Limited Submission Funding Announcements

These research funding opportunities have a submission limit, meaning only a certain number of applications can be submitted. Faculty interested in applying must submit a preliminary proposal for review by an internal selection committee. Below are the available funding opportunities along with their respective internal submission deadlines.

Pew Biomedical Scholars Program │ April 1

The Pew Charitable Trusts Pew Biomedical Scholars program supports young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. This program does not fund clinical trials research. Strong proposals will incorporate particularly creative and pioneering approaches to basic, translational, and applied biomedical research. Candidates whose work is based on biomedical principles but who bring in concepts and theories from more diverse fields are encouraged to apply.

Ideas with the potential to produce an unusually high impact are encouraged. Selection of the successful candidates will be based on a detailed description of the work that the applicant proposes to undertake, evaluations of the candidate’s performance, and notable past accomplishments, including honors, awards, and publications. In evaluating the candidates, the National Advisory Committee gives considerable weight to evidence that the candidate is a successful independent investigator and has published significant work.

FUNDING INFORMATION: Up to $75,000 per year for four years ($300,000 total). No more than 8% ($24,000) of the total award may be allocated for facilities and administration charges or indirect costs.

ELIGIBILITY: BU may nominate one candidate. Candidates must meet all of the following eligibility requirements:

Hold a doctorate in biomedical sciences, medicine, or a related field, including engineering or the physical sciences.
As of Sep. 3, 2025, run an independent lab and hold a full-time appointment at the rank of assistant professor.
Appointments such as research assistant professor, adjunct assistant professor, assistant professor research track, visiting professor, or instructor are not eligible.
May apply to the program a maximum of two times.
If applicants have appointments at more than one eligible nominating institution or affiliate, they may not reapply in a subsequent year from a different nominating entity.
Must not have been appointed as an assistant professor at any institution prior to June 11, 2021, whether or not such an appointment was on a tenure track.
Time spent in clinical internships, residencies, in work toward board certification, or on parental leave does not count as part of this four-year limit.
Candidates who need an exception on the four-year limit should contact Pew’s program office to ensure that application reviewers are aware an exception has been given.
This part of the eligibility criteria has been temporarily expanded to account for COVID-related lab shutdowns. This extension will end after this upcoming application cycle. Beginning in the 2027 grant cycle, the eligibility window will revert to the three-year period.
May not be nominated for the Pew Biomedical Scholars Program and the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research in the same year.

INTERNAL SELECTION: Interested BUMC investigators should submit the following materials listed below via InfoReady Review by Tuesday, April 1, 2025. If you are a faculty who works in BMC space (i.e., your research mentor is a BMC investigator) and wish to apply, please contact the Director of Strategic Research Growth, Jessica Howard, at Jessica.Howard@bmc.org, by Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.

Questions outlined in InfoReady Review application
Project Proposal (max two pages) describing the proposed project and providing evidence of your success as an independent investigator
Strong proposals will incorporate particularly creative and pioneering approaches to basic, translational, and applied biomedical research
Up-to-date CV or biosketch
Budget outline for the proposed project.

A faculty committee drawn from both campuses will review internal proposals and select nominees. Foundation Relations will work with the nominees to develop and submit the institutional nomination application by Wed., May 14, 2025.

DEADLINES:

Internal Materials Due: Tuesday, April 1, 2025 11:59 p.m.
External Nomination Due: Wed., May 14, 2025

In requesting to be considered for this limited submission funding opportunity, you are making a commitment, if selected, to submit your proposal to the sponsor in a timely manner and to Sponsored Programs in accordance with the Proposal Submission Policy.

Pew-Steward Scholars for Cancer Research │ April 1

The Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research program supports assistant professors of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of a cure for cancer. In line with The Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust’s mission to invest in innovative, cutting-edge cancer research that may accelerate and advance progress toward a cure for cancer, applications are invited from nominees conducting cancer research.

This program is distinct from the Pew Scholars Program, and it follows a different, but parallel set of guidelines and procedures for nominating an applicant whose research is related to cancer.

FUNDING INFORMATION: An award of $75,000 per year for four years ($300,000 total) will be provided to the sponsoring institution for use by the Pew-Stewart scholar, subject to annual review of their progress. Grant agreements will be issued in August of the award year. The awarded funds may be used at the discretion of the Pew-Stewart scholar, for personnel, equipment, supplies or travel directly related to the Pew-Stewart scholar’s research and as to best advance their research and career.

Not more than 8% ($24,000) of the total award value may be allocated for facilities and administration (F&A) charges or indirect costs (IDCs). The amount of the award that may be used for the principal investigator’s salary is limited to $12,500 per year (including benefits) or $50,000 over the duration of the grant. There are no limits on student or postdoctoral salaries.

ELIGIBILITY: One nominee will be selected by BU-BMC Cancer Center. Candidates must meet all of the following eligibility requirements:

Hold a doctorate in biomedical sciences, medicine, or a related field, including engineering or the physical sciences.
As of Aug. 27, 2025, run an independent lab and hold a full-time appointment at the rank of assistant professor. (Appointments such as research assistant professor, adjunct assistant professor, assistant professor research track, visiting professor, or instructor are not eligible.)
Current appointments such as research assistant professor, adjunct assistant professor, assistant professor research track, visiting professor, or instructor are not eligible to apply.
Must not have been appointed as an assistant professor at any institution prior to June 11, 2021, whether or not such an appointment was on a tenure track. Time spent in clinical internships, residencies, in work toward board certification, or on parental leave does not count as part of this four-year limit. Candidates who need an exception on the four-year limit should contact Pew’s program office to ensure that application reviewers are aware an exception has been given.
Please note that the eligibility criteria above have been temporarily expanded to four years to account for COVID-related lab shutdowns. This extension will end after this upcoming application cycle.
Beginning next year, the eligibility window for the 2027 grant will revert to the three-year period. Please direct any questions to the program office at scholarsapp@pewtrusts.org.
May apply to the program a maximum of two times.
If applicants have appointments at more than one eligible nominating institution or affiliate, they may not reapply in a subsequent year from a different nominating entity.
May not be nominated for the Pew Scholars Program and the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research in the same year.

INTERNAL SELECTION: Interested BUMC faculty should submit the following materials listed below combined into a single PDF document via email to Diana Lehman at dlehman@bu.edu by Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

Letter of recommendation from the appropriate Department Chair or Dean
One-page summary of proposed project
Up-to-date biosketch in current NIH format

A faculty committee from the medical campus and Cancer Center will review the internal proposals.

DEADLINES:

Internal Materials Due: Tuesday, April 1, 2025
External Materials Due: Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Huo Family Foundation Special Projects Grant │ April 9

The Huo Family Foundation (HFF) invites applications for special projects. These larger and longer-term research awards would allow researchers of all career stages, collaborating as a multi-disciplinary team with different expertise and skills, to take an integrated approach to tackle the more difficult questions in this domain. HFF aims to support multidisciplinary work between teams consisting of several group leaders from one institution, or different institutions in the UK and the US.

HFF is establishing a research portfolio on the Effects of the Usage of Digital Technology on Brain Development, Social Behaviors and Mental Health in Children and Young People. As such, proposals should tackle key questions within the broad topic of the effects of usage of and exposure to digital technologies on brain development and function (including physiological responses), social behavior and interactions, and mental health of children and young people.

For this grant, HFF encourages proposals that:

Attempt to understand causal pathways and directions
Focus on children and/or young people within the age range of 7-24 years old
Use of existing population (epidemiological) cohorts and data sets. We also encourage precision and deep-dive studies within these existing cohorts and data sets
Adopt randomized approaches to studying the effects of the use of digital technologies on the brain, mind, physiological responses, and behavior of children and young people. This may include the use of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) methodology.
Addresses the scarcity of longitudinal evidence by incorporating follow-up and repeated observations
Are mechanistic studies of smaller, well-defined participant groups
Involve and engage young people (children, adolescents and/or young adults) in the study design and during the delivery of the proposal, such as in Public and Community Involvement, Engagement and Participation (PCIEP) studies

Digital technology typically means digital devices, systems, tools and resources that generate, process and store data. For this call, digital technology refers to: devices, systems, tools and services used by children and young people. For example, this would include smart phones, tablets, computers/laptops, gaming consoles, online games, the internet, social media, other digital environments, instant messaging, video-sharing, etc.

FUNDING INFORMATION: Up to $390,000 per year for four years beginning Jan. 2026 ($1.56M total). Grant funds are not to be used to support the lead applicant’s salary or that of the co-applicants. Apart from the exclusion of the salary of the applicant(s), the grant funds may be used by the applicant(s) for any expense judged supportive of the research project including staffing, lab expenses, equipment and access charges, and professional travel.

For US-based work, up to 12.5% of the total grant is permitted for overhead/indirect costs.

ELIGIBILITY: BU may forward only one application as the lead institution. Only one person can be designated as the lead PI, but there can be multiple collaborators and consultants that do not need to be based in the US or UK. Applicants should have the following:

Hold a PhD or equivalent degree in a relevant field, which may include but is not limited to neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, public health, computer science, social science, economics.
A permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or the guarantee of one that is not predicated on receiving this grant.

INTERNAL SELECTION: Interested BUMC investigators should submit the following materials listed below via InfoReady Review by Wed., April 9, 2025. If you are a faculty who works in BMC space or your research mentor is a BMC investigator and you wish to apply, please contact the Director of Strategic Research Growth Jessica Howard, at Jessica.howard@bmc.org, by Tuesday, March 18, 2025.

Short questions outlined in InfoReady Review application
Up to two-page Project Proposal describing the research aims and questions, any background or preliminary work, proposed environment where research will be conducted, and methods used
Up-to-date CV

A faculty committee drawn from both campuses will review the internal proposals and select the nominees.

DEADLINES:

Internal Materials Due: Wednesday, April 9, 2025 11:59 p.m. EDT
External Deadline: Friday, May 23, 2025 11:59 p.m. EDT

NIH - Jointly Sponsored Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Institutional Predoctoral Training Program in the Neurosciences │ April 11

The overall goal of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) program is to help ensure that a pool of highly trained scientists is available in appropriate scientific disciplines to address the Nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs. The purpose of the Jointly Sponsored Predoctoral Training Program in the Neurosciences (JSPTPN) program is to provide strong, broad-based neuroscience training that will develop a cohort of well-trained researchers at a time when the field is advancing at a rapid pace. Neuroscience research increasingly requires investigators who can cross boundaries, draw on knowledge and interdisciplinary approaches and levels of analysis, and apply this breadth of knowledge in original ways to yield new discoveries about the function of the nervous system.

The JSPTPN supports programs of broad-based education and research experience during the first two years of graduate training. As such, training programs supported by a JSPTPN training grant must have a comprehensive, two-year training plan. During this training period, students should obtain a working knowledge of the different kinds of approaches and techniques that make up the field of neuroscience. A key component of this training should be acquiring a strong foundation of experimental methodology (e.g. experimental design, quantitative data analysis and interpretation) and a robust development of professional skills (e.g. written and oral communication and data presentation).

FUNDING INFORMATION: Application budgets are not limited, but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. Project period of five years.

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: BU may submit one proposal.

BU currently has one active JSPTP in Neuroscience training grant (2023-2028). Any new proposals must be distinct from the existing training program.

The proposed JSPTPN program may complement other ongoing research training and career development programs at the applicant institution, but the proposed research training experiences must be distinct from those research training programs currently receiving Federal support.

The program may not be used to support studies leading to MD, DDS, or other clinical, health-professional training.

INTERNAL SELECTION PROCESS: Interested BUMC investigators should submit the following materials listed below via InfoReady Review by Friday, April 11, 2025. If you are a faculty who works in BMC space or your research mentor is a BMC investigator and wish to apply, please contact the Director of Strategic Research Growth Jessica Howard, at Jessica.howard@bmc.org, by Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

Questions outlined in InfoReady Review application
Two-page proposal summary describing the objectives, rationale and design of the research training program, and key activities in the training plan as well as a rough anticipated estimate of the number of trainees.
Up-to-date CV or biosketch

A faculty committee will review internal proposals and select nominees.

DEADLINES:

Internal Materials Due: Friday, April 11, 2025 by 11:59 p.m. EDT
Sponsor Deadline: Sunday, May 25, 2025 by 5 p.m.

William T. Grant Scholars Program │ April 25

The William T. Grant Scholars Program supports career development for promising early-career researchers in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. The program funds five-year research and mentoring plans that significantly expand researchers’ expertise in new disciplines, methods, and content areas, and encourages scholars to tackle important questions that will advance theory, policy, and practice for young people (aged 5-25).

Awards are based on applicants’ potential to become influential researchers, as well as their plans to expand their expertise in new and significant ways. Applications should make a cohesive argument for how the applicant will expand their expertise. Proposed research plans must address questions that are relevant to policy and practice in the Foundation’s focus areas: reducing inequality and improving the use of research evidence.

FUNDING INFORMATION: $425,000 over five years, including up to 7.5% indirect costs. Awards begin July 1 of the award year (2026).

ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must have received their doctoral degree within seven years of submitting their application (2018-2025). In medicine, the seven-year maximum is dated from the completion of the first residency.

Applicants must be employed in career-ladder positions, which can mean holding a tenure-track position, or being in a pathway to advancement in a research career at the nominating organization and the organization is fiscally responsible for the applicant’s position.

INTERNAL SELECTION: Each college at BU may nominate a single applicant and will be managing its own internal submission process. Investigators based at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine who are interested in participating in the internal selection process should submit the following materials listed below combined into a single PDF document to Diana Lehman at dlehman@bu.edu by Friday, April 25, 2025.

A brief statement (up to two pages) by the candidate describing their scientific achievements and proposed project
A brief budget outline for the proposed research
Up-to-date CV or NIH biosketch

If you are a faculty who works in BMC space or your research mentor is a BMC investigator and wish to apply, please contact the Director of Strategic Research Growth Jessica Howard, at Jessica.howard@bmc.org, by Monday, April 7, 2025.

Medical Campus investigators may contact David Gillerman, Senior Director of Foundation Relations, Medical Campus (dgillerm@bu.edu).

The Office of Research will provide Letters of Independence (required by the foundation) if multiple major academic units are nominating individuals for this opportunity. As such, the Office of Research (research@bu.edu) and Joe Loftus (joloftus@bu.edu) must be notified of any nominees by 5 p.m. Monday, May 12, 2025.

DEADLINES:

Internal Material Due Date: Friday, April, 25, 2025
College-level Nominations Due: Monday, May 12, 2025 by 5 p.m.
Sponsor Deadline: Tuesday, July 1, 2025 by 3 p.m. EST

If you have any questions about these funding opportunities contact us.

View the list of annually recurring limited submission opportunities sorted by anticipated internal deadline.