For Researchers
Finding Funding
The first step to your next breakthrough is finding research funding. Explore internal and external support for your work here.
External Funding
External funding sources
Resources and databases for finding funding
Current limited submission competitions
Internal Funding
The Office of the Vice President for Research supports research success with internal funding programs to initiate new projects, develop diverse interdisciplinary teams, engage in arts and humanities scholarship, publish open access articles, purchase shared instrumentation or other research tools, and more. For general questions, please email ajbrandt@iastate.edu.
Overview of Internal Funding Programs
Strategic Plan Jump Start Funding Opportunities
Research Tool Revitalization Program
These matching funds are aimed at maintaining tools that serve as workhorses in the daily activity of researchers and students. This program provides matching funds for replacement, revitalization, or enhancement of existing research tools where external funds are not available.
Research Resource Access Mini Grants
These funds support access to research resources for pilot studies and to generate preliminary data needed to pursue external funding opportunities. Allowable resources include on campus core facility instruments, animal care, data sets; external resources may be data sets, fees for archives, and other durable or tangible materials not available on campus.
Research Consultant Resource Grants
These matching funds support access to research consultant resources for grant writing, team building, or other professional services that will enhance pursuit of external funding opportunities.
Research Professional Development Resource Grants
These matching funds support professional development training focused on improving communication and/or presentation skills that can help elevate overall team success in building interdisciplinary large-scale research collaborations and effectively communicating project impacts to the public.
Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed And Initiative Programs
Presidential Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (PIRI)
These funds are for growing existing collaborations into large-scale initiatives with external partnerships to seek significant sponsored funding and address society’s challenges.
Presidential Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grant (PIRS)
These funds are for starting high-risk, high reward interdisciplinary research (especially appropriate for mid-career faculty).
Bridging the Divide Seed Grant
These funds are for creating convergence-style teams that holistically address new problems by integrating arts, humanities and social science researchers with STEM researchers.
Specialty Research Advancement Funding
Bailey Research Career Development Award
These funds are for enabling individual faculty to pursue a new fundamental research direction with potential for practical application (especially appropriate for mid-career faculty).
Margaret B. Barry Cancer Research Award
This award was established with a generous estate gift from Ms. Margaret Barry, who wanted these funds to further cancer research.
This call runs every 2-3 years. Please check back in fiscal year 2025 for program updates.
Biosciences Platform Funding Opportunities
Biosciences Platform Opportunities for initiating new collaborative research projects with industry partners to accelerate technology development in support of the Iowa Bioscience Platform Initiative.
Digital and Precision Agriculture
- Seed Grants: This program focuses on seeding Digital and Precision Agriculture platform opportunities.
- Fellowship Program: This program focuses on platform opportunities specifically aimed at strengthening the expertise of companies developing digital ag solutions.
- Demonstration Funds: This program focuses on platform opportunities which specifically include product testing of a digital ag product.
- Commercialization Grants: This program focuses on platform opportunities which specifically have a welldefined path to commercialization.
Vaccines, Diagnostics, and lmmunotherapeutics
- Innovation Fellowship: This program provides resources for research-focused entrepreneurs who have already established concepts and motivation to identify and commercialize novel technologies. Applicants should have a suitable technical knowledge and a strong interest in developing entrepreneurial talents to form a successful New Venture or actively support technological commercialization in the vaccines and immunotherapeutics field.
Biobased Products
- Seed Grants: This program is for developing capabilities in emerging biobased products areas – soil enhancement (e.g., biobased fertilizers, microbial soil treatments, etc.), biobased pesticides, alternative proteins, and nutritional probiotics – which have generated significant commercial interest.
- Technology Demonstration Projects: This program focus on opportunities for demonstrating technology feasibility on the pathway towards commercialization.
Arts And Humanities Grant Programs
CEAH Faculty Learning Communities Grant
These funds are for developing long-term collaborations with interdisciplinary partners to pursue ideas that bridge the arts, engineering, humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
CEAH Research Grant
These funds are for supporting summer research, course release, or research support for research and creative projects that employ predominantly artistic or humanistic approaches and contribute to scholarly development and academic career progression of faculty in the arts, design, and humanities disciplines.
CEAH Symposium Grant
These funds are for organizing artistic and scholarly conferences, symposia, and seminars related to the arts, design, and humanities that attract national attention and bring recognition to work being done by Iowa State arts and humanities faculty.
CEAH Digital Humanities Summer Institute Award
These funds are for covering registration costs to attend the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.
CEAH Digital Scholarship Research Grant
These funds are for providing support for research or creative activity that incorporates a substantial digital component that will make a significant contribution to the scholarly development and academic career progression of faculty in the arts, design, and humanities disciplines.
Other Research Support Programs
Brown Graduate Fellowship
This program is for Ph.D. students or exceptional M.S. students to strategically advance ISU research in the areas of study in science, agriculture, and space science.
Publication Subvention Grant – Scholarly Works
This program is for supporting publication of meritorious scholarly works such as books or digital media.
Publication Subvention Grant – Open Access Journal Articles
This program is for supporting publication of scholarly peer reviewed articles in high quality open access journals that provide free and immediate access to content.
Cost Sharing Programs
Cost Sharing Program for Research Tools (CoSPRT)
This program is for supporting the purchase of new research tools, replacing or expanding capabilities of existing tools, or de novo assembly of an integrated new tool.
Cost Share Funds for Sponsored Funding Proposals
This program is for supporting sponsor mandated requirements for institutional cost share, or where voluntary committed cost share is strongly encouraged.
Additional details can be found on the OSPA website.
New Faculty Start-up Funding
This program is for establishing research programs for tenure-eligible new faculty.
Guidelines and request form can be found here.