Strategic Awards prior to 2019-20

Major funding interventions to meet the strategic needs of the collegiate University have been part of the Isaac Newton Trust’s activities since its foundation in 1988. Up to 2000, major grants were mostly funded through exceptional Special Donations from Trinity for defined purposes. After that, occasional grants were made from the Trust’s unspent income. However, in 2015, the Trustees decided that accumulated unspent income had exceeded what could reasonably be held within the Trust’s terms as a charitable funding body and agreed to offer strategic awards through a defined annual funding competition for as long as the resources were available.

The flavour of our Strategic Grant activity can be gained from the following outline:

1988-93

Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences

University Library extension 

Interdisciplinary Research Centres

University new appointments 

Undergraduate Bursaries set up with Colleges

Graduate Bursary scheme

A programme of Grants to Faculties for new appointments began

1995-97

Building projects: Mathematics, Divinity, Criminology, the Raised Faculty Buildings, Biochemistry, Genetics, Plant Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Computer Lab, DAMTP.

Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences: further contribution

2000-15

Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (CRASSH) (three awards)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships: match-funding on behalf of the University began 2006

Joint Schools Grants with the Humanities & Social Sciences began 2009

2016-19

CRASSH: post-doc Fellowships

MaxCam: matched post-doc Fellowships in new Centre with the Max Planck Institute

Academy of Therapeutic Sciences: set-up funding

Cosmology and Astrophysics: matched post-doc Fellowships with Kavli Foundation

IRCs: research activity grants for the University’s interdisciplinary Research Centres

Millennium Maths Project: bridging staff costs

British School at Rome: joint fellowships

OPdA: support for development of training for post-docs at Cambridge

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk: post-doc Fellows

From Climate Conflict to Climate Justice Project

Cambridge Brain Regenerative Therapy Centre: research staff set-up costs

Cambridge Confidence in Concept: doctoral research grants for clinicians

AHRC DTP: matching funds for doctoral training studentships on behalf of the University

British Academy Global Professorships: institutional contributions on behalf of the University

Cambridge Digital Humanities: post-doc Fellowships

Engineering: equipment grant and senior Research Fellowship