External Funding

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: 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: 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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OPPORTUNITY: Academic-Industrial Partnerships (AIP) to Translate and Validate In Vivo Imaging Systems (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $499,999

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 5, 2026

DESCRIPTION: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to stimulate translation of scientific discoveries and engineering developments in imaging / quantifiable imaging, data science and/or spectroscopic technologies into tools or methods that address contemporary problems in understanding the fundamental biology, potential risk of development, diagnosis, and/or treatment for cancer

A characteristic feature of each application submitted in response to this NOFO will be the formation of an academic-industrial partnership: a strategic alliance of academic and industrial investigators who work together as partners to identify and translate a novel technological solution towards detection /diagnosis or treatment of cancers. In this sense, the NOFO acts more as funding mechanism for driving translational research in imaging more than for a specific scientific or clinical research area. The partnerships formed between academia and industries are expected to solidify pre-existing collaborations or establish new ones that would drive the field of imaging, as a whole, further than if they had not been formed.

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OPPORTUNITY: Science Track Award for Research Transition (START) Program (R03, Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $100,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 16, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to facilitate the entry of investigators into multiple high-priority areas of substance use research, including comorbidity with HIV. The Science Track Award for Research Transition (START) Program aims to provide investigators with the opportunity to gather preliminary data that will assist them in securing future research grants and advancing their scientific careers.

NOTE: Future deadlines available; see solicitation for details.

Solicitation >

OPPORTUNITY: https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/359270

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $450,000–$800,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 19, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to catalyze the development and testing of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled, image-centered, multimodal Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tools, developed in pursuance as Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). These projects are expected to have high potential for demonstrable, positive impact on patient outcomes and/or healthcare processes.

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OPPORTUNITY: HEAL Initiative: Pain Research Enhancement Program (PREP) (R15 Clinical Trial Optional)

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $375,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 27, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this HEAL Initiative program is to: (1) support basic and mechanistic pain research from R15-eligible undergraduate-focused serving institutions, health professional schools or graduate schools; (2) promote integrated, interdisciplinary research partnerships between Principal Investigators (PIs) from R15-eligible institutions and investigators from U.S. domestic institutions; and (3) enhance the pain research environment at the R15-eligible institution for health professional students, undergraduate and/or graduate students through active engagement in pain research.

Applications in response to this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) should include plans to accomplish these goals. Specifically, applications should include a rigorous plan for conducting basic and mechanistic pain research in the Research Strategy section of the application. In addition, a research partnership between the PI’s institution and at least one investigator from a separate U.S. domestic institution that provides resources and/or expertise that will enhance the proposed pain research program must be included in a separate Team Management Plan. The proposed partnership will be a sub-award agreement(s) with at least one partnering institution, which does not need to be R15-eligible. The budget of all sub-awards must not exceed one third of the total budget. Furthermore, applications must include a Facilities & Other Resources document that demonstrates active involvement of health professional students, undergraduate and/or graduate students from the R15-eligible institution(s) in the proposed pain research projects.

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OPPORTUNITY: Frontiers Planet Prize to Accelerate Scientific Solutions for Healthy Lives on a Healthy Planet

FUNDING AGENCY: NASEM

AWARD AMOUNT: $1,000,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 30, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Frontiers Research Foundation (FRF) is organizing the “Frontiers Planet Prize”, a program with the goal of accelerating scientific solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet. The program will begin in the area of sustainability science through the launch of the Frontiers Planet Prize competition for scientific breakthroughs that have the greatest potential to stabilize the planet’s ecosystem.

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OPPORTUNITY: GREGoRi Innovation Projects

FUNDING AGENCY: NIH

AWARD AMOUNT: $1,500,000

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: October 30, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Genomics Research to Elucidate the Genetics of Rare Diseases:innovation (GREGoRi) initiative seeks to accelerate a paradigm shift in rare disease diagnosis by reimagining the tools, molecular technologies and analytical approaches used to identify the causal gene(s) and/or variant(s) underlying rare genetic disorders.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity is intended to stimulate the development and testing of highly innovative experimental or computational approaches for rare disease diagnosis, that have the potential to make transformative improvements to the current state of the art. Projects should focus on either Technology Innovation or Computational Innovation as described below:

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OPPORTUNITY: Multilateral Partnerships Leveraging Excellence (MultiPLEx)

FUNDING AGENCY: NSF

AWARD AMOUNT: Varies

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: Rolling Deadline

DESCRIPTION: Many of the most pressing challenges in research and innovation require collaboration across national and disciplinary boundaries to achieve important advances. A growing number of topics are best addressed on a multilateral basis, building partnerships that leverage diverse expertise, data, infrastructure, and perspectives to advance understanding on critical topics of regional or global importance. At the same time, funders, research organizations, and researchers alike typically have limited experience with multilateral partnerships.

The Office of International Science and Engineering’s MultiPLEx program seeks to support visionary, and ambitious international multilateral research partnerships that are required to hasten progress in addressing grand challenges by leveraging research excellence in the U.S. and around the globe. The program also seeks to advance understanding of effective multilateral collaboration

MultiPLEx welcomes proposals that: Address urgent research and/or societal challenge of global importance (including but not limited to critical and emerging technology research) and require an inherently international multilateral approach to achieve impactful research results, partnering with at least two countries other than the U.S. Proposals that engage partners across distinct geographic regions are an area of interest. Make clear how the proposed international collaboration will enable research advances and broader impacts that go beyond what can be accomplished by a narrower team. Include a diverse group of U.S. institutions and/or individuals, leveraging the full range of talent that society has to offer

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OPPORTUNITY: DOD Parkinson’s, Early Investigator Research Award

FUNDING AGENCY: DOD

AWARD AMOUNT: $1,000,000.

LETTER OF INTENT DEADLINE: October 23, 2026

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: November 26, 2026

DESCRIPTION: Supports early-career investigators in advancing Parkinson’s disease research, focusing on medical treatments, biological markers, and sensor mechanisms. Offers tailored funding levels for postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, and independent researchers within 10 years of training completion.

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OPPORTUNITY: DoD Parkinson’s Investigator-Initiated Research Award

FUNDING AGENCY: DOD

AWARD AMOUNT: $2,000,000

LETTER OF INTENT DEADLINE: October 23, 2026

FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: November 6, 2026

DESCRIPTION: The Parkinson’s Research Program (PRP) Investigator Initiated Research Award (IIRA) supports highly rigorous, multidisciplinary, high-impact research projects that have the potential to make an important contribution to Parkinson’s disease research. Research must address at least one of the four FY26 PRP Focus Areas:

Understanding how Parkinson’s disease biological and clinical heterogeneity impacts disease presentation, clinical course and therapeutic outcomes, from prodromal to late stage Parkinson’s disease. Development and characterization of in vitro model systems that approximate in vivo cellular and system complexity. Biological mechanisms or biomarkers, such as clinical, fluid, imaging, tissue, and devices, of unmet medical needs that could lead to the development of treatments for PD. Applications can utilize laboratory models through to human participants. Interventions that address unmet medical needs of PD that include both clinical and preclinical models.

NOTE: Letter of Intent Required

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