Faculty Funding Opportunities

The Graduate Tuition Assistance program provides supplemental tuition support to OU graduate students working with OU faculty.

Seed Funding Opportunities - Rolling:

The Research Office has funding available on a rolling basis until funding is exhausted for three seed grant programs. All OU faculty are eligible to apply, and applications will be reviewed by the Research Advisory Board as soon as there are enough applications to convene a board meeting. The individual programs are summarized below; full guidelines for each program are available at the competition webpage on InfoReady. Proposals are short (2-3 pages, tops, plus some supporting documentation and an estimated budget). We will provide feedback on declined proposals; awards will be made in the form of transfers to the PI’s department, as with the URC grants. Applications are available in InfoReady Review under the title highlighted below:

International Research Experiences for Students. Funds are available for a faculty member to travel abroad with a student for a research experience. Faculty can apply for up to $3,000 to cover travel to and from an international host institution for the student and the faculty member for short stays (up to one month) for fieldwork, archival research, etc. Other arrangements must be made to cover in-country costs for meals, lodging, and related expenses. Proposals must include a letter of commitment from the proposed host institution (see program guidelines for details).

Professor Smith Goes to Washington. Faculty with a need to consult with program staff at one or more federal funding agencies to secure funding for support of their research, scholarship, and/or creative artistry (including work related to policy, health services, and national standards, as well as the “traditional” areas of research, scholarship, and artistry) can request up to $900 to meet with program staff. (Longer stays with additional costs may be allowable with strong justification.) Prior to departure, awardees must consult with Research Office staff about the outreach plan and their positioning, and must contact their cognizant research development officer after returning from DC to discuss the feedback received from program staff and develop action plans for putting it into action.

New External Collaborations. To foster new collaborations between OU faculty and researchers from other institutions (including universities, national laboratories, and/or non-profit institutes), we will provide funding up to $2,500 to cover travel by the OU investigator to the collaborator’s home institution and vice-versa for short (3-4 days) visits that will include presentations by each collaborator at the other’s home institution. Funding is not available to support established collaborations between OU and other institutions, or for collaborations that only involve OU faculty.

Seed Funding Opportunities - Fall, 2025 Pilot Program (not yet renewed for 2026):

The Discovery & Innovation Grant (DIG) Program is a pilot project (which, if it meets outcome measures, we hope will be continued in subsequent years) designed to support early stages of new research, scholarly, or creative activities, to make them more competitive for external funding. Examples of “new” research the DIG Program would consider for funding include (but are not limited to) the following:

*Activities not currently supported by external funds – i.e., an idea you’ve had that’s unrelated to any current grants

*New lines of inquiry that have arisen in the course of a currently funded project, but which are outside the scope of any of them

Full details are available on the Research Office InfoReady site, but here’s a quick summary of relevant details:

When: Two application cycles, with deadlines on September 1, and another on October 15. Awards would be made in fall 2025, with work to start in winter 2026, and to be completed by June 30, 2026.

Who: Academic professional staff, tenured and tenure-track faculty, research faculty with at least 50% appointments for the next three years. Special lecturers with significant research potential may also apply, with concurrence of the Vice President for Research. Individuals may be associated with not more than two DIG projects: one as lead PI, and one as a co-PI or other significant contributor (or two projects not in a lead PI role).

How much: Most awards will be in the $10,000-$25,000 range. With strong justification, a maximum of $40,000 can be requested. Funds cannot be used to support collaborators outside OU.

Process: Proposals will be reviewed by non-conflicted members of the Research Advisory Committee, which will make recommendations for funding to the Vice President for Research. Applicants will receive anonymized feedback on submitted proposals, whether or not the proposal is funded. Proposals from non-tenured faculty will be reviewed separately from proposals submitted by established investigators. Evaluation will be on three criteria: Intellectual merit, Funding plan and potential for success, Impact

Terms and conditions: Awardees must submit progress reports quarterly, and a final report after the DIG project ends. Recipients agree, as a condition of funding, to submit one or more proposals to external funding sources, within 18 months of receiving the DIG award. The external proposals submitted must equal at least three times (3x) the DIG funding received. Proposals to external sponsors must be developed in collaboration with the investigator’s research development officer. External reviewers may also be provided for external proposals when needed or requested by the investigator or the RDO.

The Center for Biomedical Research (CBR) promotes and supports biomedical research and education; helps to recruit and retain outstanding biomedical scientists; facilitates collaborative biomedical research projects; and develops gift, grant, and contract support for biomedical research programs, graduate and undergraduate training, and core facilities and equipment.

The University Research Committee grants a number of small awards for research, fellowship, excellence, conferences, and publication.

PIVOT - Searchable database of external research funding opportunities for sciences, arts, humanities, community engagement, education, business, social science.

Calendar of Recurring Proposal Deadlines - A list of common grant programs across all areas of research and scholarship that tend to occur at the same time each year.

Time-Sensitive News - Time sensitive notices from external funding agencies.

Developing Your Research Idea - The Research Development team will help you develop your idea into a fundable proposal and explore funding opportunities in any scientific, scholarly or artistic field.

Preparing and Submitting your Proposal - The Office of Sponsored Programs team will help you prepare and submit your proposal to the funding agency correctly and on time.  This includes proposals for fellowships, conference grants, art exhibits, and travel.

Managing Your Award - Resources for award acceptance, project management and reporting, grant close-out.

ARMS - The Advanced Research Methodology Services (ARMS) group is a cohort of OU faculty with expertise in one or more research methods. They are available to help investigators writing research proposals with things like survey design, program evaluation, methodological design, power analyses, statistical analyses, etc.