Kansas NSF EPSCoR New Funding Opportunity for Early Career Faculty

     Kansas NSF EPSCoR is announcing a new funding opportunity for First Awards in the area of microbiome research. The First Award program helps early-career faculty become competitive for funding from the research directorates at the National Science Foundation by 1) encouraging early-career faculty to submit proposals to the NSF (or other federal funding agency) as soon as possible after their first faculty appointment, and 2) by accelerating the pace of their research and the quality of their subsequent proposals.

    Eligible to apply is any individual tenure track faculty member who is currently untenured
at the assistant professor rank at Kansas State University, University of Kansas, Wichita
State University, Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Pittsburg State
University or Washburn University and who:

• is within the first three years of his/her faculty appointment,1
• has not previously received a First Award or similar funding from another EPSCoR or EPSCoR‐like (Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, COBRE) program in Kansas, and is not currently nor has previously been a lead Principal Investigator of a research grant funded by a federal agency.

First Awards are intended to be single‐investigator awards to support the PI’s research program at their institution.

Download the Request for Proposal Information at: 

2019 First Awards in Microbiome Research

Submission Deadlines:

• White Papers due by 5:00 pm Wednesday, 9/25/2019

Download the First Award

Letter of Intent Information Form 

at LOI Form

• Final Proposals are due by 5:00 pm Monday, 11/25/2019

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for First Awards is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.