Koerner Family Foundation
Koerner Family Foundation (Penn Valley, PA) is a private foundation that provides graduate fellowships for doctoral engineering students (the Koerner Fellows program). The site publishes fellowship cohorts, program philosophy, and contact information.
Source: Website · Mar 2026
Ideal Applicant
A university or university-affiliated foundation that administers doctoral engineering fellowships and can be nominated or selected into a fellowship cohort.
Good Fit
- • An accredited university or university foundation with a PhD engineering program.
- • An office able to administer and receive fellowship funds on behalf of doctoral students.
- • A history of hosting or nominating doctoral engineering fellows.
- • Willingness to participate in a programmatic, cohort-based fellowship model rather than a one-off project grant.
Geography
Observed grant recipients span multiple states: eight states in 2024 and up to twelve states in 2023, with a modest share directed to the foundation's home state of Pennsylvania.
Recipient Variety
The foundation funded 6–15 distinct recipients per year across the three observed years (nine recipients in 2024), primarily independent university foundations and campus partners, indicating a broad institutional spread for a small private foundation.
New Applicants
Public materials state grants are by preselection rather than open applications, but the observed history includes new institutional recipients (notably 12 new recipients in 2023 and 2 in 2024), so unfamiliar institutions can enter the portfolio though not via a public competitive application.
Source: Zeffy Agent · Mar 2026
