Cortex District Member BioSTL Leads Neuroscience Bid for $160M NSF Grant

A $160 million grant proposal submitted by BioSTL and regional coalition Neuro360 could establish St. Louis as a nationally-prominent location for neuroscience research, and officials involved in the bid believe there's reason for optimism that the region could win the award.

The money would come from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines program, which is designed to boost regional innovation economies in parts of the country that didn't benefit from the tech boom of the past few decades. If the St. Louis proposal is successful, the award would be a massive win for a state where cuts in federal research funding could require universities and research institutions to pare administrative costs $100 million.

The NSF named its first 10 regions in January 2024, awarding $15 million grants to entities in Louisiana, Upstate New York, Colorado and Wyoming, North Carolina and in North Dakota. Each grant recipient has the opportunity to receive as much as $160 million in grant funding over the next decade, which is to be used to support regional coalitions of researchers, institutions and companies to produce work that yields "economic and societal impacts."