Featured Opportunities

December 18, 2024

• Worldwide, emergent restrictions on the use of single-use and plastic packaging will limit access of specialty crops to global markets1. Therefore, Clemson University and The Foundation for Fresh Produce (FFP) of the International Fresh Produce Association are partnering with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) to implement the Sustainable Packaging Innovation Lab of the Assisting Specialty Crop Exports program (ASCE-SPIL)2 by the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS).FFAR is accepting applications, on behalf of Clemson University and FFP, for the Sustainable Packaging Innovation Lab program to develop packaging and packaging alternatives for specialty crops compliant with the emergent packaging regulations in the EU, UK, Canada, Japan and other key markets. They seek novel sustainable packaging or packaging alternatives that can replace single-use packaging and single-use plastic packaging but can offer at least some of the same functions in an economical manner. The Sustainable Innovation Packaging Lab consists of three distinct tracks: Track 1 (Applied R&D) seeks proposals aimed at bringing a solution for specialty crop exports that is still at the laboratory stage but shows high promise to be implemented in pilot-scale manufacturing with minimal further effort; Track 2 (Technology Accelerator) seeks proposals aimed on scaling innovations in sustainable packaging for the fresh produce industry; and Track 3 (Scale-up and pilot) seeks proposals to run pilot-scale manufacturing projects aimed at commercializing a packaging solution for specialty crop exports.
• The Department of Agriculture, NIFA’s Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) seeks to solve critical organic agriculture issues, priorities, or problems through the integration of research, education, and extension activities. The purpose of this program is to fund projects that will enhance the ability of producers and processors who have already adopted organic standards to grow and market high quality organic agricultural products. Priority concerns include biological, physical, and social sciences, including economics. The OREI is particularly interested in projects that emphasize research, education and outreach that assist farmers and ranchers with whole farm planning by delivering practical research-based information. Projects should plan to deliver applied production information to producers. Fieldwork must be done on certified organic land or on land in transition to organic certification, as appropriate to project goals and objectives.
• The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is designed to fulfill the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote scientific progress nationwide. NSF EPSCoR facilitates the establishment of partnerships among academic institutions, government, industry, and non-profit sectors that are designed to promote sustainable improvements in an EPSCoR-eligible jurisdiction’s research infrastructure, Research and Development (R&D) capacity, and R&D competitiveness. EPSCoR welcomes proposals for workshops only from institutions within EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions(i.e. states, territories, commonwealths). These workshops must focus on innovative ways to address multi-jurisdictional efforts on themes of regional or national importance with relevance to the goals and mission of NSF and EPSCoR.
• The Department of Energy, Office of Science program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) announces it is receiving applications for research within the Biological Systems Science Division’s (BSSD) Genomic Science Program (GSP) (https://genomicscience.energy.gov). In this NOFO, Systems Biology to Advance Bioenergy Crop Production, applications are requested for: 1) Systems-level research to improve understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying bioenergy feedstock productivity under varied and at times suboptimal environmental conditions; and 2) Systems biology-enabled investigations into the roles of microbes and microbial communities (including rhizosphere consortia, e.g. bacteria, fungi, diazotrophs, endophytes, viruses) in supporting plant productivity and vigor. This is a limited submission with only one proposal allowed from K-State. Thus, you must first notify (working title, team list, 2 to 3 sentence synopsis) the Office of Research development via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu if you are interested in applying to this program.
• This Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH’s Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Exploratory/Development Research Grant (R21) invites Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21) applications that propose to study the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of human genetic or genomic research. Applications may propose studies using either single or mixed methods, that break new ground, extend previous discoveries in new directions, or develop preliminary data in preparation for larger studies. Approaches may include but are not limited to empirical qualitative and quantitative methods, and conceptual, legal, and normative analyses. Applied research designed to address ELSI issues in genetics and genomics will also be considered responsive. Direct engagement with communities and other stakeholders is encouraged, but not required. An R03 opportunity is also available under the ELSI program.
• The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood is an incubator of promising research and development projects that appear likely to improve the welfare of young children, from infancy through 7 years, in the United States. Welfare is broadly defined to support, acculturation, societal integration and childcare. Grants are only made if a successful project outcome will likely be of significant interest to other professionals, within the grantee’s field of endeavor, and would have a direct benefit and potential national application. The Foundation’s goal is to provide seed money to implement those imaginative proposals that exhibit the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children, on a national scale. Because of the Foundation’s limited funding capability, it seeks to maximize a grant's potential impact.
• The purpose of HHS, NIH’s Exploratory/Developmental Bioengineering Research Grants (EBRG) notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) announcement is to encourage submissions of exploratory/developmental Bioengineering Research Grant (EBRG) applications to demonstrate feasibility and potential utility of new capabilities or improvements in quality, speed, efficacy, operability, costs, and/or accessibility of solutions to problems in basic biomedical, pre-clinical, or clinical research, clinical care delivery, or accessibility. The rationale is to support first steps toward delivery of new capabilities to meet evolving requirements for technologies and methods relevant to the advance of research and/or medical care in pre-clinical, clinical and non-clinical settings, domestic or foreign, for conditions and diseases within the missions of participating NIH Institutes and Centers. This NOFO utilizes the Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) mechanism, which supports investigation of novel scientific ideas or new model systems, tools, or technologies that have the potential for significant impact on biomedical or biobehavioral research. An R21 grant application need not have extensive background material or preliminary information.
• The NSF’s Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS) Program is an interdisciplinary program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences that supports the development of innovative analytical and statistical methods and models for those sciences. MMS seeks proposals that are methodologically innovative, grounded in theory, and have potential utility for multiple fields within the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. As part of its larger portfolio, the MMS Program partners with a consortium of federal statistical agencies to support research proposals that further the production and use of official statistics.
• NSF’s Materials Innovation Platforms (MIP) is a mid-scale infrastructure program in the Division of Materials Research (DMR) designed to accelerate advances in materials research. MIPs respond to the increasing complexity of materials research that requires close collaboration of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams and access to cutting edge tools. These tools in a user facility benefit both a user program and in-house research, which focus on addressing grand challenges of fundamental science and meet national needs. MIPs embrace the paradigm set forth by the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), which strives to “discover, manufacture, and deploy advanced materials twice as fast, at a fraction of the cost,” and conduct research through iterative “closed-loop” efforts among the areas of materials synthesis/processing, materials characterization, and theory/modeling/simulation. In addition, they are expected to engage the emerging field of data science in materials research. Each MIP is a scientific ecosystem, which includes in-house research scientists, external users and other scientists who, collectively, form a community of practitioners and share tools, codes, samples, data and know-how. The scientific focus of the MIP program is subject to change from competition to competition. In this third MIP competition, this program will accept proposals on alloys, amorphous, and composite materials in 2025. Given that the second MIP competition included an emphasis on biomaterials and polymer research, proposals mainly on these topics will not be considered in the third MIP competition. This is a limited submissions program with notifications (working title, team list, 2 to 3 sentence synopsis) due to the Office of Research Development by 5 pm on January 24, 2025 via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu.
• The Department of Energy, EERE’s Renewable Integration Management with Innovative High Voltage Direct Current Power Circuit Breakers (REIMAGINE BREAKERS) seeks applications to support R&D that will standardize the technical specifications of high voltage direct current circuit breakers (HV DCCB) as well as advance existing HV DCCB designs. Developing standards for HV DCCBs will support the protection and interoperability of hardware within MTDC transmission systems and allow for seamless interconnection and coordination of the technology into existing HV AC & DC transmission systems. Standardization will provide key stakeholders with guidance to ensure all HV DCCBs developed are compatible with existing and future transmission networks. Additionally, the advancement of HV DCCB designs will aid in the development of novel ideas to reduce overall cost and footprint of the technology.
• The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program focuses on the stewardship and restoration of coastal, wetland and riparian ecosystems across the country. Its goal is to meet the conservation needs of important species and habitats, providing measurable and meaningful conservation and educational outcomes. The program requires the establishment and/or enhancement of diverse partnerships and an education/outreach component that will help shape and sustain behavior to achieve conservation goals. Funding priorities for this program include: 1) On-the-ground wetland, riparian, in-stream and/or coastal habitat restoration; 2) Meaningful education and training activities, either through community outreach, participation and/or integration with K-12 environmental curriculum; 3) Measurable ecological, educational and community benefits; and 4)Partnerships: Five Star projects should engage a diverse group of community partners to achieve ecological and educational outcomes.
• NSF’s Research Coordination Networks (RCN) program seeks to advance a field or create new directions in research or education by supporting groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic, and international boundaries. The RCN program provides opportunities to foster new collaborations, including international partnerships where appropriate, and address interdisciplinary topics. Innovative ideas for implementing novel networking strategies, collaborative technologies, training, broadening participation, and development of community standards for data and meta- data are especially encouraged. RCN awards are not meant to support existing networks; nor are they meant to support the activities of established collaborations. RCN awards also do not support primary research. Rather, the RCN program supports the means by which investigators can share information and ideas; coordinate ongoing or planned research activities; foster synthesis and new collaborations; develop community standards; and in other ways advance science and education through communication and sharing of ideas.
• NSF’s Developmental Sciences program supports basic research that increases our understanding of perceptual, cognitive, linguistic, social, cultural, and biological processes related to human development across the lifespan. Research supported by this program will add to our knowledge of the underlying developmental processes that support social, cognitive, and behavioral functioning, thereby illuminating ways for individuals to live productive lives as members of society. This program supports research that addresses developmental processes within the domains of perceptual, cognitive, social, emotional, language, and motor development across the lifespan by working with any appropriate populations for the topics of interest including infants, children, adolescents, adults (including aging populations), and non-human animals. The program also supports research investigating factors that affect developmental change, including family, peers, school, community, culture, media, physical, genetic, and epigenetic influences. The program funds research that incorporates multidisciplinary, multi-method, and/or longitudinal approaches; develops new methods, models, and theories for studying development; and integrates different processes (e.g., memory, emotion, perception, cognition), levels of analysis (e.g., behavioral, social, neural) and time scales. The program funds basic research that advances our understanding of developmental processes and mechanisms; the program does not fund clinical trials and research focused primarily on health outcomes.
• The Department of Defense, Navy’s Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) Broad Agency Announcement for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 (FY25) seeks to develop biomarker-based tools for predicting disease contagiousness before or after symptom onset. Proposers should create novel assays or adapt existing technologies to target host- or pathogen-derived biomarkers, with a focus on minimally- or non-invasive clinical samples such as saliva, sweat, or blood. Assays must be implemented in compact, portable, and field-deployable platforms capable of producing a contagiousness score (numerical or binary) within 60 minutes. Solutions must meet or exceed PCR-level sensitivity, operate with low or no power requirements, and function across bacterial, viral, and fungal agents. Prototypes must be shelf-stable, reproducible, and scalable for mass production, ensuring readiness for surge capacity and minimal reliance on cold-chain logistics. The end product should be simple to operate, highly sensitive, and capable of determining contagiousness under diverse conditions, including exposure to novel biological threats. It is expected the NEEC university partner will collaborate with Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division scientists/engineers, that the proposal will describe how the grant deliverables will be transitioned to the Navy and provide opportunities to students (undergraduate and/or graduate) in support of DoD workforce development.
• NSF’s Biological Anthropology Senior Research Awards program seeks to advance scientific knowledge about the processes that have shaped biological diversity in living and fossil humans and their primate relatives through support of basic research on human and primate evolution, biological variation, and interactions between biology, behavior, and culture. The program supports a portfolio of research that demonstrates engagement with biological anthropological and evolutionary theory; includes diverse and interdisciplinary methods in field, laboratory and computational settings; encompasses multiple levels of analysis (e.g., molecular, organismal, population, ecosystem) and time scales from the short-term to evolutionary; and considers the ethical implications and societal impacts of the research. The program also supports a wide range of broader impact activities as part of research grants, including research outcomes with inherent benefit to society, efforts to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research, training and outreach activities and other evidence-based activities developed within the context of the mission, goals, and resources of the organizations and people involved.
• The Washington Center for Equitable Growth seeks to support research that will generate actionable insights for policymakers and inform policies that lead to strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. How can they encourage use of artificial intelligence technologies that is more beneficial for U.S. workers and society? They are currently requesting proposals for research that will inform policies that would harness the potential of generative AI and other emerging technologies to boost growth, innovation, and productivity while ensuring robust competition and making sure that productivity gains are broad-based and lead to improved job quality. They are open to research on a range of technologies, such as generative AI and large language models, but also algorithms, electronic surveillance, and various forms of automation. They support research inquiry using many different types of evidence, relying on a variety of methodological approaches and cutting across academic disciplines, including research on designing new technologies and algorithms. Research can take a macro perspective and focus on aggregate outcomes, or a micro perspective and focus on outcomes for individuals or businesses. Case studies or other qualitative or descriptive designs that can shed light on how and to what extent technologies are currently being deployed and experienced are of interest, as is research using quasi-experimental methods or other rigorous statistical approaches. Historical analysis of policy regimes that led to equitable economic growth are of interest if lessons learned are applicable to the current policy landscape and to the potential disruption new technologies pose.
• The American Economics Association’s Summer Economics Fellowships are available to senior graduate students and junior faculty who have not been fellows in the past. During their residency, fellows participate as members of the research community while engaged in a research project of their own choosing. Fellows will be mentored by experienced economists both on scientific issues, and career issues such as negotiating publications, the job market, and advancement strategies. Fellows are encouraged to present a research seminar at the sponsoring agency during their fellowship. Fellows are typically either junior faculty, postdocs or graduate students at the dissertation stage. Fellows are to be chosen by the program with the agreement of the sponsoring institution in line with the goal of advancing the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in the economics profession, the fit of a candidate with the activities of the research group at the sponsoring institution, and the value of the proposed research to advancing the sponsoring institution's own goals.