Announcements
- Welcome back to campus! For those new to UTC, we look forward to getting to know you and your research. Our New Faculty Guide has all the details you need to get started with sponsored programs. Additional resources are available on our New Faculty Resources page, and be sure to check out the list of open funding opportunities limited to early career researchers below.
- Attention Department Heads: If any grant-active faculty from your department left UTC this summer or will be leaving this fall, please reach out to Meredith-Perry@utc.edu so that ORSP can make a transition plan for their awards and initiate any applicable sponsor approval requests.
- Fringe benefits rates for the UT System have been updated for FY26. Grants Specialists will be using these new rates for your proposal budgets, effective immediately. Note that UTC’s negotiated indirect cost rates (F&As) have not changed.
- The Institutional Review Board (IRB) has developed a new protocol form to replace Forms A, D, and E in preparation for the implementation of DASH Research IRB coming in November. The new form, available here, is effective for protocols submitted after September 19.
- The first meeting of the semester’s Quantum Seminar series will take place at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, in the UTC Library, Room 435. Dr. Adrian Del Maestro, professor and head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UT Knoxville, will present “Active Learning a Quantum Phase Transition.”
- The US Department of Energy is accepting applications for the second cycle of the Office of Science Graduate Student Research program. Applications are due on Wednesday, November 5. Students can learn more about the program and register for upcoming webinars here.
Internal Grant Competitions
| Sponsor/Program | Deadline | Limitations or Special Considerations |
| FY26 Open Publishing Support Fund | Rolling through 6/30/26 | Lead authors/applicants are limited to 1 award per fiscal year. |
Early Career Funding Opportunities
| Sponsor/Program | Deadline | Limitations or Special Considerations |
| NSF Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) | September 16, 2025 | Eligibility restrictions for research funding received only; no limits on tenure status. See solicitation for details. No Co-PIs are permitted. |
| NSF Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) | January 22, 2026 | Limited to Assistant Professors who have a doctoral degree in an MPS field and have not served as PI or Co-PI of an NSF research award. No Co-PIs are permitted. |
| NSF EDU Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research | February 26, 2026 | No limits on tenure status or previous research awards. |
| NSF CAREER | July 22, 2026 | Limited to Assistant Professors meeting the requirements detailed in the solicitation. No Co-PIs or other senior personnel are permitted. |
| NSF EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) | Varies by program | Requires PO approval of concept outline prior to submission. No eligibility restrictions. |
Upcoming Deadlines
ORSP has standardized the process for proposal notification, development, and submission. Click here to learn more and view required internal deadlines.
| Sponsor/Program | Deadline | Limitations or Special Considerations |
| FY26 USDA AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program | Varies by Subprogram | Eligibility varies by grant and project type. Cost share is required for certain types of proposals. See RFA for details. |
| NSF Security, Privacy, and Trust in Cyberspace (SaTC 2.0) | September 29, 2025 | Participation is limited by proposal type. See solicitation for details. |
| NSF Division of Chemistry: Disciplinary Research Programs | September 30, 2025 or October 31, 2025 | Deadline varies by research area. |
| US Dept of Energy FY25 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program | Rolling through September 30, 2025 | Pre-application requirements and restrictions vary by program. See NOFO for details. |
| DoD FY25 Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology N0001425B001 | Rolling through September 30, 2025 | Pre-application requirements and restrictions vary by program. See BAA for details. |
| NSF EDU Core Research | October 2, 2025 | No limitations or restrictions. |
| NSF Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science (SCH) | October 3, 2025 | Individuals may participate in no more than 2 proposals per competition, regardless of role. |
| NSF Research Experiences for Teachers in Engineering and Computer Science | October 8, 2025 | Limited to 1 proposal as PI or Co-PI per competition. |
| NSF Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (MFAI) | October 10, 2025 | Limited to 1 proposal as PI or Co-PI per competition. |
| NSF Mathematical Biology | October 14, 2025 | No limitations or restrictions. |
| NIH R15 AREA or REAP | October 25, 2025 | The solicitation you apply to is determined by your appointment (CAS and CECS faculty must apply to AREA; CHEPS faculty must apply to REAP). For AREA, undergraduate students must participate on the project team. |
Sponsored Projects Policy Spotlight: Gift vs Grant
Gifts (including bequests) are monies or property given voluntarily, without expectation of return or compensation on the part of the donor. Grants, on the other hand, are monies or property awarded to the University with terms and conditions for the use of the funds/property. All grants, including those for non-research related projects, must route through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Review the Determination Matrix for assistance in determining whether your funding is a grant or a gift.
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