PSOM Update: Funding News & Opportunities

PSOM Resource Hub

Please be sure to visit our Resource Hub where helpful information concerning the current tools, updates, and resources supporting research are seamlessly featured – including the Human Resources Support and FAQs and Wellness pages.

Check out the new PSOM Matching Tool, developed to help departments identify and share available staff capacity.

Science Advocacy Resources

If you are interested in science advocacy, Science Homecoming helps scientists advocate for NIH and NSF funding by publishing op-eds in their hometown newspapers. The site offers free templates, editorial support, and tools to highlight the local impact of science.

Extended Eligibility for Mentored Career Awards

NIH has just extended eligibility to accommodate new applications for those whose career awards have been terminated. See: NIH is Temporarily Extending Eligibility for Some Mentored Career Development Awards | Grants & Funding

Subscribe to the ORS Listserv

The Office of Research Services keeps Penn's research community up to date on developments affecting sponsored projects via an electronic mailing list. Sign up here.

Updates to the RAMPART tool

The Risk Assessment Model for Proposal and Award Rapid Testing (RAMPART) tool has been updated in two key ways since its initial release:

1. The risk assessment model is based on terms that appear significantly more common in grants that have been closed than grants that remain open.

2. An option to receive suggested alternatives to selected blocks of text that, if used, are predicted to reduce the grant’s risk.

Full announcement from ORS

Access the RAMPART tool via PennERA

Pivot-RP Funding Database

A second mechanism of support provided by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research to Penn researchers is Pivot-RP, a platform geared toward enhancing the discovery of sponsored research opportunities, making the process faster, more targeted, and more efficient. Pivot-RP also simplifies communication with potential collaborators by offering seamless ways to share opportunities.

Updated implementation date for NIH 2024 Public Access Policy

The NIH has issued a notice moving up the implementation of the 2024 Public Access Policy to July 1, 2025. As a reminder, under the new policy, final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts for work funded by the NIH must be submitted to PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication.

The NIH notice of this change is found here, and the 2024 Public Access Policy is found here.

Impact of Executive Orders

For questions related to the impact of the new Presidential Executive Orders on federally funded research, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research is making current information and guidance available via the homepage of the Office of Research Services (ORS).

DOD Melanoma Anticipated Funding Opportunities for FY25

Submission deadlines to be announced.

Melanoma Research Program Department of Defense, Defense Health Agency Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Anticipated Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) See press release below for details regarding CDMRP funding opportunities in Melanoma research.

Please direct inquiries to: CDMRP Public Affairs

NVIDIA Academic Grant Program

Submission deadline: June 30, 2025

NVIDIA’s Academic Grant Program has an open call for research proposals to advance work in three new interest areas: generative AI training and model development, generative AI alignment and inferencing, and simulation and modeling. The call for proposals for each interest area includes eligibility information, compute resources available to request (including DGX Spark, RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, and A100 GPU hours), and submission instructions, including a required proposal template.

Please direct inquiries to: NVIDIA

PSOM Limited Application - Searle Scholars Program

Submission deadline: July 8, 2025

The University has been invited to nominate two candidates for the Searle Scholars Program. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) is managing the final candidate review and selection process; each school within the University may submit the names of up to two candidates.

Please direct inquiries to: Kaitlyn Hagarty

Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars Fellowship Award in Translational Immunology (non-cancer)

Submission deadline: August 3, 2025

The Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars program will support individual postdoctoral scientists of exceptional creativity in the field of translational immunology (non-cancer). These translational awards are to enable a postdoctoral researcher or instructor to advance to become a full-time faculty member at the Assistant Professor level or higher and to promote the development of a laboratory program that will lead to independent funding.

Please direct inquiries to: Joshua Darfler

PSOM Limited Application - NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Award

Submission deadline: August 14, 2025

The Perelman School of Medicine has been invited to select up to four proposals for the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Award Program: two in Track 1, one in Track 2, and one in Track 3 (please see the announcement for full details). The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) is managing the final candidate review and selection process.

Please direct inquiries to: Kaitlyn Hagarty

PSOM Limited Application - Landenberger Research Foundation Awards

Submission deadline: August 25, 2025

The Perelman School of Medicine has been invited to nominate one candidate for the Margaret Q. Landenberger Research Foundation Awards.

Please direct inquiries to: Kaitlyn Hagarty

PERFORM-KUH TL1 - Next Application Round

Submission deadline: Late 2025-Early 2026

The Philadelphia Program for Mentored Research Training in Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases (PERFORM-KUH) institutional network award would like to announce the next round of PERFORM-KUH grant applications! Please find attached the RFA to participate in this program. We ask you to identify students or post-doctoral fellows from within your research programs or labs, forward this information to them, and with your help, encourage your trainees to apply.

Please direct inquiries to: Adam Mussell

Call for Pilot Projects on Early Drug Discovery & Artificial Intelligence

Submission deadline: July 1, 2025

The High-throughput Institute for Discovery and Institute for Biomedical Informatics are pleased to announce a call for pilot project proposals exploring the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence in early-stage drug discovery. This initiative aims to support innovative, high-impact projects that integrate AI-driven methodologies to accelerate, enhance, or redefine the early phases of drug development. This Pilot program is supported by the Stephen J. Heyman Fund for AI Innovation.

Please direct inquiries to: Tori Gordillo

RFA for the Hopkins-Penn Ovarian Cancer SPORE CEP & DRP Awards 2025-2026

Submission deadline: August 1, 2025

The UPenn SPORE in Ovarian Cancer are offering two grant opportunities to support new projects in ovarian cancer research: the Developmental Research Program (DRP) and the Career Enhancement Program (CEP).

Please direct inquiries to: Ehay Jung

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