The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has announced a $190 million initiative to advance basic research in experimental physics.

With the goal of addressing gaps that limit the rate of discovery in the physical sciences, over the next eleven years the Moore Investigators in Experimental Physics Initiative will select a hundred investigators in the fifth to tenth year of their career at a university in the United States and provide them with access to an instrumentation fund. The foundation also will facilitate gatherings and interactions among investigators aimed at sparking their creativity and will work to promote greater diversity in physics, astrophysics, and geophysics.

"Our current system forces creative people to spend valuable time repeatedly applying for grants just at the point where they should be sprinting forward," said Robert Kirshner, the foundation's chief program officer for science. "We want Moore Investigators to participate in the national funding scene, but with the assurance they can take chances in their research without stalling their career."

(Photo credit: Kathryn Moler)