposals will be evaluated and ranked from most impactful to least impactful. If possible, the maximum allocation of funding for each round will be awarded. 

• Preference should be given to projects that did not receive funding in previous rounds. 
• Preference should be given to proposals that have broader effects i.e. benefit the scientific computing community as a whole.
• Projects may resubmit the same proposal if it was not funded or was partially funded in a previous round and resubmissions are given preference.

Funding will be dispersed by the finance team directly following the notification to applicants according to established financial procedures and guidelines:

• For fiscally sponsored projects only, NumFOCUS will deposit the grant funding directly into the project’s account. The project will then submit invoices through the normal channels (i.e. Open Collective) to pay for grant expenses.
  • Funding dispersement requests must be submitted  through the applicable project’s financial request page.  Links to request pages can be found here.
• Anyone invoicing for work done in excess of $600.00 for a ALL projects must sign an independent contractor agreement with NumFOCUS before billing. Contracts can be initiated by submitting via our independent contractor registration form.
• NumFOCUS can award the money as a grant or subcontract to a student or postdoc at a university as required (depending on the rules of the university).
• NumFOCUS can directly pay for expenses associated with the grant as required (e.g. booking flights on behalf of project leaders to attend a workshop, per diems for travel days)

Projects to whom grants have been awarded will be required to submit a report to NumFOCUS describing the work that was performed under the grant and detailing any grant deliverables and outcomes. Reports will be due no later than three months after the close of the one-year period following the award of funds. Reports must be submitted on the Small Development Grants Report Back Form.

Off-cycle Grants may be awarded to projects outside the established grant cycles if:

• There is a time-sensitive aspect to the proposal which precludes it from being submitted and/or awarded during one of the established grant cycles
• The project has not already received the maximum amount of grant funding allowed per project within the calendar year