External Funding Opportunities & GrantForward
National Science Foundation (NSF):
The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. The program involves partnerships between academic institutions (grades 7-12, IHEs), industry, and economic development agencies to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians. It is strongly recommended that projects be faculty-led and required that courses and programs are credit-bearing, although materials developed may also be used for incumbent worker education. Materials may also be adapted and implemented as credit-bearing courses. The ATE program supports curriculum development; professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers; career pathway development for both students and incumbent workers; and other activities including applied research projects that advance the knowledge base related to technician education.
Program Tracks
Track 1: Small Scale Projects: This track supports projects that are smaller in scale and may be of shorter duration than Track 2 Projects. It is recommended that institutions and/or PIs with limited prior experience in the ATE program use this track as an entry point into the program. Projects in this category may also serve as prototypes or pilots for an idea that may be expanded in a future ATE proposal.
Track 2: Projects: This track supports a diversity of project areas focused on improving the education of the skilled technical workforce, and these projects are usually larger in scope than those proposed under Track 1.
Track 3: Consortia for Innovations in Technician Education: This track supports collaborations to strengthen partnerships between two-year IHEs and industry to be responsive to industry needs and regional economic development. A consortium must address either a specific industry area or address a challenge where the convergence of technologies is changing the skills and competencies needed by the skilled technical worker.
Track 4: Centers: The ATE program will support a center in each of the following areas: Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Agricultural Technologies, Autonomous Technologies, Biotechnology, Energy Technologies, Environmental Technologies, Engineering Technologies, Information Technologies, Security Technologies, and Micro- and Nanotechnologies. Note: Refer to the solicitation for area-specific due dates.
PI Eligibility
The ATE program focuses on IHEs that award two-year degrees in advanced technology fields and requires these IHEs and their faculty to have significant leadership roles on all projects. When a four-year IHE or other types of organizations submit as the fiscal lead, then two-year IHE faculty must be identified as Co-PIs. When a secondary institution or school district develops a proposal, community college faculty must be identified as Co-PIs.
Consortium (Track-3) PIs must not hold a leadership role in an active ATE Center.
Grant Deadline: October 3, 2024
- NSF Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) Program-
The ERI program is part of the capacity-building strategy of the Directorate for Engineering to direct its investments in engineering research across the nation.
This program provides support for investigators who have yet to receive sufficient research funding from Federal Agencies to initiate their engineering research programs and to be in a more competitive position for future proposal submissions. ERI provides resources to enable impactful scientific work that will improve the research and scientific training environment at the institution through the conduct of fundamental research. Research activities may include efforts that catalyze new research partnerships, disseminate results, and/or lay a foundation to support preparation for future grant competitions.
PI Eligibility
The PI of an ERI proposal must hold a doctoral degree in a field supported by NSF and must hold an appointment at an ERI-eligible institution. Postdoctoral fellow researchers are not eligible to serve as PI on an ERI proposal. At the time of the proposal submission deadline, the PI may not have been a PI or Co-PI on any current or prior awarded NSF research grant (including subaward) or have had research support from any other Federal Agency (within the United States or abroad) totaling $200K or more within the past five calendar years from the proposal submission deadline date.
Grant Submission Due: October 9, 2024
- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Individual Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (STEMEdIPRF) - The STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (STEM Ed PRF) Program aims to broaden the pool of researchers contributing to STEM learning, participation, and workforce development. It supports postdoctoral fellows in advancing their career goals through experiences that develop expertise and competencies in fundamental STEM education research. Particularly encouraging applicants from underrepresented groups in STEM, the program provides direct support for fellows to engage in ongoing research and independent professional development under the guidance of a sponsoring researcher at an affiliated host organization. Fellows are expected to dedicate full-time efforts to fellowship activities throughout the program duration.
Grant Submission Due: December 3, 2024
- Hispanic Serving Institutions: Equitable Transformation in STEM Education (ETSE) -The ETSE competition focuses on (1) institutional transformation projects that support HSIs in their effort to achieve equity in STEM education, and (2) the infrastructure—the HSI-Net network of resource hubs—which supports the overall program goals. Institutions are encouraged to consider how their HSI designation, and their organizational mission align to better support STEM success of all students. The ETSE competition welcomes proposals that look to implement and evaluate promising practices and/or conduct research related to broadening participation or improving recruitment, retention, graduation, and other successful outcomes in STEM undergraduate education. IUSE: HSI program provides multiple opportunities to support an institution’s goal to become more student centered, including the Equitable Transformation in STEM Education (ETSE) competition. This competition includes the following tracks: Departmental/Division Transformation Track (DDTT) - New, Institutional Transformation Track (ITT), Emerging Faculty Research Track (EFRT) - New, HSI Program Resource Hubs (Hubs). This solicitation will also accept conference proposals and planning proposals, as defined by the PAPPG.
Full Proposal Deadlines: September 11, 2024, August 27, 2025, and last Wednesday in August, annually thereafter
- NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program due January 8, 2024
The National Science Foundation has released the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program with a deadline of January 8, 2024 (link). This program is committed to funding research and practice, with continued focus on investigating a range of informal STEM learning (ISL) experiences and environments that make lifelong learning a reality.
This program seeks proposals that center engagement, broadening participation, and belonging, and further the well-being of individuals and communities who have been and continue to be excluded, under-served, or underrepresented in STEM along several dimensions. The current solicitation encourages proposals from institutions and organizations that serve public audiences, and specifically focus on public engagement with and understanding of STEM, including community STEM; public participation in scientific research (PPSR); science communication; intergenerational STEM engagement; and STEM media.
The AISL Program does not support activities primarily focused on formal educational systems or outcomes.
Program Tracks
Synthesis: AISL supports various types of syntheses, such as systematic literature reviews, meta-syntheses, meta-analyses, and other approaches to understanding questions, issues, or topics of central or emerging importance to the informal STEM learning eld that align with AISL goals for proposals.
Conference: Conferences bring combinations of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and/or learners together to share and discuss recent research, practice, and/or experiences to inform current and future informal STEM learning.
Partnership Development and Planning: Proposals submitted under this category are intended to foster strong partnerships among practitioners, researchers, learners or members of their community and support effective integration of their varied epistemologies, lived experiences, perspectives, requirements, goals, and expectations.
Integrating Research and Practice: This project type fosters research-practice integration by addressing questions from practice through research to advance the field.
Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM: This project type seeks proposals that reach upwards of hundreds of thousands of informal STEM learners. It supports genuine partnerships between researchers and practitioners.
Eligibility
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs); Non-profit, non-academic organizations; For-profit organizations; State and Local Governments Tribal Nations; Foreign organizations: For cooperative projects involving U.S. and foreign organizations, support will only be provided for the U.S. portion; Other Federal Agencies and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs): Contact the appropriate program before preparing a proposal for submission.
Estimated Total Program Funding $28,382,000 to $41,000,000
Estimated Number of Awards 48-77
6-8 Synthesis awards, 10-15 Conference awards, 10-15 Partnership Development and Planning awards, 12-16 Integrating Research and Practice awards and 5-8 Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM Project awards. AISL will also fund 1-3 awards made through the Research Coordination Networks (RCN) mechanism and 4-12 CAREER awards and REU supplements.
Anticipated Award Amount
Synthesis: Up to $500K over 3 years
Conference: Up to $250K over 2 years
Partnership Development and Planning: Up to $150K over 18 months
Integrating Research and Practice: Up to $2M over 5 years
Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM: Up to $3.5M over 5 years
National Institutes of Health (NIH):
- Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) The purpose of this Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions is to support small scale research grants at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from the NIH, with an emphasis on providing biomedical research experiences primarily for undergraduate students, and enhancing the research environment at applicant institutions.
Grant Submission Due: June 25, 2024 or October 25, 2024
- Summer Research Education Experience Program (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) NIEHS will support applications focusing on summer research experiences in the environmental health sciences. Applications to NIEHS should provide research experiences that address or seek to understand how exposures to toxic environmental insults impact health, alter biologic processes, are linked to disease initiation, progression or morbidity, or activities that lead to the development of prevention and intervention strategies to reduce environmentally induced diseases. Letter of Intent Due: 30 days prior to application due date
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): February 18, 2025
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- NEH Collaborative Research Program due November 20, 2024
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has released the Collaborative Research Program with a deadline of November 20, 2024 (link). This program supports groups of two or more scholars seeking to increase humanistic knowledge through convenings, manuscript preparation for collaborative publications, the creation of scholarly digital projects, or the planning of an international collaboration. Projects must pursue significant research questions and lead to a tangible interpretive product. The work can be rooted in a single field or cross disciplines. NEH encourages collaboration with scholars working in the natural or social sciences, but projects must focus on humanistic content and employ humanistic methods.
Program Tracks
Planning International Collaboration: Planning International Collaboration supports initial meetings to brainstorm, plan, and establish new scholarly collaborations. This category is for early-stage projects involving at least one collaborator based in the U.S. and at least one collaborator based in a foreign country.
Convening: The Convening category supports a single scholarly conference, symposium, or seminar that is open to members of an intellectual community broader than the invited attendees, or up to two working group meetings that advance a single project and may be restricted to primary collaborators.
Manuscript Preparation: The Manuscript Preparation category supports the completion of collaborative manuscripts in preparation for print publication. Examples include, but are not limited to, co-authored monographs and edited volumes; a series of peer-reviewed articles; and themed issues of peer reviewed journals.
Scholarly Digital Projects: The Scholarly Digital Projects category supports the preparation of born-digital scholarly publications, resources, or tools designed to address explicitly stated humanities research questions. The digital project must include significant, integral humanities interpretation or advance an argument.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following: a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit); a state or local government or one of their agencies; a federally recognized Native American Tribal government
Estimated Total Program Funding $2.5M
Estimated Number of Awards 15
Anticipated Award Amount
Planning International Collaboration: Up to $25K over 6-12 months
Convening: Up to $50K over 6-12 months
Manuscript Preparation: Up to $250K over 3 years (up to $300K for collaborations that include a community college or certain minority-serving institutions)
Scholarly Digital Projects: Up to $250K over 3 years (up to $300K for collaborations that include a community college or certain minority-serving institutions)
- NEH Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program due December 11, 2024
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has released the Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program with a deadline of December 11, 2024 (link). The purpose of this program is to support the establishment of new collaborative humanities research centers focused on the legal, ethical, or societal implications of developing AI technologies. A Center is a sustained collaboration among multiple scholars focused on exploring the humanities implications of AI through two or more related scholarly activities. Competitive Centers typically identify a specific topical, methodological, or disciplinary lens through which to focus their efforts. NEH particularly encourages Centers interested in equity, privacy, and civil-rights topics. Centers should aim to advance humanities research on their chosen topic beyond the period of the grant.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following: a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit); a state or local government or one of their agencies; a federally recognized Native American Tribal government.
Established AI centers are not eligible.
Estimated Total Program Funding $2,500,000
Estimated Number of Awards 5
Anticipated Award Amount Up to $500K over 3 years
NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants due January 9, 2025 & May 22, 2025
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has released the Digital Humanities Advancement Grants program with deadlines of January 9, 2025 & May 22, 2025 (link). The program supports work that is innovative, experimental, and contributes to the critical infrastructure that underpins scholarly research, teaching, and public programming in the humanities.
Program Tracks
Level I: Supports smaller-scale projects or experimental or exploratory stages of larger projects.
Level II: For projects that can demonstrate completion of an initial planning phase but are not yet ready for Level III funding; should include plans for extending work beyond the applicant institution.
Level III: For scaling up and expanding mature projects.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following: a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit); a state or local government or one of their agencies; a federally recognized Native American Tribal government.
Estimated Total Program Funding $2.2M
Estimated Number of Awards 10-15 per deadline
Anticipated Award Amount
Level I: Up to $75K over 2 years
Level II: Up to $150K over up to 2 years
Level III: Up to $350K over up to 3 years (plus up to $100K in federal matching funds)
Foundation Grant Opportunities:
- The Whitehall Foundation - This foundation's grant program assists scholarly research in the life sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology, defined as follows: Invertebrate and vertebrate (excluding clinical) neurobiology, specifically investigations of neural mechanisms involved in sensory, motor, and other complex functions of the whole organism as these relate to behavior. The overall goal should be to better understand behavioral output or brain mechanisms of behavior. The Foundation does not support research focused primarily on disease(s) unless it will also provide insights into normal functioning.
ORSP is pleased to announce that faculty, staff, and students now have access to the GrantForward database. GrantForward is a search engine dedicated to helping institutions and individuals find grants to fund their research.
- GrantForward covers more than 20,000 sponsors worldwide to provide a comprehensive database of more than 83,000 funding opportunities linked with over 6,000 pre-solicitations and 2.1M funded awards that continues to grow with the most up-to-date information.
- GrantForward’s powerful search system helps to lessen the hassle of searching for grants with advanced search filters and specialized search features.
- GrantForward researcher profiles allow researchers to highlight their research achievements and interests to receive personalized grant recommendations that match their research needs.
Create Your GrantForward Account and Researcher Profile
- Start moving your research forward by accessing this Single Sign-On URL https://www.grantforward.com/saml/kean and sign in using your institution account or
- Go to GrantForward.com, enter their institutional email address in the Log In (at the upper-right corner), then click outside of the Email Address input box to trigger the email recognition. When your email is detected, choose “Click here to use Single-Sign-On".
- If you would like to benefit from receiving grant recommendations, then you will also need to make sure to create your researcher profile (see this Tutorial demo).
Useful Resources:
- GrantForward Researcher Welcome Guide
- Visit GrantForward YouTube Channel for all instruction videos.
- Visit the GrantForward Support page for the complete list of resources.
Using GrantForward as a Grant Seeker (Researcher): Moving Your Next Project Forward with GrantForward
When: Friday Oct 25, 2024
Time: 2 – 3 pm
Location: Virtual
GrantForward is a search engine dedicated to helping institutions and individuals find the best-fit funding opportunities. Faculty members can benefit from our complete award-seeking cycle including a comprehensive database of funding opportunities across all disciplines, a worldwide sponsor directory, and additional sources of pre-solicitations and funded awards. Learn how to set up a profile and find funding for your research project through this workshop.