October 1, 2025

With the federal fiscal year having ended on September 30 and no FY2026 funding measure passed, the federal government is now in a partial shutdown. While existing grants should continue as funds allow, new awards, continuations and certain payments may be delayed, and federally funded contracts could receive stop-work orders. Proposal reviews and some agency systems may also be suspended.

The Office of the Vice President for Research is monitoring the situation closely and will share updates as guidance becomes available.

Please visit K-State's federal transition website to review details and guidance on potential impacts to research and sponsored programs. Additionally, APLU developed this compilation of agency "lapse plans."

Jessica Lane, Associate Professor of Counseling
College of Education

What motivated you to pursue research in this specific field, and how has your focus evolved over time?
Growing up in the rural Midwest and serving as an elementary teacher, school counselor, and counselor educator shaped my belief in the power of connection. I am committed to advancing early interventions and preventive systems that leverage rural school and community capacity, to strengthen resilience and wellness and enhance the positive social-emotional development of young learners.

What is your approach to this research?
My research focuses on strengths-based preventive systems that promote student wellness and social-emotional development across P–12 education. By collaborating with teachers, counselors, administrators, families, and rural communities, I aim to empower individuals and build sustainable systems that support long-term student health, resilience, and positive developmental outcomes.

Have there been any significant challenges or breakthroughs in your recent research, and how have you addressed or leveraged them?
Misinformation and stigma surrounding suicidal ideation and social-emotional learning, along with access to rural mental healthcare remain challenges. A key breakthrough lies in integrating education with meaningful connection. By addressing misconceptions, prioritizing connection and wellness, and equipping educators and caregivers with necessary tools, we can create stronger, proactive systems.

How do you see the potential impact of your research on your field and on broader societal issues?
My research leverages early intervention, education, and connection to reduce stigma, strengthen mental health and wellness outcomes, and build preventive systems that better support students, adults, schools, and rural communities. I aim to create sustainable approaches that foster connection, resilience, and support for long-term well-being in educational and community contexts.

Research overview:
My work focuses on creating innovative, evidence-based systems that enhance mental health and wellness, and social-emotional learning (SEL) for P–12 students. With a particular focus on rural communities, I explore how school counselors, educators, and local stakeholders can implement preventive, systems-level strategies to foster positive outcomes. This focus is reflected in the Becoming Trauma Responsive documentary and eBook; a co-authored chapter on adult and system self-care in the Handbook for Rural and Remote Education; The Well-Rounded Math Student, integrating SEL into academics; and a Rural Health and Safety Education grant on suicide prevention and community resilience in Kansas.

Roots of Research awards

Nominations are now open for the 2025 Roots of Research Faculty Honor Program.

Anyone at K-State can nominate a current faculty member for a Roots of Research award by filling out the Qualtrics form.

Awardees will be honored at a spring semester ceremony and will receive a plaque, and a tree will be planted on the Manhattan campus in their name. The names of selected faculty members will be announced in December, and trees will be planted during Earth Week in April 2026.

Nominations are due Nov. 1, 2025, by 11:59 p.m.

Research Support Professional Achievement Award

The K-State Research Support Professional Achievement Award recognizes the vital contributions of lab managers, technicians and other support staff to Kansas State University’s research mission. This award honors an individual whose efforts have had a measurable impact on advancing discovery, scholarship and innovation across the university’s research enterprise.

Contributions considered for recognition may include co-authored publications, leadership or direct involvement in externally funded grants and contracts, or other significant roles in research projects and laboratories. One recipient will be selected.

Anyone at K-State can nominate a current staff member for the award by filling out the Qualtrics form.

The awardee will be honored at a spring semester ceremony and will receive a plaque and monetary award to support approved research or professional development activities.

Nominations are due Nov. 1, 2025, by 11:59 p.m.

After a several month delay the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Request for Applications is finally available on the National Science Foundation’s GRFP website.   This program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including STEM education. NSF GRFP was established to recruit and support individuals who demonstrate the potential to make significant contributions in STEM, including STEM education. NSF encourages applications from the full spectrum of talent that the U.S. has to offer. Proposals are due November 10 through November 14, 2025, depending on your discipline.

Note a key difference from previous years is that second year graduate students can no longer submit to this program.  You must be 1) an undergraduate in the final (senior) year of a bachelor’s degree program; 2) a bachelor’s degree-holder with NO enrollment in a graduate degree program (non-degree graduate coursework allowed); or 3) a first-year graduate student in their first graduate degree program with less than one academic year completed in the degree program.   There are also restrictions for students enrolled in combined bachelor’s/master’s degree programs.

The Office of Scholar Development and Undergraduate Research will offer a training session at 3:30-5 pm on Thursday, October 23 to help you craft your proposal.  Participation in this session requires submitting a GRFP personal statement by noon on Monday October 20.  Please register here if you are interested in attending.  

On Thursday, October 2, 2025, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Leadership Studies, Room 126, Rannells Ranch is hosting a lunch to invite new research, teaching, and extension collaborations from across the university.

Attendees will be introduced to collaborative opportunities at Rannells Ranch, a working laboratory dedicated to advancing and promoting grassland ecosystem health, environmental sustainability, and pasture-based beef production.  The ranch is a hub for innovative research, hands-on teaching experiences, and extension programming focused on rangeland management and sustainable agriculture practices. 
 
The event is designed as an opportunity for interdisciplinary engagement at Rannells Ranch. Participants will expand their interdisciplinary networks and make meaningful connections between their expertise and ranch opportunities – including such activities as hosting classes or field days on-site and conducting grasslands-based research.
 
The program will feature faculty presentations on current activities at Rannells Ranch, followed by collaborative brainstorming sessions designed to generate new ideas for teaching, research, and extension projects that can be implemented at the ranch. 
 
A complimentary lunch will be provided. Please RSVP online. 

For questions about Rannells Ranch, contact Logan Thompson at thom94@k-state.edu. 

Attend the first session of the semester from 4-6 p.m. October 9, 2025, on the 5th floor of Hale Library. The focus of this event is enabling technologies and global food security & biosecurity, two core areas of Next Gen K-State's Opportunity Agenda. 

Register to attend or display your research poster for the event.

Please note the recommended poster size is 36x48 inches. We cannot guarantee optimal poster display outside of these dimensions.

Learn more about the event series.

Kansas State University invites nominations for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, a prestigious national fellowship that provides up to $200,000 to support high-impact research in the humanities and social sciences. The program seeks bold, solutions-oriented scholarship that addresses the causes and consequences of political polarization and explores pathways to strengthen social cohesion in the United States. K-State may nominate one tenured and one untenured scholar, with internal applications due by 5 p.m. on Friday, October 10, 2025. Finalists will be selected by a committee of University Distinguished Professors and forwarded to the President for official nomination. Interested applicants must submit a project prospectus, CV, budget estimate, and a letter of support from their Dean and Department Head. For full eligibility criteria, nomination procedures, and application guidelines, visit K-State's Carnegie Fellows Program page.

Graduate students from all disciplines are invited to present at Research and the State, on Tuesday, October 28, from 10am-3:30pm in Regnier Atrium, in Regnier Hall. Share how your research impacts Kansans, build your CV, sharpen your communication skills, and participate for a chance to represent K-State in March at the Capitol Graduate Research Summit in Topeka, where presenters will share the importance of their work with state legislators and why it matters to Kansans. 

Faculty and mentors, encourage your graduate students to participate in this valuable professional development opportunity. Participation guidelines, registration instructions, tips for a successful presentation, and previous award winners can be found on the Research and the State website.   

Deadline to register - October 6 

Help Shape Future Scholars: Volunteer to Judge 

Faculty, postdocs, staff, alumni, and community members are invited to volunteer as judges. Your participation helps graduate students refine their ability to explain complex research in accessible ways. Interested in judging? Complete the judge volunteer form. Please encourage your colleagues to join you in supporting this important event! 

Applications are open for the Fall 2025 ADVANCE Postdoctoral Researcher Travel Funds. The purpose of this award is to enhance the postdoctoral researcher experience and enrich the lives of people in STEM disciplines by providing funds for travel to a professional conference. Up to $500 will be provided by the KAWSE Office toward the expenses associated with presentation at a professional conference. Applications are due October 10th at 5 pm.

Interested? Fill out the postdoctoral travel fund application (available on our website) and send it to kawse@ksu.edu.

The KAWSE office is excited to relaunch our pre-college programs this fall. K-State faculty, staff, and students in STEM fields are invited to design and facilitate hands-on activities for our upcoming GROW (6-8th grade) and EXCITE (9-12th grade) workshops. Facilitating an activity is a great recruitment opportunity for your college, department, and field. Faculty members have used their experiences facilitating with KAWSE to demonstrate the broader impacts of their research. Additionally, KAWSE is happy to provide documentation and/or letters of support for those who collaborate with us. Please fill out your activity proposal by October 20th.

We are accepting student registrations for our GROW Saturday workshop and EXCITE Shadow Days. If you know any young learners who might be interested in STEM, please encourage them to sign up and join us on campus for these engaging, hands-on experiences.

A primary objective of K-State’s Phase II COBRE Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity (CNAP) is to support the development of junior investigators into independently funded investigators and to develop a critical mass of investigators who can compete for peer-reviewed extramural funding in neuroplasticity research. To this end, CNAP invites Pilot Project or Primary Project proposal applications from junior investigators whose research interests include neural plasticity.

The RFA can be downloaded from the CNAP Website. 

Letter of Intent due October 24th, 2025.
Full proposal due November 21st, 2025.

NSF webinars & office hours:

The National Institutes of Health announces the award of contracts for launching the Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center, a national resource that will be dedicated to using cutting-edge technologies to develop standardized organoid-based new approach methodologies (NAMs) that deliver robust, reproducible, and patient-centered research findings. With contracts totaling $87 million for the first three years, the center will be housed at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR), a facility supported by NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). The center’s goal will be to leverage the latest technologies to enable real-time optimization of organoid protocols.

The NIH SOM Center is designed to support a wide array of users, including scientists and researchers from academic institutions, industry, and government; clinicians in need of patient-specific models; and the broader scientific community, including industry partners and educators. It will provide open access to protocols, data, and organoids, promoting global collaboration. The center will also work with regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to develop models that meet preclinical testing standards, accelerating development of new disease treatments and safety assessments. The center will initially focus on organoid models of the liver, lung, heart, and intestine, with plans to expand to additional organ systems and disease-specific models.

The full announcement can be found here.

This four-week virtual course is designed to help faculty shift their mindset around research funding and explore sustainable, alternative strategies beyond large federal grants. Through guided content, live coaching, and a supportive peer community, participants learn how to identify diverse funding sources, reframe their research for new audiences, and build actionable plans that align with their institutional goals and academic mission.

Whether you’re facing budget cuts, working in a discipline with limited grant options, or seeking a more practical funding approach, this course will help you move from uncertainty to clarity and momentum.

The first course starts October 6, 2025. Register now for $495. Please note, K-State will not cover attendance costs.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

NIFA Grant Modernization Initiative (GMI) team and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) eRA team is hosting a webinar to help you navigate eRA Commons account management. These sessions will cover account setup, user roles, and system navigation to ensure you are prepared for the transition. The sessions will be recorded and will be published on the GMI Resources: eRA Grants Management System Reference Center along with other resources.

Sessions/Times:

     • 1-2 p.m. - Administrative Staff Only. This session is specifically designed for administrative staff responsible for managing user accounts within their organizations. Training covers account creation, management responsibilities, and demonstrations of the Account Management Module. Click here to register.
     • 2:30-3:30 p.m. - All Users. This session is for all users who will be logging in and utilizing eRA Commons, including Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs). Training covers account setup, navigation, personal profile management, and user roles. Click here to register.

Important: Please choose the appropriate session for your role. If you are a Principal Investigator (PD/PI), please register for the All Users session, not the Administrative Staff session. The Administrative Staff session is specifically designed for staff responsible for managing user accounts within their organizations.

If you would like to serve as a reviewer and panelist for proposals submitted to track 2 of the U.S. National Science Foundation Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (NSF VINES) program, please complete the reviewer interest survey. Responses are due no later than Oct. 8, 2025. Please share this form with interested colleagues.  

The NSF VINES program supports research and innovation to enhance wireless communications and intelligent network systems for faster, more reliable user-to-cloud connections, while promoting U.S. leadership in telecommunications and emerging potential NextG vertical industries. For more information about NSF VINES, please review the program solicitation. 

Complete the reviewer survey

Join U.S. National Science Foundation staff on Thursday, October 9, 2025, for a webinar on the new funding opportunities available for advancing K-12 artificial intelligence education. NSF has long supported fundamental research and education in AI. In response to the April 23 executive order on "Advancing AI Education for American Youth," NSF created new supplemental funding opportunities for existing awardees.

This webinar will provide current NSF principal investigators with all the information they need to apply for these opportunities, including:

• Understanding the new opportunities: Learn how these Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs) provide supplemental funding to refine, scale, evaluate and/or provide resources for K-12 AI activities.
• Application process: Program staff will cover the specific requirements, deadlines and proposal preparation guidance for these DCLs.
• Q&A session: Get your questions answered directly by NSF program staff.

Register for the webinar here.

October 9, 2025

Please join Matthew Lockhart, Director of the NIH Division of Loan Repayment and the LRP staff for a LIVE Technical Assistance Webinar.

This session will provide LRP applicants with an in-depth look at the application process and guidance to help strengthen submissions.

Registration is required to attend. Participants may also submit questions in advance for the Q&A portion by emailing lrp.communications@mail.nih.gov.

If you would like to serve as a reviewer and panelist for proposals submitted to the U.S. National Science Foundation Translation to Practice (NSF TTP) program, please complete the reviewer interest survey. Responses are due no later than October 10, 2025. Please share this form with interested colleagues.

Reviewer Interest Survey

The NSF TTP program supports use-inspired research, translational activities and partnerships that turn scientific discoveries into real-world solutions. Researchers can gain market insights, launch commercial applications and/or facilitate industry adoption. For more information about NSF TTP, please review the program solicitation. 

October 14, 2025

Join us for an overview of the Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) program. CSSI supports flexible, community-driven cyberinfrastructure (CI) to advance science and engineering.

We’ll discuss the three classes of awards:

- Elements – small groups developing robust CI services.
- Framework Implementations – interdisciplinary teams building sustainable community frameworks.
- Transition to Sustainability – projects executing sustainability plans for existing CI with proven impact.

This session will also provide guidance on proposal preparation and tips for engaging with NSF program officers.

Please register in advance for the webinar.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is pleased to announce that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2025 solicitation 2 cycle. The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students for conducting part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE national laboratory in collaboration with a DOE national laboratory scientist. The goal of the program is to prepare graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the mission of DOE’s Office of Science. The research opportunity will advance the graduate students’ overall graduate theses while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the host DOE national laboratories. In addition, SCGSR awardees may have the opportunity for short international research visits to select prestigious centers to broaden their horizons.

A SCGSR application assistance workshop will be held on October 9, 2025, (register on Zoom). At the workshop, staff members will guide attendees through the application process, answer general questions, provide guidance on proposal writing, and lead discussions with scientists and former awardees. Additionally, the program manager will host virtual office hours every Friday starting on September 26, 2025 via this Zoom link.

Students will perform graduate theses research at U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. Applications are due on Wednesday, November 5, 2025.

NIH will begin accepting applications for the Extramural Loan Repayment Program (LRP) on September 1, 2025. Awardees can receive up to $100,000 in qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year award.

To learn more about eligibility requirements, application dates, and the benefits of receiving an LRP award, be sure to visit the LRP website, check out our overview video, and attend one of our upcoming events:

October 7, 2025 – LRP Technical Assistance Webinar

November 6, 2025 – LRP Ask Me Anything Session

Please note that the deadline to apply is November 20, 2025.

The postponed May 2025 EPSCoR PI Meeting has been rescheduled for Monday, November 3, 2025, as a virtual PI Meeting. 

This meeting will include presentations from NSF EPSCoR staff and NSF senior leadership, offer important program updates, and provide opportunities for PI and community interactions. There is no cost to attend the PI meeting, but registration is required for this virtual event. The meeting agenda will be posted on the EPSCoR website prior to the meeting and emailed to registrants. We welcome current and former NSF EPSCoR Principal Investigators, along with evaluators, institutional representatives, and other valued members of the EPSCoR community, to join us for this event

Click here to register for the 2025 NSF EPSCoR PI Meeting.