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Spring 2025
Welcome to RDInsights, a quarterly newsletter from the USF Research Development Institute (RDI). This newsletter will be one channel through which the RDI communicates updates from the Institute, funding opportunities, and other resources to enhance research success.
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UPDATES FROM THE
RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (RDI)
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2025 USF Summer Grant Writing Workshops
The RDI proudly announce applications for the 2025 USF Summer Grant Writing Workshop are now open. This 8-week USF Summer Grant Writing Workshop is designed to guide grant seekers through the basics of the application process to develop competitive proposals. Participants will be provided access to the Research Resources that include grant templates and sample proposals, as well as the updated Training Activity Guide (TAG). Walk through the grant application process with us this summer because your research matters.
Register Now.
USF employees eligible for discount - use code 2025GRANTUSF
| | Announcing New Sponsor Analysis Series | | |
First in a series, our RDI competitive intelligence team, led by Karen Walker, will be highlighting a different sponsor each quarter to bring insights into what they fund--starting with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. DARPA is a Department of Defense (DoD) agency focused on innovative, high-risk, high-reward research that contributes to US national security by keeping the nation technologically ahead of its adversaries. DARPA has six technical offices that fund a wide range of areas, including biological technologies, AI, advanced electronics, and advanced materials and manufacturing. Program managers have high levels of autonomy regarding program creation and what gets funded. Investigators interested in submitting to DARPA need to understand the agency’s mission, be willing to engage program managers, and understand how proposals are reviewed and selected. Read the full report and learn more about our competitive intelligence service.
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Registration is now open for the USF Future of Food Think Tank’s Spring Convening on April 11th. Join us in building a dynamic university-community partnership network across the Tampa Bay food system dedicated to the translation of research and education into practice and action.
Register today.
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INTERNAL AWARD OPPORTUNITIES
(Apply through InfoReady)
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USFSM Summer Faculty Research Award
The USF Sarasota Manatee campus Summer Faculty Research Award aims to support dedicated time to develop a significant grant (e.g., $250K direct costs) or fellowship application. The $20,000 Summer Faculty Research Award can be used to support direct costs such as summer salary, student support, or direct costs to the project. Deadline: April 5, 2025
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LIMITED SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES
(Apply through InfoReady)
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Climate + Health Excellence Centers (CHEX)
The Burroughs Welcome Fund announces the Climate + Health Excellence (CHEX) Centers award. This is a new institutional research and training opportunity that will help institutions bridge the gaps between fields that will have important roles to play in understanding the impacts of climate change on human health and diminishing their effects. This grant will support new discovery toward defining the health impacts of climate change, developing potential interventions, translating discovery science into practical application, and outward-facing work that can help public understanding of Climate + Health or strengthen connections between research and communities whose health has been harmed by climate change.
Internal Deadline: June 7, 2025; Agency Deadline: August 7, 2025
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Major Research Instrumentation Program
The Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program serves to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training in our Nation's institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. An MRI award supports the acquisition of a multi-user research instrument that is commercially available through direct purchase from a vendor, or for the personnel costs and equipment that are required for the development of an instrument with new capabilities, thereby advancing instrumentation capabilities and enhancing expertise for instrument design and fabrication at academic institutions. MRI instruments are, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs.
Internal Deadline: September 19, 2025; Agency Deadline: November 14, 2025
| | Have a question about an upcoming funding opportunity or event? Need help with a grant proposal? Join the RDI team on Fridays from 10:00-11:00 am for our open Office Hour. | | PRIVATE FOUNDATION FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES | | |
Imagine Learning Foundation Signature Grant: In 2025, the Imagine Signature Grant Program's funding priority is to support eligible organizations addressing and/or studying critical issues related to chronic absenteeism and student housing insecurity in K-12 learning environments, such as basic needs support and wraparound services for students and families experiencing homelessness, and other needs in line with its mission and addressing chronic absenteeism and housing insecurity’s impact on K-12 learning. Deadline: April 9, 2025
Whitehall Foundation Research Grants and Grants-in-Aid: The Whitehall Foundation aims to support scholarly research in basic biological research that is not heavily supported by federal agencies or other foundations with specialized missions. The foundation emphasizes the support of young scientists at the beginning of their careers and productive senior scientists who wish to move into new fields of interest. The foundation is interested in basic research in neurobiology, defined as invertebrate and vertebrate (excluding clinical) neurobiology, specifically investigations of neural mechanisms involved in sensory, motor, and other complex functions of the whole organism as these relate to behavior. The overall goal should be to better understand behavioral output or brain mechanisms of behavior.
LOI deadline: April 15, 2025
WITH Foundation invites applications for programs serving adults with disabilities: The foundation offers grants for programs enhancing healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities, including improving practitioner competency, addressing reimbursement issues, advancing care coordination, understanding supported decision-making, promoting digital health design, expanding policy research, and quality healthcare access. LOI deadline: April 17, 2025; Full proposal deadline: May 30, 2025
Effects of the Usage of Digital Technology on Brain Development, Social Behaviours and Mental Health in Children and Young People: The Huo Family Foundation (HFF) is establishing a research portfolio on the Effects of the Usage of Digital Technology on Brain Development, Social Behaviours and Mental Health in Children and Young People, including an open call for proposals with a total budget of up to £10M/$13M. The HFF welcome applications for Huo early-career fellowships, junior faculty research grants and special projects (as detailed further below). The Foundation is keen to support multi-disciplinary work and train the next generation of exceptional scientists in this rapidly evolving field. Applications should attempt to understand mechanisms, causal pathways and directions. Deadline: May 23, 2025
| | FEATURED RESEARCH RESOURCE | | |
USF Foundation Relations is part of the Office of Corporate and Foundation Engagement at the USF Foundation. Engaging with faculty across USF, we assist in the development, writing, editing, and submission of proposals and reports to private foundations. We seek to promote and expand philanthropic funding of USF research and programming, while forging long-term, strategic relationships with foundation partners. Contact Andrew Farmer (Director, USF Foundation Relations) for details.
| | EXTERNAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES | | |
NEH State and Impact of the Humanities: The State and Impact of the Humanities program aims to expand our understanding of the role that the humanities play in private, public, and scholarly life by supporting data-grounded research studies that investigate the state, impact, and value of the humanities in the United States. Deadline: April 17, 2025
Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science (RM1 Clinical Trial Optional): Each CEGS award supports a multi-investigator, interdisciplinary team to develop integrated, transformative genomic approaches to address a biomedical problem. A CEGS project will address a critical issue in genomic science, genomic medicine, or computational genomics, proposing a highly innovative solution that would be a major advance. A CEGS will focus on the development of novel technological or computational methods for the production or analysis of comprehensive data sets, on a genome-scale biomedical problem, or on other ways to develop and use genomic approaches for understanding biological systems or furthering the application of genomic knowledge, data, and methods towards clinical applications. LOI Deadline: May 9, 2025; Application Deadline: June 23, 2025
Environmental Literacy for Community Resilience: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program (GRP), along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Environmental Literacy Program, aims to enhance community resilience and increase the environmental literacy of community members across the U.S. Gulf Coast states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) through place-based education. Competitive applications should be tailored to community needs and contexts, incorporate scientific information and best practices in education, enable participants to take action in their community, and empower future leaders to help address the complex environmental challenges facing the Gulf states now and into the future. Deadline: May 21, 2025
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Spring 2025 Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI) -
May 20-21, 2025: The Hybrid Spring 2025 Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI) will meet onsite at the National Science Foundation and available via Zoom Webinar. All are welcome at the meeting of this NSF-wide advisory committee. The purpose of the ACCI is to advise NSF on the agency’s plans and programmatic strategies to develop and support a state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure that enables significant advances across all fields of science and engineering.
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FEATURED RDinsight
Received reviewer feedback no clear or out of date? Consider solutions like citing and explain how you would modify other published methods; publishing your methods and citing your method publications; or, if using an older method, explain why it retains relevance while comparing it to current approach. Be sure to explain with detail how you will obtain publishable data and any applicable statistical methods.
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Bold Vision for USF Future of Food Think Tank
The USF Future of Food Think Tank at the University of South Florida held its official launch in late January, convening a diverse group of researchers, health professionals and community leaders to tackle one of the most critical challenges of our time—food insecurity. The event served as a platform for thought leaders to discuss the far-reaching impacts of food insecurity on health, economic stability and sustainability, while emphasizing the need for innovative, interdisciplinary solutions.
Read more.
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USF Future of Education Think Tank aims to ‘shift the paradigm'
About 45 faculty members kicked off a new think tank dedicated to addressing challenges facing education, by fostering new interdisciplinary research and other collaborations across the University of South Florida aimed at delivering new discoveries and solutions. Key takeaways included the need for intentionality and strategic planning in education; the importance of experiential learning and varied learning sites outside the traditional classroom; the challenges of balancing technology and direct engagement between educators and students; and artificial intelligence’s paradigm-shifting impact on education.
Read more.
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