Program Officer in Life Sciences Position at John Templeton Foundation
The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the biggest and most perplexing questions facing humankind. We support research and public outreach within disciplines ranging from astrophysics, evolutionary biology, and genetics, to philosophy, psychology, and economics. We encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as between such experts and the public at large. In all cases, our grantmaking activity aims to spur curiosity and accelerate discovery, funding the best ideas and capitalizing on what we learn from them.
The Foundation’s Life Sciences department seeks to advance basic scientific research on fundamental questions in biology, particularly ambitious ideas that are undervalued by traditional funding sources. The department’s $60 million of active projects are located around the world and represent a range of topics including origin of life, its evolution, and humanity’s place and future within nature. Current strategic priorities include the science of purpose, cultural evolution, and intellectual humility. The Life Sciences department also manages the Genetics portfolio, which supports contrarian basic and applied biomedical research aimed at minimizing future poverty and sickness. It seeks to identify and support contrarian ideas that challenge established paradigms, and has as a current emphasis the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease.
To advance the Foundation’s mission and strengthen our team, the Foundation is seeking a Program Officer for Life Sciences. The Program Officer will work with the Director of Life Sciences to develop new initiatives that advance current and future strategic priorities. They will also recruit and review grant proposals, communicate with applicants and grantees regarding the application and review process, and collaborate with our evaluation team to determine the impact of our grants.
For more information, please see Program Officer Life Sciences Job Ad August 2020.
