A number of sponsors offer specific funding opportunities for new and junior faculty who are at the rank of assistant professor or equivalent. This list is not exhaustive but provides samples of sponsors that offer awards specifically geared toward new and junior faculty.
Click on the name of the award to access the official announcement and related guidelines. You can also click on the funding agency to learn more about the organization that is supporting the award. Always use the official announcement when preparing a final application. Please note that these funding opportunities are available on an annual basis.
Federal Agencies
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The NIH Pathways to Independence Program employs multiple strategies to facilitate receiving an R01 award earlier in an investigator’s research career. These involve:
- NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
- NIH Director's Pioneer Award
- NIH Director's Early Independence Awards (EIA)
- Career Development Awards – K Awards
Early Stage Investigators Program
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program | National Science Foundation
Deadline: July
Synopsis: The intent of this foundation-wide program is to provide stable support in all NSF-supported disciplines to enable awardees to develop careers as outstanding teacher-scholars. The minimum CAREER award, including indirect costs, will total $400,000 for the five-year duration with the following exception: proposers to the Biological Sciences Directorate must submit budget requests for a minimum of $400,000 for the five-year duration.
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program
Alan T. Waterman Award | National Science Foundation
Deadline: July to September
Synopsis: Recognizes outstanding young researchers in any field of science or engineering supported by NSF. Awards are $1M for 5 years.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
New Investigator Grant | National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Deadline: TBD
Synopsis: Supports new investigators who hold faculty or equivalent positions and who wish to pursue a career in research related to systemic sclerosis. Applicants may request up to $50,000 for up to three years.
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
Young Investigator Program | Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Deadline: June
Synopsis: This program supports scientists and engineers in Air Force relevant disciplines and is designed to promote innovative research in science and engineering. The awards foster creative basic research in science and engineering, enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators, and increase opportunities to recognize Air Force mission and challenges in science and engineering.
Young Faculty Award | DARPA
Deadline: TBD
Synopsis: The YFA program provides funding, mentoring and industry and DoD contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs.
Young Investigator Program | ONR
Deadline: TBD
Synopsis: The YIP 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 and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. The objectives are to attract outstanding faculty members to the Department of the Navy’s research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. Proposals may request up to $170,000 per year for three years.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Early Career Research Program | Office of Science
Deadline: Pre-applications due in February
Synopsis: Applicants must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory. Applicants must also have received a Ph.D. within the past ten years. University awards average around $875,000 over five years.
Non-Federal Agencies
Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grants (DNI) | American Chemical Society
Deadline: early fall, mid-winter, and late spring
Synopsis: Award of $100,000 over two years for scientists and engineers who are within the first three years of their first academic appointment.
Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grants (DNI)
Fellowships | American Council of Learned Societies
Deadline: September or October
Synopsis: Fellowships support research in all disciplines of the humanities and humanities-related social sciences. The ultimate goal of the project should be a major piece of scholarly work by the applicant. Awards provide up to $35,000 for assistant professor-level investigators for six to twelve months of research.
Junior Faculty Award, Career Development Award| American Diabetes Association
Deadline: mid January and mid July
Synopsis: Junior Faculty support new investigators who are establishing their independence in diabetes research; applicants can have any level of faculty appointment up through assistant professor. Career Development Awards are designed to assist outstanding assistant professor level faculty investigators in conducting diabetes-related research.
Junior Faculty Award, Career Development Award
AFAR Research Grants | American Federation for Aging Research
Deadline: December
Synopsis: The major goal of this program is to assist in the development of the careers of junior investigators committed to pursuing careers in the field of aging research. Applicants must be in the first four years of a junior faculty appointment. Awards are up to $75,000 for one or two years.
Centennial Fellowships | American Mathematical Association
Deadline: December 1
Synopsis: One-year fellowships awarded for excellence in mathematical research. The stipend for 2009-2010 is expected to be $75,000, with an additional expense allowance of about $7,500. Recipients shall have held the doctoral degree for at least three years and not more than twelve years at the inception of the award.
Congressional Fellowship Program for Political Scientists | American Political Science Association
Deadline: December
Synopsis: Gives early to mid-career political scientists an opportunity to learn more about Congress and the legislative process through direct participation. Fellows work as full-time legislative aides in the House of Representatives or Senate. Applicants must have completed a PhD in the past 15 years. Fellowships include a stipend of $38,000 for nine months.
Congressional Fellowship Program for Political Scientists
Research Awards | American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Deadline: November 30
Synopsis: Academic scientists within four years of joining the tenure track faculty or equivalent in a North American university are eligible for award of $35,000 for research in mass spectrometry.
Research Awards, American Society for Mass Spectometry
New Investigators Research Grant | American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation
Deadline: varies
Synopsis: New scientists earning their latest degree in communication sciences within the last five years are eligible to compete for $5,000 grants to pursue research in audiology or speech-language pathology.
New Investigators Research Grant
Young Investigators Program | Beckman Foundation
Deadline: August
Synopsis: This award 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.
Young Scholars Program | Foundation for Child Development
Deadline: Early November
Synopsis: Supports both basic and policy-relevant research about the early education, health and well-being of children living in immigrant families from birth to age ten, particularly those who are living in low-income families. Eligible researchers will have earned their doctoral degrees within the last 15 years, and be full-time faculty members. Three to four fellowships of up to $150,000 for use over one to three years will be awarded.
Fellowships | Center for Hellenic Studies Harvard University
Deadline: Mid October
Synopsis: Academic year fellowships for work in Ancient Greek studies. These include a stipend of up to $26,000, housing, and other benefits.
Fellowships, Center for Hellenic Studies Harvard University
Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award | Health Effects Institute
Deadline: December
Synopsis: The award provides three years of funding for a small research project on the health effects of air pollution to a new investigator at the assistant professor or equivalent level.
Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award
Young Investigators’ Research Grants | Human Frontier Science Program
Deadline: March
Synopsis: Supports collaborative research in the life sciences involving biologists together with scientists from other disciplines such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering. Grants are awarded to teams of researchers from different countries, all of whom are within the first five years after obtaining an independent laboratory (e.g., assistant professor, lecturer, or equivalent).
Young Investigators’ Research Grants
Scholars in Health Policy Research | Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Deadline: October
Synopsis: Each year the program selects up to 12 highly qualified individuals for two-year fellowships at one of three nationally prominent universities. The program invites recent graduates of doctoral programs in economics, political science and sociology, including junior faculty, to apply. The program will give preference to applicants who have not previously worked extensively in health or health policy research.
Scholars in Health Policy Research
Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences | Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund
Deadline: January
Synopsis: Supports a young investigator in tenure track academic rank engaged in basic or clinical research that may lead to a better understanding of epilepsy. The award of $150,000 is payable over a three-year period.
Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences
Research Fellowship Program | Janet H. and C. Harry Knowles Foundation
Deadline: June for preproposal
Synopsis: Supports early career scholars engaged in critical research in education, more specifically, those who can contribute to understanding recruitment, preparation, induction, mentoring and/or retention of high quality mathematics and science teachers. The award is $110,000, typically $55,000 per year for two years.
McKnight Scholar Awards | McKnight Foundation
Deadline: January
Synopsis: These awards were established to encourage early-career 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. Awards are $75,000 per year for three years.
Young Investigator Award | Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Deadline: July
Synopsis: One and two year awards up to $30,000 per year are provided to enable promising investigators to either extend research fellowship training or begin careers as independent research faculty. Basic and/or clinical investigators are supported, but research must be relevant to schizophrenia, major affective disorders, or other serious mental illnesses.
Young Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Cottrell Scholar Awards | Research Corporation
Deadline: September
Synopsis: Applicants should be tenure-track beginning faculty members in astronomy, biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, or physics. Eligibility is limited to those in the third year after their first tenure-track appointment. Awards are in the amount of $100,000.
Research Fellowship | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Deadline: September
Synopsis: This 2-year fellowship seeks to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.
Research Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
External Faculty Fellowships | Stanford Humanities Center
Deadline: October
Synopsis: Junior fellowships for research projects in the humanities are for scholars who will be at least three and no more than ten years beyond receipt of the PhD by the start of their prospective fellowship year. Fellows are awarded stipends of up to $60,000 and a housing and moving allowance of up to $15,000, dependent upon need.