Funding Opportunities

External Funding

The university provides access to database tools for use by University faculty and staff to search for external funding opportunities. These include federal, state, and local agencies in addition to private funding sources. More information can be found at the UA Research, Innovation and Impact website.


Internal UArizona Faculty Funding

The opportunities listed below are supported by units across the UArizona campus. If you have questions about one of these opportunities, visit the link and follow the unit’s site contact information.

AIR Annual Resilience Theme Grant

The Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR) seeks to use TRIF Water, Environmental, and Energy Solutions (WEES) funds to support an interdisciplinary team to develop and execute a creative and inspiring yearlong agenda of events and activities focused on a single, resilience-related theme-of-the-year. This theme will be investigated, explored, and examined through a series of activities using a wide variety of venues.

Accelerate for Success

Accelerate for Success Grants are awarded to catalyze strategic transdisciplinary research programs-by creating teams, broadening partnerships, and supporting the proposed plan to result in proposal submission and successful funding. For FY21 there are three areas of focus, the implementation of the strategic plan, advancement of graduate and undergraduate research opportunities, and COVID-19 pandemic response.

Asset Development Program

Tech Launch Arizona's Asset Development funding helps advance inventions that aren’t yet ready to attract licensees or investors. In executing an Asset Development plan, we validate an invention's market potential and requirements and ready it for commercialization.

Challenge Grants

Challenge Grants (New) focuses on high-risk, high-reward research opportunities. The application process is designed to limit institutional bias by awarding reviewed applications at random until funding is exhausted. Grant awardees will receive up to $50,000 over the course of the project period. Funding will be provided in two tiers with applications that meet the criteria and those that exceed the criteria.

Confluencenter Director's Fund for Excellence

The Director’s Fund for Excellence awards are intended to provide critical support for short-term collaborative projects undertaken by UA faculty and graduate students in the Colleges of Fine Arts (CFA), Humanities (COH), or Social & Behavioral Sciences (SBS), especially projects that reflect an interdisciplinary orientation or a commitment to public outreach.

Confluencenter Faculty Collaboration Grants

Faculty Collaboration Grants are seed grants intended to support creative, interdisciplinary projects that result in outcomes enabling researchers to apply for other external funding to continue and expand the project. Faculty from the Colleges of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Behavioral Sciences can apply for these grants if they have creative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research to pursue.

Core Facilities Pilot Program

The CFPP is designed to support three key types of activity within the RII-managed core facilities. The program provides funding to facilitate early stage research program creation and development to enable interdisciplinary investigator groups to incubate promising new research ideas that will lead to new extramural funding. These groups should address broad interdisciplinary themes, convene on a regular basis and include researchers from multiple disciplines across campus. This is a quarterly program

Equipment Enhancement Fund

These grants are designed to add or augment research capacity through the acquisition of equipment for use by multiple investigators in shared facilities or approved university core facilities. The proposed equipment should have multiple committed users from at least two departments and preferably, from at least two different colleges. In extremely well justified cases, a single department request may be considered. Preference will be given to multi-department/multi-college equipment with a priority for equipment located in the RII Core Facilities.

Faculty Seed Grants

Faculty Seed Grants provide awards of up to $15,000 for one-time support to "jump start" worthwhile projects that can be used to develop major proposals. The program provides two tracks for grant awards. The early career track focuses on developing the faculty member's independence. The mid career path provides an opportunity for a faculty member to take their research in a new direction.

Faculty Small Grants

The Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute Faculty Small Grants provide seed money of up to $3,500 provide seed money for larger projects, including those leading to proposals to external funding agencies. These grants may also be used for full-scale but inexpensive projects or parts of projects.

George H. Davis Travel Fellowship

The Fellowship supports promising tenure-track faculty members (in any field) in becoming more widely recognized for their work and more closely connected with colleagues, nationally and internationally. In particular, the fellowship defrays costs associated with invited participation in a national or international professional meeting, where the awardee will present research findings, scholarship, and/or creative activities.

International Research Grants

International Research Grants are designed to jump-start either international research done by transdisciplinary collaborations, or the development of new academic programs in collaboration with international partner institutions. Applicants may request up to $30,000.

Leveraging Grants

Offered through the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, these $1,000-maximum grants are intended to help prospective faculty PIs develop opportunities that have a clear return on SBS's investment.

Production Grants

Production Grants (New) provide grant opportunities across multiple fields and mediums. Applicants can request up to $10,000 (in justified cases up to $15,000) to aid in the production of original works such as producing a product, performance, or installation. 

Provost's Author Support Fund

The Provost's Author Support Fund is available to faculty or academic professionals whose workload description includes the expectation of research and publication, and who hold appointments in units reporting directly or indirectly to the Provost.

Publication Grants

The Publication Grants are designed to augment the research resulting from a prior RII Research Development Grant by providing support to offset publication costs that were not allowable during the initial period of performance due to timing between research activity and publication. Applicants must be a previous recipient of any hosted grants through the TRIF initiatives or RII’s Research Development Grants (funded via TRIF or Development funds).

Postdoctoral Research Development Grants

Postdoctoral Research Development Grants (PRDG) were established to support University of Arizona (UArizona) postdoctoral scholars in the development of their independent research skills to advance their career goals.

Research Professorships

The Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute funds Research Professorships every semester. This award releases the recipient from one course to conduct research on worthy projects in the social and/or behavioral sciences.

Technology and Research Innovation Fund (TRIF)

Through TRIF, or the Technology and Research Initiative Fund, the University of Arizona creates impactful solutions to state and global problems, prepares students for the workforce of tomorrow and contributes as one of the largest economic engines for Arizona. TRIF support the five following initiatives: Improving Health; Space Exploration & Optical Sciences; Water, Environmental, & Energy Solutions; Access & Workforce Development; and National Security Systems.

UArizona National Labs Partnerships Grants

The UArizona National Labs Partnerships Grant is intended to foster research partnerships between UAZ faculty and research scientists and one, or more, Department of Energy National Research Laboratories or Department of Defense National Labs. The goal of these grants is to promote building partnerships, advancing research and development in priority areas as defined by the respective governmental funding agencies coupled with TRIF and UA, and developing extramural proposals for submission. Applicants may propose research on any topic of interest to both the University and the respective National Lab.

Udall Center Fellows Program

The Udall Center Fellows Program funds public policy research in partnerships with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, BIO5 Institute, the Udall Foundation, and Research, Innovation, and Impact (RII). The funds fall under the categories of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Biosciences and Public Policy, Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution, and other research interests pertaining to public policy.

Workshop Support

RII supports workshops that bring experts together to discuss recent research or education findings in order to support the long-term planning of interdisciplinary, team science programs. Ultimately, these workshops should enable the future submission of a high-quality and relevant research proposal to an external sponsor. RII is particularly interested in funding workshops to further the UArizona’s Strategic Plan.