Sponsored Projects - Funding Forecast
A periodic newsletter for Bucknell faculty researchers, scholars and grantseekers with information on external funding opportunities, recent grant successes, upcoming deadlines, and updates and resources from the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP).
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News and Updates
Preparing an NSF CAREER Proposal
January 15, 2026, 9:00 - 11:30am
Academic East 115
During this workshop for Bucknell faculty, we will provide a high-level overview of the NSF grant-making process and key elements of the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program; invite panelists to share their perspectives and insights on preparing applications, interacting with program officers, and responding to reviewers as well as answering attendees’ questions; and reserve time for participants to workshop their proposals and receive feedback from the panelists. Panelists include Tim Raymond (Chemical Engineering; 2008 CAREER awardee); Elif Miskioglu (Chemical Engineering; 2025 CAREER awardee), and David Rovnyak (Chemistry; NSF Reviewer and grantee). JiaJia Dong (Physics & Astronomy and OSP Faculty Fellow) and Rhonda Newton (OSP) will coordinate this event.
The session will begin at 9am, with refreshments available at 8:30am.
Please RSVP to receive the recommended pre-work and so that we can follow up with additional materials.
Bucknell Geisinger Research Initiative LOI Deadline January 16th
The Bucknell Geisinger Research Initiative (BGRI) is accepting letters of intent until January 16, 2026. This program supports collaborative healthcare research projects between Bucknell faculty/staff and Geisinger physicians/clinicians/scientists. An important goal of this funding opportunity is provide mechanisms for the establishment of long-term collaborative interactions that may also lead to peer-reviewed publications and subsequent external funding. Please review the BGRI Request for Proposals for details and LOI requirements, as the process has changed since the 2025 deadline.
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Recent External Funding Awards
(September - December 2025*)
College of Arts & Sciences
Stephanie Larson (Classics and Mediterranean Studies). "A Late Roman Cemetery on the Ismenion Hill: Sickness and Burial in Thebes, Greece." Harvard Loeb Library Foundation; NEH Fellowship through the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
College of Engineering
Kat Wakabayashi (Chemical Engineering). "Solid-State Shear Pulverization of Novel Petroleum-Based Composites, Phase 1G/H." ExxonMobil.
Institutional
Andrew Ciotola (Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts). "2025-2026 Funding." National Endowment for the Arts, via the Pennsyvalnia Council on the Arts.
Kathryn Maguet (Weis Center for the Performing Arts). "Brent Birckhead" and "Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies." National Endowment for the Arts, via Mid Atlantic Arts; "2025-2026 Funding." National Endowment for the Arts, via the Pennsyvalnia Council on the Arts.
Anthony Morgan (Public Safety). "Union County SART Expansion STOP Violence Against Women." Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, via Transitions of PA.
Richard Rinehart (Samek Art Museum). "2025-2026 Funding." National Endowment for the Arts, via the Pennsyvalnia Council on the Arts.
*Grant and contract awards being administered at the university, or that have been communicated to OSP and via the Sponsored Projects Approval (SPA) form.
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External Funding Opportunities and Upcoming Deadlines
Are you interested in applying for external funding to support your research, project or program at Bucknell? Here are just a few examples of opportunities, from federal, state, private and foundation sources. (For a more customized list based on your project needs, timeline and scholarship/research focus, contact OSP for a consultation or InfoGlobal SPIN database search.)NOTE: Federal opportunities linked to in this newsletter and in the "View More Grants" google document were active as of 12/1/25. We recommend checking the status of the program and reviewing the solicitation carefully before beginning a proposal, as solicitations may have been updated without notice.
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Looking ahead to AY 27-28 Sabbaticals?
3/2/26. NSF: Mid-Career Advancement. This program offers an opportunity for those at the Associate Professor rank to substantively enhance and advance their research program through synergistic and mutually beneficial partnerships, typically at an institution other than their home institution (note: the Directorate of Mathematics and Physical Sciences does not participate). The grant budget may include up to 6.5 months of salary for the PI, generally 4.5 months of academic year and 2 additional summer months across the three-year project. NSF strongly encourages contacting a program officer from the appropriate directorate early in the proposal development process; see a list here. Note: FULL professors at primarily undergraduate institutions may apply if their research falls under a participating program in the Directorate of Biological Sciences or the Directorate for Geosciences.
5/10/26 (anticipated). NEH: Fellowships. This program provides fellowships to support scholars as they research or write books, articles, digital materials, translations or critical editions for an academic audience. This deadline is for fellowships which would start between June 1, 2027 and November 1, 2028.
Or beyond...
11/1/26. The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation: Playwriting and Choreography (creative) and Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (scholarly). The Foundation will consider proposals from authors, scholars, and choreographers working in any genre, style, and media that can be classified as Writing for Performance or Choreography. It will also consider scholarly projects examining and interpreting Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies from a critical point of view in any genre, place, language, time period, or format (manuscript, print, digital), including philological, historical, theoretical and comparative perspectives. Successful applicants are early mid-career and should have a record of a major project such as publication, performance, or exhibition and have up to 4 years to use the award, as the Foundation recognizes that its cycle of focus areas may not align with individuals’ career plans.
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Natural Sciences and Mathematics
3/6/26. American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund: Research Grants. ACS PRF has two grant categories for non-doctoral departments: Undergraduate New Investigator for faculty within their first 5 years of their first academic appointment and Undergraduate Research. Research areas include chemistry, the earth sciences, chemical and petroleum engineering, and related fields such as polymers and materials science.
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Creative and Performing Arts
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Engineering
NSF Funding Opportunities by Division/Office in the Directorate for Engineering:
Proposals accepted anytime. NSF: Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems. This program supports research in circuit and system hardware and signal processing techniques. Its goal is to support research that creates new complex and hybrid systems ranging from nano- to macro-scale with innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of applications including but not limited to healthcare, medicine, environmental and biological monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, intelligent transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings.
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Management, Business and Commerce
3/11/26, 7/15/26. (LOI). Russell Sage Foundation: Research Grants. For the March deadline, the Foundation will only accept letters of inquiry (LOIs) under the core programs for Social, Political and Economic Inequality (SPEI) and the Future of Work (FOW). The Foundation will also accept LOIs for the special initiative Implications of the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban Race-Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities for Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility (SCD23). LOIs must include specific information about the proposed data and research design. After peer review, about 15 percent of those who submit an LOI will receive an invitation to submit a full proposal. The deadline is 2PM ET, March 11, 2026; if invited, full proposals will be due June 18, 2026. Successful proposals from this round can have a start date on or after January 1, 2027.
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Grant Programs for PIs at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
No deadline. NSF: Research Opportunity Awards (ROAs). ROAs typically enable PUI faculty to pursue research as part of a collaborative research team as visiting scientists at other NSF-supported institutions. A ROA is intended to increase the PUI faculty member’s research capability and effectiveness, to improve research and teaching at his or her home institution, and to enhance the NSF-funded research of the host principal investigator (PI). Most frequently, ROA activities are summer experiences, but partial support of sabbaticals is sometimes provided. ROAs are issued as a supplement to an existing NSF grant, at the sole discretion of the relevant program officer.
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