The Atlas of Innovation is a project of IFP
Person-Based Research Grants
Funding awarded to exceptional individual researchers, giving them freedom to pursue their most promising ideas with minimal constraints.
Person-based research grants invest in outstanding individual researchers rather than specific projects, providing them with substantial funding and freedom to pursue their most promising ideas. This approach recognizes that breakthrough science often comes from exceptional individuals following their curiosity, and that overly prescriptive funding can constrain the creative exploration that leads to transformative discoveries.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator program exemplifies this model. HHMI selects outstanding biomedical researchers and provides them with long-term funding—renewable based on performance—to pursue whatever research directions they find most promising. Investigators report that this freedom enables them to take risks and explore unconventional ideas they couldn’t pursue under traditional project-based funding.
Person-based grants work best when you can identify exceptional researchers with strong track records, when the most important research directions are difficult to predict in advance, and when you want to enable high-risk, high-reward exploration. The tradeoff is less direct control over research direction and the challenge of selecting truly outstanding individuals from among many qualified candidates.