The Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is soliciting pre-applications for investigator awards. Each award will fund research in a single investigator’s laboratory. Our goal with the awards is to provide scientists with the resources and flexibility to pursue innovative, risky research that has high potential for significant conceptual and methodological advances in aquatic symbiosis. We anticipate investigators will generate new technologies, resources, theory, natural history and hypotheses to spark discovery in understanding aquatic organisms and their symbioses. We envision a vibrant cohort of investigators that serves as a source of ideas for the initiative, collaborates among peers, and moves the community towards a more comprehensive understanding how marine and freshwater organisms interact in symbiotic associations involving microbes. We anticipate awards encompassing one or more of three central themes: origins and evolution, mechanisms of symbiotic interactions, and/or ecology and natural history. We are interested in symbioses where at least one partner is a microbe and where the symbiosis takes place in a marine or freshwater environment. We anticipate the initiative will support approximately 12 scientists for five years (2020-2025) who represent both early and established career stages and include both current and emerging leaders in their fields. Investigators will convene at an annual symposium to share research findings and build connections across symbiosis researchers. Awards will range from approximately $200K-$400K/year in direct costs. Pre-application deadline: June 3, 2019.