The Pedersen Foundation is seeking insight from researchers and research organizations to inform its learning, strategy, and future philanthropic priorities in women's hormonal health.
Submit Your ResponseUpdated Submission Deadline: June 17, 2026 · Responses treated as confidential
Women's Hormonal Health is a broad and evolving area of research with important implications for health, well-being, and resilience across women's lifespan. In particular, hormonal transitions such as the perinatal period and menopause involve complex changes across neurological, endocrine, immune, and metabolic systems that can shape cognition, mood, and brain health in significant ways. While scientific understanding in these areas is advancing, research remains fragmented across disciplines, and important questions remain about how to translate emerging insights into practical interventions and better care.
The Pedersen Foundation is issuing this Request For Information (RFI) as a learning-oriented process to better understand the current landscape of research and emerging opportunities in women's hormonal health. Note that this is not a call for full proposals or a competitive funding round. Rather, the RFI is intended to inform the Foundation's strategy by identifying key questions, leading researchers and institutions, promising areas of inquiry, and opportunities where philanthropic investment may help accelerate progress.
As a private family foundation, The Pedersen Foundation is interested in areas where philanthropic capital can support interdisciplinary, early-stage, and integrative work that may not fit neatly within traditional funding mechanisms. Through this RFI, the Foundation seeks insight from researchers and research organizations working across women's hormonal health, with the goal of informing strategy, identifying opportunities for collaboration, and supporting real-world impact.
The purpose of this RFI is to help the Foundation better understand the current landscape, gaps, perspectives, and opportunities within women's hormonal health to inform future learning, strategy, and identify potential areas where philanthropic support can help advance promising research and real-world application. The Foundation may also reach out to selected respondents to continue the conversation, explore ideas in greater depth, and identify potential opportunities for collaboration or partnership.
We aim for the RFI responses to help the Foundation with:
Better understand the current landscape of research related to women's hormonal health, with particular interest in menopause, perinatal depression and related intervention opportunities with particular attention to the gut-brain axis and neurological system.
Clarify key research questions, methodological approaches, evidence gaps, and translational opportunities across this evolving area of research.
Identify how research is informing, or could better inform, clinical practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and scalable real-world application.
Highlight areas where private philanthropic support may be well positioned to accelerate progress, advance collaboration, and support meaningful impact.
Surface promising, underexplored, or innovative lines of research that could strengthen prevention, early detection, intervention, and brain resilience during reproductive transitions.
Reproductive hormonal transitions involve complex and interconnected changes across multiple biological systems. These periods may represent windows of heightened neuroplasticity, during which brain circuits are both vulnerable to disruption and responsive to targeted intervention. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms may reveal opportunities to strengthen brain resilience and improve long-term cognitive and emotional wellbeing.
The Pedersen Foundation is particularly interested in research and insights that illuminate potential ways for intervention, prevention, or resilience. This may include novel conceptual frameworks, emerging biological mechanisms, or translational opportunities that could inform future clinical tools, therapeutic approaches or models of care that extend beyond hormone replacement therapy alone.
We welcome inquiries related to, but not limited to, the following topics:
The Foundation welcomes responses from researchers, practitioners and multi-disciplinary teams whose work advances understanding of women's hormonal health. This RFI is open to:
Review The Pedersen Foundation Women's Hormonal Health Request For Information (this website) before submitting a response, as it provides important context on the focus and intent guiding this effort. Submit your responses using the survey link provided by June 17, 2026.
Responses will be reviewed by a committee of foundation staff and external advisors. Information will be treated as confidential and used for learning purposes only. Submissions will be reviewed to understand trends, gaps, and opportunities across the field.
Insights from this RFI will help shape future funding priorities, research questions, and partnerships. A high-level deidentified report will be shared with respondents by Fall 2026 to share general trends and learnings from the RFI. The Foundation may contact a selection of submission participants to schedule additional time to gather more information, context on issues or explore potential partnership opportunities.
All responses must be submitted using the secure online survey. The form will guide you through each section.
Begin Response Form https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/qPJX8uXFPYThe Pedersen Foundation was established by George and Marilyn Pedersen following the sale of ManTech International, a strategic defense company dedicated to advancing U.S. national security. Building on their strong tradition of giving, the Foundation supports our nation's founding principles and those who serve and protect it, while investing in emerging fields of interest.
Today, our philanthropic focus includes:
Our Mission: The Pedersen Foundation is dedicated to supporting our nation's founding principles and those that serve and protect it, supporting efforts to harness the potential of neurospatial design, and furthering the health, wellbeing, and resiliency of Americans, specifically focusing on women's hormonal health and nutrition and exercise's impact on the brain. We strive to achieve measurable impact and focus on innovative, compassionate, and courageous initiatives.