The philanthropic ecosystem spun out of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s massive estate is getting bigger.

The Fund for Science and Technology launched Wednesday with plans to fund at least $500 million worth of grants over the next four years. The 501(c)3 nonprofit foundation will support “transformational science and technology” in bioscience, the environment and artificial intelligence.

Though it’s years in the making, the fund provides cash to a scientific community that’s reeling with proposed budget cuts, terminated grants and dwindling support from the federal government.

The fund will eventually disburse money throughout the world, but for the first wave of grantees it selected the Benaroya Research Institute, the College of the Environment at University of Washington, Fred Hut

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