External Funding Opportunities & GrantForward

Please note the following important NSF Funding Agency Updates:

National Science Foundation (NSF) - Multifactor Authentication (MFA)  Effective October 27, 2024, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is implementing multifactor authentication (MFA) for Research.gov. With the growing number of cyber threats, traditional password-only security is no longer sufficient. MFA provides an added layer of security and helps to ensure that only authorized users can access Federal resources online. 

MFA is a layered security measure that requires two or more authentication methods to verify a user’s identity. MFA will increase the security of the Research.gov portal because even if one authentication method such as a password becomes compromised, unauthorized users will be unable to meet the second authentication requirement and will be prevented from accessing Research.gov.

Here are the three main types of MFA and examples of each:

Something You Know – PIN, password, or one-time passcode (OTP)

Something You Have – Physical object such as a mobile device, laptop, USB device, key, or smart card

Something You Are – Biometric authentication such as a fingerprint or face scan

Visit the new About Signing Into Research.gov page for how-to guides, video tutorials, and FAQs:  https://www.research.gov/research-web/content/rgovsignin

National Science Foundation (NSF) - New Requirements for Senior/Key Personnel Documents

Biographical Sketches

NSF has partnered with the National Institutes of Health to use SciENcv: Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae as the NSF-approved format for use in preparation of the biographical sketch section of an NSF proposal. Adoption of a single, common researcher profile system for federal grants reduces administrative burden for researchers. Proposers must use SciENcv to prepare their biographical sketches for proposals to NSF. SciENcv will produce an NSF-compliant PDF version of the biographical sketch. Proposers must save this document and submit it as part of their proposal via Research.gov or Grants.gov. Frequently asked questions on using SciENcv: https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/SciENcvFAQs.pdf

Current and Pending (Other) Support

SF has partnered with the National Institutes of Health to use SciENcv: Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae as the NSF-approved format for use in preparation of the current and pending support section of an NSF proposal. Adoption of a single, common researcher profile system for federal grants reduces administrative burden for researchers. Proposers must use SciENcv to prepare their Current and Pending (Other) Support information for proposals to NSF.  SciENcv will produce NSF-compliant PDF versions of the current and pending support format. Proposers must save this document and submit it as part of their proposal via Research.gov or Grants.gov. Frequently asked questions on using SciENcv:  https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/SciENcvFAQs.pdf

Synergistic Activities

NSF requires this one-page document for each individual identified as senior/key personnel. What to include in your Synergistic Activities information: A list of up to five distinct examples that demonstrate the broader impact of your professional and scholarly activities, focusing on the creation, integration and transfer of knowledge.

Current NSF Opportunities:

• NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program

     Grant Submission Due: January 8, 2025

The National Science Foundation has released the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program. This program is committed to funding research and practice, with continued focus on investigating a range of informal STEM learning (ISL) experiences and environments that make lifelong learning a reality.

This program seeks proposals that center engagement, broadening participation, and belonging, and further the well-being of individuals and communities who have been and continue to be excluded, under-served, or underrepresented in STEM along several dimensions. The current solicitation encourages proposals from institutions and organizations that serve public audiences, and specifically focus on public engagement with and understanding of STEM, including community STEM; public participation in scientific research (PPSR); science communication; intergenerational STEM engagement; and STEM media.

The AISL Program does not support activities primarily focused on formal educational systems or outcomes.

Program Tracks

Synthesis: AISL supports various types of syntheses, such as systematic literature reviews, meta-syntheses, meta-analyses, and other approaches to understanding questions, issues, or topics of central or emerging importance to the informal STEM learning eld that align with AISL goals for proposals.

Conference: Conferences bring combinations of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and/or learners together to share and discuss recent research, practice, and/or experiences to inform current and future informal STEM learning.

Partnership Development and Planning: Proposals submitted under this category are intended to foster strong partnerships among practitioners, researchers, learners or members of their community and support effective integration of their varied epistemologies, lived experiences, perspectives, requirements, goals, and expectations.

Integrating Research and Practice:  This project type fosters research-practice integration by addressing questions from practice through research to advance the field.

Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM: This project type seeks proposals that reach upwards of hundreds of thousands of informal STEM learners. It supports genuine partnerships between researchers and practitioners.

Eligibility

Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs); Non-profit, non-academic organizations; For-profit organizations; State and Local Governments Tribal Nations; Foreign organizations: For cooperative projects involving U.S. and foreign organizations, support will only be provided for the U.S. portion; Other Federal Agencies and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs): Contact the appropriate program before preparing a proposal for submission.

Estimated Total Program Funding $28,382,000 to $41,000,000

Estimated Number of Awards 48-77

6-8 Synthesis awards, 10-15 Conference awards, 10-15 Partnership Development and Planning awards, 12-16 Integrating Research and Practice awards and 5-8 Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM Project awards. AISL will also fund 1-3 awards made through the Research Coordination Networks (RCN) mechanism and 4-12 CAREER awards and REU supplements.

Anticipated Award Amount

Synthesis: Up to $500K over 3 years

Conference: Up to $250K over 2 years

Partnership Development and Planning: Up to $150K over 18 months

Integrating Research and Practice:  Up to $2M over 5 years

Research in Support of Wide-reaching Public Engagement with STEM: Up to $3.5M over 5 years

• NSF Build and Broaden (B2) Program

     Grant Submission Due: January 23, 2025

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released the Build and Broaden: Enhancing Social, Behavioral and Economic Science Research and Capacity at Minority-Serving Institutions (B2) program with a target date of January 23, 2025 (link). The goal of the SBE B2 funding opportunity is to encourage submission of proposals from MSIs, and partnerships with and among MSIs, in order to advance fundamental research and build capacity in the SBE sciences. NSF’s SBE directorate welcomes submission of proposals from MSIs, and from partnerships that include MSIs, that address any of the research areas supported by the directorate.

B2 is designed to support research projects that:

• Contribute to stronger, more innovative science by diversifying research and widening the STEM pipeline.
• Furthers intellectual innovation in the social and behavioral sciences.
• Provide researchers with new ways to diversify and sustain collaborations.
• Build capacity and enhance research productivity in the SBE sciences at MSIs.
• Foster partnerships that strengthen career and research trajectories for faculty at MSIs.

Anticipated Award Amount: Awards averaged approximately $300K over up to 3 years in 2024.

• NSF Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem Program

     Grant Submission Due: February 14, 2025 (Track 1) and November 14, 2025 (Track 2)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released the Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE) Program with a deadline of February 14, 2025 (Track 1) and November 14, 2025 (Track 2) (link). The Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE) program seeks to realize the benefits of open science practices toward advancing research and education in the geosciences. To achieve this vision, the GEO OSE program encourages efforts to foster adoption of open, inclusive, and equitable scientific practices across geoscience domains. The program supports development of innovative open science approaches that advance geosciences research and education through leveraging expanding information resources and computing capabilities. The program also supports initiatives to strengthen the capacity of current and future geoscientists to access, utilize, and collaborate within the growing ecosystem of open science resources.

Program Tracks

Track 1: These awards support smaller-scale activities seeking to organize geoscience research communities toward adoption of open science practices that accelerate scientific discovery in the geosciences. Awards may include open science planning activities for geoscience domains (e.g., development of community roadmaps), education/training initiatives that enable adoption of technologies that support open science practices, and/or mobilization campaigns to improve the openness of existing geoscience research programs. It is expected that supported projects will facilitate broad stakeholder involvement and address community-driven open science needs in the geosciences.

Track 2: These awards target larger-scale activities aimed at fostering transformation of geoscience research communities toward open science practices. Projects should be designed to grow user/developer communities within the existing ecosystem of capabilities (e.g., data repositories, software packages, computational resources) toward broad and sustained efforts to embed open science practices in the day-to-day research/education workflows of geoscientists.

Anticipated Award Amount

Track 1: Up to $500K over 2 years

Track 2: Up to $1M over 3 years

• Hispanic Serving Institutions: Equitable Transformation in STEM Education (ETSE) -

     Grant Submission Due: last Wednesday in August, annually

The ETSE competition focuses on (1) institutional transformation projects that support HSIs in their effort to achieve equity in STEM education, and (2) the infrastructure—the HSI-Net network of resource hubs—which supports the overall program goals. Institutions are encouraged to consider how their HSI designation, and their organizational mission align to better support STEM success of all students. The ETSE competition welcomes proposals that look to implement and evaluate promising practices and/or conduct research related to broadening participation or improving recruitment, retention, graduation, and other successful outcomes in STEM undergraduate education. IUSE: HSI program provides multiple opportunities to support an institution’s goal to become more student centered, including the Equitable Transformation in STEM Education (ETSE) competition. This competition includes the following tracks: Departmental/Division Transformation Track (DDTT) - New, Institutional Transformation Track (ITT), Emerging Faculty Research Track (EFRT) - New, HSI Program Resource Hubs (Hubs). This solicitation will also accept conference proposals and planning proposals, as defined by the PAPPG.

Please note the following important NIH Funding Agency Updates:

NIH Implementation of SciENcv and ORCID IDs in 2025

Effective May 25, 2025, the NIH will require the use of Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) to complete Common Forms (i.e., Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support) and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement to produce digitally certified PDF(s) for use in application submission. NSF already requires PIs to use SciENcv to create these forms. NIH will also require all Senior/Key Personnel to enter their ORCID ID into SciENcv in the Persistent Identifier (PID) section of the Common Forms.

What is SciENcv? Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) is an application that helps researchers assemble the professional information needed for participation in federally funded research.

Benefits:

• Allows researchers to describe their scientific contributions in their own language
• Reduces the administrative burden associated with federal grant submission and reporting requirements
• Eliminates the need to repeatedly enter biographical and Current and Pending (Other) Support information
• Leverages data from existing systems

SciENcv is run by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). To set up a SciENcv account, follow the following directions:

Use the following URL to get started https://account.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/signup or https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/.

1. If you already have an eRA Commons or NSF account, please use it to create your NCBI account.

For help setting up your SciENcv account, visit My NCBI Help at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154494/.

What is ORCID iD? ORCID is a free, unique, persistent identifier (PID) for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. To register for an ORCID iD, visit https://orcid.org/register.

For help setting up your ORCID iD, please review the videos listed at the following site: https://vimeo.com/showcase/4268215

Current NIH Opportunities:

• Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

     Grant Submission Due: February 25, 2025, June 25, 2024 or October 25, 2025

The purpose of this Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions is to support small scale research grants at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from the NIH, with an emphasis on providing biomedical research experiences primarily for undergraduate students, and enhancing the research environment at applicant institutions.

• Summer Research Education Experience Program (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

     Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): February 18, 2025

     Letter of Intent Due: 30 days prior to application due date

NIEHS will support applications focusing on summer research experiences in the environmental health sciences. Applications to NIEHS should provide research experiences that address or seek to understand how exposures to toxic environmental insults impact health, alter biologic processes, are linked to disease initiation, progression or morbidity, or activities that lead to the development of prevention and intervention strategies to reduce environmentally induced diseases. 

Current NEH Opportunities:

• NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants

     Grant Submission Due: January 9, 2025 & May 22, 2025

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has released the Digital Humanities Advancement Grants program. The program supports work that is innovative, experimental, and contributes to the critical infrastructure that underpins scholarly research, teaching, and public programming in the humanities.

Program Tracks

Level I: Supports smaller-scale projects or experimental or exploratory stages of larger projects. 

Level II: For projects that can demonstrate completion of an initial planning phase but are not yet ready for Level III funding; should include plans for extending work beyond the applicant institution.

Level III: For scaling up and expanding mature projects. 

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following: a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit); a state or local government or one of their agencies; a federally recognized Native American Tribal government.

Estimated Total Program Funding $2.2M

Estimated Number of Awards 10-15 per deadline

Anticipated Award Amount

Level I: Up to $75K over 2 years

Level II: Up to $150K over up to 2 years

Level III: Up to $350K over up to 3 years (plus up to $100K in federal matching funds)

Current DOE Opportunities:

• DOE Climate Resilience Centers (CRC)

     Grant Submission Due: February 20, 2025

The Department of Energy (DoE) has released the Climate Resilience Centers (CRC) with a deadline of February 20, 2025 (link). CRCs extend DOE climate science and research capacity by supporting non-R1 Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and non-R1 Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs) to address the needs for regional resilience; including new science to describe climate change induced impacts and recovery in natural, socioeconomic, and/or built systems and their intersections.

Anticipated Award Amount: Up to $1M over 3 years

Current Department of Education Opportunities:

• ED Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences Program

     Grant Submission Due: March 7, 2025

The Department of Education (ED) has released the Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences Program with a deadline of March 7, 2025 (link). Through the Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences Grant Program, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) aims to prepare individuals to conduct rigorous and relevant education research that advances knowledge within the field and addresses issues important to education policymakers and practitioners.

Program Topics

National Center for Education Research (NCER) will consider only applications that address one of the following topics:

• Early Career Development and Mentoring Program for Education Research
• Pathways to the Education Sciences Training Program
• Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Program in the Education Sciences
• Methods Training for Education Researchers

Anticipated Award Amount

Early Career Development and Mentoring Program for Education Research: Up to $400K over 4 years

Pathways to the Education Sciences Training Program: Up to $1.7M over 5 years

Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Program in the Education Sciences: Up to $5M over 5 years

Methods Training for Education Researchers: Up to $800K over 3 years

Current HRSA Opportunities:

• Graduate Psychology Education Program (GPE)

     Grant Submission Due: January 21, 2025

The purpose of the Graduate Psychology Education Program (HRSA) is to train doctoral health service psychology students, interns, and postdoctoral residents in integrated, interdisciplinary behavioral health, with significant focus on trauma-informed care and substance use disorder prevention and treatment services. The program will prepare trainees for practice in community-based primary care settings in high need and high demand areas. To support trainees, the program will also focus on developing health service psychology faculty.

• Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program for Professionals

     Grant Submission Due: January 21, 2025

The Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program for Professionals (HRSA) program aims to increase the supply of behavioral health professionals and improve the distribution of a well-trained behavioral health workforce. The program has a specific focus on understanding the needs of children, adolescents, and young adults at risk for mental health, trauma, and behavioral health disorders, and emphasizes interprofessional team-based models of care, integrating behavioral health training in primary care settings and recruiting a diverse workforce interested in serving high need and high demand areas. 

Current Foundation Opportunities:

• The Whitehall Foundation

     Grant Deadline Dates, annually: January 15 (LOI)/June 1 (Application), April 15 (LOI)/September 1 (Application), October 1 (LOI)/February 15 (Application)

This foundation's grant program assists scholarly research in the life sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology, defined as follows: Invertebrate and vertebrate (excluding clinical) neurobiology, specifically investigations of neural mechanisms involved in sensory, motor, and other complex functions of the whole organism as these relate to behavior. The overall goal should be to better understand behavioral output or brain mechanisms of behavior. The Foundation does not support research focused primarily on disease(s) unless it will also provide insights into normal functioning.

ORSP is pleased to announce that faculty, staff, and students now have access to the GrantForward database. GrantForward is a search engine dedicated to helping institutions and individuals find grants to fund their research.

• GrantForward covers more than 20,000 sponsors worldwide to provide a comprehensive database of more than 83,000 funding opportunities linked with over 6,000 pre-solicitations and 2.1M funded awards that continues to grow with the most up-to-date information.
• GrantForward’s powerful search system helps to lessen the hassle of searching for grants with advanced search filters and specialized search features.
• GrantForward researcher profiles allow researchers to highlight their research achievements and interests to receive personalized grant recommendations that match their research needs.

Access the Recording of the entire Webinar "Moving Your Next Project Forward with GrantForward" from Oct 25, 2024 here.

or access FAQ info in these additional resources:

• How do I find a grant? Video or PDF
• How do I receive grant recommendations? Video or PDF
• How do I learn strategic information using GratForward databases? Video or PDF
• Visit GrantForward YouTube Channel for other instruction videos.
• Visit the GrantForward Support page for the complete list of resources.

• Start moving your research forward by accessing this Single Sign-On URL https://www.grantforward.com/saml/kean and sign in using your institution account or
• Go to GrantForward.com, enter their institutional email address in the Log In (at the upper-right corner), then click outside of the Email Address input box to trigger the email recognition. When your email is detected, choose “Click here to use Single-Sign-On". 
• If you would like to benefit from receiving grant recommendations, then you will also need to make sure to create your researcher profile (see this Tutorial demo)