Programs intended for new faculty, usually those at or below the rank of Assistant Professor.

Some federal agencies offer programs designed for early-stage investigators. Checking the current sponsor website for updates regularly — including immediately prior to submission — is strongly encouraged. Always obtain and carefully read the most current solicitation documentation prior to preparing an application. The following is a list of curated funding opportunities. Additional solicitations can be found through other mechanisms as Pivot and Grants.gov.

Opportunities are also marked as relevant to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing) and HASSE (Humanities, Fine Arts, Social Science, Education). For a list of additional HASSE funding opportunities, please visit the HASSE funding opportunities page. 

Updated August 2022.

University of California

Academic Senate

  • Faculty Research Grants are small grants to support faculty research efforts, as well as faculty development, across the campus. Funding is competitive on the basis of scholarly excellence, with priority given to early career faculty with a clear need for funding. Application deadline: annually, at the end of winter quarter; Relevant to: STEM, HASSE

  • Faculty Travel Grants support faculty travel to national and international conferences for the purpose of presenting and discussing novel research results or creative work. Travel grants are limited to one virtual or domestic trip (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico) per fiscal year. Alternatively, funding for an international trip may be requested every other year, in lieu of virtual/domestic travel. Application deadline: at least 21 days in advance of participation. Relevant to: STEM, HASSE

  • Pearl Chase Research Grants - Supports faculty research projects related to local community development, conservation, or historic preservation. Winter quarter deadline; ~$10,000; Relevant to: STEM, HASSE

Academic Personnel

  • Faculty Career Development Award: Includes the Regents' Junior Faculty Award, which helps eligible junior faculty develop a substantial record in research and creative work necessary for advancement to tenure. Winter quarter deadline. Relevant to: STEM, HASSE
  • Hellman Family Faculty Fellows Program: Provides substantial support for the research of promising assistant professors who have served at least two years at the assistant professor level, and who show capacity for great distinction in their research. Fellowships are given without regard to the apparent timeliness or popularity of the field of study. End of winter/spring quarter deadline. Relevant to: STEM, HASSE


Contact

Maria Napoli, Director of Strategic Research Initiatives for Science & Engineering

Barbara Walker, Director of Strategic Research Initiatives for Humanities, Fine Arts, Humanities, & Education

Planning Calendar for Young Faculty Awards - updated April 2022

Funding Resources

Pivot Funding Database
Limited Submissions

Federal Agencies

Department of Agriculture (USDA); National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)

  • Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI): The Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants component includes funding for new investigators. A new investigator is defined as an individual who is beginning their career, does not have an extensive scientific publication record, and has less than five years postgraduate career-track experience. The new investigator may not have received competitively awarded Federal research funds as Project Director with the exception of pre- or postdoctoral grants or AFRI Seed Grants. Deadline varies by program area. Relevant to: STEM

Department of Defense (DOD)

  • Air Force Young Investigator Research Program (YIP): Supports young scientists and engineers in Air Force relevant disciplines and is designed to promote innovative research in science and engineering. Open to U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents holding tenure-track positions who have received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees on or after 01 Apr 2015. Deadline: June 6, 2022; $450K. Relevant to: STEM

  • Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program (YIP): This program seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are in their first or second full-time tenure-track or tenure-track-equivalent academic appointment, who have received their PhD or equivalent degree on or after 01 January 2015, and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. Deadline: July 1, 2022; up to $170K per year for 3 years. Relevant to: STEM

  • DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA): This program accepts single-author grant proposals for research and development in the areas of physical sciences, engineering, materials, mathematics, biology, computing, informatics, social science, and manufacturing. Participation is limited to untenured Assistant or Associate Professors within 5 years of appointment to a tenure-track position. Deadline: RFP typically posted  between August and September; $500k. Relevant to: STEM

  • Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Program (YIP): This program is open to researchers in tenure-track positions who have held their graduate degrees for fewer than five years at the time of application. Proposals are invited for research in the following areas: chemical sciences, physics, life sciences, mechanical sciences, electronics, earth sciences, materials, computing, mathematics, network sciences.  Application guidelines are available in the current ARO Broad Agency Announcement. Deadline: Proposals accepted at any time; $120K per year for three years. Relevant to: STEM

Department of Energy (DOE)

  • Early Career Research Program (ECRP): This program supports the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates research careers in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Isotope R&D and Production, and Accelerator R&D and Production. No more than ten years can have passed between the year the Principal Investigator’s Ph.D. was awarded and the year the application was issued. Deadline: 12/1/21 (pre-application, 1/20/22 (full application); a minimum of $750K over 5 years. Relevant to: STEM

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

  • Early Career Faculty (ECF) SpaceTech-REDDI: NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate solicits proposals for innovative, early-stage space technology research. The PI must be an untenured Assistant Professor on the tenure track at the sponsoring U.S. university at the time of award. The PI must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of permanent residency no later than August 1 following the proposal submission deadline. Deadline: varies; $600K; Relevant to: STEM
  • Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships for Early Career (ROSES): This program provides early-career researchers the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to lead astrophysics flight instrument development projects; to develop innovative technologies for space astrophysics that have the potential to enable major scientific breakthroughs; and to foster new talent by putting early career instrument builders on a trajectory towards long-term positions. To be eligible, PIs must have received a Ph.D. on or after January 1 of a year that is no more than eight years before the issuance date of the ROSES NRA. Deadline: varies. Relevant to: STEM
  • New Early Career Fellowship Program (NIP) in Earth Science (ROSES): The NIP in Earth Science is designed to support outstanding scientific research and career development of scientists and engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. The program aims to encourage innovative research initiatives and cultivate scientific leadership in Earth system science. A NIP proposal PI must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of permanent residency, and be a recent Ph.D. recipient, defined as having graduated on or after January 1 of the year that is no more than five years before the issuance date of the ROSES NRA. Deadline: varies; applications are solicited every two years. Relevant to: STEM

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  • NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) For Early State Investigators: provides support for a program of research in an early-stage investigator's laboratory that falls within the mission of NIGMS. For the purpose of this FOA, a program of research is a collection of projects in the investigator's lab that are relevant to the mission of NIGMS. Deadline: October 3, 2022; $250K in direct costs per year for a period of 5 years. Relevant to: STEM
  • NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2): supports early stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. 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. PIs who have not competed successfully for a significant NIH independent research award and who is within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree is eligible. Deadline: August 19, 2022; $1.5M in direct costs for up to 5 years. Relevant to: STEM
  • Early Research Career Development: Early career researchers are about to transition - or have recently moved - to fully independent positions as investigators, faculty members, clinician scientists, or scientific team leaders in industry. Early career researchers focus on establishing themselves as the experts in their chosen research areas. Deadline: varies. Relevant to: STEM
  • Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant: supports an innovative project that represents a change in research direction for an early stage investigator (ESI) and for which no preliminary data exist. Applications submitted to this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) must not include preliminary data. Applications must include a separate attachment describing the change in research direction. Deadline: varies. Relevant to: STEM

National Science Foundation (NSF)

  • Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER): This award for new faculty combines the support of quality research and education and the full participation of those traditionally underrepresented into a single program. This program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers NSF’s most prestigious awards for new faculty members. Deadline: Fourth Monday in July, annually; minimum of $400-500K for 5 years. Relevant to: STEM, HASSE

Non-federal Agencies

1907 Foundation

  • 1907 Trailblazer Award (Limited): is granted to promising early-career MDs and PhDs, with each fellow provided $120,000 to investigate the causes and cures of mental illness. The award aims to support innovative ideas with high impact potential, that may be too novel or risky to fund elsewhere. It strives to fund pioneers and break new grounds in understanding mental illness through brain and mind research. Deadline: April; $120K over a period of three years. Relevant to: STEM

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

  • Sloan Research Fellowship (Limited): seeks to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.  Candidates must be tenure-track, though untenured, as of September 15 of the nomination year and hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree in chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, or a related field. Deadline: July 15 - Sept 23; $75K for a 2-year period. Relevant to: STEM, HASSE

Beckman Foundation

  • Beckman Young Investigator: provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science. The BYI program is open to those within the first four years of a tenure-track position. Deadline(s): 6/6/23 (LOI), 1/16/23 (application); $600K for up to 4 years. Relevant to: STEM

Brain Research Foundation

  • Seed Grant Program (Limited): The purpose of this program is to provide start-up monies for new research projects in the field of neuroscience that will likely lead to extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other outside funding sources. Assistant professors with a new research project that will generate pilot data that will lead to RO1 funding or a comparable outside grant will be first priority. PI must be a full-time Assistant or Associate Professor at an invited US academic institution, working in the area of studies of brain function. Deadline: January; $80K. Relevant to: STEM

Breast Cancer Alliance

  • Young Investigator Grants (Limited): This grant is intended to help advance the careers of young researchers who do not yet have their own major grant support. Applicants must have held a faculty position for no more than four years following the completion of their training. Deadline: July; $125K. Relevant to: STEM

Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation

  • Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award (Limited): This program provides a $100K unrestricted grant to support the teaching and research careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Nominees are normally expected to be within the first five years of their independent academic careers. Deadline: February. Relevant to: STEM

The Chicago Community Trust

  • Searle Scholars Program (Limited): Grants of $300K for a three-year period are made to ladder faculty in their first or second year of their first appointment at the assistant professor level in the fields of biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine and biological sciences. Institutions are limited to two applications. Deadline: early fall. Relevant to: STEM

Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation

  • Mallinckrodt Grant (Limited): supports early-stage biomedical investigators engaged in basic and translational research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis, or treatment of disease. Deadline: August 1st; $60K per year for up to three years. Relevant to: STEM

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  • Moore Inventor Fellows (Limited): supports scientist-inventors who create new tools and technologies with a high potential to accelerate progress in the foundation’s areas of interest: scientific discovery, environmental conservation and patient care. Candidates must be no more than 10 years past receiving the terminal advanced degree in their field (M.S., Ph.D. or M.D. received on or after 2012).
    Deadline: December; $825K over 3 years. Relevant to: STEM

Johnson and Johnson

  • Women in STEM²D Program (Limited): This program aims to fuel the development of female STEM²D leaders and feed the STEM²D talent pipeline by awarding and sponsoring women at critical points in their research careers, in each of the STEM²D disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Manufacturing and Design. The awards will fund one woman per discipline who has completed her advanced degree, who is working as an assistant professor or global equivalent and who is not yet tenured at an accredited university. Deadline: October; $150K; Relevant to: STEM

Klingenstein Philanthropies and the Simons Foundation

  • Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience: supports early career investigators engaged in basic or clinical research that may lead to a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The fellowship awards promote high-risk, and potentially high-reward, projects. Deadline: February; $225K over a period of three years. Relevant to: STEM

Institutes for Citizens & Science; Mellon Foundation

  • Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award: The Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders (MEFL) are building inclusive campus communities through their teaching, scholarship, and service. Awardees are early-career faculty whose research focuses on contemporary American history, politics, culture, and society. In addition to bringing a diversity of perspectives to their fields, MEFL awardees are building support systems, networks, and affinity groups for their students and peers. Relevant to: HASSE

The Mark Foundation 

  • Emerging Leader Award: supports innovative cancer research from the next generation of leaders. These grants are awarded to outstanding early career investigators to support high-impact, high-risk projects that are distinct from their current research portfolio. Deadline: January; $250K per year for three years. Relevant to: STEM

McKnight Endowment Fund for Neurosciences

  • McKnight Scholar Awards: These awards support emerging neuroscientists to focus on disorders of learning and memory. Applicants must demonstrate interest in solving important problems in relevant areas of neuroscience, including the translation of basic research to clinical neuroscience and have no more than four years of experience in a tenure-track position. Deadline: January; $225K over a period of three years. Relevant to: STEM

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF)

  • Robertson Neuroscience Investigator Awards: The goal of this initiative is to foster innovative, emerging scientists whose pioneering approaches have the potential to transform the field of neuroscience and our fundamental understanding of the brain and how it functions. Deadline: February; Up to $1.5 million in flexible funding over 5 years. Relevant to: STEM

Packard Foundation

  • Packard Fellowships in Science & Engineering (Limited): This prestigious Fellowship Program provides an $875k award over 5 years for highly creative researchers early in their careers, in the disciplines of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering. UCSB may submit two nominations. Relevant to: STEM

The Pew Charitable Trusts

  • Pew Biomedical Scholars (Limited): provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. PIs must not have been appointed as an assistant professor at any institution prior to June 13, 2018, whether or not such an appointment was on a tenure track. Deadline: September; $75,000 per year for four years. Relevant to: STEM

Research Corporation for Science Advancement

  • Cottrell Scholar Award: This program champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing significant discretionary awards for research. Eligible applicants are tenure-track faculty who hold primary or courtesy appointments in chemistry, physics, or astronomy departments. For the 2022 proposal cycle, eligibility is limited to faculty members who started their first tenure-track appointment anytime in calendar year 2019. Deadline: July 1, 2021; $100K over three years. Relevant to: STEM