Researchers looking for funding opportunities can find Penn State limited submission listings as well as occasional calls and announcements from outside of the University.
Funding @ Penn State
Find internal and external funding resources
Upcoming Opportunities
Packard Fellowships for Science & Engineering
The Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering program invests in future leaders who have the freedom to take risks, explore new frontiers in their fields of study, and follow uncharted paths that may lead to groundbreaking discoveries. Every year, the Foundation invites the presidents of 50 universities to nominate two early-career professors each from their institutions. Nominations are carefully reviewed by the Fellowship Advisory Panel, comprised of distinguished scientists and engineers. Twenty recipients will receive individual grants of $875,000 distributed over five years.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 4:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1961330
Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award (NIA) 2025
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) intends to support and promote the future generation of exceptionally talented and creative new faculty who are conducting critical and highly innovative research and are establishing research programs that will lead to expanded availability of food and facilitate the global practice of sustainable agriculture as the world’s population grows to more than nine billion people by the year 2050.
The New Innovator Award seeks to promote career advancement of highly creative and promising new scientists who intend to make a long-term career commitment to research in food and agriculture and bring innovative, ground-breaking research initiatives and thinking to bear on problems facing food and agriculture. Within the scope of the New Innovator Program, investigators will have the freedom to explore new avenues of inquiry that arise during their research. Therefore, FFAR is interested in the program of research to be explored and its impact as opposed to a list of very specific aims.
Letter of Intent Deadline: Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 5:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1961307
USDA Equipment Grant Program (EGP)
The Equipment Grant Program (EGP) serves to increase access to shared-use special purpose equipment/instruments for fundamental and applied research for use in the food and agricultural sciences programs at institutions of higher education, including State Cooperative Extension Systems.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 4:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1961748
American Chemical Society: Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) Grants
This is one of 2 Petroleum Research Fund programs. The goals of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund are: 1) To support fundamental research in the petroleum field, and 2) to develop the next generation of engineers and scientists through support of advanced scientific education. Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) grants provide start-up funding for scientists and engineers in the United States who are within the first three years of their first academic appointment at the level of Assistant Professor or the equivalent. Applicants may have limited or no preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue, with the intention of using the preliminary results obtained to seek continuation funding from other agencies. The DNI grants are to be used to illustrate proof of principle or concept, to test a hypothesis, or to demonstrate feasibility of an approach.
Internal Submission Deadline: Monday, March 3, 2025
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1964932
American Chemical Society: New Directions Grant
This is one of 2 Petroleum Research Fund programs. The goals of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund are: 1) To support fundamental research in the petroleum field, and 2) to develop the next generation of engineers and scientists through support of advanced scientific education. The New Directions (ND) grants program provides funds to scientists and engineers with limited—or even no—preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue, and who intend to use the PRF-driven preliminary results to seek continuation funding from other agencies. ND grants are to be used to illustrate proof of concept/feasibility. Accordingly, they are to be viewed as seed money for new research ventures.
Internal Submission Deadline: Monday, March 3, 2025 at 9:59 am
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1964936
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Interdisciplinary Social Science Research on Energy System Interactions in the United States
The Energy and Environment program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supports research, training, networking, and dissemination efforts to inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues. The program is currently inviting Letters of Inquiry for interdisciplinary, collaborative social science research projects led by early- and mid-career scholars that analyze the systemic interactions and connections associated with the transition to a low-carbon economy in the United States. This Call for Letters of Inquiry is deliberately framed broadly to encourage the submission of research project ideas that examine the links and implications between different components of the energy system and how they relate to other aspects of the economy. It is expected that 4-6 grants will be awarded from the Call, and grant amounts are expected to be between $500,000 and $1,000,000 over a 2-4 year period.
Internal Submission Deadline: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1964444
Charles E. Kaufman Foundation: New Investigator Research Letter of Intent
The mission of the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation is to support fundamental research in biology, chemistry and physics at Pennsylvania institutions of higher education. The Foundation distributes grants in two areas: New Investigator Research and New Initiative Research. The goal of the New Investigator Research Grants program is to provide research support for innovative scientists in Pennsylvania as they transition into an academic position as a new independent investigator. Proposals are required to address basic (fundamental, pure) questions addressing core principles in biology, physics and chemistry or at the disciplinary boundaries between these fields. Competitive submissions are expected to be rich in innovative ideas and approaches with the potential for generating transformative intellectual advances.
Internal Submission Deadline: Thursday, March 20, 2025
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1961793
Charles E. Kaufman Foundation: New Initiatives Research Letter of Intent
The mission of the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation is to support fundamental research in biology, chemistry and physics at Pennsylvania institutions of higher education. The Foundation distributes grants in two areas: New Investigator Research and New Initiative Research. The goal of the New Initiative Research Grants program is to stimulate existing investigators with strong records of research accomplishments to establish collaborations that facilitate innovative interdisciplinary approaches towards a common research question and that require expertise beyond that of any single researcher. Investigators may be at different institutions in Pennsylvania or at the same institution in Pennsylvania, provided that different approaches are combined to address a new research initiative. Proposals are required to address basic (fundamental, pure) questions addressing core principles in biology, physics and chemistry or at the disciplinary boundaries between these fields. Competitive submissions are expected to be rich in innovative ideas and approaches with the potential for generating transformative intellectual advances.
Internal Submission Deadline: Thursday, March 20, 2025
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1961809
PAm Apicology Research Grants
PAm seeks projects that work on the problem to solve. It is important that the commercial beekeeping community benefit from the research and its application. Proposals are reviewed by our volunteer scientific advisory board, ad-hoc reviewers, and our board of directors. Proposals or scholarship applications should clearly state how they address the bee health “problem to solve”, and/or any research priorities stated in any specific RFP or scholarship announcement. Funding decisions are primarily based on an overall evaluation. Our scientific advisors are attentive to scientific methods, proper controls, and reproducible results. Proposals should be clear-cut, have practical implications, and lend themselves to statistical interpretation.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 4:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1963740
FY25 USGS 104B Grant: PA Water Resources Research Center (PAWRRC) Request for Proposals
Background. The Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center (PAWRRC) is part of the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR), in a unique federal-state-university partnership program authorized by section 104 of the Water Resources Research Act. This small grant program is supported by a NIWR federal base grant to the PAWRRC, via the U.S. Geological Survey (http://water.usgs.gov/wrri/).
Activities. PAWRRC invites academic faculty and researchers employed by any accredited university in Pennsylvania to submit proposals for research projects (addressing unanswered questions in water resources) or information transfer projects (making research-based information available to user communities). Per the goals of NIWR, projects should focus primarily on fresh waters, not estuaries or marine waters. We encourage projects that assist early career faculty with developing a water research program (e.g., an assistant professor as PI/co-PI and/or engaging students); inform or work with partners (e.g., agencies, civil society, and/or stakeholders); and/or develop products (e.g., peer-reviewed research publications, effective outreach materials).
Internal Submission Deadline: Friday, April 11, 2025
P&G Higher Education Grant
The Procter & Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant Program has been established to provide support for efforts of regionally accredited U.S. colleges and universities that will better prepare students for success in business. These grants are aimed at projects that enhance student success focusing on areas such as curriculum improvement, leadership opportunities, innovation, and diversity enhancement. Grants will be provided for specific projects or programs, not for operating support.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 5:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1961932
Inter-Institutional Partnerships for Diversifying Research 2025
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, in collaboration with the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), Materials Research Institute (MRI), the Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE), the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and the Cancer Institute (CU), is offering a new interdisciplinary seed grant program aimed at developing new or leveraging existent strategic partnerships and alliances with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs): the Inter-Institutional Program for Diversifying Research. The goal of the IPDR is to perform collaborative work that advances research development capability as well as student and faculty training needed to support such research collaborations.
Deadline: Saturday, May 10, 2025
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Climate + Health Excellence (CHEX) Centers Award
This program is meant to support institutions or consortia that have already begun to work toward taking on the problem of climate’s impact on health. Consortia might include neighboring institutions with already established collaborations, but of more relevance to this RFP are consortia of institutions united by common interests, for example in the health of residents of the Appalachian Mountains or the Great Lakes region, an urban focus, or a focus on rural life, etc.
Deadline: August 7, 2025