Featured Opportunities

June 26, 2024

• • • The Department of Agriculture, NIFA’s Food and Agriculture Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship supports: (1) training students for master's and doctoral degrees in food, agricultural and natural resource sciences; and (2) Special International Study or Thesis/Dissertation Research Travel Allowances (IRTA) for eligible USDA NNF beneficiaries.Awards are specifically intended to support traineeship programs that engage outstanding students to pursue and complete their degrees in USDA mission areas. Applicants provide clarity about the philosophy of their graduate training, and relevance to USDA mission sciences, NIFA priorities and national science education policies and statistics. Applications are being solicited from institutions that confer a graduate degree in at least one of the following Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas: 1) animal and plant production; 2) forest resources; 3) agricultural educators and communicators; 4) agricultural management and economics; 5) food science and human nutrition; 6) sciences for agricultural biosecurity; and 7) training in integrative biosciences for sustainable food and agricultural systems.
    • The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program serves to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training in our Nation's institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. An MRI award supports the acquisition of a multi-user research instrument that is commercially available through direct purchase from a vendor, or for the personnel costs and equipment that are required for the development of an instrument with new capabilities, thereby advancing instrumentation capabilities and enhancing expertise for instrument design and fabrication at academic institutions. MRI instruments are, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. MRI provides support to acquire critical research instrumentation without which advances in fundamental science and engineering research may not otherwise occur. MRI also provides support to obtain next-generation research instruments by developing instruments with new capabilities that open new opportunities to advance the frontiers in science and engineering research. Additionally, an MRI award is expected to enhance research training of students who will become the next generation of instrument users, designers and builders. This is a limited submission program; thus, if you are interested in submitting you must notify the Office of Research Development (ORD) by 5 pm on July 24, 2024. If an internal competition is needed, internal preproposals will be due to ORD by 5 pm on August 21, 2024. Both should be submitted via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu.
    • The mission of Holstein Association USA (HAUSA) is to provide leadership, information, and services to help members and dairy producers worldwide be successful. To further that mission Holstein Association USA invites Research Proposals with expected outcomes to benefit the profitability from Holstein cattle. Research may involve traditional production disciplines of genetics, nutrition, or reproduction as well as dairy foods or economics. Genomics is expected to be part of most projects, but it is not a requirement. Traits of interest for the research program could include but are not limited to the following: Holstein longevity, health, production, immune system, and locomotion.
    • The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) welcomes Fellowship applications from scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and interpretive social sciences. In the 2024-25 competition cycle, the program will award up to 60 fellowships to scholars across all stages of the scholarly career. Approximately half of this year’s awards will support early-career scholars. Scholars may pursue research on topics grounded in any time period, world region, or humanistic methodology. ACLS aims to select fellows who are broadly representative of the variety of humanistic scholarship across all fields of study. They also believe that diversity enhances scholarship and seek to recognize academic excellence from all sectors of higher education and beyond. In ACLS’s peer review, funding packages, and engagement with fellows, we aspire to enact our values of equity and inclusion. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant, which can take the form of a monograph, articles, publicly engaged humanities project, digital research project, critical edition, or other scholarly resources. The fellowships support projects at any stage of development – beginning, middle, or end. This program does not fund works of fiction (e.g., novels or films), textbooks, straightforward translation (without significant scholarly interpretation and apparatus), or projects that are primarily pedagogical in focus.
    • The National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research program makes awards to institutions and organizations conducting empirical field research to answer significant questions in the humanities. Archaeology and ethnography are important methodologies utilized by many disciplines across the humanities and social sciences that provide observational and experiential data on human history and culture. Archaeological methods may include field survey and field-based remote sensing, documentation or visualization, and/or excavations in support of answering research questions in all aspects of the human past, including but not limited to ancient studies, anthropology, art history, classical studies, regional studies, epigraphy, and other related disciplines. Ethnographic methods may include participant observation, surveys and interviews, and documentation or recording in pursuit of research questions in anthropology, sociology, ethnolinguistics, oral history, ethnomusicology, performance studies, folklore studies, and related disciplines.
    • NSF’s Science and Technology Studies (STS) program seeks interdisciplinary research that investigates the conceptual foundations, historical developments and social contexts of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), including medical science. The STS program supports proposals across a broad spectrum of research that uses historical, philosophical and social scientific methods to investigate STEM theory and practice. STS research may be empirical or conceptual; specifically, it may focus on the intellectual, material or social facets of STEM including interdisciplinary studies of ethics, equity, governance and policy issues. STS research seeks to understand how scientific knowledge is produced and sanctioned, and how it is challenged and changes. It examines the theoretical foundations of science, brings to light underlying presuppositions and alternative interpretations, and assesses the reliability of research methods. It investigates how materials, devices and techniques are designed and developed; how and by whom they are diffused, used, adapted and rejected; how they are affected by social and cultural environments; and how they influence quality of life, culture and society. It also considers how socio-cultural values are embedded in science and technology, and how issues of governance and equity evolve with the development and use of scientific knowledge and technological artifacts. In addition, it explores relationships between STEM and fundamental social categories including race and gender, poverty and development, trust and credibility, participation and democracy, health and pathology, risk and uncertainty, globalization and environmental concerns.
    • NEH’s Humanities Connections program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education at two- and four-year institutions by encouraging partnerships between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study. This page provides an overview of the program. For complete details, including what you must include in your application, consult the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). Please note: the attachment requirements have changed slightly since last year. Humanities Connections projects should plan or implement a curriculum connecting the humanities to one or more non-humanities fields, including but not limited to the physical and natural sciences; pre-service or professional programs, including law and business; or computer science, data science, and other technology-driven fields. Projects must incorporate the approaches and learning activities of both the humanities and the non-humanities disciplines involved.  If your project does not include faculty outside the humanities, you may consider a different grant from the NEH’s Division of Education Programs.   
    • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) hereby solicits proposals from accredited U.S. universities for innovative, early-stage space technology research of high priority to NASA’s Mission Directorates. Specifically, STMD seeks proposals from Early Career Faculty on specific space technologies that are currently at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Investment in innovative low-TRL research increases knowledge and capabilities in response to new questions and requirements, stimulates innovation, and allows more creative solutions to problems constrained by schedule and budget. Moreover, it is investment in fundamental research activities that has historically benefited the Nation on a broader basis, generating new industries and spin-off applications. Our Nation’s universities couple fundamental research with education, encouraging a culture of innovation based on the discovery of knowledge. Universities are, therefore, ideally positioned to both conduct fundamental space technology research and diffuse newly found knowledge into society at large through graduate students and through industry, government, and other partnerships. STMD investments in space technology research at U.S. universities promote the continued leadership of our universities as an international symbol of the country's scientific innovation, engineering creativity, and technological skill.
    • NSF’s Interfacial Engineeringprogram supports fundamental research on atomic- and molecular-scale interfacial phenomena and engineering of interfacial properties, processes, and materials. Fundamental understanding of the thermodynamic, kinetic, and transport properties of interfacial systems underpins improvements in chemical process efficiency and resource utilization. As such, proposed research should have a clear vision for how the results will translate to practice in or otherwise advance industrial chemical or biochemical processes. The program encourages proposals that present new approaches to long-standing challenges or address emerging research areas and technologies. Collaborative and interdisciplinary proposals are also encouraged, particularly those that involve a combination of experiment with theory or modeling.
    • NSF’s Biophotonicsprogram explores research frontiers in photonics principles, engineering and technology that are relevant for critical problems in fields of medicine, biology and biotechnology. Fundamental engineering research and innovation in photonics is required to lay the foundations for new technologies beyond those that are mature and ready for application in medical diagnostics and therapies. Advances are needed in nanophotonics, optogenetics, contrast and targeting agents, ultra-thin probes, wide field imaging, and rapid biomarker screening. Low cost and minimally invasive medical diagnostics and therapies are key motivating application goals.
    • NSF’s Environmental Sustainabilityprogram promotes sustainable engineered systems that support human well-being and that are also compatible with sustaining natural (environmental) systems. These systems provide ecological services vital for human survival. Research efforts supported by the program typically consider long time horizons and may incorporate contributions from the social sciences and ethics. The program supports engineering research that seeks to balance society's need to provide ecological protection and maintain stable economic conditions.
    • The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) program supports exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on a field of biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research.
    • The HHS, NIH Small Research Grant Program (R03) supports small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. This program supports different types of projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and development of new research technology.
    • NSF’s CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program’s goals are to: (1) increase the number of qualified and diverse cybersecurity candidates for government cybersecurity positions; (2) improve the national capacity for the education of cybersecurity professionals and research and development workforce; (3) hire, monitor, and retain high-quality CyberCorps® graduates in the cybersecurity mission of the Federal Government; and (4) strengthen partnerships between institutions of higher education and federal, state, local, and tribal governments. The SFS Program welcomes proposals to establish or to continue scholarship programs in cybersecurity. A proposing institution must provide clearly documented evidence of a strong existing academic program in cybersecurity. In addition to information provided in the proposal narrative, such evidence can include ABET accreditation in cybersecurity; a designation by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE), in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO) or in Research (CAE-R); or equivalent evidence documenting a strong program in cybersecurity.
    • The American Chemical Society’s Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) program provides start-up funding for scientists and engineers in the United States who are within the first three years of their first academic appointment at the level of Assistant Professor or the equivalent. Applicants may have limited or no preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue, with the intention of using the preliminary results obtained to seek continuation funding from other agencies. The DNI grants are to be used to illustrate proof of principle or concept, to test a hypothesis, or to demonstrate feasibility of an approach. The DNI grants program is seeking investigator-initiated, original research across the spectrum of our mission. Original research is defined as being different from that performed previously by the PI as part of their graduate or postdoctoral studies. Excluded from consideration are proposals in which the ideas being presented are a mere extension of research from the PI’s graduate or postdoctoral experience. Research projects must be unique. Although a PI may send the same proposal to more than one agency, PRF will not support a project having overlap, or partial overlap, with research funded by another agency.
    • The Department of Defense, DARPA is soliciting innovative proposals to identify and optimize novel molecules that exhibit inhibitory effects on Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) gene editing processes. The Broad-Spectrum Antagonists for Editors (B-SAFE) program explicitly seeks transformative approaches that enable the discovery or design of novel inhibitors of gene editing technologies with enhanced activity, utility, and breadth of coverage. Novel inhibitor activity will be assessed in vitro over the course of the program, and a subset of topperforming molecules will be selected for scale-up at quantities sufficient for testing and evaluation by Department of Defense (DoD) stakeholders. In concert, DARPA is interested in exploring methods to rapidly discover inhibitor molecules for novel gene editing technologies beyond CRISPR-Cas systems to keep pace with the rapidly advancing field and promote the safe, controlled use of these technologies. Research that generates incremental improvements to the existing state-of-the-art is specifically excluded.
    • The Beckman Foundation’s Young Investigator (BYI) Program provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science. Projects proposed for the BYI program should be truly innovative, high-risk, and show promise for contributing to significant advances in chemistry and the life sciences. They should represent a departure from current research directions rather than an extension or expansion of existing programs. Proposed research that cuts across traditional boundaries of scientific disciplines is encouraged. Proposals that open new avenues of research in chemistry and life sciences by fostering the invention of methods, instruments and materials will be given additional consideration.
    • HHS, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) provides long-term support to accomplished investigators with outstanding records of cancer research accomplishments who propose to conduct exceptional research. The OIA is intended to allow investigators the opportunity to take greater risks, be more adventurous in their lines of inquiry, or take the time to develop new techniques. It is expected that the OIA would provide extended funding stability and encourage investigators to embark on projects of unusual potential in cancer research. The research projects should break new ground or extend previous discoveries toward new directions or applications that may lead to a breakthrough that will advance biomedical, behavioral, or clinical cancer research.
    • In this week’s Funding Connection, there at nine Department of State, Fulbright Scholar Opportunities. These announcements detail the specifics of the award offered by the country as well as the requirements for the applicants. The information for the submission itself can be found on the US Fulbright Scholar website. The opportunities/countries include: Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Mongolia, Poland 1, Poland 2, Poland 3, Norway, and Portugal.
    • Advanced doctoral students (advanced to candidacy – all but dissertation) and established scientists are eligible for Leakey Foundation Research Grants. There are no citizenship restrictions; however, all applications must be written in English. The Leakey Foundation exclusively funds research related to human origins. Priority of funding is commonly given to exploratory phases of promising new research projects that meet the stated purpose of the Foundation. The majority of The Leakey Foundation’s Research Grants awarded to doctoral students are in the $3,000-$15,000 range with a funding limit of $20,000. Larger grants given to senior scientists and post-doctoral researchers may be funded up to $30,000.