October 8, 2025

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.

Learn more about the event series.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

The upcoming Extension and Engagement Week, October 20-24, will feature dialogue, lectures, professional development training sessions and other events to celebrate community, connection and opportunity.

Two important professional development and engagement opportunities for faculty members and researchers include:

• How to engage with the media, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23: Learn how to handle media interviews, develop key messages and even practice some of these skills. Registration required.
• Engage with KSURF, 3:30-4:30 p.m. presentation, 4:30 p.m. networking hour, Thursday, Oct. 23: Faculty members, staff researchers and student innovators can explore how ideas can make a difference beyond the lab or classroom. Registration required. 

Read more about Extension and Engagement Week.

For a full list of events, visit the Extension and Engagement Week website.

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:

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 the upcoming informational session:

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.

If you would like to serve as a reviewer and panelist for proposals submitted to the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Test Bed: Toward a Network of Programmable Cloud Laboratories (PCL Test Bed), please complete the reviewer interest survey. Responses are due no later than Nov. 10, 2025. Please share this form with interested colleagues.

Reviewer Interest Survey

The PCL Test Bed supports the development and operation of a national network of AI-powered, remotely accessible laboratories to accelerate scientific discovery, enhance reproducibility and improve access to advanced research tools in science and engineering. For more information about NSF TTP, please review the program solicitation.