John Templeton Foundation

The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind. We support research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and emergence to creativity, forgiveness, and free will.

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 goal is the same: to spur curiosity and accelerate discovery.

In order to catalyze such discoveries, we provide grants for independent research that advances the mission of the Foundation. Our grants for public engagement help people worldwide engage the fruits of that research and explore the Big Questions.

The work supported by the John Templeton Foundation crosses disciplinary, religious, and geographical boundaries. Our grantees produce field-leading scholarship across the sciences, theology, and philosophy. From probing gravitational waves to updating the modern evolutionary synthesis, they have contributed to major discoveries in the basic sciences. Other grantees have opened critical new topics to scientific investigation, including prayer, gratitude, immortality, and imagination.

In addition to supporting academic research on these and similar questions, we support efforts to bring relevant findings to non-specialist audiences. Through a wide range of media — print, digital, broadcast, and film — we seek to raise awareness about cutting-edge discoveries in ways that are clear and thought-provoking. In addition, we fund programs that help teachers, journalists, religious leaders, and other professionals apply these discoveries in ways that enrich and extend their work.