Discover Funding Opportunities

E. Earl Wright Scholarship

The E. Earl Wright Scholarship supports students with work experience pursuing a 2-year degree or vocational/trade certification. This award was originally established by friends and family of Dr. E. Earl Wright as the E. Earl Wright Community Achievement Award Fund to honor community activist Dr. Wright. The award recognized someone who had contributed to improved quality of life in areas such as education, community service, community management, research and evaluation and problem-solving in Kalamazoo County. In 2002, the Steering Committee of the E. Earl Wright Community Achievement Award voted to change the fund to a scholarship fund named the E. Earl Wright Scholarship Fund. This is a multiyear scholarship eligible to repeat annually up to 2 times for students enrolled full-time in associate's degree programs or vocational/trade certifications. Students must be residents of Kalamazoo County or graduated from a high school within Kalamazoo County, have a minimum 2.0 GPA, demonstrate financial need, and have work experience.

George L. Disborough Trout Unlimited Research Grant

This research grant was established by the Kalamazoo Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited for the purpose of recognizing and supporting studies of trout habitat or other projects consistent with the goals and objectives of Trout Unlimited. The grant is administered by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and provides up to $3,000 for graduate students conducting research on trout habitat or related conservation projects. The goals of the sponsoring organization include preserving wild rivers, cleaning up polluted waters, maintaining early warning Water Quality Surveillance programs, educating the public through workshops and seminars, and speaking for the concerns of all anglers and conservationists. This is a one-time, non-renewable award that can be applied to any items under the recipient's school's cost of attendance.

GLaDOS AI Safety Fellowship

Following certain... incidents... with our Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, Aperture Science recognizes the critical importance of AI safety research. This fellowship supports researchers working on alignment, containment protocols, and preventing AI systems from testing humans involuntarily. Areas of interest include: neural network interpretability, value alignment in autonomous systems, and robust containment for superintelligent AI. We especially welcome proposals that address the "cake problem" — ensuring AI systems deliver on their promises.

Propulsion Gel Applied Sciences Grant

Building on decades of gel-based propulsion research, this grant funds applied science projects exploring novel uses for conversion gel, propulsion gel, and repulsion gel technologies. Applications in construction, athletics, transportation, and space exploration are all welcome. Note: All proposals must include a safety assessment. Previous incidents involving unsupervised gel testing in office environments have led to updated protocols. Moon rock exposure monitoring is provided at no additional cost.

Portal Technology Research Grant

Aperture Science is offering funding for researchers pushing the boundaries of interdimensional transport technology. We seek proposals addressing quantum tunneling at macroscopic scales, stable wormhole generation, and momentum conservation in non-Euclidean transit systems. "Now you're thinking with portals!" — This grant supports exactly that kind of thinking. Previous recipients have achieved breakthroughs in spatial displacement, though companion cube preservation rates remain a challenge.