Featured Opportunities

January 21, 2026

• The Department of Agriculture, NIFA’s Rapid Response to Emerging and Re-emerging Pest and Disease Events Across Food and Agricultural Systems (A1713) is designed to rapidly deploy strategies and fill knowledge and information gaps to protect the Nation’s food and agricultural supply chains—and the people who support and rely on them—during and after the emergence or re-emergence of pests and diseases associated with animal production systems and/or the emergence or re-emergence of invasive diseases, insects, and weeds associated with plant production systems and/or toxins affecting the health of either plant or animal production systems. All applications must directly address 1) effects associated with the emergence or re-emergence of pests and/or disease in animal and/or plant production systems or within the food supply; and 2) one or more of the following emphasis areas: One Health, Plant/Animal Health, or Ecosystem Health. This priority area seeks applications that focus on critical and urgent development of knowledge and/or solutions in rapid response to pest/disease emergence/re-emergence impacts on the food and agricultural systems and/or supply chains. Because rapid response is at the core of this program, applicants must include in their project narrative a statement about the timing, relevance, and impact of the emergence or re-emergence incident to which their proposed project responds.
• Cocoa beans/nibs may present biological food safety risks originating from raw cocoa beans. To address these risks, cocoa processing includes a validated process step designed to achieve sufficient pathogen log reduction, resulting in a ready-to-eat (RTE) product. In many processes, this validated treatment is applied at the cocoa bean or nib stage, while in other cases it may occur later, at the cocoa liquor stage. Cargill via Halo, through its Microbial Control Technologies for Cocoa Liquors opportunity, is looking for scalable technologies that can effectively reduce the Total Viable Count (TVC) of molten cocoa liquor by at least a 2-log reduction, without compromising the organoleptic and rheological properties of the cocoa liquor. Solutions of interest include: 1) Non thermal treatments (e.g., pulsed electric fields, ultrasound, supercritical CO₂); 2) High pressure sterilization (e.g., high-pressure processing, high-pressure thermal processing, ultra-high-pressure homogenization); and 3) Thermal treatments (e.g., scraped-surface heat exchangers, thin-film treatment, ohmic heating, microwave or radio-frequency heating).
• The goal of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Environmental Engineering program is to support potentially transformative fundamental research that applies scientific and engineering principles to 1) prevent, minimize, or re-use solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges of pollution to soil, water, and air by closing resource loops or through other measures; 2) mitigate the ecological and human-health impacts of such releases by smart/adaptive/reactive amendments or manipulation of the environment, and 3) remediate polluted environments through engineered chemical, biological, and/or geo-physical processes. Integral to achieving these goals is a fundamental understanding of the transport and biogeochemical reactivity of pollutants in the environment. Therefore, research on environmental micro/biology, environmental chemistry, and environmental geophysics may be relevant providing the research has a clear objective of protecting human and ecological health. Areas of interest include: 1) Building a future without pollution or waste, 2) Sustainable supply and protection of water, 3) Environmental chemistry, fate, and transport of nutrients and contaminants of emerging concern in air, water, soils, and sediments: and 4) Environmental engineering of the built environment.
• Through the American Musicological Society’s Publication Subventions, individual authors or editors may apply for assistance to defray costs associated with the preparation of works on music studies that are slated for publication. Examples include costs related to illustrations, musical examples, facsimiles, accompanying audio or video examples, permissions, indexing, translations, and copy-editing. Proposals from scholars at all stages of their careers are welcome. Projects that make use of newer technologies are also encouraged.
• The Department of Health and Human Services, NIH’s Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Exploratory/Developmental 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 R01 opportunity is also available under this research area.
• The Wellcome Foundation’s Early-Career Award provides funding for early-career researchers from any discipline who are ready to develop their research identity. Through innovative projects, they will deliver shifts in understanding related to human life, health and wellbeing. By the end of the award, they will be ready to lead their own independent research programme.
• NSF’s STEM K-12 program encourages multidisciplinary collaborations that bring together expertise and methodological approaches from various fields, including education research, social and behavioral sciences, implementation sciences, computer science, and all STEM disciplines. In addition, the program encourages partnerships that integrate perspectives from education research, education practice, and industry, as well as perspectives of learners and other critical stakeholders who would benefit from the work. The program also welcomes quantitative, qualitative, mixed method approaches, and a range of research and/or development efforts across broad areas of scientific inquiry,
• NSF’s Life and Environments Through Time (LET) program supports research that advances knowledge about the patterns and processes relating to the origin and evolution of Earth’s climate, environments, life, and sedimentary record. This research takes place at the molecular, local, regional, and global scales from the Archean Eon through the Holocene epoch. LET-supported research can be useful for predicting and planning for future global change, and for the maintenance and security of ecosystem services and human societies.
• The purpose of the Arnold and Mable Beckman Foundation’s Beckman Scholars Program is to help stimulate, encourage, and support research activities by talented, full-time undergraduate students who are pursuing their studies at accredited four-year colleges and universities located in the United States of America. These research activities shall be centered in either chemistry, biochemistry, the biological and medical sciences, or some interdisciplinary combination of these subjects. Candidates for the Beckman Scholars Award must be full-time students throughout the duration of the award. Universities/colleges will be eligible for one institutional Beckman Scholar Award, which must be used over a three-year period. Each institutional Beckman Scholar Award will fund a total of sixBeckman Scholars (with funding for student stipends, institutional contact funds, travel funds, and mentor research supplies) extending over two summers and one academic year. Awardee institutions will name two Scholars in each year of the three-year institutional award term, for a total of six Note this is a limited submission opportunity. Thus, if you are interested in submitting to this program you must notify (working title, team list, short synopsis) the Office of Research Development (ORD) by 5 pm on March 17, 2026 via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu.
• The Kansas State University, Office of Research Development’s Faculty Development Awards (FDA) support travel expenses to present a research, scholarly, or creative activity and discovery paper/scholarly work/performance at an international meeting or to visit an external funder/sponsor. Travel expenses for graduate students or postdocs are not covered. Travel to your sabbatical destination is not covered as well, but travel from your sabbatical destination to an international conference is, particularly if it is less expensive than traveling from K-State. Proposals will not be accepted to reimburse costs incurred prior to review of your proposal. To apply, faculty must be either tenure track or tenured and must have at least some percentage of their appointment devoted to research.
• The Kansas State University, Office of Research Development’s University Small Research Grant Program (USRG) is designed as a seed grant to support small research projects, scholarly activity, and other creative efforts. These small grants can cover graduate student support, undergraduate student hourly assistance, small equipment, supplies, materials, services associated with the activity, computing for data processing, and travel to a site where the activity will occur (but not travel to meetings or conferences). Computer software can be requested to support scholarly activities in USRG applications; however, if the equipment already exists on campus, utilization of existing equipment is normally recommended.
• The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Career Development Awards to Foster Diversity and Inclusion in Cancer Research encourages and supports early-stage scientists engaged in cancer research. Proposed projects may be in basic, translational, or population sciences related research and must have direct applicability and relevance to understanding, detection, diagnosis, interception, treatment, or prevention of cancer. This grant provides $300,000 over three years for expenses related to the research project, which may include salary and benefits of the grant recipient and any collaborator, postdoctoral research fellows, graduate students (including tuition costs associated with graduate students’ education and training), research assistants; research/laboratory supplies; equipment; publication charges for manuscripts that pertain directly to the funded project; and other research expenses.
• The American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation has announced the opening of its Spring 2026 Cycle. The spring 2026 open request for proposals follows a two-tiered system of competitive review. Applicants must submit a Pre-Proposal Application through the online application system that demonstrates meritorious work closely aligned with CHF’s mission to prevent, treat, and cure canine disease. A review committee will invite some Pre-Proposal applicants to submit a Full Proposal due at 11:59PM ET on Friday, May 1, 2025. Research projects should investigate canine disease processes, apply fundamental knowledge to develop solutions to canine health problems, or explore outcomes-based solutions in the clinical setting or any combination thereof. Priority will be given to studies that address demonstrated areas of need, foster critical discoveries, or have outcomes that impact canine health care and enable dogs to live healthier lives.
• The Upjohn Institute's Early Career Research Awards are intended to provide resources for junior researchers (within six years of earning a PhD) to carry out policy-related research on employment issues. The Institute encourages research proposals on all issues related to employment and public workforce policy. Research of interest may examine how policies affect overall labor market outcomes or the labor market outcomes of different groups. Junior researchers in economics, sociology, public policy, political science, and related fields may apply. Early Career Research Award recipients are expected to write a research paper based on the funded work, submit the paper to the Institute’s working paper series, and prepare a synopsis of the research for use as a policy brief and for possible publication in the Institute’s newsletter, Employment Research.
• The Economic History Association awards Arthur H. Cole grants-in-aid to support research in economic history, regardless of time period or geographic area. Awards typically are in amounts up to $5,000, although higher amounts may be awarded in exceptional cases. Applicants must be members of the Association and must hold the Ph.D. degree. Preference is given to recent Ph.D. recipients.