Schmidt Science Polymaths

Schmidt Science Polymaths

Supports recently tenured faculty with fellowships that enable bold cross-domain research pivots and sustained interdisciplinary leadership.

The Schmidt Science Polymaths award supports recently-tenured faculty who seek to make substantive research pivots into new scientific domains. Schmidt Sciences positions the program as enabling adventurous leaps across disciplines for mid-career researchers with proven cross-field track records. Awards total $500,000 per year for up to five years — a maximum of $2,500,000 per awardee — paid through the researcher's host institution with no indirect costs taken from the award. Schmidt Sciences intends the funding to support three to four graduate students or postdoctoral researchers plus the direct costs of pursuing the new research direction. More than 35 Polymaths have been named through 2025, drawn from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Cambridge, and peer research universities.

Eligibility requires that the candidate hold tenure or an equivalent position obtained within the past three calendar years, have a track record in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, or engineering, have published across multiple fields demonstrating cross-disciplinary range, and show that the funding is necessary to enable the proposed new direction. The award flows through universities only — individual self-nominations are not accepted directly by Schmidt Sciences. Universities collect nominations between June and mid-August each year; some institutions allow internal self-nominations before forwarding to Schmidt Sciences. Applications are due in October and decisions are announced in April. The selection rate is under 10%.

For the 2027 cycle, host institutions began collecting nominations in May 2026. Researchers interested in nomination should contact their institution's research office or sponsored programs office to understand internal deadlines, which typically fall several weeks before the Schmidt Sciences submission window opens. Nominated candidates must articulate why the proposed pivot is scientifically bold, why the new direction requires leaving prior expertise behind, and why external funding is a prerequisite rather than merely helpful. Candidates without cross-field publication histories are unlikely to advance regardless of the strength of their proposed pivot.