About CONVERGE

Eric M. Kern

Founder

CONVERGE was built around a simple idea: funding discovery should work around the researcher, not the other way around. After nearly 15 years in research administration, most recently serving as Associate Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration at a leading academic medical center, I’ve heard one request more than any other: there has to be a better way to find and identify grant opportunities. Researchers don't necessarily need more funding lists. They need the right opportunities identified for them, based on their known areas of expertise, and delivered when they matter. My background in research administration has given me a front-row view of how much time researchers and research teams spend searching, sorting, and trying to determine what is actually relevant. The reality is that researchers already have more demands on their time than they can reasonably manage. If finding relevant funding requires them to actively search through hundreds or thousands of opportunities, it often simply won't happen. That realization became the foundation for CONVERGE. By connecting research expertise with funding opportunities and bringing relevant matches directly to researchers, CONVERGE helps turn funding discovery from another task on the to-do list into something that happens for them automatically. Because the best funding opportunity isn't the one you find after searching thousands of listings...it's the one you miss unless opportunity and expertise converge.