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
How can OSP help you?
The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) supports and partners with faculty and staff in identifying funders, developing strategies for seeking external grant support, submitting proposals to public and private organizations, and managing institutional, federal and research compliance obligations. Whether you have a specific opportunity in mind or are just starting to think about seeking external funding for a program, project or an upcoming academic leave, OSP is happy to support you. Also, if you are not sure whether your proposal requires internal approval prior to submission, please contact us at osp@bucknell.edu.
Once grants are awarded, we work with faculty to manage awards, institutional compliance aspects, budget revisions, no-cost extensions, and communications with sponsors.
Sabbatical and Untenured Faculty Leaves: Application Information Session
September 4, 2025 at 12pm via Zoom
The Faculty Development Committee (FDC) and the OSP will hold an infomation session via Zoom at 12pm on Thursday, September 4th for those who have questions about the current application process (or for future cycles) or simply wish to learn more about how the leave process works. RSVP here by September 3rd to receive the meeting zoom link or to request presentation slides.
The workshop will be led by FDC Co-Chair Christina Hamlet (Mathematics). In addition, Rhonda Newton (OSP Research Development Manager) will briefly describe seeking external funding to extend a leave to two semesters. Robert Gutierrez (OSP Executive Director) and Professor Jiajia Dong (Physics, and OSP Faculty Fellow) will also be available to answer questions.
Save the Date - BGRI Reception and new application timeline
October 1st, 5-7pm
Hosted by Geisinger Medical Center, Danville (specific location to be announced)
The Bucknell-Geisinger Research Initiative (BGRI) aims to foster collobration between the region's healthcare and higher education leaders to advance health care delivery, education and research at the local, regional and national levels. BGRI propels this mission by providing resources in support of collaborative research projects and initiatives across a spectrum of disciplines and organizational interests. A collaborative team must include at least one Bucknell faculty or staff and one Geisinger clinician, researcher or staff.
The BGRI Committee has revamped the proposal process so that the Committee can provide feedback to applicant teams during the proposal development process. The new timeline is:
- October 1, 2025 - BGRI reception for potential collaborators to meet
- January 16, 2026 - One-page Letter of Intent due (forthcoming application guidelines will outline requested LOI content, including draft aims/objectives, and methods)
- January 26 - February 13, 2026 - Each applicant team will have a 15-minute zoom meeting with the Committee to discuss initial questions and feedback on LOIs
- March 23, 2026 - Full proposals due
Watch this newsletter and the Message Center for more details.
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Recent External Funding Awards
(July - August 2025*)
College of Arts & Sciences
Claire Campbell (History). "The Culture of Cultivation: An environmental history of Prescott House and Starrs Point." Nova Scotia Museum.
College of Engineering
Matthew Higgins (Civil and Environmental Engineering). Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Australia, and "Evaluation of Digestate Characteristics in Relation to Rapid Volume Expansion." Miami-Dade County, via Brown and Caldwell.
Institutional
Rob Jacobs (Geology & Environmental Geosciences) and Janine Glathar (Library Services). "State View Program Development & Operations for the State of Pennsylvania: Surface Imaging of Bucknell's Farm & Turtle Creek Natural Area." U.S. Geological Survey, via Pennsylvania Western University.
Kathryn Maguet and Johanna Kodlick (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.
*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 8/6/25. We recommend checking the status of the program and reviewing the solicitation carefully before beginning a proposal, as solicitations may have been updated.
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Interdisciplinary Opportunities
10/3/25. NSF: Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science. This program, co-sponsored with the National Institutes of Health, supports the development of tranformative high-risk, high-reward advances in computer and information science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, behavioral and/or cognitive research to address pressing questions in the biomedical and public health communities. Transformation hinge on scientific and engineering innovations by interdisciplinary teams that develop novel methods to intuitively and intelligently collect, sense, connect, analyze and interpret data from individuals, devices and systems to enable discovery and optimize health. Solutions to these complex biomedical or public health problems demand the formation of interdisciplinary teams that are ready to address these issues, while advancing fundamental science and engineering.
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Social Sciences
9/30/25. AAUW: Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship. The AAUW American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship is intended to increase the number of women in tenure-track faculty positions and promote equity for women in higher education. The fellowship is designed to assist scholars in obtaining tenure by spending a year pursuing independent research; tenured faculty are not eligible. The fellowship year runs July 1 to June 30. The Fellowship is open to women scholars in all fields of study; follow the link for additional eligibility criteria. Note that the deadline is earlier this year than in recent years.
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Natural Sciences and Mathematics
10/1/25, 1/15/26, 4/15/26. (LOI, required). Whitehall Foundation: Research Grants. This program funds research in those areas of basic biological research that are not heavily supported by other funders. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology, with the overall goal of better understanding behavioral output or brain mechanicsms of behavior. Please review the Foundation's updated eligibility requirements, especially regarding other support.
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Humanities
9/25/25. ACLS: Fellowships. This program offers six to twelve month fellowship opportunities in the humanities and humanistic social science to be initiated between July 1, 2026 and July 1, 2027 and completed by December 31, 2027. Six months of the fellowship tenure must be consecutive, but any remainder of the fellow's award term can be taken separately at a later date within the eligible award window.
12/3/25. NEH: Scholarly Editions or Translations. This program supports collaborative teams who are editing, annotating, and translating foundational humanities texts that are currently inaccessible or only in inadequate editions or translations. NEH will be issuing an updated notice of funding opportunity before the beginning of September, but the currently posted notice can be used to begin preparing an application.
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Creative and Performing Arts
9/30/25. AAUW: Short-term Research Publication Grant. This program supports eight consecutive weeks of final writing and editing. Grants are open to women scholars in all fields of study; follow the link for additional eligibility criteria. Note that the deadline is earlier than in previous years.
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Engineering
NSF Funding Opportunities by Division/Office in the Directorate for Engineering:
9/16/25. Engineering Research Initiation. This program invests in new academic investigators who have yet to receive significant research funding from Federal agencies. At the time of submission, the PI may not have been a PI, Co-PI or equivalent on any current or prior awarded NSF research grant (including subaward) or have had research support totaling more than $200,000 over the last five years from any other Federal agency with certain exceptions including NSF fellowships/DDRI grants and Major Research Instrument grants. Projects are for 24 months with budgets up to $200,000. Proposals may only be submitted in engineering research areas supported by participating Divisions in the Directorate for Engineering.
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Management, Business and Commerce
8/28/25, 1/29/26. NSF: Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS). The MMS Program is an interdisciplinary program that supports the development of innovative analytical and statistical methods and models for potential utility in multiple fields of the social, behavioral and economic sciences. It seeks proposals that are methodologically innovative, grounded in theory, and have potential utility for multiple fields within the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
10/29/25. (LOI). Russell Sage Foundation: Research Grants. The Foundation will accept letters of inquiry (LOIs) under the core programs for Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context and Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration. The Foundation will also accept LOIs for the special initiatives Immigration and Immigrant Integration and Implications of the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban Race-Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities for Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility. 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, October 29, 2025. Successful proposals from this round can have a start date on or after September 1, 2026.
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