CBE Intranet

Research Funding Opportunities

Listed below are sources of funding opportunities–foundations, agencies, databases and other sources. If a specific RFP comes across our desk, we will share it via the Intranet’s Bulletin, and/or the CBE-research listserv. If you know of a great source of funding opportunities that you don’t see listed, please email CBE Research at beres@uw.edu and we’ll be happy to share it with the community.

Considering a funding opportunity but unsure if it’s the right one for you? This go/no-go evaluation matrix may help. Contact us at beres@uw.edu to discuss.

CBE Grants

UW Research Grants

  • The Royalty Research Fund (RRF) is set aside to help those who are new to research with seed money (up to $40,000 and two years of research). Submissions for RRF funding are accepted twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.
  • The Bridge Funding program provides bridge funding to support faculty to span a temporary funding gap in critical research programs. Maximum of $50,000 may be applied for through the Provost; all funding requests must be matched 1:1 by the applicant’s college/school.  A total of $500,000 is available for each round of awards.
  • The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is managed by the Office of Global Affairs (OGA) and seeks to seed initiatives and programs (up to $20,000) that develop cross-college and cross-continent collaborations that enhance the University of Washington’s global reach.
  • Urban@UW’s Research Spark Grants program is available to scholars across all three UW campuses to pursue new and emerging research initiatives in critical aspects of contemporary urban societies. Proposals may request up to $20,000.
  • The Population Health Initiative’s pilot research grants (up to $50,000 each) are intended to encourage the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators for projects that address critical challenges to population health.
  • The Population Health Innovation Award is a partnership between the Population Health Initiative and CoMotion to fund projects (up to $40,000 each) that both support the vision of PHI and fulfill CoMotion’s criteria of eventually becoming sustainable commercial or social ventures.
  • The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute Small Grants Program awards grants of up to $30,000 each to UW researchers for pilot studies and developmental research. Substance abuse research is interpreted broadly to include everything from basic studies of the pharmacology of drugs of abuse to studies of clinical treatment strategies, prevention and social policy issues.
  • CoMotion funding programs provide tools, resources, and connections that UW researchers and students need to accelerate the impact of their innovations. CoMotion supports several grants and competitions each year.
  • Amazon Catalyst, a collaboration between Amazon and the University of Washington, is an initiative that provides funding and mentorship for globally impactful and disruptive projects that are proposed by members of the UW community. Awards range in size from $10,000 to $100,000 each. The goal of Amazon Catalyst is to help develop solutions to some of the key problems we face in the world today.
  • The Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Exploration grants seek to foster early-stage discovery research. Initial grants of $100,000 each are available, with projects that show promise eligible to receive additional funding of up to $1 million. These grants are intended to grow the pipeline of ideas for solving the most challenging global health and development issues.
  • The EarthLab Innovation Grants Program seeks to invest in teams of University of Washington researchers, students and non-academic partners developing innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
  • The West Coast Poverty Center (WCPC) provides occasional mini-grants to support research collaborations between WCPC scholars and local non-profits on topics related to poverty, social policy, and individual or family financial well-being, broadly construed. These awards of up to $12,000 (plus a stipend for the nonprofit partner agency) are intended to support pilot studies, initial data analyses, and/or the development of applications for larger sources of funding.
  • The CSDE seed grants program is supported by their Population Research Infrastructure Program award from NICHD and the College of Arts and Sciences. Proposals must fit within any of CSDE’s five Primary Research Areas: Demographic Measurements and Methods, Environments and Populations, Health of People and Populations, Migrations and Settlements, Wellbeing of Families and Households.
  • The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies’ Research Grants for Faculty provides grants of up to $7,500 for research about labor, broadly conceived. Research may focus on any dimension of labor in the United States or abroad, including but not limited to class relations, the social conditions of work, the labor process, working-class culture or politics, work and gender, work and race/ethnicity, the relationship between labor and the state, unions, or comparative international labor relations.
  • The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies’ Washington State Labor Research Grant provides up to $15,000 for policy-oriented research on aspects of labor directly relevant to policy makers in Washington State.
  • The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seed Grants Program provides funding ($15,000-25,000) for promising research at the intersection of statistics and the social sciences. The goal is to stimulate scholarly initiative by encouraging faculty to explore new directions in research and scholarship that contributes at the cutting edge to the development of statistical methods for social scientific problems.

Funding Databases

Select CBE-related funding sources

This list is not comprehensive. If you know of a funding source that consistently offers RFPs on a cyclical/ongoing basis, please let us know and we’ll add them here!

Bullitt Foundation, September 15 and March 15, annually
Projects that explore one of five program areas in the Emerald Corridor, the region bounded by Vancouver, BC to the north, Portland to the south, and the Cascades to the east: Energy, Climate, and Materials; Regional Ecosystem Health; Resilient Cities, Healthy Communities; Deep Green Buildings; and Thought Leadership and Innovation.

Ford Foundation, Ongoing
Their mission is to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement.

Graham Foundation, Inquiry Form deadline Sept 15th annually
Projects about architecture and the designed environment that will contribute to an individual’s creative, intellectual, and professional growth at crucial or potentially transformative stages in their career.

Grant Foundation, Various
Currently, the William T. Grant Foundation funds research that increases our understanding of: (1) the programs, policies, and practices that reduce inequality in youth outcomes, and (2) how policymakers and practitioners acquire, interpret, and use research evidence.

Guggenheim Fellowship, Ongoing
Mid-career individuals in the arts and sciences.

MacArthur Foundation, Ongoing
Currently accepting proposals that focus on conservation and sustainable development.

Mellon Foundation, Various
Supports research in architecture, urbanism and the humanities.

National Endowment for the Humanities, Various
Various funding opportunities for humanities-related work, including public humanities and public scholarship efforts, collaborative research, etc.

PCI Foundation, Ongoing
Educational and research initiatives focused on innovative approaches to the integrated and sustainable use of precast concrete design, fabrication, and construction.

Rauschenberg Foundation, Ongoing
Programs and projects that align with the Foundation’s aspiration to achieve a vibrant, equitable, and sustainable world through the power of creative problem solving.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ongoing
Supports pioneering ideas and innovative solutions to build a Culture of Health in America.

Scan|Design Foundation, Ongoing
Focuses on promoting cooperation between Denmark and the United States through student intern, exchange and fellowship programs in architecture.

Surdna Foundation, Ongoing
Programs and projects that align with the Foundation’s priority areas of Sustainable Environments, Strong Local Economies, and Thriving Cultures.

Wellcome Trust – Our Planet, Our Health, Ongoing
Research that focuses on human health, particularly solutions that protect, nurture, and sustain the planet.

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Ongoing
Currently accepting proposals that focus on energy, climate, and conservation issues.