Internal Funding
Catalyst for Innovation & Collaboration Grants
Award Cycle: Annual
Limit on Proposals per PI: An individual may participate as PI on one Innovation & Collaboration grant per cycle.
Next Due Date: May 6, 2026
Award Period: FY27: July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027
Applications: Accepted through Arizona Cultivate.
Description: The Catalyst for Innovation & Collaboration Grants program is designed to support the growth and development of cross-disciplinary, novel, collaborative research, particularly in areas of strategic importance to the University and the State of Arizona. These awards are intended to support the development of new extramural research proposals by fostering collaborations and partnerships, exciting research ideas, and new approaches to community engagement in the following overarching areas:
- Space Science, Technology, and National Security
- Promise of Fusion Energy
- AI-driven Health Innovation
- Future of Sustainable Mining and Critical Minerals
- Arid Lands Agriculture and Water
Funding is supported by the TRIF Initiatives, including Water, Energy and Environmental Solutions; Space, Engineering, and Optical Sciences; National Security Systems; and Improving Health.
Proposals with concepts aligned to the research priorities and TRIF Initiatives will be prioritized. Please note that these categories are intentionally broad and thus, can be representative of multiple disciplines, including STEMM and non-STEMM. If you have a proposed concept that does not align with the research priorities or TRIF initiatives, you may still submit your concept, noting that ORP will only fund applications in support of cross-cutting, cross-disciplinary research concepts.
It is highly recommended that interested applicants discuss their concepts with strategic initiative leads and TRIF leads prior to submission. ORP will host multiple campus-wide webinars on this opportunity.
ORP is committed to supporting the excellence of U of A’s mid-career faculty and thus strongly encourages mid-career faculty to apply to this program. For this opportunity, mid-career faculty are defined as those at the rank of Associate Professor or within 2 years of promotion to the rank of full Professor.
Innovation & Collaboration grants may support: (1) extramural proposal development activities, (2) campus activities such as workshops or colloquia focused on a strategic research goal, (3) pilot data collection for new cross-disciplinary team projects, or (4) support for graduate students or postdocs to participate in data collection, preliminary analysis, and/or proposal writing. Additional activities may be supported with justification. Teams may request up to $75,000. All proposals should include metrics and a reporting plan for the duration of the period of performance.
ORP encourages teams to collaborate with colleagues in diverse fields outside their own, including the sciences, engineering, health, social sciences, humanities, arts, design, and education in support of their objectives.
New Research Collaborations: Proposals should describe how the investigators will initiate a new research collaboration on campus or with external partners (including academic, industry, community, or government) in support of proposal development activities led by U of A. Proposals may include partner universities, but funding is limited to activities on U of A campus or with U of A personnel.
Proposal preparation, submission, and processing information is available in the ORP Proposal Preparation Guide (PPG) v10, which is downloadable in Arizona Cultivate. The PPG includes requirements for the project narrative and supplemental documents; it is strongly encouraged that interested applicants read the PPG in full as proposals that do not match the PPG will be returned without review.
Please note the budget approval process which utilizes an applicant driven routing step after submission. Applicants will input the email address of their business officer or award/research administrator when prompted at the end of the application prior to submission. The email address should be for the person who has authority to create, review, and approve the budget. The system will send a link for approval via the email listed to the business officer or award/research administrator where they may confirm they reviewed and approved the submitted budget. This approval step is required before an application is accepted for compliance checks and formal review. The deadline for business officer or award/research administrator is May 8, 2026 at 5:00 pm MST. ORP recommends the investigator alert their budget officer/research administrator of this process in advance of their submission.
Solicitation-specific information below supersedes information presented in the PPG.
Solicitation Specific Requirements:
- Eligibility: In addition to the eligibility described in the PPG, the PI and at least one Co-PI must be from distinct disciplines (e.g., from two distinct colleges or departments).
- Proposal Review: In addition to the criteria described in the PPG, special consideration may be made for proposals that will enable high-risk, high-reward research at U of A.
Questions: resdev@arizona.edu