Category Archives: Announcements

Humanities Center Summer Grants for Lehigh University Faculty

The Humanities Center welcomes proposals for one faculty summer research grant of $6,000. The grant will support a faculty member’s pursuit of a humanistic research project or creative activity. One faculty grant will be awarded for the summer of 2016.

Any tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the humanities (broadly defined) at Lehigh who has not received a grant (external or internal) for the same summer and who will not be teaching during the summer is eligible to apply.

The grant recipient will share the outcome of his/her research activities with members of the Lehigh community in Fall 2016. There is no set format for how the grant recipient will share his/her work, and candidates should explain their plans for facilitating meaningful interaction on the subject of their research. In the past, grant winners have made formal presentations, offered workshops, done readings, and put together exhibitions.

In considering applications, the Humanities Center Committee will evaluate the merit and significance of the proposed research project as well as the candidate’s plans for sharing it with the Lehigh community. The Humanities Center will announce the grant awardee on or before April 29th.

Proposals should include:

  •   1 page summary of the project the candidate will develop. This statement should explain the research topic and its scholarly significance to an audience of scholars working in fields across the humanities.
  •   1 page explanation of how the candidate plans to share the results of his or her work with the Lehigh community.
  •   A statement indicating that the candidate has not received any other grants for the same summer and that s/he is not teaching over the summer at Lehigh or at any other institution.

Lehigh Research Investment Programs for Spring 2016

Faculty Research Grants (FRG) provide funding of up to $6,000 for research for conduct, completion and expansion of research projects. Priority is given to projects most likely to enable development of new projects and programs, expand applicants’ research programs beyond their current scope, or enable ongoing programs to have expanded impact.  Applications are due on February 12, no later than 5 PM EST.

FIG grants provide up to $30,000 to support new research projects, take existing research in promising new directions, or otherwise expand research programs beyond their current scope. Both efforts led by an individual faculty member and collaborative efforts are invited.  Applications are due on February 29, no later than 5 PM EST.

Collaborative Opportunity (CORE) Grants provide up to $60,000 for establishment and growth of productive and competitive multi-faculty research programs. The program supports faculty teams that, through their combinations of perspectives and capabilities, can distinguish themselves in the academic community, with partners and constituents in society, and with funding sources, for the novelty, relevance and value of their work.  Applications are due on March 25, no later than 5 PM EST.

Guidelines, with application instructions, can be found here: http://research.cc.lehigh.edu/finding-funding

Questions about any of these programs can be addressed to VPResearch@lehigh.edu.

2016 Charles E. Kaufman Foundation Research Grant Programs

The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation will award annual research grants in 2016 to researchers at Pennsylvania universities to carry out fundamental research in the areas of biology, chemistry, and physics. Guidelines can be found on the website: http://kaufman.pittsburghfoundation.org/

Grant programs include:

  • New Investigator Research Grants – Up to six awards at a maximum of $150,000 for two years ($75,000 per year)
  • New Initiative Research Grants – Up to four awards at a maximum of $300,000 for two years ($150,000 per year)

Please contact Kathy Zimmerman at kaz309@lehigh.edu for more information if you are interested in pursuing these. Letters of intent are due on January 27, 2016.

Funding Opportunity: Energy-Efficient Computing: from Devices to Architectures (E2CDA) A Joint Initiative between NSF and SRC

This partnership between the National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corporation will support a new collaborative research program to minimize the energy impacts of processing, storing, and moving data within future computing systems, and will be synergistic with other research activities that address other aspects of this overarching energy-constrained computing performance challenge.

Continue reading Funding Opportunity: Energy-Efficient Computing: from Devices to Architectures (E2CDA) A Joint Initiative between NSF and SRC

New Interdisciplinary Program from NSF: Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS)

The overarching goal of INFEWS is to catalyze the well-integrated interdisciplinary research efforts to transform scientific understanding of the FEW nexus in order to improve system function and management, address system stress, increase resilience, and ensure sustainability. The NSF INFEWS initiative is designed specifically to attain the following goals:

  1. Significantly advance our understanding of the food-energy-water system through quantitative and computational modeling, including support for relevant cyberinfrastructure;
  2. Develop real-time, cyber-enabled interfaces that improve understanding of the behavior of FEW systems and increase decision support capability;
  3. Enable research that will lead to innovative system and technological solutions to critical FEW problems; and
  4. Grow the scientific workforce capable of studying and managing the FEW system through education and other professional development opportunities.

Continue reading New Interdisciplinary Program from NSF: Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS)

NSF Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (NSF PFI: BIC)

The Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI: BIC) program supports university-industry partnerships which are led by an interdisciplinary academic research team collaborating with a least one industry partner. In this program, there is a heavy emphasis on the quality, composition, and participation of the partners, including the appropriate contributions for each role. These partnerships focus on the integration of technologies into a specified human-centered service system with the potential to achieve transformational change, satisfying a real need by making an existing service system smart(er) or by spurring the creation of an entirely new smart service system.

Continue reading NSF Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (NSF PFI: BIC)

NSF MRI and Lehigh CREF Instrumentation Programs and Idea Exchange

MRI/CREF Idea Exchange. To encourage discussion among those interested in either program, we will hold an MRI/CREF Idea Exchange on October 12, Noon – 1:30 pm, Williams Hall 070. Lunch will be provided.

The Idea Exchange provides an opportunity for those considering submission to identify colleagues who share instrumentation needs, to identify instruments and configurations that would serve the largest number of Lehigh investigators, and to obtain collegial feedback that may strengthen submissions to NSF. Please RSVP to Sujata Jagota at VPResearch@lehigh.edu no later than October 5 indicating interest in presenting, a provisional title and list of likely participants. Attendance is welcomed whether or not presenting.

For more information on the programs, click Continue Reading.

Continue reading NSF MRI and Lehigh CREF Instrumentation Programs and Idea Exchange

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Funding Opportunities $50 Million in Funding Potential for Solar Energy Technology Research and Innovation

To accomplish the goals of the SunShot Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office supports funding opportunities on photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, systems integration, technology to market, and soft costs projects. Following an open, competitive solicitation process, these funding opportunities encourage collaborative partnerships among industry, universities, national laboratories, federal, state, and local governments and non-government agencies and advocacy groups. Solicitations may include financial or technical assistance.

Broadly, these Energy Department investments support state-of-the-art products, solutions, and technology advancements that will increase solar energy system performance and efficiency and drive down costs. The Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade.

Continue reading

Accelerator Grant Workshop – September 29th, 2015

Our Accelerator grant program supports teams of Lehigh investigators in developing multi-investigator research programs in particularly promising areas.  Based on a team’s identification of a major, specific area of opportunity and ways in which it can excel in that area, these grants provide significant flexibility in use of the grant funds.

We are offering a workshop for those considering applying for an Accelerator grant, or those simply wishing to know more about the program.  The workshop will be held on Tuesday, September 29th, from noon to 1:30pm in Rauch Business Center 293. For catering purposes, we will appreciate an RSVP to VPResearch@lehigh.edu by Thursday, September 24th.

Guidelines, with application instructions and deadlines, can be found at https://research.cc.lehigh.edu/accelerator-grants.  Questions can be addressed to VPResearch@lehigh.edu

Call for User Proposals: High-Impact Nanoscience Research

The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is soliciting proposals for user-initiated nanoscience research that will make effective use of CNMS facilities and staff expertise. The CNMS nanoscience research program provides users with access to a broad range of capabilities for nanomaterials design, synthesis, characterization, and theory/modeling/simulation in order to carry out studies that will significantly advance our understanding of nanoscale phenomena and develop functional nanomaterials systems. Access is provided at no cost to users for research that is in the public domain and intended for publication in the open literature.

For more information on this solicitation and submission guidelines, please see the website. Submission deadline is October 21, 2015.