Purdue Research Foundation

Supports Purdue faculty and students through internal grants while remaining outside broad external public-funder routes.

Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation established in 1930 to advance the mission of Purdue University. It manages the university's intellectual property, endowments, real-estate assets (Purdue Research Park, Discovery Park District), and technology-commercialization activities through its Purdue Innovates arm. PRF is a separate legal entity from the public university but operates in close coordination with the Purdue president.

PRF does not issue open external grant calls. Its internal research-support programs (Faculty Research Grants, Summer Faculty Grants, International Travel Grants, Special Incentive Research Grants, Doctoral Fellowship Program, Equipment Matching Fund) are restricted to Purdue faculty and students, administered by Purdue Sponsored Program Services on dean recommendation. Its venture-capital vehicles (Ag-Celerator Fund, Black & Gold Fund, Foundry Investment Fund, Purdue Startup Fund) are equity investments requiring Purdue affiliation — they are not grants. Incubator programs (Firestarter, Accelerator, New Venture Challenge, Moonshot Pitch) are Purdue-student-only competitions. PRF is therefore out-of-scope for the Jolt external-funder catalog.