Limited Submissions Calendar

09/03/2024

Limit: 1// R. Liang (Wyant College of Optical Sciences)

*UA may submit one proposal under the Research Partnerships track. There is no institutional limitation on the Technology Translation track.

If you don’t have a demonstrated and substantial industry relationship as required for a PFI submission, please reach out to Brian Adair(link sends e-mail) or Lindsay Ridpath(link sends e-mail), to help develop those connections so that your proposal is competitive. PFI proposals are accepted three times per year and you may be better served by strengthening your industry relationship and waiting for the next cycle.


The Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program within the Division of Translational Impacts (TI) offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering funded by NSF the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development, catalyze partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit.

The Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) track seeks to achieve the same goals as the PFI-TT track by supporting instead complex, multi-faceted technology development projects that are typically beyond the scope of a single researcher or institution and require a multi-organizational, interdisciplinary, synergistic collaboration. A PFI-RP project requires the creation of partnerships between academic researchers and third-party organizations such as industry, non-academic research organizations, federal laboratories, public or non-profit technology transfer organizations or other universities. Such partnerships are needed to conduct use-inspired research on a stand-alone larger project toward commercialization and societal impact. In the absence of such synergistic partnership, the project’s likelihood for success would be minimal.

The intended outcomes of both PFI-TT and PFI-RP tracks are: a) the commercialization of new intellectual property derived from NSF-funded research outputs; b) the creation of new or broader collaborations with industry (including increased corporate sponsored research); c) the licensing of NSF-funded research outputs to third party corporations or to start-up companies funded by a PFI team; and d) the training of future innovation and entrepreneurship leaders.


 

The please be aware of important revisions in the PFI program recently announced in solicitation NSF 23-538, as outlined below:

NSF Lineage Requirement
Innovation Corps (NSF I-CorpsTM) Teams awards no longer convey the lineage required to submit a PFI proposal.
All proposals submitted to the PFI program must meet a lineage requirement by having NSF-supported research results in any field of science and engineering: Principal Investigator (PI) or a co-PI must have had an NSF award that ended no more than seven (7) years prior to the full proposal deadline date or be a current NSF award recipient. The proposed technology development project must be derived from the research results and/or discoveries from this underlying NSF award.

Award Information
The funding amounts in both tracks of the PFI program have significantly increased. Specifically:

• PFI-Technology Translation (PFI-TT) projects will be funded for up to $550,000 for 18-24 months per award; and

• PFI-Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) projects will be funded for up to $1,000,000 for 36 months.
   

New full proposal deadlines
The PFI solicitation has three revised deadlines each year:

• May 2, 2023
  First Tuesday in May, Annually Thereafter

• September 3, 2024
  First Tuesday in September, Annually Thereafter

• January 2, 2025
  First Tuesday in January, Annually Thereafter

05/10/2024

Apply to the UA internal competition  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

This request for applications is specifically for pediatric cancer research through the Translational grant mechanism. Applicants may propose pediatric cancer research that moves a novel strategy from the laboratory into a human clinical trial or uses specimens from a clinical trial to develop biomarkers or mechanisms. The research should apply in some direct way to human beings within the time frame of less than 3 years from the end of the grant. If biomarker research is undertaken, a validation set or independent clinical trial is essential. A plan for biomarker validation, if applicable, must be included in any proposal. The endpoint of the project should be the planning or initiation of a new clinical trial.

Research areas not included in this scope are epidemiology, behavioral science, and health services research.

For more information please contact UACC-preaward@arizona.edu.

09/12/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Contact RDS for more information

The grant requires that research institutions shift their policies and practices to value collaborative research. Institutions will also need to build the capacity of researchers to produce relevant work and the capacity of agency and nonprofit partners to use research.

We welcome applications from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, prevention of child abuse and neglect, foster care, mental health, immigration, and workforce development. We especially encourage proposals from teams with African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American members in leadership roles. The partnership leadership team includes the principal investigator from the research institution and the lead from the public agency or nonprofit organization.

05/15/2024 ( Nomination) - 09/07/2024 ( Proposal)

 Limit: 1 // H. Ding (Translational Pharmacogenomics)

One nomination will be invited from each of the participating institutions.

The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals who are in their first few years of their appointment at the assistant professor level. The current grant level is $300,000; $75,000 per year for a four-year period.

Candidates must hold a doctorate in biomedical sciences, medicine, or a related field, including engineering or the physical sciences.

Based on their performance during their education and training, candidates should demonstrate outstanding promise as contributors in science relevant to human health. This program does not fund clinical trials research. Strong proposals will incorporate particularly creative and pioneering approaches to basic, translational, and applied biomedical research. Candidates whose work is based on biomedical principles but who bring in concepts and theories from more diverse fields are encouraged to apply.

Candidates must meet all of the following eligibility requirements:

• Hold a doctorate in biomedical sciences, medicine, or a related field, including engineering or the physical sciences.
• As of Sept. 7, 2024, run an independent lab and hold a full-time appointment at the rank of assistant professor.
• Must not have been appointed as an assistant professor at any institution prior to June 12, 2020, whether or not such an appointment was on a tenure track. Time spent in clinical internships, residencies, in work toward board certification, or on parental leave does not count as part of this four-year limit. Candidates who need an exception on the four-year limit should contact Pew’s program office to ensure that application reviewers are aware an exception has been given.
  • Please note that the eligibility criteria above have been temporarily expanded to account for COVID-related lab shutdowns. Please direct any questions to the program office at scholarsapp@pewtrusts.org.
• May apply to the program a maximum of two times. 
• If applicants have appointments at more than one eligible nominating institution or affiliate, they may not reapply in a subsequent year from a different nominating entity.
• May not be nominated for the Pew Scholars Program and the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research in the same year.

08/05/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

The NSF ADVANCE program goal is to broaden the implementation of evidence-based systemic change strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. UArizona is only elegible for the Partnership Track.

• Partnership projects are expected to result in national or regional transformation in STEM academic workplaces and the academic profession and demonstrate significant reach. Partnership projects can focus on the transformation of institutions and organizations and/or the transformation within one or more STEM disciplines.

09/06/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 2

Only two applications per institution (normally identified by having a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number or NIH IPF number) are allowed.

The NIH Director's Early Independence Award supports rigorous and promising investigators who wish to pursue independent research soon after completion of their terminal doctoral degree or post-graduate clinical training, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career. To support innovative and novel research across the vast NIH mission, individuals from diverse backgrounds (including those from underrepresented groups; see Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity) and from the full spectrum of eligible institutions in all geographic locations are encouraged to apply. Applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome, including, but not limited to, topics in the behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. The NIH Director's Early Independence Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program of the NIH Common Fund.

Requirements:

• Single PD/PI: Only single PD/PI applications are allowed. Multiple PD/PIs applications will not be accepted. Only the PD/PI may be listed as a Senior/Key Person and provide a Biographical Sketch.
• Citizenship: U.S. citizenship is not required. For non-U.S. citizens, the applicant institution is responsible for ensuring the PD/PI's U.S. visa status will allow them to conduct the proposed research at the applicant institution for the entire project period.
• Degree Receipt Date: The receipt date of the PD/PI’s terminal doctoral degree or end of post-graduate clinical training must be between May 1, 2023, and September 30, 2025. The degree receipt date is that which appears on the official transcript for the degree. The end of post-graduate clinical training includes residency and fellowship periods. At the time of award, either:

1. The PD/PI must have received a PhD, MD, DO, DC, DDS, DVM, OD, DPM, ScD, EngD, DrPH, DNSc, ND (Doctor of Naturopathy), PharmD, DSW, PsyD, or equivalent doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution (it is the responsibility of the sponsoring institution to determine if a foreign doctoral degree is equivalent).
2. Or an authorized official of the degree-granting or training institution must certify that all degree requirements have been met and that the receipt date of the degree (as will appear on the transcript) will be before September 30, 2025. An authorized official of the host institution must certify that the PD/PI will be able to conduct independent research at the institution at the time of the project start date.

• Post-doctoral Experience: The PD/PI must not have served as a post-doctoral fellow for more than 12 months following a previous, non-terminal doctoral degree (this only applies to PD/PIs with multiple doctoral degrees who served in a 12+ month post-doctoral fellowship before their terminal degree).
• Level of Effort: In the first and second years of the project period, the PD/PI must commit at least 9.6 person-months of effort to the Early Independence Award project each year (80% effort per year). In years 3-5 of the project period, the PD/PI may reduce their effort on the Early Independence Award project but must still conduct at least 9.6 person-months of general independent research each year (80% effort per year). General independent research includes the effort spent on the Early Independence Award project and any other independent research projects the PD/PI is working on.
• Non-independence at Time of Application: Individuals are eligible only if they do not have research independence at the time of application submission. Research non-independence is defined functionally rather than by position title and must have all the following characteristics:
  1. The PD/PI's current research agenda is set through concurrence with mentors.
  2. The PD/PI's research is funded primarily through support to other investigators (mentored fellowships such as NIH F31 or F32 Fellowships or NSF Graduate Research Fellowships do not preclude eligibility).
  3. The PD/PI does not have any space assigned directly by the institution for the conduct of their research.
  4. The PD/PI cannot apply for an NIH R01 grant without a special waiver or exemption from the institution according to institutional policy.

Though PD/PIs must not be functionally independent at the time of application submission, they may become functionally independent prior to time of award and still retain eligibility.

• Independent Research Position: An independent research position at a host institution is required, and the PD/PI must be able to begin independent research by the project start date. The position need not be permanent or tenure-track and may be contingent upon receipt of the Early Independence Award. Prospective PD/PIs should contact appropriate institutional leaders to seek an appointment to an independent research position. Alternatively, institutions may actively recruit eligible scientists to apply for support through this initiative. In either case, the institution is expected to provide substantial support to the PD/PI as detailed in the Facilities & Other Resources section. To foster independence, PD/PIs may benefit from being hosted by an institution at which they have not previously studied or trained.
• Career Awards: PD/PIs may apply for a research career development (K) award and DP5 at the same time, but NIH policy prohibits scientific overlap. A PD/PI may not hold a DP5 and career development award concurrently: The career development award must be relinquished to receive the DP5.
• Site Visit: NIH staff will conduct a one-time site visit at the end of the first year to assess the PD/PI's progress and to ensure they are receiving the institutional resources and support outlined in the application. NIH staff will meet with the PD/PI, lab personnel, mentors, faculty, and institutional leadership. Failure to provide independence and/or support may lead to NIH actions, including reduction of funds.

Awards will be for up to $250,000 in direct costs per year, plus applicable Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs.

The project period is limited to five years.

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05/08/2024

 Limit: 4  // Tickets Available: 1* 

A. Thirupathi Raj ( Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering)
Q. Hao (Mathematics)
K. Svoboda (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

 Universities may nominate up to four eligible students. We encourage nominating students with diverse backgrounds especially those from historically marginalized groups in the field of computing.

*If more than two students are nominated then we strongly encourage additional nominees who self-identify as a woman, Black / African descent, Hispanic / Latino / Latinx, Indigenous, and/or a person with a disability.

Google PhD Fellowships directly support graduate students as they pursue their PhD, as well as connect them to a Google Research Mentor.

Nurturing and maintaining strong relations with the academic community is a top priority at Google. The Google PhD Fellowship Program was created to recognize outstanding graduate students doing exceptional and innovative research in areas relevant to computer science and related fields. Fellowships support promising PhD candidates of all backgrounds who seek to influence the future of technology. Google’s mission is to foster inclusive research communities and encourages people of diverse backgrounds to apply. We currently offer Fellowships in Africa, Australia, Canada, East Asia, Europe, India, Latin America, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and the United States.

In the United States, Canada, and Europe, PhD students must be nominated by their university. Any accredited research institution that awards research degrees to PhD students may submit nominations by an official representative of the university. Please see our FAQ for more information.

Materials must be submitted by chairs of the department from eligible universities, or their designated contact. 

Areas of Interest 

Google PhD Fellowship students are a select group recognized by Google researchers and their institutions as some of the most promising young academics in the world. The Fellowships are awarded to students who represent the future of research in the following fields:

• Algorithms and Theory
• Distributed Systems and Parallel Computing
• Health & Bioscience
• Human-Computer Interaction and Visualization
• Machine Intelligence
• Machine Perception
• Natural Language Processing
• Networking
• Quantum Computing
• Security, Privacy and Abuse Prevention
• Software Engineering
• Software Systems
• Speech Processing
• Other areas listed in application forms during application window

Eligibility Requirements 

Universities should only nominate students that meet the following requirements:

• Students must remain enrolled full-time in the PhD program for the duration of the Fellowship or forfeit the award.
• Google employees, and their spouses, children, and members of their household are not eligible.
• Students that are already supported by a comparable industry award are not eligible. Government or non-profit organization funding is exempt.
• Past awardees from the PhD Fellowship program are not eligible to apply again.
• Canada and the United States: students who have completed graduate coursework in their PhD by the academic award year when the Fellowship begins.

Students cannot apply directly to the program; they must be nominated by an eligible university during the application period.

05/23/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

The four-year RHRC Program awards will support research centers with specific rural health research areas of concentration. The topic(s) of concentration must relate to policy issues intended to inform the improvement of health care in rural areas. The topic(s) of concentration must also be of enduring interest and importance to rural providers, rural stakeholders, policymakers, and/or rural communities. RHRC recipients will conduct policy-oriented health services research. In addition to primary and secondary research, the applicant may conduct literature syntheses and update existing research to produce timely and relevant information. 

You may apply for either the:

(1) RHRC Program (base award of up to $700,000 per year for 4 years) alone; or
(2) RHRC Program (base award of up to $700,000 per year for 4 years) and Optional RHRC Supplement (of up to $250,000) awarded no more than once per year for each year of the 4-year period of performance.

05/28/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 2 

The PRINT program aims to transform organ biofabrication by leveraging recent advances in 3D bioprinting, cell manufacturing, biomaterials, modeling, and tissue engineering. The PRINT program will assemble the necessary tools to facilitate production from a human cell source to a patient matched biofabricated organ to restore at least 40% normal organ function as demonstrated in a large animal model. 

Areas of Interest:

• Technical Area 1 (TA1): Generation of all necessary organ cell types (Phase I)
• Technical Area 2 (TA2): Large scale manufacturing of organ cell types (Phase I & II)
• Technical Area 3 (TA3): Organ Biofabrication and in vivo testing (Phase I and II)

05/29/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Only one proposal will be considered by ECA from each applicant organization. 

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational Cultural Affairs (ECA) announces the American Music Mentorship Program (AMMP) open competition for one cooperative agreement to support a mentorship residency for music industry professionals from around the world. AMMP is a two-to-three-week U.S.-based mentorship residency for approximately 20 mid-career music industry professionals (“mentees”) from three to five countries. AMMP is ECA’s Global Music Diplomacy Initiative’s (GMDI) mentorship program, first announced by U.S. Secretary of State Blinken in September 2023 in response to the PEACE through Music Diplomacy Act. The program seeks to bolster music ecosystems, which play a vital role in fostering diverse and inclusive societies, championing innovation, protecting free expression, promoting economic opportunity, and contributing to the vitality of a civil society. AMMP is facilitated by a partnership between ECA and a private sector partner. With ECA input, the private sector partner will lead the recruitment and selection process and secure American professionals from its membership to serve as “mentors,” who will volunteer their time. Mentors will be available four days during the in-person program and meet virtually monthly with the mentees for up to a year following the residency. Mentors will provide behind-the-scenes access, bolster the mentees’ technical skills and build the foundations for lasting professional networks.

09/06/2024

Submit ticket request  // Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 2

UA may participate in only two (2) proposals per NRT competition as lead or collaborative non-lead. Collaborative non-lead projects must participate in the internal competition. One slot is still available.
UA is not eligible for track 2. Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity (R1) are not eligible for Track 2 consideration.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. Proposals are requested that address any interdisciplinary or convergent research theme of national priority.

The NRT program addresses workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity building needs in graduate education. The program encourages proposals that involve strategic collaborations with the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and academic partners. NRT especially welcomes proposals that include partnership with NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) and leverage INCLUDES project efforts to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society. Collaborations between NRT proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects should strengthen both NRT and INCLUDES projects.
 

Priority Research Areas

For FY2021 and FY2022, proposals are encouraged in the research areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) and the six research areas in NSF's 10 Big Ideas. The NSF research Big Ideas are Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR), The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF), Navigating the New Arctic (NNA), Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (WoU), The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution (QL), and Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype (URoL). The FY2021 Budget Request to Congress includes an additional $15 million to include a special focus on artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence engineering.

Track 1
Track 1 proposals may request a total budget (up to five years in duration) up to $3 million for projects with a focus on STEM graduate students in research-based PhD and/or master’s degree programs. All Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting on behalf of their faculty members and that award a research-based master’s degree and/or a doctoral degree in STEM disciplines supported by the National Science Foundation are eligible to apply to Track 1