Simons Foundation puts $80 million into brain energy research and funds 11 science centers in Ukraine
The private funder launched a 10-year neuroscience collaboration on November 2, then named more Ukrainian research centers than it had planned to fund.
By Foundations Desk ·
In brief
- The Simons Collaboration on Brain Energetics, launched November 2, 2026, provides $80 million over 10 years to 26 investigators.
- It will study how the brain creates and uses energy, and how it functions under metabolic stress, in worms, flies, mice and humans.
- On November 3, the foundation named 11 Centers of Excellence in Ukraine. Its request for applications had planned eight to 10.
- Each center can receive up to $600,000 over three years. The foundation gave no total; the ceiling for 11 is $6.6 million by our arithmetic.
- The centers follow wartime stipends the foundation announced in January 2023 for researchers who stayed in Ukraine.
The Simons Foundation, a private funder of mathematics and basic science, made two funding announcements on consecutive days. On November 2, 2026, it launched the Simons Collaboration on Brain Energetics, with $80 million over 10 years for 26 investigators. On November 3, it named 11 Centers of Excellence in Ukraine that will receive money for basic science and mathematics.
What the $80 million is for
The collaboration, known as SCOBE, targets a gap in basic neuroscience. The foundation says the brain uses roughly 20% of the energy the body generates, yet researchers still don't fully understand how it produces that energy, rations it or spends it on critical functions.
The investigators' fields range from systems and computational neuroscience to cell and molecular biology, engineering and theory. Thomas Clandinin of Stanford University and Anna Devor of Boston University are co-directors, and the foundation's list runs from Yale and MIT to the University of Oslo, the University of Edinburgh and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. They will study worms, flies, mice and humans to learn which principles hold across species.
| Area | The question |
|---|---|
| Single cells | How much energy different cell types need for tasks such as firing signals or clearing waste, using new sensors to track molecules such as glucose and ATP |
| Brain circuits | Whether harder computations cost more energy, and which ones the brain puts first when supply is short |
| Neurovascular coupling | How neurons and blood vessels interact to change the energy neurons receive, which could help scientists interpret fMRI findings |
| Energy scarcity | How the brain adapts when its energy supply changes, as with diabetes, lower oxygen levels or pregnancy, and what happens when those protections break down |
It's one of the backbone constraints for understanding the brain that we need to address to push the field forward.
The announcement does not break down the $80 million by investigator or by year. Spread evenly, it would come to $8 million a year, by our arithmetic. The foundation says it plans to share the findings with the wider research community as open data.
From stipends to research centers in Ukraine
The Ukrainian awards build on support that began with stipends. In January 2023, the foundation announced more than $1.2 million over 12 months for 405 researchers who had stayed in the country, paying $200 a month to each active Ph.D. researcher and $100 a month to each Ph.D. student, with further money for host institutions. By June 2025, it counted more than 430 grantees.
The new program is built around academic units. Its request for applications, posted in March 2026 with Simons Foundation International, planned for eight to 10 centers; the list has 11. Each center can receive up to $200,000 a year for three years, or up to $600,000 including indirect costs, with a possible review-based extension of two more years. The foundation gives no total for the round. If all 11 received the maximum, three-year funding would reach $6.6 million, by our arithmetic.
The request's budget example has five or six principal investigators, five to 10 research scientists and 10 to 15 students at each center, with reasonable variations allowed. It calls "the acquisition of major European grants during or after the five-year period" a good measure of success, and asks applicants how the research will continue after that.
Eight of the 11 centers are in Kyiv. The others are in Lviv and Uzhhorod, and one is listed under Sloviansk/Cherkasy.
| Center | Lead investigator | City |
|---|---|---|
| ASTRA.NUMINA (astrophysics modeling) | Peter Berczik | Kyiv |
| Center for Advanced Particle and Space Physics | Liudmyla Kozak | Kyiv |
| Center for Computational Mathematics of Complex Intelligent Systems | Nataliia Kussul | Kyiv |
| Center for Mathematical Sciences | Igor Skrypnik | Sloviansk/Cherkasy |
| Center of Excellence for Classical and Quantum Complex Systems | Rostyslav Hryniv | Lviv |
| Center of Excellence for Digital Materials | Oleksandr Vasiliev | Kyiv |
| Center of Excellence in Theoretical and Computational Physics | Sergiy Perepelytsya | Kyiv |
| KOLOS (wheat stress resistance) | Maksym Antonyuk | Kyiv |
| Simons Union for Mathematics in Ukraine | Alexander Timokha | Kyiv |
| Ukrainian Center for Quantum Research | Sergiy Shevchenko | Kyiv |
| Ukrainian Center for Theoretical and Computational Evolutionary Genomics | Khrystyna Shchubelka | Uzhhorod |
Sources
- Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration To Uncover How Energy Shapes Brain Computation Simons Foundation, November 2, 2026
- Simons Foundation Announces Funding for 11 Ukrainian 'Centers of Excellence' Simons Foundation, November 3, 2026
- Centers of Excellence in Ukraine: 2026 Request for Applications Simons Foundation, March 31, 2026
- Simons Foundation Providing Support to Researchers in Ukraine Simons Foundation, January 25, 2023
- Support for Ukrainian Scientists Keeps Research and Collaboration Alive Simons Foundation, June 8, 2025
Researched and drafted with AI assistance, then checked against the 5 sources above in a separate fact-check on November 5, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.