Featured Opportunities

October 8, 2025

• A Private Company via Halo is looking for innovative technologies that enhance the ability of lawns and gardens to capture carbon. Depending on management practices, the "American Lawn" can either be an environmentally friendly net benefit for the community or an unsustainable waste of resources. One of the best paths to achieve sustainability lies in enhancing root systems: deeper roots confer both drought resistance and long-term carbon sequestration. Soil conditioning and amendments could provide a better environment for roots to reach proper depth. Plant breeding and biotechnology could also result in new grass varieties that accelerate and enhance these benefits. Potential solutions include ingredients or materials that can increase a lawn’s existing ability to capture carbon or generate new methods of capturing carbon, new plant genetics, varieties or species with superior carbon capture traits, and new methods of sequestration via lawn or garden not yet explored. Solutions of interest include: Biologicals (e.g., microbial solutions, living soil enhancers); Natural products (e.g., biochar, manure, mulch, rock); Advanced soil amendments (materials that improve root depth and sequestration); Improved genetics and biotechnology-enabled traits (e.g., novel grass varieties); and Emerging carbon sequestering methods.
• OCP Nutricrops via Halo is looking for innovative, sustainable solutions that improve crop Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) by enhancing crop uptake and minimizing losses, enabling crops to deliver the same or better performance with less nitrogen applied while reducing environmental impact. Current approaches to improve NUE include urease inhibitors that slow ammonia losses from urea and nitrification inhibitors that delay nitrate formation, reducing leaching and nitrous oxide emissions. While effective and widely used, many of these solutions are not biodegradable, a growing concern in regions like Europe. Biological alternatives such as nitrogen-fixing or solubilizing microbes exist but are often dominated by well-established players. Solutions of interest include: 1) Natural nitrification and urease inhibitor compounds; 2) Biodegradable analogs of common nitrification and urease inhibitors; 3) Microbial inoculants for nitrogen fixation or soil cycle modulation; 4) Enzyme-based solutions to suppress urease or nitrifying bacteria; 5) Biodegradable polymers or coatings for controlled urea release; and 6) Smart delivery systems for timed inhibitor release.
• The Department o Agriculture, NIFA has released its Capacity Grants. This webpage lists all of the current capacity grants and provides links to the RFA for each of the programs. All proposals are due on October 31, 2025.
• The Huntington Library awards over 150 Research Fellowships Recipients of all fellowships are expected to be in continuous residence at The Huntington and to participate in, and contribute to, its intellectual life. Long-term fellows are expected to present at a two-day introductory symposium in September and to participate in weekly working group sessions from October to May. The Huntington is a collections-based research institute, which promotes humanities scholarship on the basis of its library holdings and art collections. The Art Collections feature European and American art spanning more than 500 years, with diverse strengths ranging from Renaissance Italian bronzes to British grand manner portrait paintings to early American folk art to 20th-century drawings, prints, and photography. The Library holds more than 11 million items that span the 11th to the 21st century. Its diverse materials center on 14 intersecting collection strengths.
• The Huntington Library awards six Travel Grants for study abroad for research that will be carried out in libraries or archives outside of the United States or Canada, especially those in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, or Latin America. Preference will be given to applications in areas of research in which The Huntington collections are strong. However, applications in all humanities fields will be considered. The Huntington will reimburse the grantee for economy round-trip airfare before the trip. A stipend of $4,000 will be paid after the grantee submits a detailed report on the research conducted.
• Recent technological advances have set the stage for a renewed focus on human-based solutions called new approach methodologies (NAMs) that can complement, and in some cases replace, animal models in research and regulatory testing. These NAMs generally span advanced cell-tissue-organoid (in vitro), computational modeling (in silico), and cell-free biochemical analysis (in chemico) techniques, with each type of NAM offering different advantages. To accelerate development and validation of combinatorial NAMs for human-based scientific and regulatory purposes, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund’s Complement-Animal Research In Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) program in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is launching the Reduction to Practice (RTP) Challenge. This challenge invites innovative combinatorial NAMs solutions from multidisciplinary teams who can successfully demonstrate implementation of their human-based solution in a practical and usable form within a 3-year period. Solvers will have the chance to win up to $1,430,000 in cumulative cash prizes and have their solution provided validation and/or qualification support by the Complement-ARIE Validation and Qualification Network (VQN). This Challenge is open to the public.
• A Private Company via Halo is seeking subject matter experts with tools, methods, or expertise that can help identify FDA-approved compounds with UV-blocking capacity, individually or in combination, to accelerate innovation in sun protection. Despite the high demand for innovative sun protection products, regulatory hurdles remain a major challenge. Only a limited number of sunscreen actives are FDA-approved, and the complex process to approve new ones can take years. To accelerate innovation, they are interested in exploring the potential of compounds that are already FDA-approved for other uses and may also have UV-blocking properties. This approach could create a regulatory bridge, shorten development timelines, expand the palette of active ingredients, and reduce the barriers for bringing new sun care solutions to market. Topics of interest include: 1) Screening FDA-approved compounds for UV-absorbing, scattering, or protective properties; 2) Computational screening approaches (in silico, database-driven, predictive modeling); 3) Translating compound identification into potential sunscreen applications; 4) Methods for evaluating synergistic effects among multiple FDA-approved compounds; and 5) Regulatory considerations for repurposing FDA-approved compounds for sun care applications.
• The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) PFE: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (PFE: RIEF) program has two goals: 1) Support research in the Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE), and 2) Increase the community of researchers conducting PFE research. PIs are expected to have little or no experience conducting social science or education research. PFE: RIEF is not intended for established researchers in engineering education or other social science fields to initiate new projects. Those researchers should consider the Research in the Formation of Engineers Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE) refers to the formal and informal education and value systems by which people become engineers. It also includes the ethical responsibility of practicing engineers to sustain and grow the profession. The engineering profession must be responsive to national priorities, grand challenges, and dynamic workforce needs; it must be equally open and accessible to all. Engineering faculty possess both deep technical expertise in their engineering discipline and the primary responsibility for the process of professional formation of future engineers. As such, engineering faculty are in a unique position to help address critical challenges in engineering formation. The Professional Formation of Engineers: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (PFE: RIEF) program enables engineering faculty who are renowned for teaching, mentoring, or leading educational reform efforts on their campus to develop expertise in conducting engineering education research.
• The Department of Energy, Office of Science (SC) hereby announces, though its Office of Science Financial Assistance Program, its continuing interest in receiving applications for support of work in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, and Isotope R&D and Production. This NOFO is their annual open solicitation that covers all research areas in SC and is open throughout the Fiscal Year. Any research within SC’s Congressionally authorized mission may be proposed under this NOFO. This NOFO will remain open until September 30, 2026, 11:59 PM Eastern Time, or until it is succeeded by another issuance, whichever occurs first. This NOFO succeeds DE-FOA0003432, which was published September 30, 2024.
• The Common Fund Human Virome Program (HVP) aims to extensively and comprehensively characterize the human virome and create tools, models, and methods that will enable an in-depth study of its variation and composition in relation to host factors and its influence on health and disease. The purpose of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Pilot Projects to Enhance the Human Virome Program (R03) NOFO is to support small pilot projects that extend the goals of the HVP, including further validating, improving, and complementing existing and newly developed tools from the HVP program by leveraging human specimens collected from the cohorts under the program; samples from animals to promote the refinement, utilization, and translation of these tools to better serve the goals of the HVP program; expanding existing cohorts and/or biospecimen sampling sites for virome characterization; developing tools and methods to study the human virome; and defining interactions between the human virome and host. These pilot projects will encourage collaboration across the HVP and expand the consortium. Pilot projects should not overlap with existing HVP efforts. The R03 is intended to support small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources.
• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH, K-IMBRE’s Bridging Grant provides interim support to help a project in Biomedical Research continue for an eligible investigator who has submitted a grant (e.g., R01, R21, R16, R15) to NIH that was approved on the basis of scientific merit, but fell short of the funding range (applications with a poor impact score or if percentiled, high percentile ranking, will not be considered). These funds should assist in providing data needed to submit a revised application to NIH. Proposals must outline how the bridging grant addresses reviewers' concerns and will lead to a more robust revised application. The resources available have been earmarked exclusively to help an on-going project that has just missed the funding cut-off to keep momentum going until NIH funds are secured.
• One mission of the HHS, NIH-funded Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Kansas INBRE) grant is to increase research activities using the classroom. These activities are referred to as Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) and should increase student participation in research and enhance faculty efforts in conducting NIH-related biomedical research. K-INBRE is now seeking to identify 7-10 faculty at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) and 1-2 at non-PUIs to participate as CURE Award Recipients. See a list of our PUIs vs. non-PUIs here. These awards are intended to support curriculum-based research experiences at K-INBRE network institutions. Science education research has shown that acquiring research methods and expertise increases student success. Moreover, inquiry-based laboratory exercises increase learning compared to descriptive approaches. CUREs integrate a research project into a course, expose students to the scientific process, improve their understanding of biological concepts, and better prepare them for STEM careers. This approach increases the number and diversity of students engaged in research, the retention of students in further scientific activities, and aids faculty in their research efforts and career progression. Use of the K-INBRE-5 Data Science Core is encouraged. Proposals can be for a single semester or multiple semesters based on the research needs and expertise of the faculty.
• The Kaufmann Foundation’s Project Grant Opportunities are designed to drive impact around equitable economic mobility. Funded organizations are expected to design and implement, or scale, a multiyear project in alignment with our strategic priorities and focus areas. Project should focus on scaling proven approaches in the Kansas City region and/or launching new, promising approaches that have shown success in peer cities. or the fall 2025 cycle, they are especially interested in pilots, programs, or new approaches to systems-level challenges that are grounded in collaboration and community-driven impact. They will consider all proposals, but will prioritize proposals that advance our goals in the following strategic areas for colleges and universities. They encourage proposals that implement evidence-based strategies to increase postsecondary credential attainment and facilitate career-aligned transitions. Competitive applications will: 1) Deliver activities focused on students earning a postsecondary credential and successfully entering career pathways; 2) Reduce structural and financial barriers to college degree or credential completion; and 3) Leverage partnerships across educational institutions, systems, and community programs.