External Funding

OPPORTUNITY: Early Stage Innovations for In Situ Resource Utilization

FUNDING AGENCY: NASA

AWARD AMOUNT: $1,500,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: August 13, 2026

DESCRIPTION: Through ESI, Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) Program within RTMD solicits proposals from U.S. institutions of higher education (IHEs) for innovative, early-stage space technology research of high priority to NASA. Proposals are sought on specific space technologies that are currently at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). The solicitation exclusively seeks proposals that are primarily responsive to civil-space needs and use cases and not terrestrial and/or non-civil-space applications.

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OPPORTUNITY: NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2 Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $475,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: August 17, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award supports early-stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. Applications in any area within the biomedical sciences are welcome; topics may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award complements other ongoing efforts by NIH and its Institutes and Centers to fund early-stage investigators. The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) program of the NIH Common Fund.

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OPPORTUNITY: Innovative Approaches to Kidney Cancer Research

FUNDING AGENCY: DOD

AWARD AMOUNT: $120,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: August 21, 2026

DESCRIPTION: Supports highly innovative, untested, potentially groundbreaking concepts in kidney cancer.

NOTE: Letter of intent required before submitting a full application.

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OPPORTUNITY: Innovative Approaches to Kidney Cancer Research

FUNDING AGENCY: DOD

AWARD AMOUNT: $120,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: August 21, 2026

DESCRIPTION: Supports highly innovative, untested, potentially groundbreaking concepts in kidney cancer.

NOTE: Letter of intent required before submitting a full application.

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OPPORTUNITY: NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award for Individual and Group Science (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: Application budgets are not limited but must be commensurate with the scope of the proposed research.

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 3, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award supports individual scientists or groups of scientists proposing bold, groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies. Applications in any area within the biomedical sciences are welcome; topics may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. No preliminary data are required. Projects must clearly demonstrate, based on the strength of the logic, a compelling potential to produce a major impact in a broad area of relevance to the NIH. The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) program of the NIH Common Fund.

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OPPORTUNITY: Improved Oil and Gas Recovery and Produced Water Management Technologies

FUNDING AGENCY: DOE

AWARD AMOUNT: Up to $150,000,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 8, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The objective of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to seek proposals for specific research and development (R&D) projects to improve recovery efficiency from unconventional oil and natural gas reservoirs and to advance technologies for the treatment of flowback and produced water from oil and natural gas production operations.

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OPPORTUNITY: NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (DP1 Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $700,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 9, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The NIH Director’s Pioneer Award supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigator’s research program or elsewhere. Applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome. Research may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. The NIH Director’s Pioneer Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) program of the NIH Common Fund.

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OPPORTUNITY: NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5 Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $350,000 per year

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 10, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award helps talented new researchers begin their own independent research program soon after finishing their doctoral degree or clinical training, without first doing postdoctoral training.The award accepts applications on any topic fitting the NIH mission. It is part of the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program.

NOTE: Limited submission. Must submit to Research Office limited submissions portal before applying.

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OPPORTUNITY: Innovative Postsecondary Models Fund

FUNDING AGENCY: Panorama Global

AWARD AMOUNT: $750,000–1,000,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 14, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Innovative Postsecondary Models (IPM) Fund seeks proposals from organizations operating innovative postsecondary education models that are rethinking how education is designed, delivered, financed, and assessed for learners in the United States. Through this request for proposals, the IPM Fund will identify and fund high-potential education models that are reimagining how postsecondary education can remove barriers and increase access and improve outcomes for learners across the U.S. The Fund is interested in innovations that benefit all learners, but especially learners whom the data show encounter the greatest obstacles to opportunity. The goal of this Fund is not only to provide funding to innovative models, but also to learn from selected grantees on how to reduce barriers to postsecondary access and increase student success outcomes to help inform the role philanthropy can play in supporting higher education innovation.

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OPPORTUNITY: Humanities Collaborative Research

FUNDING AGENCY: NEH

AWARD AMOUNT: $250,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 16, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Collaborative Research program supports the advancement of humanistic knowledge through collaboration between two or more scholars. NEH encourages projects that incorporate multiple points of view, explore new avenues of inquiry in the humanities, and lead to manuscripts for print publication or to interpretive digital projects. Interdisciplinary projects, including those involving the sciences, are welcome.

This year’s competition will accept only applications on topics in the history and culture of the United States in any period from the Colonial Era to the present, or topics in Western civilization from antiquity to the present.

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OPPORTUNITY: DoD Kidney Cancer Academy of Kidney Cancer Investigators: Early-Career Scholar Award

FUNDING AGENCY: DOD

AWARD AMOUNT: $1,200,000

LETTER OF INTENT DEADLINE: September 14, 2026

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 28, 2026

DESCRIPTION: This initiative supports early-career researchers in advancing kidney cancer research across basic, translational, and clinical domains. Focus areas include cancer biology, early detection, rare cancer treatments, novel therapies, and improved diagnostic strategies, fostering innovation under expert mentorship and leadership.

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OPPORTUNITY: New Ideas (In Autism Research)

FUNDING AGENCY: Simons Foundation

AWARD AMOUNT: $600,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: Rolling Deadline

DESCRIPTION: The goal of the New Ideas Award is to provide early stage support for bold, exploratory research that tests novel hypotheses and opens new conceptual or experimental directions in the study of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Proposed research may draw on any scientific discipline, methodology or experimental system (including humans) and may operate at any scale or level of analysis. All projects should include a compelling case for the relevance and potential of the proposed experiments to SFARI’s mission. Investigators who have not previously been funded by SFARI are especially encouraged to apply.

NOTE: Letter of Intent Required. Scott Mangieri (mangieri@udel.edu) is a good resource for assistance.

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OPPORTUNITY: Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellowships

FUNDING AGENCY: Wilson Center

AWARD AMOUNT: $120,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 30, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Wilson Center invites scholars, practitioners, journalists, and public intellectuals to take part in its flagship Fellowship Program. Fellows conduct research and write in their areas of interest, while interacting with policymakers in Washington and other fellows. The Center accepts policy-relevant, nonpartisan fellowship proposals that address key foreign policy challenges confronting the United States and the world.

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OPPORTUNITY: Simons Fellows in Mathematics Program

FUNDING AGENCY: Simons Foundation

AWARD AMOUNT: Amounts vary, up to $162,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 1, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Simons Foundation’s Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) division invites applications for the Simons Fellows in Mathematics program to make sabbatical research leaves more productive by extending them from a single term to a full academic year. Sabbatical research leaves from classroom teaching and administrative obligations can provide strong intellectual stimulation and lead to increased creativity and productivity in theoretical research.

NOTE: A Simons Fellowship in Mathematics provides salary replacement (inclusive of both salary and fringe benefits) for up to 50 percent (up to a maximum of $125,000) of the Fellow’s current academic-year salary, whether normally paid over 9, 10 or 12 months, and up to an additional $10,000 for expenses related to the leave. The Fellow’s home institution will receive an additional 20 percent overhead on allowable direct cost expenditures, per the foundation’s indirect cost policy. The maximum total budget request should not exceed $162,000 USD.

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OPPORTUNITY: Novel experiential technologies assisting individual learning (NExT AI) hubs

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $390,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 2, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invites applications for the Novel experiential technologies assisting individual learning (NExT AI) hubs (P20 clinical trial optional). This aims to address the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies on developmental outcomes in children diagnosed with or at risk for developing a specific learning disability (SLD) impacting reading, writing, and mathematics. NExT AI Hubs include a single Research Project and a Leadership Core that support the goals and aims of the Hub. This NOFO seeks to serve as a catalyst to 1) speed the maturation of nascent/novel, high-impact, high-risk research that advances understanding of the role AI technology plays in supporting, improving, or limiting the learning, cognitive, and socio-emotional needs of children at risk for or diagnosed with SLDs, 2) build an evidence base for the SLD community to inform policy or practice, and 3) provide project-embedded, career-enhancing research and professional development opportunities to support the next generation of transdisciplinary SLD scientists.

This initiative provides opportunities to support planning and building a body of research and corresponding intellectual infrastructure to enable NExT AI investigators to compete for large research and program project opportunities in the future.

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