Funding Announcements

The Seed Grants are designed to support established, multidisciplinary research teams that are prepared to move a convergent research project into early-stage implementation. These teams are tackling a problem that cannot be addressed by one specialty alone, taking methods and approaches from one field and applying them in another. Seed grants are intended for collaborations with a mature, actionable research concept and a clear plan for generating the research, partnerships, or infrastructure needed to pursue large-scale external funding opportunities.

• Funding: Up to $200,000 for up to two years ($400,000 maximum).
• Purpose: Designed for mature research concepts that are ready to build the research, partnerships, and infrastructure needed to pursue major external funding opportunities within one to two years.
• Application Details: Researchers are invited to submit pre-proposals by September 10, 2026. Select teams will be invited to submit a full proposal. Medical Campus faculty may request salary support of up to 10% of base salary.
• Timeline:
  • Pre-Proposal Deadline: September 10, 2026
  • Invitation to Submit Full Proposals: September 30, 2026
  • Full Proposal Deadline: October 29, 2026
  • Award Notifications Sent: December 15, 2026
  • Grant Start: On or after February 2027
  • Grant Period: Up to 2 years from the approved start date
• Fiscal Year 2027 Themes
• Health Across the Lifespan
  • Sub-themes:
    • Neuroscience, Brain, and Cognitive Health
    • Synthetic Biology, Biomolecular Cell & Tissue Engineering, and Regenerative Medicine
    • Molecular and Biological Mechanisms Regulating Health and Disease
    • Biophotonics, Neurophotonics, and Biomedical Optics and Imaging
    • Digital, Predictive, and Personalized Medicine
    • Healthcare Innovation, Systems, and Policy
    • Geographic and Sociodemographic Health Inequities
    • Sociocultural, Environmental, and Behavioral Influences on Health
• Urban Development & Resilience
  • Sub-themes:
    • Civic and Cultural Engagement and Enhancement
    • Infrastructure: Housing, Transit, Energy, Smart cities, and Connected Services
    • Urban Health and Equity
    • Climate Resilience and Urban Adaptation
    • Urban Policy and Governance
    • Accessibility and Inclusive Urban Design

To apply read the full call for proposals and begin your Seed Grant application.

Questions? Visit Seed and Planning Grant FAQs

Information Sessions

To help BU faculty learn more about these opportunities, the Office of Research will host two virtual information sessions covering the program goals, eligibility, application process, proposal expectations, and timeline:

• Tuesday, August 18 | 12–1 pm
• Thursday, September 3 | 12–1 pm

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The Planning Grants will support the development of early-stage, multidisciplinary research teams exploring transformational approaches to important societal challenges. These awards are intended for teams piloting research directions, methods, and collaborative approaches rather than crystallizing a defined research program.

• Funding: Between $25,000–$50,000 for one year
• Purpose: Intended for teams exploring new research directions, piloting collaborative approaches, and developing innovative ideas before defining a full research program.
• Application Details: Researchers are invited to submit concept proposals by October 1, 2026.
  • Proposal Deadline: October 1, 2026
  • Award Notifications Sent: December 15, 2026
  • Grant Start: On or after February 2027
  • Grant Period: 1 year from approved start date
• Fiscal Year 2027 Themes: All themes not currently under consideration for Seed Grants, including:
  • Global Sustainability
  • Arts, Humanities & the Human Condition
  • Infection, Inflammatory & Immune Disorders
  • AI, Data Science & Computing
  • Childhood & Adolescent Well-Being and K–12 Education
  • Social & Economic Opportunity
• Note: Focused sub-themes can be found on each theme page under “Research Areas”.

To apply read the full call for proposals and begin your Planning Grant application.

Questions? Visit Seed and Planning Grant FAQs

 

Information Sessions

To help BU faculty learn more about these opportunities, the Office of Research will host two virtual information sessions covering the program goals, eligibility, application process, proposal expectations, and timeline:

• Tuesday, August 18 | 12–1 pm
• Thursday, September 3 | 12–1 pm

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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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