Scholar Awards
Scholar awards provide funding for early-career faculty to help jumpstart independent research careers. The Research Development Office (RDO) strives to identify early-career opportunities that will be of interest to NC State faculty.
Limited Submission Scholar Awards
These programs are often limited-submission in nature, and may require nominations by a candidate’s Department Head and/or the University. If necessary, an internal competition to select the most competitive candidate will be implemented inline with our standard limited submission process. A selection of those opportunities of interest to NC State faculty is presented in the table below.
Please visit this page, as well as the Limited Submission Opportunities page, for instructions on how to submit your name for consideration for scholar awards that are limited-submission in nature. If you are aware of any other awards of this type, please email research-development@ncsu.edu so that the award(s) can be advertised and listed here.
| Program | Subject Area | Eligibility Criteria | Limit | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIH Director's Early Independence Award | Behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. | Applicants must complete their doctoral degree or clinical training between May 1, 2023 and September 30, 2025 | 2 per institution | Next cycle anticipated spring 2025 |
| ADA Pathway to Stop Diabetes: Accelerator and Initiator Awards | Diabetes Research | Accelerator: Applicants must hold independent faculty positions Initiator: Applicants must currently be in research training positions and can have no more than seven (7) years of training since their doctoral degree. | 2 per institution, over both tracks | Next cycle anticipated spring 2025 |
| ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards | Engineering and Applied Science Life Sciences Mathematics/Computer Sciences Physical Sciences Policy, Management, or Education | Applicants must be full-time asst professors within two years of their tenure track appointment at the time of application. | 2 per institution | Application Deadline: Jan. 8, 2025 |
| Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists (National Award) | Three categories: Life Sciences / Physical Sciences & Engineering / Chemical Sciences | Faculty who serves as a primary PI in one of the subject areas | 1 in each category | Nominations due: Dec. 4, 2024 |
| William T. Grant Scholars Program | Social Science | Applicants must have received their terminal degree within seven years of submitting their application. Applicants must be employed in career-ladder positions. | One nomination per college/major division | Next cycle anticipated spring 2025 |
| Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program | Bioethics research that helps resolve pressing ethical issues in clinical care, biomedical research, and public policy. | Junior faculty members holding at least a 50% tenure track appointment (or its equivalent). | 1 per institution | Next cycle anticipated summer 2025 |
| WiSTEM2D Scholars Award Program | Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design | The awards will fund early to mid-career women working within a STEM2D university department | One nomination per discipline: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design | Next cycle anticipated summer 2025 |
| Beckman Young Investigator Award | Chemical and Life Sciences. | Candidate must be within the first three years of a tenure track position. U.S. citizens or permanent residents only. | No limit for the LOI stage | Next cycle anticipated summer 2025 |
| Mallinckrodt Foundation Grants | Biomedical research | Applicants should be in the first to fourth year of their tenure track faculty position and not have current R01 funding. | 1 nominee per institution | Next cycle anticipated Spring 2025 |
| Searle Scholars Program | Biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences | Applicants should have begun their appointment as an independent investigator at the assistant professor level on or after May 1, 2023. | 1 per institution | Next cycle anticipated summer 2025 |
| Sloan Research Fellowships | Chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field. | Candidates must hold a tenure-track position with a regular teaching obligation. | 3 per department | Next cycle anticipated summer 2025 |
| Moore Inventor Fellows | Scientific research, environmental conservation, and patient care. | Candidates must be faculty, research scientists, postdocs or other full-time staff at eligible institutions. No more than 10 years past terminal degree in their field | 2 per institution | Nomination Deadline:11/15/24 Application Deadline: 12/13/2024 |
| Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Programs | Chemical Sciences, including biochemistry, materials chemistry, and chemical engineering. | Nominees must hold a full-time tenure-track academic appointment, and are normally expected to have been appointed no earlier than mid-year 2018. | 1 per institution | Next cycle anticipated summer 2025 |
| Pew Biomedical Scholars | Science relevant to the advancement of human health | Candidates must hold a doctorate in biomedical sciences, medicine, or a related field, including engineering or the physical sciences. | 1 nominee per institution | Next cycle anticipated early 2025 |
Non-limited Submission Scholar Awards
Scholar award opportunities that are not limited-submission in nature are listed below. These types of opportunities will be added to this page as RDO identifies them.
NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
Part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the award supports exceptionally creative early career investigators who propose innovative, high-impact projects in the biomedical, behavioral or social sciences within the NIH mission.
- Single PI only
- Must have Early-Stage Investigator status (completed doctoral degree or postgraduate clinical training within last 10 years and never received a substantial NIH independent research award)
- No preliminary data required
- Minimum of 25% research effort
- $1.5 million in direct costs split into two multi-year segments
Limits: Non-limited for each institution, but P.I.s can only submit one application per cycle
Application Deadline: Aug. 19, 2024
DARPA FY 2024 Young Faculty Award
The objective of the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to identify and engage researchers in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic and non-profit research institutions and expose them to Department of Defense (DoD) needs and 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 in the context of national security needs. The long term goal of the YFA program is to develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who will focus a significant portion of their career on DoD and National Security issues.
Executive Summary Deadline: Dec. 18, 2024, 4:00 p.m.
Full Proposal Deadline: Feb. 5, 2025, 4:00 p.m.
Air Force Fiscal Year 2025 Young Investigator Program
The Air Force is receiving applications for the FY 2025 Young Investigator Program. Applicants must have received a Ph.D. or equivalent by April 1, 2017 or later. The program aims to foster creative basic research in science and engineering, enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators, and increase opportunities for young investigators to recognize the Air Force and Space Force mission and related challenges in science and engineering.
White Papers Deadline: April 22, 2024
Application Deadline: June 21, 2024
Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
Application Deadline: July 24, 2024
Alan T. Waterman Award
The Alan T. Waterman Award honors an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the National Science Foundation. The awardee receives a grant of $1 million over five years for scientific research or advanced study in any field of science, plus a medal and other recognition.
Eligibility criteria include:
- Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and must be 40 years of age or younger, OR not more than ten years beyond the receipt of the Ph.D. degree by December 31st of the year they are nominated.
- Candidates should have demonstrated exceptional individual achievements in scientific or engineering research of sufficient quality, originality, innovation and significant impact on the field to place them at the forefront of their peers.
Nominations consist of the following:
- Nominee’s contact information
- Nominee’s history and citations.
- Narrative statement which covers the nominee’s qualifications for the Alan T. Waterman Award. The statement should be no more than 3 pages.
- Nominee’s publications and contributions (list up to 20).
- Four reference letters (limit 2 pages) from writers outside of the nominee’s home institution. The system will automatically send an email to these reference writers to notify them that their assistance is requested once their contact information is entered. Please see Letter of Reference Template for requirements and tips for preparing strong letters of recommendation.
Limit: NC State may nominate an unlimited number of individuals and there are no restrictions on who may nominate. Self-nominations are not accepted.
Webinar hosted by NSF: Aug. 14, 2024 at 2 p.m. Register here
Nomination Deadline: Sept. 20, 2024
Simons Foundation Scientific Software Research Faculty Award
The Simons Foundation’s Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) division invites applications for its Scientific Software Research Faculty Award (SSRF Award) in the MPS program for faculty appointments to start between September 2024–September 2025. The foundation strongly encourages scientists from disadvantaged backgrounds or underrepresented groups to apply.
Scientific software is a critical component of research, enabling scientists to analyze and reduce data, perform simulations, automate tasks, and produce and visualize results. As such, the development and maintenance of broadly-applicable scientific software has become an increasingly important intellectual endeavor. While scientific software experts are crucial members of research ventures, their career prospects beyond postdoctoral-level positions are limited.
The Simons Foundation invites applications for funding to support new research professor positions in existing academic departments (the “host institutions”) to be filled by scientific software-focused researchers. The SSRF Award will support researchers who have a strong track record of leadership in scientific software development. The aim of this program is to stimulate the development and maintenance of core scientific software infrastructure in academic environments through creating a new, long-term, faculty-level career path.
LOI Deadline: Dec 5, 2024
LOI notification sent by: March 31, 2025
Full Proposal Deadline: March 31, 2026
Helen Hay Whitney Foundation
The Helen Hay Whitney Foundation supports early postdoctoral research training in all basic biomedical sciences. To attain its ultimate goal of increasing the number of imaginative, well-trained and dedicated medical scientists, the Foundation grants financial support of sufficient duration to help further the careers of young men and women engaged in biological or medical research.
This agency will review no more than one application from a laboratory during each annual cycle. We will accept applications from different laboratories/supervisors at the same institution. Should we receive more than one, the Chair of the SAC will decide which of the applications appears most competitive and decline the other(s) administratively.
Application Deadline: June 17, 2024
NASA Heliophysics Early Career Investigator Program (ROSES 2022)
The Early Career Investigator Program (ECIP) in Heliophysics is designed to support outstanding scientific research and career development of scientists at the early stage of their professional careers. The program aims to encourage innovative research initiatives and cultivate diverse scientific leadership in Heliophysics. This program is designed to foster the empowerment, inspiration, and education of the next generation of space researchers, as part of the DRIVE (Diversify, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate) initiative put forward as a high priority recommendation of the 2013 Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey. An ECIP proposal PI (or Science PI) and any early career Co-Is must have a Ph.D. conferral date on or after January 1, 2012.
Step 1 proposal deadline: 7/28/2022
Step 2 proposal deadline (invite only): 10/18/2022