March 4, 2026

The Office of the Vice President for Research and K-State Libraries is hosting an additional Posters, Pinot and Partnerships event from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, March 12 on the 5th floor of Hale Library. This month's theme is water-related research, and the event is co-sponsored by the Kansas Water Institute.

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 on easels outside of these dimensions.

The Office of Research Development (ORD) is now hosting in-person office hours to assist and connect with K-State researchers. 

During ORD office hours, researchers can meet with members of the ORD team to discover funding opportunities, discuss specific funders and programs, review white papers or engage in casual conversation about research activity. 

The first session will take place March 5 from 2-4 p.m. at the Cornerstone Café inside Hale Library.

If you are interested in discussing your white paper, please send a copy of the paper to ord@ksu.edu at least three days in advance.

Additional office hours will be hosted at the Cornerstone Cafe from 2-4 p.m. on March 26, April 8, April 23 and May 7.

Please contact ord@ksu.edu with any questions.

K-State faculty, postdocs, graduate students and staff engaged in research, scholarly, and creative activity and discovery are invited to attend and exhibit at this year's Research Connections event as a part of  One K-State Research Week. This event will take place Monday, April 20, 2026 from 3-5 p.m. in the K-State Alumni Center Banquet Room.

Research Connections offers K-State researchers a chance to learn what their colleagues are doing, promote their work and explore possible collaborations. Exhibitors can reserve a table where they can display posters, banners, signs, and handouts. Registration and additional information can be found on the K-State Research website. The deadline to register as an exhibitor is April 6.

The Patterson Family Foundation (PFF) released its call for Round Two of their 2026 Grant Opportunities with LOIs due by May 13, 2026, and invited full proposals due by June 29, 2026.  This foundation limits the number of LOIs that can be submitted by an organization.  As such, there will be a limited submission competition that will be used by the Office of Research Development to determine which LOI’s will go forward from K-State and the K-State Foundation.

If you are interested in submitting an LOI to Round Two, please complete the form here by 5 p.m. on March 23, 2026. Groups whose LOIs will move forward to PFF will be notified by early to mid-April.  Please note that graduate students and postdocs are ineligible to apply as well as are faculty who currently have an active award with this Foundation.

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars. To help early career faculty who are interested in this program, the Office of Research Development will host an “NSF CAREER Nuts and Bolts” information session on March 24th at 3:30 pm via zoom.  The session will start with presentations on the requirements for submission, review criteria, submission protocols and evaluation resources. These will be followed by a panel of recent Kansas State University CAREER awardees who will provide tips on submitting to and receiving an award under this program. Session attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a CAREER Writing Clinic that will start shortly after the session and end in July when the proposals are due.

If you are interested in attending this session, please register here.   To find out more about the NSF CAREER Writing Clinic, please contact Mary Lou Marino at mlmarino@ksu.edu.

Join us for an energizing GROW Saturday workshop where we’ll explore creativity, innovation, and bold thinking under this year’s theme: “Invent the Future.”  Whether you're dreaming up new ideas or looking for inspiration to spark your next big invention, this workshop will offer tools, activities, and connection to help you imagine what’s possible. Come grow with us!

Have an idea for an activity? Want to demonstrate the broader impacts of your research? Excited to get youth involved in your field? Consider hosting an activity at the April 11 workshop.

Fill out our activity proposal form!

For more information about our workshops and how you can get involved, visit our GROW/EXCITE facilitation page. 

The GROW Saturday Workshop bolsters 6-8th grade students' interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through a day-long series of hands-on, educational activities. The workshop is open to all middle school students in grades 6-8. It is hosted by the K-State KAWSE office and facilitated by experts (like YOU!) across campus, including K-State faculty, postdoctoral researchers, staff, and students.

Registration for the Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium is now open! The Symposium offers undergraduate students a valuable opportunity to showcase their research and to practice communicating their findings to a broad audience.  This year the symposium will be part of One K-State Research Week (April 17-24).

This year’s Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 23rd, 2026 with registration open from now until March 27, 2026.

Registration can be found here. 

The SDUR Team is looking for K-State faculty, staff, and graduate students to serve as Undergraduate Research Champions for the presenters at the Spring Symposium on the afternoon of Thursday, April 23. Champions will be assigned 5-10 researchers to interact with during the event, ensuring that each student interacts with someone outside of their current cohort. Research Champions should be prepared to ask questions and engage with presenters. Complete this form to sign up.

NSF webinars & office hours:

The First Award program helps early career, tenure-track faculty become more competitive for funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) by 1) encouraging early career faculty to submit proposals to the NSF (or other federal funding agency) as soon as possible after their first faculty appointment, and 2) by accelerating the pace of their research and the quality of their subsequent proposals.

First Awards are intended as single-investigator awards to support the principal investigator's (PI) research at their institution. While including Co-PIs, other senior personnel, and sub-awards to other institutions is prohibited, applicants are encouraged to include collaborators or mentors from the ARISE team in their proposal. Applicants are allowed to contact team members to discuss how project ideas may relate to the current ARISE project.

Notices of intent are due March 16, 2026. Read the full solicitation here.

Program staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities will provide a virtual funding opportunity update on Thursday, March 5, at 12 p.m.

Julia Nguyen, Senior Program Officer in the Division of Lifelong Learning, and Daniel Sack, Deputy Director of the Division of Research, will share information about current grant opportunities, deadlines, and application requirements and offer suggestions for writing an application.

To register and receive the Zoom link for the one-hour online event, click here.

The update will focus on individual grant programs with April 8, 2026, application deadlines:

Fellowships
Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan
Public Scholars

It also will feature information about the education and media grant programs with June 25, 2026, application deadlines:

Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Institutes for K-12 Educators
Landmarks of American History and Culture for Higher Education
Landmarks of American History and Culture for K-12 Educators
Media Projects

The virtual update is presented by NEH in partnership with Fostering Opportunities through Collaborative University Synergies (FOCUS). FOCUS is a collaboration among research development professionals at Montana State University; University of Idaho; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Nevada, Reno; and Utah State University.

Please send any questions about the March 5 update to unlrd@unl.edu.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science is pleased to announce that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2026 solicitation 1. Applications are due on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

SCGSR application assistance workshops will be held on March 5, 2026 (register on Zoom) and April 9, 2026 (register on Zoom). The first workshop will provide a general overview of the program and application requirements. It will also include time for attendees to discuss their potential research topics and their alignment with the SCGSR priority areas with managers of each participating program office. The second workshop will guide attendees through the application process, answer general questions, provide guidance on proposal writing, and feature discussions with scientists and former awardees. Additionally, the program manager will host virtual office hours every Friday starting on March 6, 2026 via this Zoom link.

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, with a special emphasis in supporting the goals of the Genesis Mission. 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.

Read the full announcement here.

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture and The Good Food Institute invite qualified experts to serve as peer reviewers for proposals submitted to the Enhancing the Flavor of Plant-based & Fermentation-derived Protein Request for Applications. Reviewers will review up to five proposals between April and June 2026.

To be considered, please complete the Call for Reviewers Interest Form by April 6, 2026.