Sponsored Projects | UC Berkeley

Sponsored Projects | UC Berkeley
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Funding Opportunities for New and Young Faculty
These programs are intended for late postdoctoral investigators and
new faculty, usually those at or below the rank of Assistant
Professor. Consult each program’s web page for more detailed
information and current deadlines. Find more opportunities by using
Pivot
and selecting “Individuals: Early Career and Emerging in Field”
under “Applicant Type.”
Federal Agencies
Department of Agriculture
Program
Deadline
Program Synopsis
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
varies by program area
The Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants
component includes funding for new investigators. A new
investigator is defined as an individual who is beginning their
career, does not have an extensive scientific publication
record, and has less than five years postgraduate career-track
experience. The new investigator may not have received
competitively awarded Federal research funds as Project Director
with the exception of pre- or postdoctoral grants or AFRI Seed
Grants.
Department of Defense
Program
Deadline
Program Synopsis
ONR Young Investigator Program
Office of Naval Research
August/
September
ONR’s YIP seeks to identify and support academic
scientists and engineers who are in their first or second
full-time tenure-track or tenure-track-equivalent academic
appointment and who show exceptional promise for doing creative
research. Typical awards are $510,000 over a 36-month period of
performance. Additional funding may be requested up to $250,000
to cover equipment costs, testing, ship time, etc.
AFOSR Young Investigator Program
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
summer
The Air Force YIP supports scientists and engineers who have
received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees within the last seven years
and show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic
research. The objective is to foster creative basic research in
science and engineering; enhance early career development of
outstanding young investigators; and increase opportunities for
the young investigator to recognize the Air Force mission and
related challenges in science and engineering. Most YIP awards
are funded up to $150,000 per year for three years. Exceptional
proposals will be considered individually for higher funding
levels and longer duration.
Young Faculty Award
DARPA
December
The objective is to identify and engage rising stars in junior
research positions, emphasizing those without prior DARPA
funding, and expose them to DOD needs and DARPA’s program
development process.
Broad Agency Announcement - Young Investigator Program
Army Research Office
open
The ARO Young Investigator Program is included in the
ARO Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Fundamental Research
. The objective of the YIP is to attract outstanding young
university faculty members to pursue fundamental research in
areas relevant to the Army, to support their research in these
areas, and to encourage their teaching and research careers.
This program is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, and
Permanent Resident Aliens holding tenure-track positions at U.S.
universities and colleges, who have held their graduate degrees
(Ph.D. or equivalent) for fewer than five years at the time of
application. YIP awards are up to $120,000 per year for three
years.
Department of Energy
Program
Deadline
Program Synopsis
Early Career Research Program
Office of Science
October
for required preapplication, January for application
This program supports the development of individual research
programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and
stimulates research careers in the following program areas:
Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences,
Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences,
High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Isotope R&D and
Production, and Accelerator R&D and Production. No more than
ten years can have passed between the year the Principal
Investigator’s Ph.D. was awarded and the year the
application was issued.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Program
Deadline
Program Synopsis
New (Early Career) Investigator Program in Earth Science
(ROSES program element)
varies; applications are solicited every two years
The NIP in Earth Science is designed to support outstanding
scientific research and career development of scientists and
engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. The
program aims to encourage innovative research initiatives and
cultivate scientific leadership in Earth system science. A NIP
proposal PI must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of
permanent residency, and be a recent Ph.D. recipient, defined as
having graduated on or after January 1 of the year that is no
more than five years before the issuance date of the ROSES NRA.
New Early Career Fellowship Program
varies
The Early Career Fellowship (ECF) program supports the
development of individual research programs of outstanding
scientists early in their careers and stimulate s research
careers in the areas supported by the Planetary Sciences
Division.
Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships for Early Career
Researchers
varies
The goals of the RTF program in Astrophysics are to provide
early-career researchers the opportunity to develop the skills
necessary to lead astrophysics flight instrument development
projects; to develop innovative technologies for space
astrophysics that have the potential to enable major scientific
breakthroughs; and to foster new talent by putting early career
instrument builders on a trajectory towards long-term positions.
To be eligible, PIs must have received a Ph.D. on or after
January 1 of a year that is no more than eight years before the
issuance date of the ROSES NRA.
Early Career Faculty (ECF)
(SpaceTech-REDDI),
STMD Early Career Faculty
varies
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate solicits
proposals for innovative, early-stage space technology research.
The PI must be an untenured Assistant Professor on the tenure
track at the sponsoring U.S. university at the time of award.
The PI must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of permanent
residency no later than August 1 following the proposal
submission deadline.
National Institutes of Health
Resource
Synopsis
Early Stage Investigator Policies
Next Generation Researchers Initiative
NIH Grants & Funding
The NIH
Early Stage Investigator Policies
page includes:
Policy Summary
Background
Determination of Investigator Status
Extension of ESI Status
Special Programs
NIH Director’s
New Innovator Award
(DP2)
NIH Director’s
Early Independence award
(DP5)
Research Training and Career Development
Resources for early career researchers include:
Early Research Career Development
Research Career Development Awards
National Science Foundation
Program
Deadline
Program Synopsis
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program
NSF Funding Search
July
CAREER supports early-career faculty who have the potential to
serve as academic role models in research and education and to
lead advances in the mission of their department or
organization. The minimum award is $400,000 total for the
five-year duration, except for the Directorate for Biological
Sciences, the Directorate for Engineering, or the Office of
Polar Programs, with a minimum total of $500,000 for the
five-year duration.
Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)
Research Initiation Initiative (CRII)
September
It is expected that funds will be used to support untenured
faculty or research scientists (or equivalent) in their first
three years in a primary academic position after the PhD, but
not more than a total of five years after completion of their
PhD. One may not yet have received any other grants or contracts
in the Principal Investigator role from any department, agency,
or institution of the federal government, including from the
CAREER program or any other program, post-PhD, with certain
exceptions.
Nonfederal Sponsors
Program
Deadline
Program Synopsis
Young Investigator Grants, Academic Pediatric Association
varies
Provides awards of up to $15,000 for research related to child
health promotion, health services research, teaching, or patient
care.
Young Investigator Grants, Alex’s Lemonade Stand
Foundation
December
Grants are designed to support scientists during their
fellowship training or early in their research careers.
Demonstration of outstanding mentorship and demonstration of a
career plan that shows commitment to pediatric cancer
investigation are critical components of a successful
application.
Agilent Early Career Professor Award
January for
limited submission application
Promotes and encourages excellent research enabling
measurements of importance to Agilent Technologies and the
world.
Rita Allen Scholars Program, Rita Allen Foundation
August for
limited submission application
(approximate)
The program invites nominations from selected institutions. The
award recognizes early-career scholars conducting basic
biomedical research in the fields of cancer, immunology, and
neuroscience.
Research Grants
Alzheimer’s Association
March for letter of intent
The association offers several grant programs that provide
support for new investigators, including Alzheimer’s
Association Research Grant and Alzheimer’s Association
Research Grant to Promote Diversity.
AACR Funding Opportunities
American Association for Cancer Research
varies
Grants support researchers, both domestically and abroad, at
every stage of their career, representing a global commitment to
understanding, preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer.
Research Scholar Grants
American Cancer Society
April and October
Grants support investigators within the first 10 years of an
initial independent research career or full-time faculty
appointment.
Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grants
American Chemical Society
varies
Awards provide start-up funding for scientists and engineers in
the U.S. within the first three years of their first academic
appointment at the level of Assistant Professor or the
equivalent.
Fellowship Program
American Council of Learned Societies
September
Fellowships support untenured scholars in humanities and
interpretive social sciences who have earned the PhD within
eight years of the application deadline.
Junior Faculty Development
American Diabetes Association
varies
Awards support faculty up to and including assistant professor
or equivalent, with 10 or less years research experience beyond
terminal degree, as they establish independence as diabetes
researchers.
Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for
Junior Faculty
American Federation for Aging Research
December
One- to two-year awards provide up to $100,000 to junior
faculty to conduct research that will serve as the basis for
longer term research efforts on the biology of aging.
Young Investigator Innovation Grants
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
November 15
Grants of up to $90,000 over two years are awarded to
investigators at or below the level of assistant professor.
Grants must allocate $10,000 for an established suicide
researcher to mentor the Young Investigator.
Liver Scholar Award
American Liver Foundation
December
Provides early career scientists with support for their
research to bridge the gap between completion of research
training and attainment of status as an independent research
scientist.
Centennial Fellowships
American Mathematical Association
December 1
The program makes awards to outstanding mathematicians to help
further their careers in research. Recipients shall have held
the doctoral degree for at least three years and not more than
twelve years at the inception of the award. Recipients may not
hold the Fellowship concurrently with another major research
award.
Research Awards
American Society for Mass Spectrometry
November 30
The program is open to academic scientists within four years of
joining the tenure track faculty or equivalent. Awards are
$35,000.
New Investigators Research Grant
American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation
April
Research should have clinical relevance to audiology and/or
speech-language pathology. The investigator must have completed
a PhD or equivalent within the past five years. The investigator
must not yet have received external research funding since
completion of the PhD.
Genentech Age-related Macular Degeneration Research
Fellowships
ARVO Foundation for Eye Research
September
Available to newly established investigators who are age 45 or
younger at the application deadline and have received their MD,
PhD or equivalent degree ten years before the application
deadline.
Emerging Leader Award
Bay Area Lyme Foundation
March
The $100,000 ELA grant is offered to researchers in academia or
the private sector who are currently at the post-doctoral level
through the assistant professor level, or equivalent.
Beckman Young Investigators Program
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
August for letter of intent
The program provides research support to young faculty members
in the early stages of 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. The program is open to those within the
first three years of a tenure-track position, or an equivalent
independent research appointment.
BBRF Young Investigator Grants
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
March
The program offers up to $35,000 per year for two years to
enable promising investigators to either extend their research
fellowship training or to begin careers as independent research
faculty. All research must be relevant to our understanding,
treatment and prevention of serious psychiatric disorders.
Young Investigator Grants, Breast Cancer Alliance
June for
limited submission application
(approximate)
This grant is intended to help advance the careers of young
researchers who do not yet have their own major grant support.
Applicants must have held a faculty position for no more than
four years following the completion of their training.
Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
July
The PATH award provides $500,000 over five years to support
investigators at the assistant professor level to study
pathogenesis, with a focus on the interplay between human and
microbial biology.
Young Investigator Award, Children’s Tumor Foundation
January
The foundation supports neurofibromatoses research. The YIA
provides two-year funding, commensurate with NIH, to young
scientists early in their careers.
CITRIS Core Seed Funding
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute
varies
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute create information technology
solutions for society’s most pressing challenges. UC
Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz PIs are
eligible. The program highly encourages inclusion of pre-tenured
faculty.
Grant Opportunities
CURE: Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy
varies
The Taking Flight Award seeks to promote the careers of young
epilepsy investigators. CURE Epilepsy Awards also fund early
career investigators.
Research Grants - New Investigators
Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation
April
This RFP seeks applications from young investigators (at the
rank of Associate Professor or below) who are new to desmoid
tumor research and need seed funding to gather preliminary data.
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards, Camille and Henry
Dreyfus Foundation
January for
limited submission application
(approximate)
This programs offers $100,000 grants to young faculty in the
chemical sciences. Criteria for selection include an independent
body of scholarship attained in the early years of the
appointment and a demonstrated commitment to education.
Career Development Award, Foundation Fighting Blindness
March
The award is for junior investigators to pursue research to find
the therapies and cures for inherited retinal degenerative
diseases. Clinician-scientists possessing an M.D., D.O., or
recognized equivalent foreign degree and who are in their first,
second, or third year of a junior faculty appointment are
eligible.
Young Scholars Program
Foundation for Child Development
June for letter of intent
The program supports policy and practice-relevant research that
is focused on the early learning and development needs of the
nation’s children who are growing up under conditions of
economic insecurity and social exclusion. Eligible researchers
must have received their doctoral degrees within one to eight
years of application submission.
New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award,
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
February for
limited submission application
(approximate)
FFAR supports faculty in within the first three years of their
careers whose research has the potential to address major
challenges facing food and agriculture.
Young Investigator Grant for Probiotics Research
Global Probiotics Council
March
Young investigators who are senior fellows with a committed
faculty appointment or early faculty members within a maximum of
five consecutive years of his/her first faculty appointment
(appointments must be in the U.S.) are eligible.
Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics, Greenwall
Foundation
August for
limited submission application
(approximate)
The program is a career development award to enable junior
faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research.
Priority will be given to applicants who have not yet been
considered for tenure, who have not received a comparable award,
and whose work will have an impact on public policy, biomedical
research, or clinical practice.
Rosenblith New Investigator Award
Health Effects Institute
April
The award provides up to three years of funding to a new
investigator at the assistant professor or equivalent level for
a small research project on the health effects of air pollution.
Young Investigators’ Research Grants
Human Frontier Science Program
March for letter of intent
Grants are awarded to teams of researchers from different
countries, all of whom are within the first five years after
obtaining an independent laboratory. Emphasis is placed on novel
collaborations that bring together scientists preferably from
different disciplines to focus on problems in the life sciences.
Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants
Human Vaccine Projects
June
Awards of $150,000 support investigators under the age of 35
who are using disruptive concepts and inventive processes to
significantly advance human immunology and vaccine and
immunotherapy discovery research for major global diseases.
Career Development Awards
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
June/July
Researchers who have received their first faculty-level
appointment less than three years before the submission date are
eligible to apply for this award.
Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences
February
The Award supports young investigators in the early stages of
their careers engaged in basic or clinical research that may
lead to a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric
disorders. The candidate must be within four years of completing
postdoctoral training and the start of his/her first
tenure-track appointment.
New Investigator Research Grant Program
Leukemia Research Foundation
February for letter of intent
Two-year grants of $150,000 support new investigators
researching leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
Applicants must be within seven years of their first
independent faculty-level position.
Career Development Award Program
LUNGevity
February for letter of intent
The goal is to train and retain the next generation of lung
cancer researchers. Applicants must be within the first five
years of their faculty appointment.
Young Investigator Grants, Lymphoma Research Foundation
September
Young Investigator Grants attract and train early career
scientists for lymphoma research through three programs:
Postdoctoral Fellowships, Clinical Investigator Career
Development Awards, and the Lymphoma Clinical Research Mentoring
Program.
Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Awards
March of Dimes
July for nomination
This award supports young investigators who are just embarking
on an independent research career. The program supports research
that will advance our translational understanding of, or lead to
improved clinical treatment of any serious medical conditions
that afflict mothers during pregnancies or newborns within the
first year of life.
Career Development Award, Marfan Foundation
October
The program supports early investigators studying any
discipline involved in Marfan syndrome or a related disorder.
Applicants must have less than seven years experience in a
faculty position and have never received an NIH R01 grant award.
Scholar Awards
McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience
January
Awards encourage neuroscientists in the early stages of their
careers to focus on disorders of learning and memory. Candidates
must hold a full-time appointment at the rank of assistant
professor, and must have served at that rank for less than four
years at the application deadline.
Request For Proposals: Young Investigator Awards
Melanoma Research Alliance
varies
Applicants must be within four years of their first
independent, full time academic faculty appointment at the time
of application at the level of Assistant Professor (or
equivalent position).
MQ Fellows Award, MQ Mental Health Research
varies
The award supports early career scientists who are asking
challenging questions that will contribute to transformative
advances in mental health research.
Young Investigator Awards, National Ataxia Foundation
October for letter of intent
One-year grants of $35,000 encourage young investigators to
pursue a career in the field of any form of Ataxia research.
Candidates must have attained an MD or PhD degree, and have an
appointment as a junior faculty member, senior post-doc or
clinical fellow.
Career Development Award, National Hemophilia Foundation
February for letter of intent
NHF funds innovative research studies in the area of bleeding
disorders to be carried out at the sub cellular, cellular,
animal or human/patient levels. CDA candidates must hold a MD,
PhD, or equivalent degree, with no more than six years of
postdoctoral years of experience in hematology, nor more than
six years since completion of medical training.
Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Awards
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
August
The awards support candidates who have concluded their research
training and begun academic careers as independent investigators
in an area related to multiple sclerosis.
Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum
Craig H. Neilsen Foundation
varies
Two-year Pilot Research Grants help to establish new
investigators in the field of spinal cord injury research and
support studies by established investigators who are undertaking
new directions in their work.
Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering, David and
Lucile Packard Foundation
February for
limited submission application
(approximate)
The program invites nominations from selected institutions.
Candidates must be eligible to serve as principal investigators
engaged in research in the natural and physical sciences or
engineering and must be within the first three years of their
faculty careers.
Pew Biomedical Scholars
May for
limited submission application
(approximate)
The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to
support the independent biomedical research of outstanding
individuals who are in their first few years of their
appointment at the assistant professor level.
Research Starter Grants, Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America Foundation
varies
Research Starter Grants areas include: Health Outcomes
Research, Drug Delivery, Drug Discovery, and Translational
Medicine.
Young Investigator Awards, Prostate Cancer Foundation
March
Awards offer support for young (generally 35 and younger)
proven investigators in postdoctoral fellowships or who have
recently achieved junior faculty positions and are committing
their lives to the field of prostate cancer.
Cottrell Scholars
Research Corporation for Science Advancement
May for preproposal
Eligible applicants are tenure-track faculty members who hold
an appointment in a chemistry, physics or astronomy department.
Eligibility is limited to faculty at the end of third year of
first faculty appointment.
Scialog
Research Corporation for Science Advancement
varies
Scialog supports early career faculty to expand research in a
focused area of high scientific importance. Within each
multi-year initiative, Fellows collaborate in high-risk
discovery research on untested ideas and communicate their
progress in annual closed conferences.
Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
July
The Award is designed to provide support for the next
generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with “high
risk/high reward” ideas that have the potential to
significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to
the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.
Small Grants in Behavioral Economics
Russell Sage Foundation
open
Applicants must be advanced doctoral students or
post-docs/junior (non-tenured) faculty members who have been out
of graduate school for two or fewer years.
Small Grants in Computational Social Science
Russell Sage Foundation
March
Applicants must be advanced doctoral students or
post-docs/junior (non-tenured) faculty members who have been out
of graduate school for two or fewer years.
New Investigator Research Grant
Scoliosis Research Society
April 1 and October 1
Grants are meant to stimulate young members into a career of
investigation in spinal deformity and are open to SRS Candidate
Fellows or investigators within the first five years of
completing their training.
Searle Scholars Program
June for campus
limited submission application
(approximate)
The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to
support independent research of outstanding early-career
scientists who have recently been appointed as assistant
professors on a tenure-track appointment and will be pursuing
independent research careers in biochemistry, cell biology,
genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related
areas in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences.
Sloan Research Fellowships
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
September
Fellowships support fundamental research by early-career
scientists and scholars. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. (or
equivalent) in chemistry, computational or evolutionary
molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics,
neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field.
Strategy and Policy Fellows Program
Smith Richardson Foundation
June
Grants enable the recipients to research and write a book. The
program supports junior or adjunct faculty, research associates,
and post-docs who are engaged in policy-relevant research and
writing.
Pilot Research Grant
Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
January
The pilot research grant is designed to help a basic or
clinical scientist in the early stages of their career conduct
research that may lead to further funding.
Distinguished Scientist Award, Sontag Foundation
March
The award supports early career scientists who demonstrate
outstanding promise for making scientific and medical
breakthroughs in the field of brain cancer research.
External Faculty Fellowships
Stanford Humanities Center
October
Junior fellowships are for scholars who will be at least three
and no more than ten years beyond receipt of the PhD by the
start of the fellowship year. Fellowships are for one full
academic year, and require the fellow to be in residence.
Innovative, Developmental, and Exploratory Awards
UC California Breast Cancer Research Program
October for letter of intent
Researchers at a career level beyond postdoctoral training and
less than three years as an independent investigator, or
entering research from another field, are encouraged to apply
for IDEA grants.
New Assistant Professor Awards
UC Cancer Research Coordinating Committee
January for letter of intent
CRCC is a systemwide, faculty-directed cancer research program
that provides competitive intramural research awards for topics
in any discipline that address any aspect of cancer, including
its origins, detection, prevention and cure.
UC President’s Faculty Research Fellowship in the
Humanities
UC Humanities Research Institute
January/February
The program provides UC faculty with fellowship support to
carry out an extended research project in the humanities and
humanistic social sciences. Assistant Professors are especially
encouraged to apply.
New Investigator Award
UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program
varies
This award supports new investigators in an independent
research program in their research career in the focus areas
covered under TRDRP research priorities. Investigators from
California not-for-profit organizations are eligible.
Start-Up Research Grants
U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation
varies
Projects must have a strong element of cooperation between an
Israeli and an American scientist(s), and fall within the areas
of research supported in that year by the BSF. At least one of
the PIs should have attained his/her Ph.D., M.D. degree or
equivalent, no more than ten years prior to submitting the
proposal.
Grants-in-Aid
Whitehall Foundation
January 15, April 15, and October 1 for letter of intent
Funds researchers at the assistant professor level in the life
sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic
research in neurobiology.
Related information
Pivot
Pivot: New Faculty/New Investigator
Funding