Early Career Funding Opportunities

• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program

  Deadline for White Paper: June

  Award: $150,000 per year for three years.

  Supports scientists and engineers who have received doctoral or equivalent degrees in the last five years and show exceptional ability and promise to conduct basic research. They must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of permanent residency.

• The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program

  Deadline: April

  Award: $250,000 per year for three years

  Supports 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 doctoral or equivalent degree in the past seven years, and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. They must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of permanent residency.

• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award
  Deadline for Executive Summary: December

  Award: $500,000 for 1 or 2 years

  The DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program identifies and engages rising research stars in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic institutions and introduces them to Department of Defense needs as well as DARPA’s program development process. The YFA program provides funding, mentoring, and industry and DoD contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas informed by DoD needs. The program focuses on untenured faculty, emphasizing those without prior DARPA funding.

• Congressional Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) Career Development Award
  Deadline: Varies by program
  CDMRP provides medical research funding for multiple programs. Some of these program areas, such as Peer Reviewed Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Lung Cancer, and Breast Cancer Research Programs have included New Investigator Awards or Career Development Awards.

Early Career Program

Award: $875,000 over five years
Deadline: Pre-application due in January
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: Advanced Scientific Computing Research; Biological and Environmental Research; Basic Energy Sciences, Fusion Energy Sciences; High Energy Physics, and Nuclear Physics. Applicants must be no more than 10 years beyond the doctoral degree at the deadline for the application.

Early Career Faculty (ECF)

Deadline: February

Award: $600,000 ($200,000 per year) over 3 years

ECF challenges early career faculty to examine the theoretical feasibility of ideas and approaches that are critical to making science, space travel, and exploration more effective, affordable, and sustainable. The proposed research must be led by a single, eligible principal investigator. The proposed principal investigator must be an untenured assistant professor on the tenure track at the sponsoring U.S. university at the time of award. They must be a U.S. citizen or have lawful status of permanent residency.

• List of Programs for New and Early Stage Investigators

• Director’s New Innovator Award
  Deadline: August

  Award: $1.5 million in direct costs split into two multi-year segments

  Part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the award supports early career investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, critical areas relevant to the NIH mission. Must have completed doctoral degree or postgraduate clinical training within the last 10 years and never received a substantial NIH independent research award.

   

Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)
Deadline: July
Award: $500,000 for a five-year period for proposals submitted to the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), the Directorate for Engineering (ENG), or the Office of Polar Programs (OPP). For proposals submitted to all other Directorates, the minimum award size is $400,000 over five years.

The program's intent is to provide stable support at a sufficient level and duration so awardees can develop careers as outstanding researchers and educators who effectively integrate teaching, learning and discovery.