About the Michelson Prize & Grants
In October 2008, the Michelson Prize & Grants was established by Found Animals Foundation with the goal of developing a non-surgical sterilant for cats and dogs, a product that experts agree is the key to making shelter euthanasia of healthy, adoptable pets a thing of the past. A low cost, single dose, non-surgical sterilant would allow shelters and animal welfare organizations to address populations of animals not currently served by surgical spay/neuter procedures due to barriers of cost, transportation, and limited availability of trained veterinarians.
Similar in design to the X Prize and other prize philanthropy programs, the $25 million Michelson Prize will be awarded to the first entity to provide the foundation with a single dose, permanent, non-surgical steriliant that is safe and effective in male and female cats and dogs. In order to fund the research and development of such a product, Found Animals offers Michelson Grants of up to $250,000 per year for research in pursuit of this goal. Utilizing this innovative prize and grants funding structure, Found Animals incentivizes researchers from a wide variety of disciplines to take up the challenge.
Since its inception, Found Animals has received tremendous response from the international scientific community, including over 200 Letters of Intent (LOIs) for the Michelson Grants. Based on the high quality of these LOIs, the Foundation has invited more than 70 investigators to submit full grant proposals. To date, 26 proposals have been approved for grant funding, totaling over $11.5 million.
