Summer 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.

2025 USF Summer Grant Writing Workshops

Last day to register--free to USF faculty--code: USFFACULTYFREE 

There are many who participate in the Summer Grant Writing Workshops as a refresher course. Not only does this carve out dedicated time for proposal development, but workshops also include updates on agency priorities and current trends. This course benefits all participants as we all have a role to play in strengthening and advancing the research enterprise. The program continues to grow! The 2024 cohort, 215 registered, representing 43 distinct institutions. This year, 483 have registered from 47 institutions. 

Register Now

Accelerating Collaboration: USF Think Tanks in Action

Wrapping up a successful 2024-2025 year, the USF Think Tank initiative has made tremendous strides in its mission to connect faculty from across One USF and create a streamlined research environment that simplifies the process of collaboration, capacity-building, and project development to ensure teams can accelerate the translation of research to application. By focusing on building collaborative research networks, the initiative’s fast-growing network of 337 members engaged, including 191 faculty and 87 community partners, has provided meaningful opportunities for knowledge exchange, strategic planning, and networking across pressing issues in food systems, emergency response, education, health technology, and ocean data. This year’s progress reflects USF’s dedication to building an impactful culture of interdisciplinary collaboration and research—with an eye toward what we can achieve together next.

Take a look at photos from this year’s think tank convenings and stay tuned for exciting announcements coming this fall, including new tools and training opportunities you’ve asked for to support deeper collaboration and long-term research success.

Summer Convening of the Future of Food Think Tank is Coming!

The Summer Convening of the USF Future of Food Think Tank is on July 23rd. Join us in strengthening Tampa Bay’s local food network. 



Register is now open.

LIMITED SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES

(Apply through InfoReady)

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 on human health and diminishing their effects. This grant will support new discovery toward defining the health impacts of climate, 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 affected by variations in climate.  

Internal Deadline: July 7, 2025; Agency Deadline: August 7, 2025

U.S. National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program

The NRT program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master's and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. 

Internal Deadline: August 18, 2025; Agency Deadline: September 8, 2025

Major Research Instrumentation Program

MRI investments aim to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training. MRI awards support 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

PRIVATE FOUNDATION FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Cancer Grand Challenges: Cancer Grand Challenges is a global research initiative that aims to build an elite, interdisciplinary community to tackle cancer’s most complex problems. Awards of up to £20m ($25 million) are available for the following new challenges: AI-human collaborations in cancer, Cancer avoidance, the dark proteome, mechanisms driving mutational signatures, the nervous system and cancer, rewiring cancer cells, and TME dynamics.

Expressions of Interest Deadline: June 18, 2025

amfAR & The Foundation for AIDS Research issues RFP for Target Grants: Target Grants should focus on pushing the boundaries of biomedical research to achieve sustained HIV remission or complete viral eradication. Priority will be given to clinical or pre-clinical applications studying pragmatic and scalable interventions that can be implemented globally, including in the communities most affected by the epidemic. Grants of up to $480,000 total costs, including up to 20 percent indirect costs for a performance period of up to two years in duration starting October 1, 2025, will be awarded. Synopsis submission deadline: June 18, 2025; Full application deadline: August 7, 2025

National Geographic Society issues Enduring Impacts: Archaeology of Sustainability RFP: The RFP is focused on the study of archaeological and related interdisciplinary data for the purposes of increasing our understanding of human-environmental interactions over time and to ultimately contribute to mitigating contemporary environmental crises. Applicants may request up to $50,000 in funding. This opportunity is best suited for individual project leaders with demonstrable experience co-creating or collaborating with the stakeholder community(ies) of the proposed study site. These grants are highly competitive and are reserved for select projects that push boundaries to achieve significant and tangible impact.

Deadline: July 1, 2025

Paralyzed Veterans of America invites Applications for Spinal Cord Injury and Disease Research: From transplanting cells and regenerating damaged nerve fibers to designing adaptive canoe seats, the Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation supports innovative research and fellowships that improve the lives of those with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D). The Research Foundations now supports one, two or three year grants in the four areas of emphasis. Grants in Basic Science, Clinical Applications, and Design & Development categories will now be funded up to $200,000 for the grant period and Grants in the Fellowship category will now be funded up to $150,000 for the grant period.

Deadline: July 1, 2025

FEATURED RESEARCH RESOURCE

EXTERNAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

National Academies' Workforce Development for the Energy Transition: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program (GRP) aims to contribute to the development of a prepared workforce and to increase the scientific literacy of the Gulf States residents who will become the skilled leaders and professionals of tomorrow. This funding opportunity will enable project participants to acquire skills, knowledge, and credentials to enter careers as part of the future energy workforce. This workforce will support the industries and organizations leading the way in introducing new and emerging energy technologies into the economy. Deadline: June 25, 2025

Dual-Use University Accelerator Challenge: The Department of Defense (DoD) requires a more effective pathway to identify, support, and accelerate early-stage, dual-use technologies emerging from U.S. universities. Startups founded by students, faculty, staff, and recent graduates frequently encounter challenges in maturing their technologies (TRL 2–4) and navigating government adoption pathways. The DIU University Defense Accelerator Prize Challenge addresses this gap by sourcing innovative ventures from academic ecosystems and aligning them with DIU portfolio priorities. By offering funding, mentorship, and strategic access to both DoD and private-sector resources, the challenge aims to advance technological maturity and enable viable go-to-government strategies for high-impact national security solutions. Deadline: June 25, 2025

Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (VINES): The VINES program seeks to support both fundamental research and verticals-driven technology development, demonstration, and translation activities that will lead to leaps in performance and capabilities of next generation (NextG) advanced intelligent network systems that span the user-edge-core-cloud continuum. The program seeks to go beyond the current research portfolios within individual participating NSF directorates and partner organizations by simultaneously emphasizing gains in performance and capabilities without compromising resilience and interoperability across all layers of the networking protocol and computation stacks. Innovations are sought across the various aspects of next generation communications, networking, and computing systems. Concept Paper Deadline: August 25, 2025; Full proposal Deadline: September 25, 2025

FEATURED RDinsight

Why respond to a RFI? A Request for Information (RFI) is a preliminary inquiry from government agencies to gather insights before formal funding opportunities or policy decisions are announced. The benefits of responding to a RFI often far exceed the initial inquiry. RFI responses inform priorities, shape upcoming funding opportunities, highlight research capacity and institutional expertise, and influence future research priorities. Engaging in this process fosters valuable connections, giving you a competitive understanding of sponsor priorities. 

Your insights matter—take advantage of these opportunities to position your research for success! 

UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPRTUNITIES

CAREER Proposal Submission Logistics Webinar

June 25, 2025 - 2:00-3:30 PM EST: This webinar will include a review of the system-related requirements in the supplementary proposal submission timeline guidance, a demo of how to prepare a CAREER proposal in Research.gov, and a question and answer session. Submit question-and-answer session questions prior to the webinar to careerproposalprep@nsf.gov. - Register for the webinar here.

Request for Information: Benchmarks for Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Research and Care -

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) seeks input on priorities for AI benchmark development and the key characteristics that will ensure they meet the needs of the cancer research and AI communities. Feedback is welcome from a diverse set of professionals, including researchers, scientists, administrators, and healthcare professionals. Respondents can be members of academia, government, or industry. NCI aims to understand the creation of benchmarks that facilitate robust and transparent AI applications to improve cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship outcomes. Deadline: July 29, 2025