Who funds planetary science research?

We count 150 funded planetary science projects, active between 2020 and 2032, from 6 funders. The most came from EU · ERC (66 projects), EU · MSCA (27 projects) and NASA (11 projects). The median award is $1.6M, across the 148 of 150 projects that list an amount.

Funded projects

150

Funders

6

Median award

$1.6M

Open calls now

4

Top funders of planetary science research

Projects whose title or summary mentions planetary science. Median award: of the projects that list an amount, in US dollars; “—” when fewer than 3 do.

Open planetary science funding calls

4 open calls mention planetary science today.

• ROSES25: C.4 Planetary Science Enabling Facilities
  NASA HeadquartersNot specifiedDeadline: November 10, 2026 ·
• NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP)
  Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for NASANot specifiedDeadline: October 28, 2026 ·
• Lasker Fellowship
  Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for NASANot specifiedDeadline: October 29, 2026 ·
• Brinson Prize Fellowships
  Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for NASANot specifiedDeadline: November 5, 2026 ·

Forecast: announced, not open yet

2 forecast calls on planetary science. Funders publish forecasts before a call opens; you can't apply to these yet, and dates can change.

• ForecastEGU Awards and Medals (including Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding Early Career Scientists)
  European Geosciences UnionNot specifiedOpening date not announced
• ForecastEGU Public Engagement Grants
  European Geosciences UnionUp to €2,000Opening date not announced

Funded planetary science projects

A sample, latest start first, at most three per program.

• Why is the response of Earth’s outer radiation belt to solar wind driving so hard to predict?
  UKRI · STFC · £4,363,565 · ends 2032
• CAREER: Revealing the Influence of Magnetic Fields During the Formation of Planetary Systems
  NSF · MPS · $776,954 · ends 2031
• CAREER: OpenGPRxAI: Open-Source, AI-Powered Ground Penetrating Radar Technologies for Real-Time Subsurface Vision
  NSF · ENG · $560,865 · ends 2031
• PHOENix: Planetary Health Optimisation for Enhancing Nutrition and Food Security through School Feeding Programmes in Egypt
  Wellcome · £782,317 · ends 2031
• Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health
  Wellcome · £1,072,426 · ends 2031
• Towards the full cost of diets: valuing and attributing food system externalities to improve decision-making for human and planetary health
  Wellcome · £2,927,541 · ends 2030
• Living Well with Water Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
  UKRI · AHRC · £2,145,874 · ends 2030
• A new paradigm for the geodynamo: data-driven models of core dynamics that explain and predict Earth’s magnetic shield
  UKRI · NERC · £840,575 · ends 2030
• Lombardo will serve as the deputy science lead of the planetary boundary layer (pbl) decadal survey incubation team
  NASA · $110,121 · ends 2030
• Shedding Light On JWST Ice Observations: A Laboratory Approach To Untangling Spectral Signatures
  UKRI · STFC · £634,715 · ends 2029

How we count

Funded projects come from public award records (NIH RePORTER, NSF, EU CORDIS, UKRI Gateway to Research, Wellcome, the Gates Foundation, DOE, NASA and USDA NIFA) whose title or summary matches “planetary”. NIH lists each budget year separately; one project counts once. Amounts are as the funder lists them; medians use only projects that list one, in US dollars. Open calls and forecasts are from our listings of October 28, 2026. A project can mention a topic without being mainly about it, so treat the counts as a guide to who funds the area.