Greetings,

We are excited to share this internal funding opportunity. Dean Hoekstra has announced the Fall 2026 cycle of the Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship (DCF), which provides funding for bold, imaginative work in every discipline in the following categories: 1) Seed Funding, 2) Bridge Funding, and 3) Enabling Infrastructure (formerly Enabling Subventions). Faculty members interested in learning more about the Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship are invited to attend a one-hour virtual information session from 10:30-11:30am on September 22, 2026; please register in advance to receive the Zoom meeting information. More information about the award can be found in the synopsis and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.

Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship

• Deadline: October 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM ET
• Award Amount: Up to $125,000

Program Overview

The Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship provides funding up to $125,000 for bold, imaginative work in every discipline in the following categories:

1. Seed funding, to encourage faculty to launch exciting new scholarship or research directions that might not yet be ready to compete in traditional funding programs or to pivot to new sources of funding (e.g., private foundations, corporate partnerships). Faculty impacted by changes to federal funding are encouraged to apply for seed funding to support a new or different direction for their research. 
2. Bridge funding, to allow faculty to continue work on previously funded research, scholarship, or creative activity that does not currently have external funding. Faculty who apply in this category should demonstrate that efforts have been made or will be made to obtain new external funding.
3. Enabling infrastructure (formerly Enabling subventions), to provide small funds which allow for the purchase (or upgrade) of critical equipment, or to support needs such as the production of databases, organization of museum exhibits, or procurement of resources for community benefit. Ideally, requests in this category will be made to top off funding available from other sources. 

Faculty should apply only if their funding needs fit into one of these categories. For all categories, applicants should clearly explain in non-specialist language the critical need, make a compelling case for large marginal gain, and justify the need for support from this fund rather than traditional sources.

Eligibility Criteria

• FAS and SEAS assistant, associate, and tenured faculty; Professors in Residence and Professors of the Practice are also eligible.
  • Postdoctoral fellows and graduate students cannot serve as co-PIs but may be included as personnel on a project. An eligible faculty member must serve in the role of PI, lead the project, and oversee all personnel.
• Faculty may only submit one application per cycle.
• Previous recipients may apply, but projects with prior funding from this source are unlikely to receive continued support, and such applicants may be given lower priority. The Fund is not intended to continuously support a scholar from year to year.
• Current research balances for any applicant are considered and may influence the likelihood of funding.

Application Materials

• Applications must be submitted via the online application portal.

• A committee made up of faculty from the three FAS divisions and SEAS will review the applications, so please ensure that proposals can be understood across disciplines. Applicants are asked to provide the following:

  • Contact Information

  • Other Sources of Funding: Information on any other sources of funding the applicant has applied for or intends to apply for to support the proposed project.

  • Prior DCF Awards: If the applicant has received funding from this program in the past, they will be asked to describe how they used the funds.

  • Brief Description: 1-3 sentence synopsis of the project (for public dissemination if awarded)

  • Importance of Funding: One paragraph explaining why this funding source is essential to the launch or success of the proposed project. This paragraph should highlight why other funding sources are unavailable or insufficient to support this project. 

  • Project Description: Narrative that is accessible to non-specialists (limit one page, PDF; an additional page may be included for figures and/or references). The project description should include:

    • The question or problem, and why it is important

    • The approach to be taken

    • The potential impact of the proposed work.

  • Abridged CV (limit two pages, no specific template required, PDF)

  • Current and Pending Support: List of all current and pending internal and external sources of funding in direct support of the applicant's research and scholarship (PDF, include $ amounts). Applicants do not need to include startup or unrestricted funds.

  • Budget and Budget Justification (applicants are strongly encouraged to use the Dean’s Competitive Fund budget template, available for download; PDF). Budgets and justifications should provide enough information to convey the alignment of costs with the proposed work. 

  • Optional Supplementary Documents: Please only include the following types of documents, if applicable: 
    • A previously declined proposal, along with any reviews (up to 10 pages)
    • Two-page CV(s) for additional personnel

Selection process

• A review committee made up of faculty from the three FAS divisions and SEAS will review applications.
• The committee will make awards to only the most promising applications.
• The committee will reserve the right to reduce budget requests in order to fund as many projects as possible. 

Additional Information and Resources

 

 

 

 

 

 

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