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Fast Grants Program

Biswas Family Foundation

Fast Grants are lightweight, fast-turnaround gifts for researchers who want to explore an idea at the intersection of AI and health — but lack the seed capital to try. We’ve heard that scientists cannot easily buy compute, model-training credits, dataset access, or coding-agent tokens through traditional grants.

Fast Grants from the Biswas Family Foundation close that gap.

Grant Calendar

Cycle 1 opens

May 15, 2026

Cycle 1 deadline

June 15, 2026 | 11:59pm PT

Cycle 1 decision

July 1, 2026

Cycle 1 funded

~ August 1, 2026

Cycle 2 deadline

December 15, 2026 | 11:59pm PT

Cycle 2 decision

~ January 1, 2027

Cycle 2 funded

~ February 1, 2027

award size and duration?

$25K, $50K, or $100K tiers in a single payment for a 12-month project period.

Please note: Undergraduate applicants are eligible for the $25K tier only.

AI Based Application Success Predictor

1. Direct intersection of AI, data, and human health (highest predictor)

This is the strongest success predictor.

Competitive projects should clearly use artificial intelligence, computational methods, or data-driven approaches to solve an important biomedical or health problem. The Foundation explicitly funds work involving:

Training, fine-tuning, or evaluating models on biomedical data
Building or assembling high-value biomedical datasets
AI tools and agents that increase scientists' productivity
Data-driven diagnostics and prediction
AI-designed therapeutics
Autonomous scientific research
Pilot experiments that de-risk larger projects

A conventional biomedical project with little meaningful computational or AI component is likely to be a weaker fit.

2. High-ambition, high-risk/high-reward idea (very high predictor)

The Foundation explicitly describes its Fast Grants as support for high-ambition pilot projects and highlights high-risk/high-reward research. The strongest proposals are therefore likely to test ideas that are:

Bold
Technically ambitious
Scientifically unconventional
Potentially transformative
Difficult to support through traditional grants

The ideal project is not simply a smaller version of an ordinary research grant; it uses rapid seed capital to test whether an ambitious idea can work.

3. Potential for impact at massive scale (very high predictor)

The Foundation's mission emphasizes improving human health at the scale of millions to billions of people. This makes scalability unusually important.

Strong projects should explain how the work could eventually:

Improve health for very large populations
Reduce the cost of diagnosis or treatment
Increase the frequency or accessibility of testing
Create globally deployable health technologies
Accelerate biomedical research broadly
Enable other scientists to make discoveries faster

Projects with broad platform potential may therefore have an advantage over highly localized solutions.

4. Strong fit with priority research pillars (very high predictor)

The Foundation identifies two major Fast Grant research pillars.

AI-Driven Diagnostics and Prediction includes:

Computational cardiology
Stroke prevention
Low-cost AI-enabled diagnostics
Metabolic disease
Cancer early detection
Multimodal risk prediction and medical forecasting

Personalized Therapeutics and Autonomous Research includes:

Phage therapy
AI-designed therapeutics
Personalized cancer immunotherapy
AI scientists
Autonomous research
AI epidemiology at scale

The Foundation also states that it is open to projects outside these examples if they fit the broader spirit of the program, so thematic alignment matters more than copying a listed topic.

5. Clear explanation of why fast, flexible capital is necessary (very high predictor)

This is one of the most distinctive Biswas Family Foundation predictors.

The Fast Grants Program exists because researchers may struggle to obtain conventional funding quickly for items such as:

Compute
Model-training credits
Dataset access
Coding-agent tokens
Rapid pilot experiments

A competitive application should clearly answer: What can this funding unlock immediately that conventional funding cannot?

Projects that can start quickly and make meaningful progress with modest, flexible capital are especially well matched.

6. Focused pilot scope with rapid proof of concept (high predictor)

Fast Grants are offered at three levels:

$25,000 for small curiosity sprints
$50,000 for pilot experiments
$100,000 for more ambitious projects

This tiered structure suggests that strong applications should match the project's scope precisely to the requested amount. The strongest proposals identify a concrete milestone that can be achieved rapidly rather than presenting an overly broad multiyear research program.

7. Potential to de-risk a much larger future funding ask (high predictor)

The Foundation explicitly identifies pilot experiments that de-risk a bigger funding ask as a type of project it wants to support.

Strong proposals should explain how the award will generate:

Proof-of-concept evidence
Preliminary datasets
Technical validation
Model-performance results
Initial biological or clinical findings

The best application shows how a relatively small investment now could unlock a much larger research program later.

8. Strong early-career potential or credible pivot into a new field (high predictor)

The Fast Grants Program particularly welcomes:

Early-career faculty
Postdoctoral scholars
Graduate students
Undergraduates with faculty sponsorship at the $25,000 tier

Established researchers are also eligible, particularly when pivoting into ambitious new fields. This means the Foundation may value future potential and bold new directions more than a long record of prior funding in the exact same topic.

9. Open science and public data sharing (high predictor)

The Foundation explicitly expects funded projects to share data publicly in a timely and accessible manner, while protecting personal health information. Its broader science program also emphasizes open science and accessible research outputs.

Competitive projects should therefore include a credible plan for:

Open datasets where appropriate
Open-source tools or platforms
Accessible research outputs
Reproducible methods
Responsible protection of personal health data

10. Path toward global deployment and real-world adoption (high predictor)

For globally deployable diagnostics and open-source platforms, the Foundation particularly values applications that include a path toward:

CE marking
WHO prequalification
Regulatory readiness
Global implementation

This is an unusually concrete indicator that the Foundation values projects capable of moving beyond academic publication toward real-world use.

Specialties

Artificial Intelligence

Global Health

Eligibility Requirements

Researchers at any career stage across academic institutions worldwide are eligible. We particularly welcome:

Early-career faculty
Postdoctoral scholars
Graduate students
Undergraduates (with faculty sponsorship; $25K tier only)

Applicants must be affiliated with an institution eligible to receive a charitable gift from a US private foundation:

US institutions: any 501(c)(3) public charity in good standing — universities, non-profit research institutes, academic medical centers, qualifying hospitals; state or federal government instrumentalities (e.g., state university research foundations) are eligible.
Non-US institutions: must be a foreign equivalent — confirmed via active equivalency determination (NGOsource, etc.) — or received via a US 501(c)(3) public charity that may make grants to the non-US institution. If you're unsure, indicate this on your application — your sponsored programs office can usually answer in a single email.
For-profit companies, individual researchers receiving funds personally, and OFAC-sanctioned institutions are not eligible.

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: Biswas Family Foundation

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: 101A Clay St. #105 San Francisco, CA 94111

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