PDS resources for early career researchers
The PDS team has a wealth of resources to get early career faculty started with writing proposals for federal grants. The links below will take you to our resources for each of the agencies listed. If you're still looking for funding opportunities that fit your research goals, see our list of selected early career funding opportunities below and check out the Finding Funding section on the Office of Research site. The Foundation and Corporate Engagement office also has a list of funding opportunities for young investigators.
- Department of Defense (DOD)
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Science Foundation (NSF)
Selected early career (EC) federal funding opportunities
Reach out to PDS at pds@ucdavis.edu for assistance with these, or other opportunities (not listed), that you’re interested in applying to.
Agency | Program | Work supported | Eligibility |
| National Science Foundation (NSF) | NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) | Designed to launch academic careers by supporting both research and education; NSF supports basic science across all non-medical areas | Tenure-track but pre-tenure, 3 attempts |
| EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) | Supports exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas. This work may be considered especially "high risk-high payoff" | Open to all career stages; useful to early career researchers | |
| United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) | AFRI Foundational and Applied Science | Fundamental and applied work in priority areas important to agriculture (see RFP for list of areas) | Applicants must be in the first 5 years of career-track position |
| Department of Energy (DOE) | DOE Early Career | For EC researchers doing basic physical sciences research the physical sciences (see RFP for list of program offices) | Untenured and within 10 years of Ph.D. |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | Career Development (K awards) | For EC investigators to enhance skills development and provide time for research and training activities in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences | Must not have been previously awarded an R01 or P-grant |
| Katz ESI Research Project Grant (R series) | Supports innovative projects in areas of science that represent a change in research direction for early-stage investigators (ESI) and for which no preliminary data exist | Within 10 years of PhD; no prior NIH independent award | |
| Maximizing Investigators' Research Award ESI (MIRA) (R35) | Provides support for a program of research in an ESI’s laboratory that falls within the mission of NIGMS | Within 10 years of PhD; no prior NIH independent award | |
| NIH Director's New Innovator Award DP5 | Supports ESIs’ bold and highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the NIH mission | Within 10 years of PhD; no prior NIH independent award | |
| Department of Defense (DOD) | DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) | Provides funding, mentoring and industry and DoD contacts to develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs | Tenure-track within 3 years of tenure and 12 years of Ph.D. |
| Office of Naval Research Young Investigator (ONR YIP) | Encourage teaching and research careers by supporting proposals addressing research areas described in the ONR science and technology (S&T) department section | Tenure-track within 7 years of Ph.D. | |
| Air Force OSR Young Investigator (AFOSR YIP) | Supports EC scientists and engineers showing exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research in science and engineering | Must have received Ph.D. by 01 April 2018 or later | |
| Army Research Office Early Career Program (ARO ECP) | Foster creative basic research in science and engineering for early career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army | Tenure-track for fewer than 5 years at time of application | |
| National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) | Individual fellowships | Provides time to conduct research or to produce books, monographs, peer-reviewed articles, born-digital materials, translations with annotations, etc. Projects may be at any stage of development. | Open to scholars of all disciplines, especially independent scholars and junior scholars |
| Public Scholars | Grants to individual authors for research, writing, travel, and other activities leading to the creation and publication of well-researched nonfiction books in the humanities written for the broad public | Open to scholars of all disciplines, especially independent scholars and junior scholars |