⚡️ Funding Flash: September 2025

“The Huck Core Facilities Open House is an excellent opportunity for life science researchers to find out about the instrumentation and services our 11 core facilities can provide,” said Craig Praul, Huck’s director of research instrumentation. “We want everyone to attend, but we believe this event will be especially beneficial to those who are new to Penn State, including graduate students, post-docs, staff and faculty. We offer access to an incredible range of technologies. There will be something of interest for everyone!”

Faculty, staff and student researchers with any level of familiarity with the cores are invited to attend the event. Door prizes and free food will be available to attendees, and no registration is required.

“Our greatest scientific and societal challenges can only be solved by collaborative teams that bridge multiple disciplines,” said Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. “However, these types of projects are usually not supported by traditional funding programs in the early stages. We designed the 2025-26 Huck seed grant program to incentivize the formation of collaborative, cross-college teams. I am so excited to see the new discoveries and solutions that these teams will create.”

“The grant is addressing one of the major issues, which is vascularization,” Ozbolat said. “Repairing tissues and organs depends on how well vascularization is provided to them, so that you can have blood supply move right through those structures, and you can keep the cells viable. Otherwise, without vascularization, the tissue will die.”

The Commercialization GAP Fund is designed to bridge the gap between promising research innovations and their readiness for market entry. The program provides investigators with funding and other support to advance prototypes, validate technologies, conduct market assessments, and reduce technical and commercial risk ultimately moving projects to a stage sufficient to attract a commercial licensee or investor. 

The recently launched Propel Penn State Seed Fund is designed to support promising startups while providing experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students. Through a 10-week learning program, students participate in the due diligence process, gaining real-world exposure to venture capital and startup evaluation. The Propel Penn State Seed Fund is funded by philanthropic gifts from Penn State alumni and friends as well as corporate sponsorships.

This opportunity supports and empowers early-to-mid-career investigators to rethink conventional paradigms around neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). Modeled after the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, the MIND Prize catalyzes interdisciplinary approaches and facilitates collaborations across academic departments and institutions. It fuels the groundbreaking research that will accelerate our understanding of NDDs at every level.

The Huck Life at All Scales Seed Grant Program provides an opportunity for Huck faculty affiliates to work with our research scientists in our core facilities to develop strategies for tackling fundamental and applied scientific questions and challenges. For this funding cycle, we welcome applications for projects that will be conducted in the Huck Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Facility.

Penn State Global and the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State support graduate student international travel through travel grants that assist students in presenting their own research or exhibitions at a variety of international events.

We are interested in proposals that address the biological mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric disorders. This includes proposals that provide mechanistic insights into neurological functions at the synaptic, cellular, molecular, genetic or behavioral level across different species, including humans and vertebrate and invertebrate model organisms. A new additional area of interest is the contribution of the environment to brain disorders.

The Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP) offers the opportunity for graduate students, predoctoral students, and postdoctoral and senior researchers to conduct independent research related to Smithsonian collections, facilities, and/or research interests of the Institution and its staff.

The newly formed Penn State Quantum Hub, housed under the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), aims to build a community and invest in bold, high-impact interdisciplinary quantum research through a new endeavor — the Quantum SuperSEED Grant program. The hub strongly encourages collaborations across colleges and research institutes.

Founded in 1981, the Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF) provides grants with 3 years of support for postdoctoral and early career researchers, to help them make discoveries that impact public health, biotechnology, and our understanding of life, addressing our most pressing challenges.

The program seeks to support scientists committed to mentoring neuroscientists from underrepresented groups at all levels of training. Applicants for the McKnight Scholar Award must demonstrate their ability to solve significant problems in neuroscience, which may include the translation of basic research to clinical practice.

The Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists recognize the United States' most promising faculty-rank researchers in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemical Sciences.

Research security training is mandated for individuals involved in federally funded research by U.S. federal regulations such as the CHIPS and Science Act and National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). These policies are designed to safeguard the integrity of the U.S. research enterprise against foreign government interference and exploitation.

Philanthropic funding in higher education is increasing in importance as an alternative/supplement to federal and state funds. In her presentation, Karen Kemirembe will offer strategies for identifying and successfully applying to non-federal funding opportunities as well as guide attendees to available internal and external resources.