Early Career Funding

The following funding opportunities are intended for postdoctoral research and new faculty members. Please consult each program’s individual website for detailed information regarding program details and deadlines.

Federal Agencies

Agency	Program	Deadline	Description
Department of Agriculture	Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), National Institute of Food and Agriculture	Varies	NIFA provides leadership and funding for programs that advance agriculture-related sciences.
Department of Defense	Young Investigator Program, Office of Naval Research	August/ September	The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator 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 doctorate or equivalent degree on or after 01 January 2011, and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research.
Department of Defense	Young Investigator Program, Air Force Office of Scientific Research	Summer	The Air Force YIP supports scientists and engineers who have received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees within the last seven years and show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research.
Department of Defense	Young Faculty Award, DARPA	December	The objective of the DARPA Young Faculty Award program is to identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions, emphasizing those without prior DARPA funding, and expose them to DoD needs and DARPA’s program development process.
Department of Defense	Broad Agency Announcement - Young Investigator Program, Army Research Office	Rolling	The Broad Agency Announcement is a competitive solicitation procedure used to obtain proposals for basic and applied research and that part of development not related to the development of a specific system or hardware procurement.
Department of Energy	Early Career Research Program, Office of Science	January/February for required preapplication, April for application	This funding opportunity for researchers in universities and DOE national laboratories supports the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates research careers in the disciplines supported by the DOE Office of Science.
NASA	New (Early Career) Investigator Program in Earth Science	Varies	The New (Early Career) Investigator Program (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.
NASA	New Early Career Fellowship Program (Planetary Sciences)	Varies	The NASA Planetary Science Early Career Award supports the research and professional development of outstanding early-career scientists, and serves to stimulate research careers in areas supported by the Planetary Sciences Division.
NASA	Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships for Early Career Researchers	Varies	The goals of the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship in Astrophysics program are to give early career researchers the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to lead astrophysics flight instrumentation development projects and become principal investigators (PIs) of future astrophysics missions.
NASA	Early Career Faculty (ECF) (SpaceTech-REDDI)	Varies	Through the Early Career Faculty (ECF) solicitation, NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants program awards grants to accredited U.S. universities on behalf of outstanding faculty researchers early in their careers. The grants sponsor research in specific high-priority areas of interest to America's space program.
National Institutes of Health	Early Stage and Early Established Investigator Policies, Next Generation Researchers Initiative, NIH		NIH has launched the Next Generation Researchers Initiative to address longstanding challenges faced by researchers trying to embark upon and sustain independent research careers, and to take steps to promote the growth, stability and diversity of the biomedical research workforce.
National Institutes of Health	Research Training and Career Development		NIH programs help prepare individuals for careers in biomedical, behavioral, social, and clinical research.
National Science Foundation	Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program	July	The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
National Science Foundation	Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII)	August	The NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) seeks to award grants intended to support research independence among early-career academicians who specifically lack access to adequate organizational or other resources.
National Science Foundation	Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP): Early Career Investigator Awards (ECA-PGR)	Rolling	The Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) supports genome-scale research that addresses challenging questions of biological, societal and economic importance.

Nonfederal Agencies

Program	Agency	Deadline	Description
Academic Pediatric Association	Young Investigator Awards	Varies	Provides awards of up to $15,000 for research related to child health promotion, health services research, teaching, or patient care.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation	Young Investigator Grants	December	Grants are designed to support scientists during their fellowship training or early in their research careers. Demonstration of outstanding mentorship and demonstration of a career plan that shows commitment to pediatric cancer investigation are critical components o f a successful application.
Alzheimer’s Association	Research Grants	March for Letter of Intent	The association offers several grant programs that provide support for new investigators, including Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant and Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant to Promote Diversity.
American Association for Cancer Research	AACR Funding Opportunities	Varies	Grants support researchers, both domestically and abroad, at every stage of their career, representing a global commitment to understanding, preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer.
American Cancer Society	Research Scholar Grants	April and October	Grants support investigator-initiated projects across the cancer research continuum. Independent investigators in the first six years of an independent research career or faculty appointment are eligible.
American Chemical Society	Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grants	October	Awards of $110,000 over two years provide start-up funding for scientists and engineers in the United States who are within the first three years of their first academic appointment at the level of Assistant Professor or the equivalent.
American Council of Learned Societies	Fellowships	September	Fellowships support research in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant. Awards provide up to $40,000 for Assistant Professor and career equivalent.
American Diabetes Association	Core Program: Junior Faculty Development	April	Awards support early investigators as they establish independence as diabetes researchers. Eligible applicants must be full-time independent faculty with less than 10 years of research experience since their terminal degree, with restrictions on previous or current support.
American Federation for Aging Research	New Investigator Awards in Alzheimer’s Disease	Varies	Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty provide up to $100,000 for a one- to two-year award to junior faculty. New Investigator Awards support research in areas in which more scientific investigation is needed to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention	Young Investigator Innovation Grants	November	Grants of up to $85,000 over two years are awarded to investigators at or below the level of assistant professor, with an additional $10,000 ($5,000 per year) for an established suicide researcher who will mentor the Young Investigator.
American Heart Association	Career Development Award	December	Supports healthcare and academic professionals, in the early years of their first professional appointment, to explore innovative questions or pilot studies that will provide preliminary data and training necessary to assure future success as a research scientist in the field of cardiovascular and stroke research.
American Liver Foundation	Liver Scholar Award	December	Pprovides early career scientists with support for their research to bridge the gap between completion of research training and attainment of status as an independent research scientist.
American Mathematical Association	Centennial Fellowships	December	The program makes awards to outstanding mathematicians to help further their careers in research. Recipients shall have held the doctoral degree for at least three years and not more than twelve years at the inception of the award. Recipients may not hold the Fellowship concurrently with another major research award.
American Society for Mass Spectrometry	Research Awards	November	The program is open to academic scientists within four years of joining the tenure track faculty or equivalent. Awards are $35,000.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation	New Investigators Research Grant	April	Research should have clinical relevance to audiology and/or speech-language pathology. The investigator must have completed a PhD or equivalent within the past five years. The investigator must not yet have received external research funding since completion of the PhD.
ARVO Foundation for Eye Research	Genentech Age-related Macular Degeneration Research Fellowships	September	Available to newly established investigators who are age 45 or younger at the application deadline and have received their MD, PhD or equivalent degree ten years before the application deadline.
Bay Area Lyme Foundation	Emerging Leader Award	February	The $100,000 ELA grant is offered to researchers in academia or the private sector who are currently at the post-doctoral level through the assistant professor level, or equivalent.
Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program	Early Career Investigator Award	November for Letter of Intent	This award will fund salary support and research funds for a junior faculty member who wishes to undertake a mentored basic and/or clinical research project in the bleeding disorders field.
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation	Beckman Young Investigators Program	August for Letter of Intent	The program provides research support to young faculty members in the early stages of 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 program is open to those within the first three years of a tenure-track position, or an equivalent independent research appointment.
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation	NARSAD Young Investigator Grants	March	The program offers up to $35,000 per year for two years to enable promising investigators to either extend their research fellowship training or to begin careers as independent research faculty. All research must be relevant to our understanding, treatment and prevention of serious psychiatric disorders.
Burroughs Wellcome Fund	Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease	July	The PATH award provides $500,000 over five years to support investigators at the assistant professor level to study pathogenesis, with a focus on the interplay between human and microbial biology.
Children’s Tumor Foundation	Young Investigator Awards	January	The foundation supports neurofibromatoses research. The YIA provides two-year funding, commensurate with NIH, to young scientists early in their careers.
CURE: Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy	Grant Opportunities	Varies	The Taking Flight Award seeks to promote the careers of young epilepsy investigators. CURE Epilepsy and Innovators Awards also fund early career investigators.
Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation	Research Grants - New Investigators	January	This RFP seeks applications from young investigators (at the rank of Associate Professor or below) who are new to desmoid tumor research and need seed funding to gather preliminary data.
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation	Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards	January for limited submission application (approximate)	This programs offers $75,000 grants to young faculty in the chemical sciences. Criteria for selection include an independent body of scholarship attained in the early years of the appointment and a demonstrated commitment to education.
Foundation Fighting Blindness	Career Development Award	March	The award is for junior investigators to pursue research to find the therapies and cures for inherited retinal degenerative diseases. Clinician-scientists possessing an M.D., D.O., or recognized equivalent foreign degree and who are in their first, second, or third year of a junior faculty appointment are eligible.
Foundation for Child Development	Young Scholars Program	June for Letter of Intent	The program supports policy and practice-relevant research that is focused on the early learning and development needs of the nation’s children who are growing up under conditions of economic insecurity and social exclusion. Eligible researchers must have received their doctoral degrees within one to eight years of application submission.
Global Probiotics Council	Young Investigator Grant for Probiotics Research	February	Young investigators who are senior fellows with a committed faculty appointment or early faculty members within a maximum of 5 consecutive years of his/her first faculty appointment (appointments must be in the U.S.) are eligible.
Greenwall Foundation	Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics	September for limited submission application (approximate)	The program is a career development award to enable junior faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research. Priority will be given to applicants who have not yet been considered for tenure, who have not received a comparable award, and whose work will have an impact on public policy, biomedical research, or clinical practice.
Health Effects Institute	Rosenblith New Investigator Award	February for Letter of Intent	The award provides up to three years of funding to a new investigator at the assistant professor or equivalent level for a small research project on the health effects of air pollution.
Human Frontier Science Program	Young Investigators’ Research Grants	March for Letter of Intent	Grants are awarded to teams of researchers from different countries, all of whom are within the first five years after obtaining an independent laboratory. Emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring together scientists preferably from different disciplines to focus on problems in the life sciences.
Infectious Diseases Society of America	IDSA Foundation Young Investigator Awards	Varies	Candidates for Young Investigator Awards must have a medical or equivalent doctoral level degree and should have completed an accredited infectious diseases fellowship within the last four years.
International Life Sciences Institute North America	Future Leader Award	June	The award allows new investigators the opportunity to add to an existing project or to conduct exploratory research in the areas of experimental nutrition, nutrition and toxicology, and nutrition and food science.
International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation - Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation	Trainee Expansion Programme	Varies	TEP funds two types of projects in human milk and lactation research: Trainee Travel Fund for activities achievable within three months, and Trainee Bridge Fund for activities achievable within one year.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation	Career Development Awards	June	Researchers who have received their first faculty-level appointment less than three years before the submission date are eligible to apply for this award.
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation	Kaufmann Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research	January	This program recognizes junior faculty who are beginning to establish a record of scholarship and exhibit the potential to make significant contributions to the body of research in the field of entrepreneurship.
Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund	Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences	February	The Award supports young investigators in the early stages of their careers engaged in basic or clinical research that may lead to a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The candidate must be within four years of completing postdoctoral training and the start of his/her first tenure-track appointment.
Leukemia Research Foundation	Hollis Brownstein Research Grants Program	February for Letter of Intent	The Foundation provides one year grants of $100,000 to selected New Investigator researchers to allow innovative scientists to act on their ideas and try new procedures and experiments that will hopefully lead to significant breakthroughs. New Investigators are considered to be within seven years of their first independent position.
LUNGevity	LUNGevity Career Development Awards	February for Letter of Intent	The goal of our Career Development Program is to train and retain the next generation of lung cancer researchers. Applicants must be within the first five years of their faculty appointment.
Lymphoma Research Foundation	Young Investigator Grants	September	Young Investigator Grants attract and train early career scientists for lymphoma research through three programs: Postdoctoral Fellowships, Clinical Investigator Career Development Awards, and the Lymphoma Clinical Research Mentoring Program.
March of Dimes	Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Awards	March for nomination	This award is designed to support young scientists just embarking on their independent research careers on topics related to the March of Dimes mission to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.
McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience	Scholar Awards	January	Awards encourage neuroscientists in the early stages of their careers to focus on disorders of learning and memory. Candidates must hold a full-time appointment at the rank of assistant professor, and must have served at that rank for less than four years at the application deadline.
Melanoma Research Alliance	Young Investigator Awards	Varies	Applicants must be within four years of their first independent, full time academic faculty appointment at the time of application at the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent position).
MQ: Transforming Mental Health Through Research	MQ Fellows Award	Varies	The Award supports early career scientists who are asking challenging questions that will contribute to transformative advances in mental health research.
National Ataxia Foundation	Young Investigator Awards	August for Letter of Intent	One-year grants of $35,000 encourage young investigators to pursue a career in the field of any form of Ataxia research. Candidates must have attained an MD or PhD degree, and have an appointment as a junior faculty member, senior post-doc or clinical fellow.
National Hemophilia Foundation	Career Development Award	February for Letter of Intent	NHF funds innovative research studies in the area of bleeding disorders to be carried out at the sub cellular, cellular, animal or human/patient levels. CDA candidates must hold a MD, PhD, or equivalent degree, with no more than six years of postdoctoral years of experience in hematology, nor more than six years since completion of medical training.
National Marfan Foundation	Early Investigator Grant Program	February	The program supports early investigators studying any or all disciplines involved in Marfan syndrome or a related disorder. Applicants must have less than seven years experience in a faculty position and have never received an NIH R01 grant award.
National Multiple Sclerosis Society	Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Awards	August	The awards support candidates who have concluded their research training and begun academic careers as independent investigators in an area related to multiple sclerosis.
Craig H. Neilsen Foundation	Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum	May for Letter of Intent	Two-year Pilot Research Grants help to establish new investigators in the field of spinal cord injury research and support studies by established investigators who are undertaking new directions in their work.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation	Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering	February for limited submission application (approximate)	The program invites nominations from selected institutions. Candidates must be eligible to serve as principal investigators engaged in research in the natural and physical sciences or engineering and must be within the first three years of their faculty careers.
Pew Charitable Trust	Pew Biomedical Scholars	May for limited submission application (approximate)	The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent biomedical research of outstanding individuals who are in their first few years of their appointment at the assistant professor level.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation	Research Starter Grants	February 1 for Health Outcomes, Translational Medicine and Therapeutics; September 1 for Informatics, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology/Toxicology	PhRMA Foundation Research Starter Grants offer financial support to individuals beginning independent research careers at the faculty level.
Prostate Cancer Foundation	Young Investigator Awards	March	Awards offer support for young (generally 35 and younger) proven investigators in postdoctoral fellowships or who have recently achieved junior faculty positions and are committing their lives to the field of prostate cancer.
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation	I.M. Rosenzweig Junior Investigator Awards	November	Awards support projects that offer a high likelihood of improving the understanding of pulmonary fibrosis in the following areas: basic science, translational research, clinical medicine/research, and social science/quality of life.
Research Corporation for Science Advancement	Cottrell Scholars	May for preproposal, July for invited proposal	Eligible applicants are tenure-track faculty members whose primary appointment is in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics. Eligibility is limited to faculty in the third year after their first tenure-track appointment.
Research Corporation for Science Advancement	Scialog	Varies	Scialog supports early career faculty to expand research in a focused area of high scientific importance. Within each multi-year initiative, Fellows collaborate in high-risk discovery research on untested ideas and communicate their progress in annual closed conferences.
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation	Innovation Award	July	The Award is designed to provide support for the next generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with “high risk/high reward” ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.
Russell Sage Foundation	Small Awards in Behavioral Economics	Rolling	Applicants must be advanced doctoral students or post-docs/junior (non-tenured) faculty members who have been out of graduate school for two or fewer years.
Scleroderma Foundation	New Investigator Grant	September	The Foundation seeks applications from promising new investigators who hold faculty or equivalent positions and who wish to pursue a career in research related to scleroderma.
Scoliosis Research Society	New Investigator Grant	April 1 and October 1	New investigator research grants are meant to stimulate young members into a career of investigation in spinal deformity and are open to SRS Candidate Fellows or investigators within the first five years of completing their training.
Searle Scholars Program	Searle Scholars Program	June for campus limited submission application (approximate)	The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support independent research of outstanding early-career scientists who have recently been appointed as assistant professors on a tenure-track appointment and will be pursuing independent research careers in biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation	Sloan Research Fellowships	September	Fellowships support fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in chemistry, computational or evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field.
Smith Richardson Foundation	Strategy and Policy Fellows Program	June	Grants enable the recipients to research and write a book. Within the academic community, this program supports junior or adjunct faculty, research associates, and post-docs who are engaged in policy-relevant research and writing.
Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging	Pilot Research Grant	January	The pilot research grant is designed to help a basic or clinical scientist in the early stages of their career conduct research that may lead to further funding.
Sontag Foundation	Distinguished Scientist Award	March	The award provides career and research support to early career scientists who demonstrate outstanding promise for making scientific and medical breakthroughs in the field of brain cancer research.
Stanford Humanities Center	External Faculty Fellowships	October	Junior fellowships are for scholars who will be at least three and no more than ten years beyond receipt of the PhD by the start of the fellowship year. Fellowships are for one full academic year, and require the fellow to be in residence.
U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation	Startup Research Grant	November	Projects must have a strong element of cooperation between an Israeli and an American scientist(s), and fall within the areas of research supported in that year by the BSF. At least one of the PIs should have attained his/her Ph.D., M.D. degree or equivalent, no more than ten years prior to submitting the proposal.
Whitehall Foundation	Grants-in-Aid	January 15, April 15, and October 1 for Letter of Intent	Funds researchers at the assistant professor level in the life sciences. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology.