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
Electronics Scrap Recycling Advancement Prize (E-SCRAP)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) is launching the American-Made Electronics Scrap Recycling Advancement Prize (E-SCRAP) $3.95 million in prizes, this three-phase prize is designed to stimulate innovative approaches that reduce the costs and environmental impact of critical material recovery from electronic scrap (e-scrap). Competitors will optimize, validate, and integrate new and improved approaches along the entire recycling value chain to increase the production and use of recovered critical materials. This prize focuses on innovative approaches, processes, or technologies in service of optimizing and implementing critical material separation and recovery from e-scrap.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 4:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1934892
Center for Nanoscale Science 2024 Seed Competition
The Penn State MRSEC Center for Nanoscale Science invites proposals for the 2024 Seed competition. This competition focuses on nucleating potential new Interdisciplinary Research Groups, looking forward to the upcoming MRSEC re-competition cycle in 2025–26.
“Seed-IRG” proposals should aim to coalesce world-leading interdisciplinary teams focused on an emerging high-risk/high-reward area of materials research, and should seek to demonstrate key results that could underpin a successful IRG in the upcoming NSF MRSEC competition. A town hall on April 23, during and immediately following the Millennium Café, will provide a venue to convey and discuss the qualities of a successful Seed-IRG proposal.
Seed-IRG proposals contain three parts: (1) a project description not to exceed 5 pages total (12 point font, 1” margins; the page limit does not apply to references), (2) a very brief budget description, and (3) CV's of the principal investigators, of any reasonable length. The format of the budget statement is flexible. Seed-IRG projects are anticipated to be funded at 100 to 150K in direct costs over ~18 months. The MRSEC anticipates supporting from one to three Seed-IRGs.
Note that the NSF generally prefers to avoid substantial overlap between the research topics of different IRGs across the MRSEC program, so strong overlap with an existing MRSEC IRG elsewhere should be avoided. Information about these programs can be found at www.mrsec.org. If such overlap exists for your Seed-IRG topic, this should be addressed in your writeup.
Proposals should be submitted in a single self-contained pdf file to vhc2@psu.edu.
Deadline: May 20, 2024
Advancing Sustainable Chemistry
Chemistry is at the forefront of the transition into a more circular economy and can enable solutions that support the use of clean energy, renewable materials, and materials management. However, current approaches to chemistry can have harmful impacts on human health and the environment. Research is needed on new chemical products and chemical processes that use energy and utilities more efficiently, ensure feedstocks are optimized, are strategically consumed and reused, and provide society with chemicals and manufacturing processes that are less harmful to human health and the environment.
Sustainable chemistry produces compounds or materials with intentional design, manufacture, use, and end-of-life management. Across their lifecycle, sustainable chemicals promote circularity, meet societal needs, and contribute to economic resilience. The introduction of more sustainable chemical products, processes, and technologies are needed to address emerging and growing challenges and opportunities for the economy, climate action, and environmental justice. This Request for Applications (RFA) is soliciting research for data, methods, and systems that lead to actionable, scalable change toward chemistry, chemicals, and products that support sustainable chemistry.
Deadline: May 29, 2024
https://www.epa.gov/research-grants/advancing-sustainable-chemistry
W.M. Keck Foundation: Science & Engineering/Medical Research - Fall 2024
The W. M. Keck Research Program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting two different areas: (1) Medical Research and (2) Science & Engineering. Keck seeks distinctive, novel projects that question prevailing paradigms, of have the potential to break open new territory in their field.
Past grants have been awarded to major universities, independent research institutions, and medical schools to support pioneering biological or physical science and engineering research, including the development of promising new technologies, instrumentation or methodologies. You will read about two categories throughout (1) Medical Research and (2) Science & Engineering; these two areas are distinct. However, research related to human biology, whether the PI considers it to fall under medicine, will be reviewed by Keck’s medicine team.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, June 12, 2024 at 4:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1939582
Air Quality Information: Making Sense of Air Pollution Data to Inform Decisions in Underserved Communities Overburdened by Air Pollution Exposures Funding Opportunity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD), as part of the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program and in collaboration with the Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE) research program, is seeking applications proposing community-engaged research in underserved communities to advance the use of air pollution data and communication of air quality information for empowering local decisions and actions that address community-identified air pollution concerns. Specifically, this funding opportunity is soliciting research projects that involve substantial engagement with communities, community-based organizations, and/or Tribes to address both of the following priorities:
- methods and tools for data integration and analysis to characterize community exposures to air pollution in underserved communities
- effective communication of air quality information to communities and decision makers to support actions to address air pollution concerns in underserved communities
This research solicitation supports the Administration’s priorities to address environmental justice (EJ).
Deadline: June 26, 2024
2024 Climate Solutions Accelerator Program Call for Project Proposals
Accelerating and expanding solutions to the climate crisis requires bold research innovation and rapid and effective societal translation. Building on Penn State’s land grant mission to support local and global issues facing people and our planet, the Climate Consortium is requesting proposals for Climate Solutions Accelerator Teams to promote interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral partnerships to design climate-smart solutions that are equitable and sustainable, supporting human and environmental well-being.
Climate Solutions Accelerator Teams are expected to accelerate the translation of evidence-based climate solutions through co-production with key partners. Proposed projects should be beyond the idea/concept (“seed”) phase and should be ready to scale and/or be implemented by the end of the anticipated two-year funding period.
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Neurobiology in Changing Ecosystems (NiCE) (NSF 24-044)
Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie neural, physiological, and behavioral responses to anthropogenic environmental change is of vital importance in today's rapidly evolving world. The nervous system serves as an interface between an organism and its environment, and through it, perceives, responds, and adapts to change. Anthropogenic stressors such as noise pollution, ocean acidification, chemical pollution, temperature fluctuation and other human-generated environmental perturbations pose severe threats to organisms, thereby affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Internal Submission Deadline: Monday, September 30, 2024 at 4:00 pm
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1930966
XPRIZE Foundation Healthspan
XPRIZE Healthspan is a 7-year, $101M global competition announced in December 2023 and ending in 2030, to revolutionize the way we approach aging. People around the world are living longer, but not necessarily in better health. To tackle this challenge, competing teams will develop and test therapeutic target biological aging to improve function and extend healthy life. This globally collaborative effort will bring together scientists, clinicians, policymakers, industry experts and non-governmental agencies to drive new science and create a future where healthy aging is made possible for all.
Internal Submission Deadline: Thursday, October 31, 2024
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1925105
XPrize Foundation Revolutionizing Desalinization for Global Water Use
XPRIZE Water Scarcity is a 5-year global competition set to drive a step change in desalination technologies - reimagining systems, methods, and materials. Thereby facilitating the widespread use of desalination in a manner that supports greater socio-economic equity and environmental sustainability.
This competition will address issues across desalination and water scarcity in three ways:
- through encouraging new desalination systems to be more robust, affordable, and sustainable;
- by supporting novel membrane materials to make existing desalination more robust, affordable, and sustainable; and
- by exciting innovators across the globe to get involved in developing public perception campaigns to address water scarcity from a broader perspective.
Internal Submission Deadline: Monday, January 6, 2025
https://psu.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1933862