External Funding Opportunities
***Limited Submission***
Health Resources and Services Administration
Program: Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program for Professionals
NOFO #: HRSA-25-068
Synopsis: Supports the behavioral health workforce by connecting skilled health care providers to communities in need. The BHWET program seeks to increase the supply of behavioral health professionals and improve the distribution of a well-trained behavioral health workforce. The program has a specific focus on understanding the needs of children, adolescents, and young adults at risk for mental health, trauma, and behavioral health disorders.
Award details: Up to $600K per year for 4 years.
USC Internal announcement: https://rii.usc.edu/limited-submissions/hrsa-25-068/
External announcement on website: Behavioral Health Workforce (CAC)
USC Internal due date: December 6, 2024.
External due date: January 21, 2025.
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Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
Program: 2025 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity
Synopsis: Supports those who risk their own lives to save the lives of others suffering due to violent conflict or atrocity crimes. Inspired by and on behalf of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, this global prize continues the cycle of giving by using those funds to support grassroots humanitarians and humanitarian organizations that give a second chance to people in need. Nominees must be alive to receive the award
Award details: $1M
Announcement on website: https://auroraprize.com/en
Nominations information: Nominations are now open to eligible individuals or organizations. No self-nominations are allowed.
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Louisville Institute
Program: First Book Grant for Scholars of Color
Synopsis: Supports early career, pre-tenured religion scholars of color to complete a major research project about Christian faith and life, the practice of ministry, religious trends and movements, Christian and other faith-based institutions, and religion and social issues. Of particular interest to the Louisville Institute are projects that bridge academic scholarship and the life of the Christian church in North America.
Award details: $55K
Announcement on website: https://louisville-institute.org/programs-grants-and-fellowships/grants/first-book-grant-for-scholars-of-color/
Application due date: January 15, 2025. Project period is the 2025-2025 academic year or 2026 calendar year.
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American Academy of Arts and Sciences / Global Security and International Affairs
Program: Raymond Frankel Nuclear Security Policy Fellow
Synopsis: Supports early-career professionals with training in security studies or nuclear policy to learn about a career in public policy and administration. Some duties may include organizing Track-2 dialogues between nuclear experts and former officials from the United States, China, Russia, and other regions to identify critical goals in maintaining nuclear security; coordinating publications focused on critical debates within nuclear security and arms control; arranging educational briefings and events with scholars, policymakers, and other audiences to deepen knowledge on key issues and challenges facing the United States in arms control and international security; and assisting with other areas of the GSIA portfolio including project development, administration, outreach, and reporting. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in an area of social science, science, or engineering with an emphasis on nuclear policy or security studies and should have experience or a demonstrated interest in policy-oriented research and outreach. Fellowship is a hybrid role with a presence at the Academy in Cambridge, MA less than 10% of time. Weekends and nights are required to support project activities. Fellowship is full time.
Award details: $76K per year, plus a full benefits package including time off, medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 403(b) plan, parental leave, and more. Fellowship is for 2 years.
Announcement on website: https://www.amacad.org/career/raymond-frankel-nuclear-security-policy-fellow-1
Application due date: February 15, 2025. Preferred start time is summer 2025.
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American Chemical Society
Program: Women Chemists Committee / Lilly Travel Award
Synopsis: Supports meritorious undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral female chemists to travel to meetings to present the results of their research. Through this program, WCC and Eli Lilly and Company continue to increase the participation of women in the chemical sciences. Applications should be limited to one per research group. In addition to financial support, the award provides networking opportunities for recipients who attend an ACS Spring or Fall Meeting. The WCC hosts a poster session for awardees at each meeting. In addition, awardees are invited to the WCC Luncheon where they receive recognition, as well invited to a special breakfast reception with WCC members, sponsored by the ACS Executive Director. Guests from Eli Lilly and Company are also encouraged to attend.
Award details: Amount is variable and depends on the financial needs of the recipient.
Announcement on website: https://www.acs.org/funding/awards/women-chemists-eli-lilly-travel-award.html
Application due date: December 15, 2024 for Spring 2025 ACS meeting.
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Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation
Program: CDR Emerging Researcher Grant
Synopsis: Supports researchers with limited to no track records of extramural funding from competitive research grants and / or no first-authored, peer-reviewed research publications to conduct research that aligns with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) Strategic Plan.
Award details: $10K
Announcement on website: https://www.eatrightfoundation.org/apply-for-funding/grants
Application due date: November 18, 2024.
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American Psychological Foundation
Program: Division 29 Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy of Early Career Award – John D. Krasner Memorial Award
Synopsis: Supports early career psychologists (≤ ten years postdoctoral) who have demonstrated accomplishment and achievement related to psychotherapy theory, practice, research or training. Applicants must be Division 29 members. Self-nominations are not allowed.
Award details: $1K
Announcement on website: https://ampsychfdn.org/funding/division-29-early-career-award/
Application due date: December 31, 2024.
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Children’s Tumor Foundation
Program: Request for Applications — Young Investigators Award (YIA) (Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF) and all types of schwannomatosis research)
Synopsis: Supports early career NF researchers, such as senior doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers, to help them get established as independent NF investigators. Since its inception, several YIAs have made groundbreaking research findings and notable publications through this program, and many have advanced to become leaders in the NF research and clinical communities. The main function of the YIA program has been to serve as a ‘seeding mechanism’ for researchers to secure larger grants, such as from the NIH and the CDMRP NFRP. While there are no citizenship requirements, an individual may not receive more than one postdoctoral YIA in his/her career. Only one YIA application per laboratory per year will be funded.
Award details: Up to $200K over 2 years, inclusive of 10% indirect costs).
Announcement on website: https://www.ctf.org/funding-opportunities/
Letter of Intent due date: December 2, 2024.
Full Application due date (invited): January 31, 2025. Award starts July 1, 2025.
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American Association for Cancer Research
Program: The Bosarge Family Foundation-Waun Ki Hong Scholar Award
Synopsis: Supports postdoctoral or clinical research fellows to conduct highly novel and provocative research in the field of regenerative cancer medicine and to establish a successful career path in this field. The research proposed for funding may be translational, clinical, or epidemiological in nature and must have direct applicability and relevance to enhancing the physiology of cancer survivors (and/or mitigating the negative effects of their cancer treatment) using regenerative medicine approaches. Eligible candidates have been conferred their doctorate within 5 years of July 2025; must have a mentored postdoctoral position; and must be current members of AACR. Excepted from this membership requirement are early career researchers who seek Associate membership. Nonmembers may apply online. Consult instructions and further info on ways to become an AACR member.
Award details: $120K over 2 years.
Announcement on website: https://www.aacr.org/grants/the-bosarge-family-foundation-waun-ki-hong-scholar-award-for-regenerative-cancer-medicine/
Application due date: December 10, 2024. Grant starts February 2025.
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Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer
Program: 2025 Young Investigator Award
Synopsis: Supports postdocs pursuing promising childhood cancer research ideas. Applicants must have received their doctorate within the last 4 years. Awardees must devote a minimum of 75% of time on research. Research must focus on pediatric cancer, i.e. cancers impacting children 18 years of age or younger.
Award details: A maximum of $60K total cost may be requested each year for 3 years. So, the maximum award is $180K.
Announcement on website: https://www.alexslemonade.org/sites/default/files/images/alsf1/downloads/2025_young_investigator_guidelines_final.pdf
Application due date: December 12, 2024.
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HCLTech
Program: HCLTech Grant for Climate Action in Americas, Edition II
Synopsis: Supports Americas-based not for profit organizations to supercharge their replicable, scalable and sustainable projects focused on climate action. HCL supports projects in several countries in the Americas, including the U.S., HCL has committed to ambitious goals, including achieving net-zero emissions by 2040, recognizing the critical significance of fostering innovative approaches to address climate challenges. The proposal’s approach to climate action should be inclusive of, but not limited to, focus areas such as wildlife and biodiversity conservation; campaigns; and climate risk reduction. The proposed project can encompass approaches to climate action through adaptation mitigation and resilience, amongst others
Award details: Three organizations will be selected each year—first place will receive $500K and two runners-up will receive $250K each for a one-year project
Announcement on website: https://americas-grant.hcltech.com/
Abstract due date: December 20, 2024. Upon review of abstracts, selected applicants will be invited to submit an application.
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Amazon Science
Program: 2024 Amazon Research Awards
Synopsis: Supports projects in the following areas
- AI for Information Security;
- Automated Reasoning
- AWS AI: Generative AI, Governance and Responsible AI, ML Compliers
- AWS Cryptography
- Sustainability
Award details: The final award amount will be determined by the awards panel.
A proposed cash budget is generally expected to support one to two graduate students (or a post-doctoral researcher) for one year, plus some conference travel and equipment. The budget should include a list of expected costs. No indirect costs involved.
Announcement on website: Amazon Research Awards
Application due date: November 13, 2024.
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NASA ROSES / Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
Program: Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST (updated)
Solicitation #: NNH24ZDA001N-FINESST
Synopsis: Supports graduate student-designed and performed research projects that contribute to SMD's science, technology, and exploration goals. The Future Investigator (FI), i.e., the student, shall have the primary initiative to define the proposed FINESST research project and must be the primary author, with input or supervision from the proposal's Principal Investigator (PI), as appropriate. The FI named on the proposal is primarily responsible for writing a FINESST proposal. Proposals demonstrate a clear research problem or activity. The proposal must show its significance and relevance to both NASA and to at least one SMD division.
Award details: No dedicated budget: selected proposals will be funded by the relevant SMD Division or program. The awarded project is 3 years.
Announcement on website: FINESST
Proposal due date: February 5, 2025.
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Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) / Information Innovation Office
Program: Information Innovation Office-Wide (I20) Broad Agency Announcement
NOFO #: HR001125S0002
Synopsis: Supports projects in the following areas, broadly,
- Proficient artificial intelligence
- Resilient, adaptable and secure systems (aims to dramatically enhance the security
and resilience of both new and legacy software, with a focus on practical and scalable
approaches)
- Advantage in cyber operations;
- Confidence in the information domain: focuses on protecting, detecting attacks on,
and measuring the health of the information domain, broadly construed.
Award details: Funding will be in the form of cooperative agreements, grants and other transactions.
Announcement on website: Information Innovation Office-Wide (I20) Broad Agency Announcement (CAC)
Proposer’s Day: November 7, 2024.
Abstracts due date: Abstracts may be submitted on a rolling basis until October 1, 2025.
Proposal due date: Proposals may be submitted on a rolling basis until October 29, 2025. Please consult the link in this solicitation to get more info on submission, funding etc.
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Department of Energy (DoE) / Office of Science (SC) / Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Program: Environmental System Science
NOFO #: DE-FOA-0003475
Synopsis: Supports research that advances an integrated, robust, and scale-aware predictive understanding of terrestrial systems and their interdependent microbial, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and physical processes. With an emphasis on understudied ecosystems, projects that focus on measurements, experiments, field data, modeling, and synthesis to provide improved understanding and representation of ecosystems and watersheds in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of models that span from individual processes to Earth-system scales will be considered.
Award details: SRA #1: $300K to $1M (total award); SRA #2 and #3: $100K to $400K (total award) Expected award project period is up to 3 years for SRA #1 and up to 2 years for SRAs #2 and #3.
Announcement on website: Environmental System Science
Pre-Application due date: January 16, 2025.
Application due date: March 13, 2025.
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NSF / Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Program: Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program (HEGS)
Solicitation #: NSF 25-507
Synopsis: Supports fundamental scientific research, the HEGS program cannot fund research that takes as its primary goal humanistic interpretations or findings that are not generalizable or reproducible. HEGS welcomes proposals that utilize quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods in novel ways. However, a proposal that applies geographical or geospatial methods to a geographic problem without proposing how that problem provides an opportunity to make a theory-testing or theory-expanding contribution to geographical science, broadly defined, will be returned without review. HEGS supported projects are expected to yield results that will enhance, expand, and transform fundamental geographical theory and geospatial methods and that will have broader impacts that benefit society. Generally, successful HEGS proposals should describe clear and detailed plans for data collection (including sample selection if appropriate), justification for proposed methods, plans for data analysis, attention to confounding variables, and efforts to address biases (e.g., confirmatory biases, selection biases, etc.). Competitive HEGS proposals should substantiate the validity of findings and generalizability to broader contexts.
Award details: The number and type of awards is variable from year to year. The solicitation provides a list of types of awards, i.e., EAGER, Conference etc.
Announcement on website: https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/nsf25507.pdf
Proposal target dates: February 3, 2025 August 1, 2025 January 16, 2026— First Friday in August, Annually Thereafter; January 16, 2026 —Third Friday in January, Annually Thereafter
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NSF / Directorate for Geosciences / Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies, and Education
Program: Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE)
Solicitation #: NSF 25-506
Synopsis: Supports efforts that foster open, inclusive, and equitable research practices and that leverage expanding information resources and computing capabilities to address interdisciplinary grand challenge research questions at the forefront of the geosciences. In this solicitation, "geosciences" refers to those research disciplines directly supported by the Geosciences Directorate at NSF, which includes the domains of atmospheric and geospace sciences, ocean sciences, Earth sciences, and polar sciences.
Further details on the scientific topics that are supported in the geosciences can be found within descriptions of individual GEO programs. This solicitation accepts proposals on two tracks
Track 1: Supports smaller-scale activities seeking to organize geoscience research communities toward adoption of open science practices that accelerate scientific discovery in the geosciences. Awards may include open science planning activities for geoscience domains (e.g., development of community roadmaps), education/training initiatives that enable adoption of technologies that support open science practices, and/or mobilization campaigns to improve the openness of existing geoscience research programs.
Track 2: Targets larger-scale activities aimed at fostering transformation of geoscience research communities toward open science practices. Projects should be designed to grow user/developer communities within the existing ecosystem of capabilities (e.g., data repositories, software packages, computational resources) toward broad and sustained efforts to embed open science practices in the day-to-day research/education workflows of geoscientists.
Award details: Track 1: Up to $500K over a 2-year project period. Track 2: Up to $1M per project over a 3 year project period.
Announcement on website: https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/nsf25506.pdf
Proposal due dates: Track 1: February 14, 2025; Track 2: November 14, 2025.
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NIH / National Library of Medicine
Program: Computational Approaches to Curation at Scale for Biomedical Research Assets (R01)
NOFO #: PAR-25-131
Synopsis: Supports projects for the development of innovative at-scale computational approaches that increase the speed and scope of curation processes that are needed for data mining and knowledge discovery from growing quantities of biomedical data being produced from ongoing data science advances. This NOFO seeks to accomplish at-scale curation for ongoing data-driven research needs for a diverse range of data types. It is expected that these approaches will (1) Increase the speed and assure quality and security of storage techniques, retrieval strategies, annotation methods, data standards, visualization tools and other advanced data management approaches; (2) Improve Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) for data access, sharing and management; and (3) Foster the production of reliable, accurate, credible, trusted, high-value curated datasets or tools that will serve to advance mission-related research.
Data assets of interest to this funding opportunity include (partial)
- Molecular biology data types such as genomic, epigenomic, proteomic or genetic variant data;
- Biomedical imaging data; and
- Observational health data such as electronic health records, family histories or sensor readings from personal trackers.
Award details: Maximum awards are $250K for direct costs per year for a maximum project period of 4 years.
Announcement on website: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-25-131.html
Letter of Intent due date: 30 days prior to application submission
Application due date: Multiple due dates for new applications through 2027. Next due date is January 28, 2025.
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NIH / National Institute on Aging
Program: NIA Academic Leadership Career Award (K07 Independent (K07—Academic / Teacher Award)
NOFO #: PAR-24-321
Synopsis: Supports established investigators who have the expertise and leadership skills to enhance aging and / or Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) research capacity within their academic institution. The immediate and long-term goals of the proposed program must meet the needs for expansion or enhancement of the aging and / or AD / ADRD academic or research capacity at the applicant’s institution. Proposed curricula and research development activities may be broad as related to aging, the aging process, and diseases and conditions associated with growing older, such as AD / ADRD, including frontotemporal, Lewy body, and vascular dementia.
Award details: NIH will contribute up to $75K per year toward the salary of the career award recipient. Total direct costs for the salary of the career award recipient and the curriculum development or research coordinator may not exceed $100,000, inclusive of fringe benefits and the percent of effort contributed. Up to $50K per year toward justified research development costs, and up to $25K per year may be requested for the salary of a curriculum development or research coordinator. Project period is 5 years.
Announcement on website: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-24-321.html
Application due dates: Due dates for all types of applications run through 2027. Next due date for new applications is February 12, 2025.
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NIH / National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Program: NINDS Sustainable Transformation of Institutional Research Rigor (STIRR) (RC2—High Impact Research and Research Infrastructure Programs)
NOFO #: RFA-NS-25-019
Synopsis: Supports the establishment of programs to enhance research rigor and transparency practices within academic and research institutions to promote a culture of high-quality neuroscience research. Attention to principles of rigorous study design and transparent reporting are essential to enable the neuroscientific community, as well as the biomedical community at large, to design and perform valid experiments and to assess the value of scientific findings. Awards are intended to support the implementation of innovative programs, strategies, and approaches at the departmental, inter-departmental, or equivalent intra-institutional entity level.
Award details: It is anticipated that most awards will be between $150K-$800K for direct costs per year, commensurate with the scope of the proposed program. The maximum project period is 3 years.
Announcement on website: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-NS-25-019.html
Application due date: October 17 2025 for all applications, except AIDS applications.
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From Dornsife Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR)
For more info contact Kerri Bennett, Assistant Dean of Advancement, CFR at <kerriben@usc.edu>
D-BASF
Program: Improving Agrobacterium transformation efficiency Synopsis
Synopsis: Supports the development of a protocol that improves the efficiency of Agrobacterium transformations, generating high proportions of transgenic plants with intact, single copy T-DNA insertions through tissue culture regeneration. Seeks to collaborate with researchers and organizations to create solutions of interest, which include - Genetically engineered Agrobacterium strains, modified T-DNA, and/or optimized bacterial/plant gene expression components; - Helper plasmids or novel synthetic components that enhance transformation; - Addition of small molecules or chemicals as components of the plant tissue culture media.
Award details: Matching funds appropriate to the type of proposal will be made available.
Announcement on website: Agrobacterium transformation efficiency
Application due date: November 30, 2024.
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