The Hill Prizes

Qualified applicants include all Texas-based researchers who meet the following eligibility requirements:

Medicine, Engineering, Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences Eligibility Requirements

• Open to all Texas-based applicants 15 years or more after their first independent faculty appointment.
• Applicants must have spent, at a minimum, the past two years (at the time of submission) performing research in Texas at an institution within the state and stay active there for at least one year after receiving the prize award funding.
• Applications may be submitted by individuals and teams from all research universities, medical centers, research institutes and other scientific organizations in Texas.
• Institutional approval by the applicant’s institution is required at the time of the application.
• There may be more than one application from an institution.
• For team submissions, the Principal Investigator or team lead must be an active leader and participant of the group and meet all eligibility requirements.

Technology Prize Eligibility Requirements

• Open to all Texas-based researchers 15 years or more after their first industry-affiliated appointment.
• Applicants must have spent the past two years (at the time of submission) performing research in Texas at a company or institute within the state and stay active there for at least one year after receiving the prize award funding.
• Applications may be submitted by individuals and teams from all companies, private research institutes and other scientific organizations in the private sector in Texas.
• Institutional approval by the applicant’s institution is required at the time of the application.
• There may be more than one application from an institution.
• For team submissions, the Principal Investigator or team lead must be an active leader and participant of the group and meet all eligibility requirements.

Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:

• Uniqueness of idea behind the research;
• Potential for commercial application and/or real-world impact;
• Strengths of research group leader and/or team;
• Ability and availability of key personnel and infrastructure to execute the work and achieve success with the prize funding to be awarded.

Key Dates:
June 27, 2023: Applications Open
July 12, 2023: Online Information Session
August 11, 2023 : Applications Close at Midnight Central Time
February 5, 2024: Recipients Announced at TAMEST Annual Meeting

Award Period:
Proposals should be for at least one year in duration with an expected start date of March 1, 2024.

Budget:
$500,000 USD per prize. Funds may not be used for institutional overhead or indirect charges.

Application materials are crucial to evaluating and selecting from the submissions. All applications must be submitted through the online portal. The following components are required:

1. Application form (submitted online at https://www.tfaforms.com/5059269), which includes endorsement from an official of the institution or organization authorized to approve acceptance of the prize funds.

2. A summary from the applicant (50 words or less) succinctly explaining:

• A summary of the research and why it should be chosen for the Hill Prizes.
• The potential impact of the research.

3. A statement from the applicant (up to 5 pages) defining:

• the problem the applicant is trying to solve with their research, and the key gap the work will fill;
• limitations of current approaches and what makes the applicant’s approach novel;
• the potential impact of the work, supported by relevant metrics if possible;
• potential commercial and translational applications of the work;
• how the recipient would use Hill Prize funding to accelerate their work and make a significant impact on society.

Detailed budgets are not required, but applicants should explain how the funding would be used, e.g., for equipment, personnel or other expenses. Statements should be formatted in Times New Roman, 11-point font with margins of at least 0.5”.

4. Biographical summary for the Principal Investigator (not to exceed three pages), including:

• a summary of education, employment, honors, recognitions and awards;
• a summary of the applicant’s research interests and activities, including (where applicable) information on the most relevant grant support (titles, sources and duration) or projects led, and the role of the applicant in each grant;
• citations for up to ten of the applicant’s most important research publications;
• a synopsis of the applicant’s discoveries and research contributions; and
• statistics on papers, books, patents (if applicable) and reports.

Applicants may submit NIH biosketches for the Principal Investigator. Additional team members may also submit bios (bios not to exceed one page per team member).

Letters of recommendation are not permitted and will not be accepted.

All application materials must be submitted at the time of application. All applications must be received by midnight Central Time on August 11, 2023.

Each prize recipient’s institution or organization will receive $500,000 in direct funding from Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Recipients retain full intellectual property rights. Expenditures from the prize award must follow the spending policies of the recipient’s institution. Funds may not be used for institutional overhead or indirect charges.

Prize recipients must be from a Texas institution or company and stay active there for at least one year after receiving the prize award funding. Prize funding shall remain with the institution or company that receives the award. There is no specific requirement for how rapidly the funds must be expended, but the expectation is that the funds will be expended in a timely manner to advance the objectives of the work as quickly as reasonably possible.

Recipients must be able to attend the prize ceremony the evening of February 5, 2024, at the opening reception of the TAMEST 2024 Annual Conference in Austin, Texas.

Recipients must provide a statement on the impact of the funding on their work annually until one year after the prize funds have been expended, with a brief explanation on how the funding was used. Recipients agree that information included in the statement may be used publicly by TAMEST and Lyda Hill Philanthropies. The expectation is that the promotion of successful prize work may be helpful to the prize recipients and to other Texas-based researchers and innovators.