Overview of Internal Funding Opportunities
Internal funds are available from the Office of Research and Innovation (R&I) to support research, scholarship and creative endeavors through annual university-wide competitions. The following table provides an overview of available internal funding opportunities.
| Funding Opportunity | Description | Notice of Intent Deadlines | Proposal Deadlines | Funding Amount per Application |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biomedical Research Seed Grants | Enhance the competitiveness of UNL faculty submitting grant proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Awardees receive seed funding to facilitate preliminary study and/or data collection to strengthen a future NIH proposal submission, and the expected outcome for these grants is for UNL principal investigators to improve competitiveness of NIH R21 or R01 proposals. | Sept. 17 and March 18 | Oct. 1 and April 1 | Up to $25,000 (for R21s); Up to $50,000 (for R01s) |
| Book Fellowship and Manuscript Workshop Program: R&I Book Fellowships | Support time for faculty to focus on writing and publishing a book through a course buyout or summer salary support and/or costs related to the publishing process. The expected output is the timely publication of the new book. | N/A | Oct. 1 | Need based |
| Book Fellowship and Manuscript Workshop Program: R&I Book Manuscript Workshop Grants | Provide funds for faculty to participate in an external manuscript workshop to obtain expert feedback on their draft book manuscript or to host a book manuscript workshop that brings external expert reviewers to UNL. The expected outcome is to enhance the quality of the book manuscript(s) prior to submission for publication and thus ultimately contribute to the successful publication of the new book(s). | N/A | Oct. 1 | Need based |
| Collaboration Grants: Team Formation and Ideation | Support teaming and ideation activities for collaborative groups to coalesce around a proposed project. The expected outcome is for recipients is to build and strengthen collaborative teams in a manner that will better position them to perform collaborative research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors. | N/A | Rolling | Up to $25,000 |
| Collaboration Grants: Development | Support collaborative groups to conduct innovative, timely, and collaborative research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors. The scope of work should be preliminary and/or exploratory in nature and should occur at an early stage of a team’s progression. The expected outcome is for recipients to build and strengthen their team through collaborative work that will enhance competitiveness for external collaborative funding opportunities. | N/A | April 1 | Up to $50,000 |
| Collaboration Grants: Catalyst | Support well-established collaborative teams to implement a robust project that will better position them to compete for major external funding. The expected outcome is for recipients to conduct a project that will enhance competitiveness for external collaborative funding opportunities and begin to position the team for long-term project sustainability. | N/A | April 1 | Up to $150,000 |
| Invited Scholar Grants | Enable scholars whose activities are closely related to the research, scholarship, and/or creative interests of the UNL community to visit campus to give lectures and/or participate as speakers in symposia or colloquia. The expected outcome for these visits is to build or strengthen intellectual communities around or advance areas of research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors relevant to the UNL community. | N/A | Rolling | Up to $3,000 |
| Rapid Response Grants | Support UNL faculty who have a time-sensitive, unanticipated need, opportunity, or challenge related to the advancement of their programs of research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors for which other sources of funding are not available. Requested funds must help maintain or grow a program of work, increase competitiveness for external funding, and/or enhance the scholarly stature and reputation of an individual faculty member, a faculty team, and/or the institution. | One week prior to proposal submission | Rolling | Need based |
| Research and Innovation Grants | Support UNL faculty seeking to advance their programs of research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors. The proposed work must contribute to at least one of the following outcomes: 1) enhanced competitiveness for extramural funding, 2) advanced scholarly output (e.g., publications, patents, exhibitions, performances), or 3) increased societal impact of research, scholarship, and/or creative endeavors. | N/A | Oct. 1 and April 1 | Up to $15,000 |
| Revision Grants | Support UNL faculty revising and resubmitting proposals for federal funding by providing financial and developmental support to help improve highly meritorious but previously unfunded federal grant proposals that are eligible for resubmission to the same funding program. The expected outcome is for UNL principal investigators to improve the competitiveness of revised and resubmitted federal grant proposals by strategically addressing proposal review comments. | One week prior to proposal submission | Rolling | Up to $25,000 (for resubmissions ≤$500,000); Up to $50,000 (for resubmissions >$500,000) |
Interested in Serving as a Peer Reviewer?
Several R&I internal funding competitions utilize an internal peer-review process. Given the number of internal grant applications that R&I receives, we consistently need many UNL faculty to serve on review panels. If you are interested in learning more about the internal peer review process and/or volunteering to serve as a reviewer, please visit our Peer Reviewer Volunteer webpage.
