Our Awards

Applications for 2025 closed on March 7.

The Bakar Award (formerly Spark Award) and AIC-Bakar Award are designed to accelerate faculty-led research to tangible, positive societal impact through commercialization.

Through a competitive application process, faculty members are selected as Bakar Faculty Fellows and awarded discretionary research support to fulfill proposed milestones and move their innovative research concepts closer to commercialization.

The call for Bakar Award and AIC-Bakar Award applications takes place annually, with funding decisions made in the spring.

Bakar Award:

For UC Berkeley Faculty the program will award up to eight awards of $100,000/year or collaborative proposals between two PIs for $200,000/year, for three years (split evenly between the two PIs).

For UC Berkeley and UCSF Faculty the program will award up to three awards for three years for collaborative research projects. There are two options to initiate a collaboration: (1) Co-PIs (one from each campus) submit one application for a joint project and if selected, Co-PIs each receive $100,000/year for three years. (2) UCSF PI submits a project proposal that is in collaboration with a currently funded Berkeley Bakar Faculty Fellow. If selected, the new UCSF Co-PI will receive $100,000/year for three years.

AIC-Bakar Award

The Bakar Fellows Program has partnered with the Academic Innovation Catalyst (AIC) to specifically support proof-of-concept projects aimed at solving climate-related issues.

AIC was founded in 2023 to unlock academic innovation in deep technology fields for positive social impact, with an emphasis on Climate Tech and AI for Good.

For UC Berkeley faculty, the AIC-Bakar Awards will provide faculty with $300,000 over three years to develop their proof-of-concept further and explore the commercial potential of their application.

New this year! Previous Bakar Fellows are now eligible to apply again.