Funding Announcements

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Avant-Garde/Avenir Awards for Investigators Conducting High-Risk, High-Reward Research on HIV and Substance Use (DP1; Clinical Trial Optional) program.

This funding opportunity supports innovative basic, clinical, translational, and implementation research at the intersection of HIV and substance use. The program seeks high-risk, high-impact projects that advance HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression among people who use substances or have substance use disorders.

Funding: Up to $700,000 in total costs per year for established investigators and up to $375,000 per year for Early-Stage Investigators (ESIs).

Project Period: Up to 5 years.

Application Deadlines: September 25, 2026, with additional receipt dates in 2027 and 2028.

For the opportunity details, see: NIH funding opportunity page.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Causal Hypotheses on the Oral-Systemic Health Impacts of Human Behaviors among People with Chronic Conditions (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) program.

This funding opportunity for innovative research on the factors that cause human behaviors and the oral-systemic health impacts of those behaviors to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability among people with chronic conditions. Causal hypotheses may include biological, biopsychosocial, congenital, environmental, interpersonal, neurological, psychological, and comorbidity factors that individually, sequentially, or in combination trigger human behaviors and oral-systemic health outcomes, with impacts that may be direct or traceably distal. Applications that propose projects to develop or refine causal hypotheses also are encouraged.

Funding: $500,000 per year.

Award Project Period: The maximum project period allowed is five years.

Deadlines: October 5, 2026

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced two new funding opportunities:

1) Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery (AI Datasets)

Proposal Deadline: November 4, 2026
This initiative focuses on:

• Feature Extraction & Metadata: Applying AI capabilities to metadata generation, feature extraction, and multi-dataset integration.
• Data Pipelines: Developing robust pipelines for automated data analysis using AI tools.
• Dataset Harmonization: Augmenting and harmonizing existing datasets to make them AI-ready for automated workflows.

2) AI for Science & the Genesis Mission

NSF is encouraging proposal submissions that leverage AI for scientific discovery and foundational research. Key focus areas include:

• Leveraging and building AI capabilities tailored for scientific use.
• Building foundational tools for science and technology challenges.
• Expanding workforce and institutional capacity in AI for science.

Faculty can reach out to Research Development (resdev@bu.edu) and Federal Relations (jewoldt@bu.edu) with any questions. 

More details can be found in the Funding Opportunity-NSF Launches the AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery Program to Advance AI-Ready Datasets linked PDF from the Lewis-Burke Associates.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in collaboration with the Applied Research Institute (ARI), has updated its long-term open call under the Expedited Research Innovation System (ERIS), now renamed the Expedited Research Innovation Series. This initiative seeks novel technologies, methods, or research that support DARPA-related objectives. Submitted ideas, presented via video pitches, will be evaluated and curated for potential rapid funding and acquisition by the Department of Defense. The update includes new ERIS topic areas and revised selection criteria.

The updated ERIS call introduces new topic areas:

• Detecting and tracking elusive objects across air, land, and space domains
• Overcoming limitations of current sensing systems
• Enhancing resilience, efficiency, and effectiveness of strategic systems
• Defending against chemical and biological threats (natural or human-made)
• Optimizing human health and performance across all phases of military operations
• Developing innovative methods and metrology for complex, emergent, and adaptive systems, including:
• Scalable quantum-aware metrology
• Engineering materials across length scales
• Designing adaptive, resilient human–AI ecosystems

Applicants must submit a video pitch (max seven minutes) outlining a DARPA-relevant problem, potential innovations, team expertise, and market impact. Selected pitches will be featured in the ERIS Marketplace for 12 months, allowing DARPA and other DoD entities to review and rapidly acquire promising technologies. DARPA recently used this process for its Ag X BTO initiative under the Biological Technologies Office (BTO).

Submission Criteria: DARPA’s updated ERIS submission criteria now include two categories: New Submissions (first-time submissions or those corrected for compliance issues) and Resubmissions (previously peer-reviewed submissions deemed “non-awardable”).

The updated call also includes revised ERIS selection criteria.

Evaluation Criteria: DARPA updated the Evaluation Criteria ERIS video submissions with the following weightings:

• Advancing the state of the art – 40%
• Team capability – 30%
• Problem definition – 20%
• Defense or commercial impact – 10%

DARPA emphasizes that being assessed as “awardable” and placed in the ERIS Marketplace does not guarantee a current or future award.

Due Date: ERIS submissions are accepted monthly, with a deadline at noon (ET) on the last day of each month. Early submissions may receive feedback and can resubmit before the deadline if necessary.

Additional information:

• Submission checklist: ERIS Checklist v2
• Training course: ARI Navigating and Using the DARPA ERIS Marketplace

Contact: Email the ERIS coordinator at eris@darpa.mil
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