Past External Funding Opportunities
These funding opportunities have passed, but you might find it useful to browse them to identify trends. Also, some of these are recurring opportunities (e.g., annual, every other year, every third year, etc.).
| Funding Agency | Due Date | Title | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARPA-H | Full proposals due April 11 | Rare Disease AI/ML for Precision Integrated Diagnostics (RAPID) | "to develop provider-facing [AI] tools that prioritize data interoperability and integration into existing clinical workflows, ensuring scalability across health care organizations." |
| DARPA | Proposals due April 10 | Red-C: Reclaiming Bus-based Systems During Compromise | The program has launched bus-watch.org, "a new hub for the greater computer science community that provides developers and researchers with tools and datasets needed to solve fundamental algorithmic challenges as they relate to firmware security and resilience." |
| NASA | Step 2: April 3, 2025 | B.16 Heliophysics Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-Ready Data | Specific proposal opportunity description pdf |
| LCCMR | March 19, 2025 | Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources 2026 ENRTF Request for Proposal (links to pdf) | The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) welcomes proposals for projects of all sizes that address the priorities and requirements described within this Request for Proposal (RFP) and that aim to protect, conserve, preserve, and enhance Minnesota’s air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources. |
| DOE | Letter of Intent (required): March 11, 2025 LOI Response Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2025 Proposals: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | Competitive Portfolios for Advanced Scientific Computing Research: Data Management and Visualization (LAB 25-3510) | $35 million dollars is available to support the advancement of High-Performance Computing (HPC) data management, storage, and scientific visualization that will help enable the development of the next-generation energy-efficient computing systems and approaches enabling accelerated scientific discovery. |
| NSF | March 3, 2025 and annually on March 1 thereafter. | Emerging Mathematics in Biology (eMB) (NSF 25-509) | The program supports research projects in mathematical biology that address challenging and significant biological questions through novel applications of traditional, but nontrivial mathematical tools and methods or the development of new mathematical theories particularly from foundational mathematics, including the mathematical foundation of Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning/Machine Learning (AI/DL/ML) enabling explainable AI or mechanistic insight. |
| DARPA | February 28, 2025 | RFI: Techniques and Tools for Vulnerability Assessment of AI-enabled Systems | DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O) seeks information from industry developers and academic institutions regarding current and emerging techniques and tools for the operational assessment of potential vulnerabilities in DoD relevant artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled systems. |
| DARPA | February 28, 2025 | Ouija Satellite Guest Investigator Data Challenge | In approximately June 2025, DARPA will be launching the Ouija satellite into Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). DARPA's Strategic Technologies Office (STO) is considering a “Guest Investigator” (GI) program to broaden the basic research utility of the in situ datasets collected during the Ouija mission. |
| DARPA | February 25, 2025 | Securing Artificial Intelligence for Battlefield Effective Robustness (SABER) | Securing Artificial Intelligence for Battlefield Effective Robustness (SABER) aims to build an exemplar AI red team equipped with the necessary counter-AI techniques, tools, and technical competency to operationally assess AI-enabled battlefield systems. |
| DOE | Pre-applications (required): February 25, 2025 Pre-application Response Date: March 18, 2025 Final Application: May 6, 2025 | Includes 5 topic areas: Quantum computation based on topological concepts; B) Local and Campus-Area Quantum Networking for Next Generation Parallel Quantum Computing; C) Neuromorphic Computing; D) Computational Physical Systems; and E) Deep Understanding of AI Models: "To enable the creation and use of AI models for science, many aspects of the AI training and inference processes require optimization, including speed, energy efficiency, memory and data usage, and accuracy of the predicted values and the characterized uncertainty of those values." | |
| DOE | Pre-applications (required): February 21, 2025 Pre-application Response Date: March 21, 2025 Final Application: April 25, 2025 | Partnerships in Basic Energy Sciences (SciDAC) (links to pdf) | Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). All applications must address fundamental research in support of the BES and ASCR missions. Partnerships between domain scientists in the fields of materials science, condensed matter physics, chemical sciences, geosciences, energy-related biosciences, applied mathematics, and computer science will be critical to accelerate the scientific discovery process through revolutionary advances in models, mathematics, algorithms, data, and computing. |
| NSF | Preliminary Proposal (required): Final Proposal Target Date: | Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC)(NSF 25-527) | Future deadlines: Preliminary Proposal (required): September 8, 2025; Second Monday in September annually thereafter. January 12, 2026; second Monday in January annually thereafter. Program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of novel intelligent technologies and concepts through high-risk/high-reward research that addresses major challenges and issues faced by communities across the US. |
| NSF | February 19, 2025 and annually on the third Wednesday in February thereafter | Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) (NSF 24-526) | Recurring. Program supports research on new approaches to leveraging massive spatiotemporal datasets to analyze and understand spatiotemporally distributed phenomena. |
| ARPA-H | Solution Summary due: February 14, 2025 | RAPID: Rare Disease AI/ML for Precision Integrated Diagnostics | The Rare Disease AI/ML for Precision Integrated Diagnostics (RAPID) program aims to transform the diagnosis of rare and ultra-rare diseases by developing highly accurate AI-based detection models. |
| ARPA-H | Solution Summary due: February 10, 2025 | The PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program aims to identify biochemical and physiological markers and develop assessment tools that will allow researchers to better understand and target the underlying causes of age-related disease. To achieve this goal, PROSPR will pioneer in-home data collection and clinical trial protocols that can assess age-associated health outcomes in just three years instead of decades of study, accelerating the availability of new therapies. | |
| NSF | Letter of Intent (required): February 7, 2025 Preliminary Proposal (required): March 7, 2025 Full Proposal (by invitation only): September 17, 2025 | Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCI) (NSF 24-599) | The goal of the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) program is to support timely and bold research agendas aimed at making breakthroughs on clearly identified and compelling challenges in quantum information science and engineering within a 6-year period. |
| NSF | February 5, 2025 February 5, 2026 | ||
| DOE | Pre-Proposal (required): January 23, 2025 Final Proposals: April 10, 2025 | Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Institutes (LAB 25-3510; Link to pdf) | The mission of the SciDAC Institutes is to provide intellectual resources in applied mathematics and computer science, expertise in algorithms and methods, and scientific software tools to advance scientific discovery, particularly by effectively exploiting exascale computing capabilities, for the public benefit, in areas of strategic importance to SC and DOE. |
| ARPA-H | Solution Summaries due: January 27, 2025 | The Ocular Laboratory for Analysis of Biomarkers (OCULAB) program envisions a wearable biomarker measurement system that allows for simultaneous, continuous monitoring of tear biomarkers. The program will incorporate the latest advances in wearable technology, bioassays, nanotechnology, and AI algorithms. | |
| NASA | Step 1: January 23, 2025 | B.16 Heliophysics Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-Ready Data | Specific proposal opportunity description pdf |
| NSF | Proposals with a U.S. PI submitted in response to this DCL to NSF must be submitted by January 22, 2025, 5:00 p.m.in the submitting U.S. organization's time zone. | Dear Colleague Letter: Special Guidelines for Submitting Joint Proposals under the Quad AI-ENGAGE Collaborative Research Opportunity (NSF 24-132) | Quad countries – Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. Joint research should advance the field(s) of artificial intelligence, robotics, sensing, and/or communications with applications to agriculture, particularly those that empower farmers to enhance productivity, sustainability, and resilience. |
| NSF | Full Proposal Window: January 21-February 4, 2025 | Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) (NSF 25-508) | DMREF emphasizes a deep integration of experiments, computation, and theory; the use of accessible digital data across the materials development continuum; and strengthening connections among theorists, computational scientists, data scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, and experimentalists as well as those from academia, industry, and government. |
| NSF | January 21, 2025 | Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) (NSF 23-625) | The purpose of this solicitation is to broaden participation in innovation ecosystems that advance key technologies (e.g., advanced manufacturing, advanced wireless, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum information science, semiconductors, novel materials, and microelectronics) by supporting capacity-building efforts at institutions of higher education (IHEs) interested in growing external partnerships. |
| ARPA-H | Full Proposal: January 15, 2025 | PRECISE-AI:Performance and Reliability Evaluation for Continuous Modifications and Useability of Artificial Intelligence | PRECISE-AI webpage Slides from Proposers' Day held in Madison on October 17, 2024. |
| NSF | Preliminary Proposal (required): January 14, 2025; Second Tuesday in January annually thereafter. Full Proposal: April 22, 2025; Fourth Tuesday in April annually thereafter. | Safety, Security, and Privacy of Open-Source Ecosystems (Safe-OSE) (NSF 24-608) | Recurring. |
| NIST | Concept paper (required) due January 13, 2025 | CARISSMA | For activities that will use cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous experimentation (AE) technologies to support the long-term viability of next-generation semiconductor manufacturing. |
| NSF | December 19, 2024 and annually on the third Thursday in December thereafter | Partnership to Advance Conservation Science and Practice (PACSP) (NSF 24-531) | Recurring. Partnership between NSF and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. |
| NSF | Letter of Intent (required): December 16, 2024 Full Proposal: January 16, 2025 | Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2) (NSF 24-595) | "The R2I2 program will be synergistic with both the NSF Convergence Accelerators and the NSF Regional Innovation Engines (RIEs) programs ... Potential solutions may include, but are not limited to, innovative planning and policy solutions to address environmental justice issues and reduce exposure to climate hazards, ... novel statistical and mathematical methods to evaluate climate-induced risks, or new AI and modeling tools to address challenges faced by specific industries such as the financial sector and insurance agencies." |
| NSF | October 10, 2024 | Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (NSF 24-569) | Recurring. Future due dates are October 10, 2025, and October 9, 2026. |
| NSF | October 3, 2024 | Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science (SCH) (NSF 23-614) | Recurring, next due date is October 3, 2025. |
| NIFA-AFRI (USDA) | Vary from August to October 2024. | See AFRI website for more information. Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Foundational and Applied Science Program (pdf) | Recurring. See especially p. 56 and p. 91. |
| NIH | September 9, 2024 (earliest submission date: August 9, 2024) | NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program (DP1 Clinical Trial Optional) (RFA-RM-24-002) | NIH Director's Pioneer Award website. Pre-application webinar on June 25, 2024, from 2:00-3:30 PM ET. |
| NIH | September 6, 2024 (earliest submission date: August 6, 2024) | NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5 - Clinical Trial Optional): RFA RM-24-005 | Early Independence Award website. Pre-application webinar on June 26, 2024, from 1:00-2:30 PM ET. |
| NIH | September 3, 2024 (earliest submission date: August 3, 2024) | NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award (R01 - Clinical Trial Optional): RFA RM-24-004 | Transformative Research Award website. Pre-application webinar on June 26, 2024, from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. |
| NSF | Letter of Intent: September 3, 2024 Preliminary Proposal: September 30, 2024 Full Proposal (by invitation only): May 9, 2025 | Gen-4 Engineering Research Centers (NSF 24-576) | |
| NSF | Phase II full proposals due August 30, 2024. Only Phase I awardees eligible to submit. | NSF Convergence Accelerator Phases 1 and 2 for the 2023 Cohort - Tracks K, L, M (NSF 23-590) | Letter of intent was due July 11, 2023. Full Phase I proposals were due August 22, 2023. |
| NSF | June 21, 2024 | Foundations for Digital Twins as Catalyzers of Biomedical Technological Innovation (NSF 24-561) | Recurring. Next due date: May 5, 2025, and annually on the first Monday in May thereafter. |
| NSF | June 20, 2024 | Mathematical Foundations of Digital Twins (NSF 24-559) | Recurring. Next due date: March 17, 2025, and annually on March 15 thereafter. |
| NSF | June 11, 2024 | Global Centers: Use-Inspired Research Addressing Global Challenges through the Bioeconomy (NSF 24-556) | From RFP: “Storing and analyzing huge amounts of genome and phenotype data will require innovations in computing, including artificial intelligence (AI) and mathematical foundations behind these AI approaches.” |
| AFRL | April 15, 2024: White Papers due June 10, 2024: Proposal Submission Due Date (by invitation only from White Paper Selection notice) | AFRL FY24 Data Assimilation Center of Excellence | Revised full announcement. Listen to audio of March 21, 2024 webinar. |
| NIFA-AFRI (USDA) | June 6, 2024 | For this cycle, the SAS program area will fund projects that significantly advance previously established foundational and applied sciences for the following USDA priority outcomes: Food and Nutrition Security, Strengthening the Bioeconomy, and Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry (CSAF). Recurring. | |
| ARPA-H | June 3, 2024 | Chatbot Accuracy and Reliability Evaluation (CARE) Exploration Topic | SAM.gov link to announcement |
| NSF | June 3, 2024 | Recurring. Future due dates: February 5, 2025 and February 5, 2026 | |
| NSF | May 16, 2024 | Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) (NSF 23-625) | Recurring. Also January 21, 2025. |
| NSF | May 15, 2024 | Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks (SRS RNs) (NSF 24-533) | Estimated Number of Awards: 1 to 2 Anticipated Funding Amount:$30,000,000, depending upon availability of funds. |
| NSF | May 13, 2024 (Emerging Ideas Proposals Only) January 14, 2025 and annually on January 14 thereafter Discovery Proposals Only in 2025 and 2026 | ACED: Accelerating Computing-Enabled Scientific Discovery (ACED) (NSF 24-541) | Recurring. |
| NSF | April 30, 2024 for consideration in FY 2024 | Dear Colleague Letter: Funding Opportunities for Engineering Research in Artificial Intelligence (NSF 24-039) | Research and education proposals related to Artificial Intelligence as an Emerging Industry. Proposals submitted after April 30, 2024, will be considered for fiscal year 2025. |
| DARPA & ARPA-H | April 30, 2024 for open track | ARPA-H joins DARPA’s AI Cyber Challenge to safeguard nation’s health care infrastructure from cyberattacks | See also March 21, 2024 announcement from ARPA-H |
| NSF | April 30, 2024 for consideration in FY 2024 | Dear Colleague Letter: Funding Opportunities for Engineering Research to Achieve Net-Zero Climate Goals by 2050 (NSF 24-045) | Proposals submitted after April 30, 2024, will be considered for fiscal year 2025. |
| NSF | April 24, 2024 December 19, 2024 and annually on the third Thursday in December thereafter | Partnership to Advance Conservation Science and Practice (PACSP) (NSF 24-531) | Recurring. Partnership between NSF and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. |
| NSF | Pre-applications (required): April 23, 2024 Full proposal: August 30, 2024 | Ideas Lab: Use-Inspired Acceleration of Protein Design (NSF 24-550) | Track I. Use-driven application for small binders. Track II. The design and use of enzymes and families of enzymes. "Up to 8 awards are anticipated .... Awards will be funded up to $3,750,000 per year for up to 3 years...." |
| NSF | April 10, 2024 February 19, 2025 and annually on the third Wednesday in February thereafter | Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) (NSF 24-526) | Recurring. Program supports research on new approaches to leveraging massive spatiotemporal datasets to analyze and understand spatiotemporally distributed phenomena. |
| NSF | April 8, 2024: Phase 1: Planning Grants, Translational Research Coordination Networks, Workshops April 22, 2024: Phase 2: Project proposals | Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies (ReDDDoT) (NSF 24-524) | The ReDDDoT program invites proposals from multidisciplinary, multi-sector teams that examine and demonstrate the principles, methodologies, implementations, and impacts associated with responsible design, development, and deployment of technologies, focusing especially on key technologies. |
| NSF | March 31, 2024 | Dear Colleague Letter: Advancing education for the future AI workforce (EducateAI) (NSF 24-025) | |
| State of MN | March 27, 2024 | Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) | |
| DOE | Pre-Applications (required): March 19, 2024 Pre-Application Response Date: April 11, 2024 Final Application: May 21, 2024 | Advancements in Artificial Intelligence for Science (DE-FOA-0003264) | The DOE SC program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) hereby announces its interest in basic computer science and applied mathematics research in the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for science. |
| NSF | March 15, 2024 | Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence and Geosciences (CAIG) (NSF 24-518) | |
| NSF | March 14, 2024 | Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes (NSF 23-606) | Next due date is March 4, 2029. |
| NSF | March 11, 2024 | Emerging Mathematics in Biology (eMB) (NSF 24-513) | |
| DOE | Pre-Applications (required): February 29, 2024. Pre-Application Response Date: March 21, 2024 Final Application: May 2, 2024 | EXPRESS: 2024 Exploratory Research for Extreme Scale Science (DE-FOA-0003300) | |
| DOD | Abstracts due January 23, 2024. Full proposals due March 4, 2024. | Boosting Innovative GEOINT - Science & Technology Broad Agency Announcement (BIG-ST BAA) | See also NGA opens BIG-ST BAA Topic 1. |
| NSF | Preliminary: January 12, 2024 Full: May 17, 2024 | National AI Institutes (NSF 23-610)- AI for Discovery in Materials Research and Strengthening AI | |
| NSF | Preliminary: October 31, 2023 Full: February 12, 2024 | National AI Institutes (NSF 23-610)- Astronomical Sciences | |
| NSF | July 17, 2023; July 15 annually thereafter January 16, 2024 (January 15 annually thereafter) | Arctic Research Opportunities Arctic Natural Sciences; Arctic Social Sciences (NSF 23-572) | Recurring |
| NEH | Optional draft due: January 10, 2024 Deadline: February 14, 2024 | Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence | |
| DARPA | Due date for 2023 was November 30. | Advanced Research Concept (ARC) Opportunity: Collaborative Knowledge Curation | |
| DARPA | Due date for 2023 was November 30. | Foundation Models for Scientific Discovery (DARPA-PA-23-04-01) AI Exploration (AIE) Opportunity | |
| NSF | Due date for 2023 was November 17. | Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (DISES) (NSF 23-609) | This has been a recurring program. |
| USDA-DSFAS | Due date for 2023 was November 16. | Data Science for Food and Agricultural Systems (DSFAS) (Part of AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program) (see p. 91ff) | Recurring |
| NSF | None currently. | Regional Innovation Engines | Read the original Broad Agency Announcement for 2022-2023. Read more about REIs. NSF anticipates future calls for proposals, pending availability of funds. To stay in the loop about future funding calls and opportunities to engage, sign up for their newsletter. |
| NSF | Due dates for 2023 were May 15, June 20, and December 18. | Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2 (Mid-scale RI-2) (NSF 23-570) | This has been a recurring opportunity in odd-numbered years. This is the 2023 solicitation, which required a letter of intent, a preliminary proposal, and a final proposal by invitation only. |
| NSF | The submission window for 2023 was February 27 - March 13. | Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) (NSF 23-530) | This has been a recurring opportunity in odd-numbered years, i.e. 2023, 2025, etc. |