The Catalytic Awards Program (CAP) advances open scholarship among traditionally under-resourced institutions and communities historically underrepresented in open science.
Active
Overview
The Catalytic Awards Program (CAP) advances open scholarship among traditionally under-resourced institutions and communities historically underrepresented in open science. It supports practices that foster transparency, reproducibility, community engagement, collaboration, and sharing across open science, research, and data.
CAP is specifically geared toward U.S.-based institutions classified as non-R1 under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, federally-designated Minority Serving Institutions, and institutions with a per-student endowment below the national median. Applicants need only meet one of these criteria to be eligible, allowing the program to reach a wide and diverse range of researchers across the country.
Through two rounds of awards, CAP distributed $500,000 to support 35 projects, with individual awards ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 USD. This flexible funding can cover expenses related to community engagement, capacity-building, and networking, supporting a heterogeneous mix of projects that advance open scholarship in ways relevant to each awardee’s own community and context. Beyond funding, CAP provides awardees access to mentorship from experienced practitioners, as well as guidance on project management and impact evaluation. The program includes a community of practice, creating a supportive environment where award recipients could share experiences, exchange ideas, and learn from one another throughout the life of their projects.
CAP-funded projects span disciplines and approaches, from open science curricula and pedagogical tools to open-source infrastructure, community-engaged research, and institutional culture change. Examples include undergraduate open science curricula (OCTOPUS), NASA-powered planetarium modules, open research workflow initiatives (SOARR Intensive, CompNeuro-CREP Accelerator, Open Research ToolKit), and deploy open hardware for medical training (OpenFlexure Project), ethical identity research (TMI Toolkit), robotics education (Lippy Robotics), and metadata standards (STAPLE Metadata Commons). Others address community priorities such as data justice and food-system resilience, or advance institutional change through ORCID adoption, reproducibility journal clubs, and open science symposia at HBCUs. (Learn more about Round 1 and Round 2 recipients.)
Together, these projects demonstrate that open scholarship is not one-size-fits-all: it is most effective when adapted to disciplinary needs, institutional contexts, and community priorities, while centering voices historically excluded from research.
Ultimately, CAP’s goal is not just to fund individual projects, but to nurture a research culture in which both processes and outcomes are more inclusive, innovative, efficient, and trustworthy, while building lasting capacity for open scholarship at institutions too often overlooked by traditional research funding streams. Testimonials from Round 1 awardees suggest this vision is taking root.
Target Communities
Early-career scholars (researchers, students, postdocs, and junior faculty) just beginning to build their research careers, and who are affiliated with traditionally under-resourced institutions in the U.S.
Goals
Advance open scholarship practice at traditionally under-resourced institutions and among early-career scholars historically underrepresented in open science.
Develop flexible, inclusive, and transparent funding approaches that increase access while maintaining rigor and fairness.
Outputs
Current and Prior Funders
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Grant 2024-349547)