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Annual Limited Competition Examples
There are a number of Limited Competitions that repeat annually. A list of some examples are below.
| Program | Sponsor | Description | Typical Internal Announcement Date | Typical Sponsor Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Feldstein Medical Foundation (FMF) | Feldstein Medical Foundation | The Feldstein Medical Foundation (FMF) is a private foundation created to promote and advance previously neglected areas of medical research. FMF's grants will be made in varied areas of medical research, including: (1) Basic science; (2) Translation/implementation studies; (3) Early clinical research; and (4) Education. 2 applications are accepted annually by invitation only. | January | March |
| Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) | SUNY | Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) helps faculty inventors and scientists turn their research into market-ready technologies. Funded by the State University of New York, TAF targets critical research development milestones, such as feasibility studies, prototyping and testing, which demonstrate that an idea or innovation has commercial potential. The goal is to increase their attractiveness to potential investors. | January / February | May |
| Pew Biomedical Scholars | Pew Charitable Trusts | The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences supports promising early-career scientists in the health sciences—particularly young researchers with innovative approaches and ideas. One nomination will be invited from the presidents of 180 institutions. Project Summary, CV, and letter of support are typically due at the end of June. | April | October |
| Scientific Innovations Award | Brain Research Foundation | Brain Research Foundation Scientific Innovations Award supports innovative discovery science in both basic and clinical neuroscience. This funding mechanism is designed to support creative, cutting edge research in well-established research laboratories, under the direction of established investigators. It is expected that investigations supported by these grants will yield high impact findings and result in major grant applications and significant publications in high impact journals. | April | September |
| Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program | NSF | The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative approaches to STEM graduate education training. The program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master's and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. IGE focuses on projects aimed at piloting, testing, and validating innovative and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education. | Spring / Summer | Fall |
| NIH Director's Early Independence Award | NIH | NIH Director's Early Independence Award supports exceptional investigators who wish to pursue independent research essentially after completion of their terminal doctoral/research degree or end of their post-graduate training, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career. Individuals from diverse backgrounds and from the full spectrum of eligible institutions in all geographic locations are strongly encouraged to apply. | June | September |
| National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program | NSF | The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. | June | February |
| Searle Scholars Program | Kinship Foundation | The Searle Scholars Program invites nomination of two faculty members for its annual competition. This award is designed to support the independent research of exceptional young faculty in the fields of biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences. The Searle Scholars Program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding young scientists who have recently been appointed as assistant professors on a tenure-track appointment. | June | September |
| Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics | Greenwall Foundation | The Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics is a career development award to enable junior faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research. It supports research that goes beyond current work in bioethics to help resolve pressing ethical issues in clinical, biomedical, and public health decision-making, policy, and practice, and creates a community that enhances future bioethics research by Scholars and Alumni/ae. | July | September (LOI) |
| Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) | NSF | NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) Instrument acquisition or development proposals that request funds from NSF in the range $100,000-$4 million will be accepted from all eligible organizations. Proposals that request funds from NSF less than $100,000 will also be accepted from all eligible organizations for the disciplines of mathematics or social, behavioral and economic sciences and from non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education for all NSF-supported disciplines. Cost-sharing at the level of 30% of the total project cost is required for Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education and for non-degree-granting organizations. Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: Three (3) – two Acquisition and one Development. | September | January |
| Moore Inventor Fellows | Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation | Moore Inventor Fellows supports scientist-inventors who create new tools and technologies with a high potential to accelerate progress in the foundation's area of interest: scientific discovery, environmental conservation and patient care. | September | December |
| Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant Program | Brain Research Foundation | Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant Program was founded in 1981 with the goal of providing start-up money for new and innovative research projects that have the potential to become competitive for an NIH grant or other external funding sources. To be eligible, the PI must be a full-time Assistant or Associate Professor working in the field of neuroscience. | October | March |
| Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program | Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation | Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage of their careers. Criteria for selection include an independent body of scholarship attained in early years of the appointment and demonstrated commitment to education. | December | February |
| Discovery Prize | Stony Brook Foundation | Discovery Prize was established in 2013 with a generous donation from the Stony Brook Foundation's Board of Trustees as a way to advance pioneering scientific breakthroughs. It is a pathway to capitalize on new technologies, new innovations, new ideas and the urgency to move discovery-driven knowledge forward. It is also a means to advance the career of a rising star on the Stony Brook faculty whose ideas may be so revolutionary and so contrary to convention that funding agencies would be unlikely to provide support. | Varies | Internal - Varies |