Research Round-Up
Research Round-Up is a communication devoted to sharing information related to open funding opportunities and research administration procedures.
For additional information on deadlines, processes and procedures, please instead see our Sponsored Programs Support Services webpage.
Friendly Reminder: Proposal Request Form
Individuals serving as principal investigator on a CEHS-led proposal or co-investigator/collaborator on a grant proposal led by another college or external organization must submit a Proposal Request Form a minimum of 4 weeks prior to the proposal due date. Doing so ensures the timely routing of your proposal for review and approval by College administration, Central Sponsored Programs Administration (formerly known as University Research Services), Grants & Contracts Financial Administration, and, if required, University Research Compliance.
Please address any questions or concerns regarding the information contained below to the CEHS Sponsored Programs team: Kayley Watson (Kayley.Watson@okstate.edu), Samar Abid (SamarAA@okstate.edu), or Erin Brown (Erin.Brown10@okstate.edu).
Tip of the Month
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OSU Webpage for Guidance and News Related to Recent Executive Orders and Federal Actions
OSU’s Vice President for Research office has crafted a web page that includes internal communication, as well as helpful resource information from national associations (e.g., APLU’s Council on Research; Council on Government Relations) regarding the recent executive orders (and rescinding these orders).
https://research.okstate.edu/faculty-resources/guidance-executive-orders.html
General Guidance from the VPR
January 30, 2025
As we continue to monitor and assess the directives and communications coming down from federal officials and funding agencies, here is my general advice to those of you carrying out grant-funded projects:
- Until and unless you are notified by the funder or by an OSU official to do otherwise, continue with business as usual.
- If you receive communications from the funder related to these matters, immediately pass those communications to your college Sponsored Programs Office.
- If instructed by the funder or by OSU officials to pause or cease any activities, work with your college Sponsored Programs Office to:
- comply with those instructions as precisely as possible.
- document any quantifiable damages to OSU faculty, staff, students, or units that are directly caused by the directive and/or our compliance with it (this is to aid us in keeping our elected officials apprised of the impacts).
- Stay tuned in to communications from my office (including this webpage) and your college Sponsored Programs Office as we learn more about—and share with you—how best to navigate these challenging waters.
Kenneth W. Sewell
Vice President for Research
For Your Information
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OSU announces Promoting Research Excellence workshop series
Oklahoma State University faculty eager to boost their research success now have a new opportunity for professional growth — a workshop series designed to enhance their skills and impact.
In partnership with the OSU Library, the Division of the Vice President for Research is launching “Promoting Research Excellence”.
From the initial idea to publishing final results, researchers can experience challenges at any stage of the research process. This educational series is focused on offering guidance on best practices to maintain ethical and high-quality practices at every stage.
Conducted monthly in a virtual format, the PRE-workshops will provide education and training on various research topics, including data management (How to Write a Good Data Management Plan for a Grant Application), effective research collaboration (How to Avoid Authorship Disputes), articulating scholarly impact (How to Identify a Suitable Journal for Publication and Is Open Science a Friend or Foe?), ethical use of generative AI (Ethical Uses of Generative AI to Support Your Research), and research safety for early career faculty and graduate students (Safety Issues in Research – Safeguarding Individuals, Teams and Projects).
Offered throughout the academic year, these Zoom sessions will not be recorded and are available for faculty and graduate students.
Register using the links below!
PRE Spring 2025 workshop series
Thursday, March 13: 3 p.m.
Publishing with Purpose: Choosing the Right Journal for Your ResearchThursday, April 17: 3 p.m.
Oops-Proof Your Data: Security and Backup 101Thursday, May 1: 3 p.m.
The Research Ecosystem: Dysfunction and Reform -
OSU now has Pivot, a funding opportunity search engine!
OSU has secured an institutional license for Pivot-RP by Clarivate, a human-curated search engine with thousands of external funding opportunities across all disciplines (including grants, fellowships, prizes/awards, travel funds, and more). See: https://clarivate.com/academia-government/
Anyone with an 'okstate.edu' email address (faculty, students, and staff) can create an account and access it. Pivot-RP includes opportunities for researchers and artists at all levels (i.e., undergraduate students through those with established careers). Pivot-RP allows for browsing and filtering opportunity lists, as well as creating customized keyword-based searches for opportunities sent automatically to your email Inbox weekly.
Please go to https://Pivot.proquest.com and click the “Create account” option, selecting “Use Email Address/Create Password” which provides access to Pivot-RP. Please use your 'okstate.edu' email address. You can log in from anywhere, no VPN is required. Additional information and resources for using Pivot-RP can be found here.
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Grants.gov Improved Search Engine
Dear Grants.gov community,
The Simpler.Grants.gov team is excited to introduce our new experimental search feature! As you may have heard, we’re working to modernize Grants.gov, making it easier to find and apply for federal funding opportunities. With a simpler design and smarter algorithms, your search results will now be even more relevant to your interests and filters.
Try the new search experience!
The development of this project is open and collaborative. If you have feedback or notice any bugs, please reach out at simpler@grants.gov.
Please note that Simpler.Grants.gov is still a work in progress. While you can use it to search and read about funding opportunities, you’ll still need to visit Grants.gov to start and submit an application. Subscribe to the Simpler Grants newsletter to stay informed of future enhancements to search and additional features.
Thank you,
The Simpler.Grants.gov team
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U.S. science funding agencies roll out policies on free access to journal articles
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Energy (DOE) have introduced new policies to ensure immediate free access to federally funded research publications. This initiative, part of a broader push for open science, requires grantees to post peer-reviewed manuscripts in public repositories immediately after publication. All U.S. research funding agencies are expected to adopt similar policies by the end of 2025. While supporters celebrate this step toward open science, universities and publishers express concerns over logistics, costs, and the potential impact on journal revenue. The policies offer options like "gold open access" (paying to make articles freely available) and "green open access" (depositing articles without publisher embargoes), though the shift may challenge smaller, nonprofit publishers. Debate continues over copyright issues and how this will affect research practices, especially in the face of political and financial uncertainties.
Read the full article here: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-science-funding-agencies-roll-out-policies-free-access-journal-articles
Funding Opportunities
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LIMITED SUBMISSION: NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement: EPSCoR Research
Fellows
https://okstate.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1962909
Internal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Funding Organization's Deadline: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
NSF Solicitation: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/epscor-research-infrastructure-improvement-epscor-research/nsf24-528/solicitation
The Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research is designed to fulfill the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote scientific progress nationwide. NSF EPSCoR facilitates the establishment of partnerships among academic institutions, government, industry, and non-profit sectors that are designed to promote sustainable improvements in a jurisdiction's research infrastructure, Research and Development (R&D) capacity, and R&D competitiveness of EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions (i.e., states, territories, and commonwealths). Eligibility to participate in the EPSCoR funding opportunities, including the EPSCoR RII: EPSCoR Research Fellows program, is described on the NSF EPSCoR website.
EPSCoR RII: EPSCoR Research Fellows directly aligns with the NSF EPSCoR strategic goal of establishing sustainable Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professional development pathways that advance workforce development and effects engagement in STEM at national and global levels. EPSCoR RII: EPSCoR Research Fellows provides awards to build research capacity in institutions and transform the career trajectories of investigators and further develop their individual research potential through collaborations with investigators from the nation's premier private, governmental, or academic research institutions and/or centers. The fellowship provides opportunities to establish strong collaborations through extended or periodic collaborative visits to a selected host site. Through collaborative research activities with the host site, Fellows will be able to learn new techniques, develop new collaborations, advance existing partnerships, benefit from access to unique equipment and facilities, and/or shift their research toward potentially transformative new directions. The experiences gained through the fellowships are intended to have lasting impacts that will enhance the Fellows' research trajectories well beyond the award period. The benefits to the Fellows are also expected to improve the research capacity of their institutions and jurisdictions more broadly.
NOTE: Although EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII): EPSCoR Research Fellows offers two tracks NSF and NASA, OSU does NOT QUALIFY for the NASA track.
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LIMITED SUBMISSION: Hamm Institute for American Energy - Faculty Fellow AND FY26 Grant
Program
OSU Hamm Institute for American Energy - Faculty Fellow
Internal Submission Deadline: Monday, February 24, 2025
The OSU Hamm Institute for American Energy is calling for applications for Faculty Fellows.
If selected as a Hamm Institute Faculty Fellow, you will be awarded $5,000 for personal research endeavors. You will also be expected to organize a multidisciplinary faculty working group focused on one of the Hamm Institute’s research areas of focus.
- The expectation for this group is to brainstorm ideas for research studies and projects through collaborative, multidisciplinary conversations and meetings.
- This group should include 6-8 faculty members from across a variety of departments and colleges on campus whose research interests apply to the selected research focus area.
- The group will be asked to review and recommend projects for the Planning Grants to the Hamm Institute’s Scientific Advisory Board.
If you have questions, please contact Jason Angolano: jason.angolano@okstate.edu
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OSU Hamm Institute for American Energy - FY26 Grant Program
Internal Submission Deadline: Tuesday, April 1, 2025
The Hamm Institute for American Energy believes that the future of energy is interdisciplinary and collaborative. The energy challenges facing the world are too big and too complex for any one researcher, one discipline or one institution to solve. There will be three different funding opportunities outlined below.
- Planning Grants. The Hamm Institute will award four one-year planning grants up to $25K. These planning grants provide the funding necessary for preparing a proposal.
- Seed Grants. The Hamm Institute will award four seed grants up to - $25K to annually support projects over two to three years.
- $100,000 Gamechanger Grant. The Hamm Institute plans to award one annual $100,000 project grant to sustain projects on the cusp of external investment or uniquely aligned with Hamm Institute goals.
ELIGIBILITY
These awards are open to all faculty members at Oklahoma State University. Group applications will be accepted and are encouraged. If unsure of your eligibility, contact Associate Vice President for Research, Dr. Christine Johnson, for clarification prior to applying.
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[Robert Wood Johnson Foundation] Systems for Action: Community-Led Systems Research
to Address Systemic Racism
DEADLINE: June 4, 2025
This 2025 call for proposals (CFP) will provide funding for a new cohort of community-led pilot studies to produce new, actionable evidence about how to help medical, social, and public health systems work together to address forms of systemic racism. This CFP focuses specifically on systems alignment (SA) interventions that have the potential to dismantle or disrupt the health effects of systemic racism and to positively affect the health and wellbeing of communities that experience systemic racism. S4A prioritizes SA interventions that, if successful, can be rapidly replicated and spread to many communities and contexts across the U.S. in order to achieve broad national impact.
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[American Heart Association] Pilot Grants to Explore the Use of the AHA Protein Binding
Atlas to Discover Novel Protein Interactions
https://professional.heart.org/en/research-programs/aha-funding-opportunities/protein-atlas
DEADLINE: May 1, 2025
Informational Webinar: Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 11 am - 12 pm CST Register here
The AHA Protein Binding Atlas was established through a cooperative research and development agreement between the AHA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Its objective is to combine world-class technology and high-impact biology to develop a comprehensive reference atlas of cell-protein targets to accelerate and hone drug discovery. The AHA Protein Binding Atlas leverages the world-class high performance computing power of LLNL and machine learning algorithms for protein-molecule binding predictions to refine and accelerate candidate drug selection for clinical development. The Protein Binding Atlas consists of approximately two million small molecules fully simulated against nearly 15,000 proteins to model binding predictions. The Atlas is a static database of in-silico calculations of protein-ligand interactions, as well as supplemental information for proteins and ligands, intended to provide insight into drug-candidate molecules regarding on-target interactions and off-target interactions.
This request for proposals (RFP) is to solicit applications for innovative pilot projects aimed at predicting and understanding protein-protein and protein-small molecule interactions involved in key biological processes associated with cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic diseases, including obesity. Applicants are encouraged to utilize the AHA Protein Portal in their proposals -
[Spencer Foundation] Research Grants on Education: Small
https://www.spencer.org/grant_types/small-research-grant
Applications Open: Mid-February, 2025
Full Proposal Deadline: Mid-April, 2025
The Small Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. We accept applications three times per year.
This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. Our goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education.
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[National Science Foundation] Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Education Organizational Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (STEM Ed OPRF)
DEADLINE: April 25, 2025
The Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (STEM Ed PRF) Program funds postdoctoral fellowship projects designed to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of STEM Education research by recent doctoral graduates in STEM, STEM Education, Education, and related disciplines. This solicitation supports organizational postdoctoral fellowship projects; a companion solicitation (STEM Ed IPRF) supports individual postdoctoral fellowship awards. The Program is designed to broaden the pool of researchers who can advance knowledge regarding STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development. Principal Investigators who are women, veterans, persons with disabilities, and from groups underrepresented in STEM, or who have attended community colleges and minority-serving institutions (e.g. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Alaska Native Serving Institutions, and Hawaiian Native and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions) are especially encouraged to apply.
STEM Ed OPRF awards provide support to organizations as they develop a STEM education postdoctoral research fellowship project and support a cohort of fellows. The program should enable fellows to engage in ongoing research, to develop independent research, and to implement an independent professional development plan under the guidance of a sponsoring researcher. Fellows are expected to devote themselves full time to the fellowship activities for the duration of the fellowship.
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[National Science Foundation] Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Directorate
for STEM Education (IUSE: EDU)
DEADLINE: July 16, 2025
The National Science Foundation (NSF) plays a leadership role in developing and implementing efforts to enhance and improve STEM education in the United States. Through the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative, the agency continues to make a substantial commitment to the highest caliber undergraduate STEM education through a Foundation-wide framework of investments. The IUSE: EDU is a core NSF STEM education program that seeks to promote novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for undergraduate students. The program is open to application from all institutions of higher education and associated organizations. NSF places high value on educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically literate public. In pursuit of this goal, IUSE: EDU supports projects that seek to bring recent advances in STEM knowledge into undergraduate education, that adapt, improve, and incorporate evidence-based practices into STEM teaching and learning, and that lay the groundwork for institutional improvement in STEM education. In addition to innovative work at the frontier of STEM education, this program also encourages replication of research studies at different types of institutions and with different student bodies to produce deeper knowledge about the effectiveness and transferability of findings.
IUSE: EDU also seeks to support projects that have high potential for broader societal impacts, including improved diversity of students and instructors participating in STEM education, professional development for instructors to ensure adoption of new and effective pedagogical techniques that meet the changing needs of students, and projects that promote institutional partnerships for collaborative research and development. IUSE: EDU especially welcomes proposals that will pair well with the efforts of NSF INCLUDES (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsfincludes/index.jsp) to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society.
For all the above objectives, the National Science Foundation invests primarily in evidence-based and knowledge-generating approaches to understand and improve STEM learning and learning environments, improve the diversity of STEM students and majors, and prepare STEM majors for the workforce. In addition to contributing to STEM education in the host institution(s), proposals should have the promise of adding more broadly to our understanding of effective teaching and learning practices.
The IUSE: EDU program features two tracks: (1) Engaged Student Learning and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation.
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[U.S. Department of Education] Teacher Preparation Grants: Supporting Effective Educator
Development (SEED) Program
https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/358276
Federal Register Notice with full application details: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-17/pdf/2025-01275.pdf
DEADLINE: March 18, 2025
Applicants are strongly encouraged, but not required, to submit a notice of intent to apply by February 18, 2025.
Purpose of Program: The SEED program, authorized under section 2242 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) (20 U.S.C. 6672), provides funding to increase the number of highly effective educators by supporting the implementation of evidence-based practices that prepare, develop, or enhance the skills of educators. These grants will allow eligible entities to develop, expand, and evaluate practices that can serve as models to be sustained and disseminated.
The SEED program is designed to foster the use of rigorous evidence-based practices in selecting and implementing strategies and interventions that support educators’ development across the continuum of their careers (e.g., in preparation, recruitment, professional learning, and leadership development). The Biden- Harris Administration has made a commitment to supporting targeted efforts that will provide comprehensive, high-quality pathways, such as residency, Grow Your Own, and registered apprenticeship programs, for educator preparation and development programs focused on building a more diverse educator pipeline, and increasing the retention of a diverse educator workforce. For example, research shows that teachers who have access to pathways such as residencies into the profession are more likely to stay in the profession and have effectiveness compared to teachers who received less comprehensive preparation.
This competition includes several areas of particular interest to the Department. Studies suggest that all students benefit from having teachers of color. Students of color being exposed to teachers of their race or ethnicity has a positive effect on their academic and social achievement, and increases their attendance, high school graduation rates, and college attendance. In addition to student academic performance, a diverse educator workforce can lead to improved student behavior and classroom environments for all students. However, only around one in five teachers are people of color, compared to more than half of K–12 public school students. The Department recognizes that a diverse educator workforce plays a critical role in ensuring equity in our schools, while also supporting intercultural experiences and competencies in our education system that will benefit and improve the opportunities for all students.
Access to educational resources and opportunities such as rigorous coursework and dual enrollment can have positive impacts on underserved students. For example, a December 2020 brief from the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that there is a correlation between the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch in a school and the likelihood that those students will have access to dual enrollment opportunities. The study showed that schools with a higher percentage of students who were approved for free or reduced-price lunch were less likely to offer dual enrollment than schools with a lower rate of participation in free or reduced- price lunch programs. Such examples of inadequate or inequitable access to educational resources can lead to the students from higher poverty schools having fewer opportunities for educational enrichment.
Additionally, the Department recognizes the importance of ensuring that children and youth learn, grow, and achieve in safe and supportive environments, and in the care of responsive adults they trust. In addition to allowing applicants to propose a project designed to promote educational equity and adequacy in resources and opportunity, applicants are encouraged to prepare teachers to create inclusive, supportive, equitable, unbiased, and identity-safe learning environments for their students that meet their social emotional and academic needs.