Funding Opportunities
The Corporate and Foundations Relations Office is able to work with faculty applying for corporate and foundation opportunities below. Please contact them by email or by phone at 919.962.2867. For all applications, please be sure to work with your Department of Pediatrics division grants administrator. Headlines are linked for more information.
The primary purpose of the AHRQ Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Mentored Clinical Investigator Career Development Award (K08) program is to provide support for qualified individuals for an intensive, mentored research career development experience in comparative effectiveness research (CER) methods as applied to patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). Applications are due March 12, 2026.
The primary purpose of the AHRQ Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (K01) program is to provide support for qualified individuals for an intensive, mentored research career development experience in comparative effectiveness research (CER) methods as applied to patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). Applications are due March 12, 2026.
This cooperative agreement establishes a single, integrated funding mechanism aimed at enhancing the nation’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. It will support clinicians, healthcare professionals, healthcare systems, institutions, and organizations directly involved in patient care, public health, and infectious disease control across the United States. By strengthening the capacity of these key stakeholders, the program will enable more effective frontline engagement, facilitate the implementation of timely public health responses, and generate expert insights to inform and improve public health guidance and practice. The estimated post date for this is February 17, 2026 with an estimated application due date of April 18, 2026.
The goal of this NOFO is to gather unique information not collected by other federal programs to gain a better understanding of the resources and opportunities needed to reduce morbidity, mortality, and economic impacts and improve other long-term outcomes for people with autism or Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) across the lifespan. CDC proposes to implement three components in this NOFO.
- Component A: Survey to Promote Resources and Opportunities for Autistic Teens and young adults (SPROUT) will use cohorts from the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), Phases 1-3 collected from 2007-2020, which were case-control studies of autism in children aged 2-5. At the time of award, participants will be aged 10-25. SPROUT will be comprised of caregiver and self-report surveys on service and support needs and the impact of co-occurring conditions on autistic people and their families, as well as the educational, transitional, social, and vocational needs and experiences of autistic adolescents and young adults.
- Component B: Focus on Advancing Support and Transition with the Fragile X Online Registry With Accessible Research Database (FAST FORWARD) awardees will employ clinic-based enrollment of eligible participants with a recruitment goal of at least 200 eligible persons with FXS per clinic. Similar to SPROUT, awardees will collect data on timing of and barriers to diagnosis, service and support needs and the impact of co-occurring, and the educational, transitional, social, and vocational needs and experiences of people with FXS and their families.
- Component C: This component supports development and dissemination of public health materials to improve the health and wellbeing of people with FXS and their families. The awardee will participate in project meetings as well as develop and disseminate materials to relevant audiences to strengthen national healthcare provider capacity to support FXS patients.
The estimated application due date is February 13, 2026 but more information will be available once the opportunity is active. For more information, see the Grant Opportunity Forecast.
Children’s Research Institute Research Grant Initiative
As part of the mission of the Children’s Research Institute (CRI) to coordinate and support pediatric research, we are thrilled to support 3 research funding opportunities: 1) Carolina for the Kids (CFTK) Research Grant Awards; 2) UNC Children’s Development Early Career Investigator Grants; and 3) IQVIA Pediatric Clinical Scholars Award.
The Commonwealth Fund’s Advancing Health Equity program, established in 2021, aims to advance equity in U.S. health care. Its goal is to eliminate unequal treatment, experience, and outcomes in health and health care for people of color by reducing systemic racism in health care policy and practice through three focus areas: promoting antiracism in health care delivery systems, promoting antiracism in health care policy, and changing the mindset of health care leaders and professionals. This is an open RFA with no deadline.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites researchers to submit applications for support of clinical projects that address critical needs for clinical trial readiness in rare diseases. The initiative seeks applications that are intended to facilitate rare diseases research by enabling efficient and effective movement of candidate therapeutics or diagnostics toward clinical trials and to increase their likelihood of success. This could be through the development and testing of rigorous biomarkers and clinical outcome assessment measures or by defining the presentation and course of a rare disease to enable the design of upcoming clinical trials. Applications are due February 18, 2026.
The new application deadlines for NCBiotech’s Grant Programs have been published. Updated guidelines and materials will be available online before each program’s first deadline.
- Biotechnology Event Sponsorships and Meeting Grants: NCBiotech’s event and meeting grants support North Carolina-based events and meetings that bring information and networking opportunities on diverse topics to the life sciences community statewide. The next proposal deadline is 2/25/2026.
- Flash Grants: The Flash Grant program aims to identify and energize creative ideas that exhibit early indications of commercial potential. Like a flash of inspiration, Flash Grants infuse a quick jolt of funding at a critical early point when a small, targeted influx of funds can be crucial to shaping innovative research ideas into high potential life sciences technologies. The next deadline is 3/25/2026.
- Translational Research Grants: The Translational Research Grant (TRG) program funds projects that explore commercial applications or initiate the early commercial development of university-held life sciences inventions. The technology must have the potential to solve a real-world problem as a commercial product in the life sciences sector. The next due date is 1/28/2026.
The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The overarching goal of this National Institute on Aging (NIA) R25 program is to support educational activities that compliment and/or enhance training opportunities to ensure a workforce that is well prepared to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs, help recruit individuals with specific specialty or disciplinary backgrounds to research careers in biomedical, behavioral and clinical sciences and foster a better understanding of biomedical, behavioral and clinical research and its implications. The earliest submission date is April 27, 2026 with applications due May 27, 2026. For more information, see the linked RFA.
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications to establish a Knowledge and Research Coordination Center as part of the NICHD’s Maternal and Pediatric Precision in Therapeutics (MPRINT) Hub. The MPRINT KRCC will accelerate safe, effective drug development and regulatory science through expanding the available knowledge, tools, and expertise in maternal and pediatric therapeutics by: (1) Developing an easily queryable curated and interoperable pharmacology knowledgebase; (2) Leveraging real-world clinical data and insights, particularly through mother-baby linkages; (3) Supporting and leveraging efficient and innovative clinical trials in pediatrics, obstetrics, and lactation; (4) Uniting multidisciplinary expertise and training the future workforce. The Center will collaborate with MPRINT’s Maternal Medication and Human Milk Research Center (M2HMRC) to conduct cutting-edge clinical, translational, and data science research. The estimated post date is November 21, 2025 and estimated application due date is March 2, 2026.
The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The overarching goal of this R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is intended to support research education activities for clinicians, clinicians in training, and clinical researchers that enhance the knowledge of substance use and substance use disorder (SUD) research and provide opportunities for active participation in related research. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this NOFO will support educational activities with a primary focus on:
- Courses for Skills Development
- Research Experiences
Applications for the next cycle are due March 11, 2026.
The purpose of the Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant is to provide a new pathway for Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) who wish to propose research projects in a new direction for which preliminary data do not exist. Named in honor of the late National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Director, Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is open to a broad range of scientific research relevant to the mission of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs). Proposed projects must represent a change in research direction for the ESI and should be innovative and unique. A distinct feature for this NOFO is that applications must not include preliminary data. PD/PI’s who wish to propose research projects consistent with their past work or training and/or supported by preliminary data, should apply to the Parent R01 or other NOFOs allowing for preliminary data. More information and FAQs are available on the Katz award program website. The next round of new submissions is due January 27, 2026.
NLM Research Grants in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) supports innovative research and development in biomedical informatics and data science. This funding opportunity focuses on biomedical discovery and data-powered health, integrating streams of complex and interconnected research outputs that can be translated into scientific insights, clinical care, public health practices, and personal wellness. The scope of NLM’s interest in these research domains is broad, with emphasis on new and innovative methods and approaches to foster data driven discovery in the biomedical and clinical health sciences as well as domain-independent, scalable, and reusable/reproducible approaches to discovery, curation, analysis, organization, and management of health-related digital objects. New submissions are due February 5, 2026.
Thrasher Research Fund – Early Career Awards
The Thrasher Research Fund is accepting concept papers to support young investigators in pediatric research. The program’s aim is to encourage the development of medical research in child health by awarding small grants to new researchers. The grant cycle is an ongoing process throughout the year.
The Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility (CEHS) leadership recognizes that changing research priorities at National Institutes of Health, EPA, and other federal research agencies have disrupted many successful research projects and careers and are challenging faculty to pivot to new research areas. This RFA is intended to support planning, analyses, and pilot data accrual in support of rapid resubmission (within <1 year) of a grant application designed to replace a project that has lost federal funding, or allow an investigator to pivot to an area relevant to environmental health research. Please note that consistent with recent Executive Orders, NIEHS is unable to fund research related to Environmental Justice or Climate Change. However, NIEHS continues to support research that leverages community engaged designs, and that examines the impact of extreme weather. Our Center must follow these guidelines when issuing pilot awards. Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed monthly. Funding decisions are expected within 30 days of receipt. The CEHS will expand the Rapid Response mechanism (traditionally $5K – $15K) to support projects up to $25K for this specific call to address the following needs:
- Data analysis, investigator effort, or other needs, to pivot to new areas relevant to environmental health.
- New, focused data collection to provide preliminary support for a new research area of emphasis relevant to environmental health.
For more information, see the attached RFA.
UNC NC TraCS Institute: RAC Health Access Research Presentation Travel Fund
The Health Access Research Advisory Committee (HARAC), a joint committee composed of research leaders from Novant Health and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, are sponsoring up to five research travel awards to reimburse up to $1,650 each for investigators interested in presenting research around health access concerns relevant to Southeastern North Carolina to an academic or community outlet.
To be eligible, applicants must be employed by either by Novant Health and located in the coastal region, defined as the New Hanover Region and includes Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, and Pender counties OR employed as a faculty member by the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
Applicants must also have a research project regarding health access in Southeastern North Carolina accepted for presentation at an academic or health conference, or community event. Eligible events may occur in any location, but the research presentation to be funded must center on Southeastern North Carolina.
The applicant, as defined above, must attend the presentation. Remaining funds may be used to cover the travel of additional research team members, including students and trainees. All costs must be listed under eligible expenses below. View the RFA for more details.
UNC NC TraCS Institute: RAC Health Access Research Training Awards
The Health Access Research Advisory Committee (HARAC), a joint committee composed of research leaders from Novant Health and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine are sponsoring up to ten awards to reimburse up to $500-$1,650 to fund training for investigators, or their students/research staff, who interested in conducting or already conducting research around health access concerns in Southeastern North Carolina.
To be eligible, applicants must either be: (1) employed by Novant Health and located in the coastal region (defined as the New Hanover Region and includes Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, and Pender counties) OR (2) employed as faculty by the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, OR (3) a trainee or research staff (e.g., post-doc, coordinator, resident) who is DIRECTLY supervised by an individual who meets one of the above criteria. Trainees must submit a letter of support from the supervisor in question with their application.
Applicants must also demonstrate how the proposed training will support the stated health access research goal. View the RFA for more information.
UNC Nutrition Obesity Research Center: Pilot and Feasibility Program
The UNC-CH NORC is excited to announce a special call for applications for the Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) Program. This opportunity provides up to $50,000 (direct costs) in funding to support an innovative research project to advance our understanding of nutrition and obesity.
The UNC-CH has particular interest in projects related to Nutrition Across the Lifespan and Precision Nutrition, however we welcome proposals that span all topic areas relevant to nutrition and obesity. Projects may be biomedical, epidemiological, or clinical. They may include laboratory or non-laboratory research projects that focus either on human nutrition, animal work that could be translated to human nutrition, or basic research related to nutrition or obesity. Human nutrition or human obesity projects may focus on inpatient or outpatient studies or on epidemiological or community-based research that is social or behavioral in nature.
The guidelines for proposals can be found here. Complete applications must be submitted as a single PDF file by 11:59 PM ET on March 2, 2026 the online form. For more information about the application process, please contact the NORC Managing Director, Ashley Irwin.
UNC Office of Research Development: Idea Seed Grant Program
The program provides pilot funding between $5,000 – $20,000 and/or pre-proposal support for UNC scholars and researchers to approach novel ideas addressing important problems or roadblocks in a current line of inquiry. This unique program provides “right place, right kind” resources by coupling seed funding and person time to support competitive teams of UNC researchers. In addition to funding for preliminary data collection, travel, and team-building activities, awardees will receive expert guidance in planning and preparing grant applications for extramural funding opportunities. This competition is now accepting applications anytime and will receive initial review upon receipt. It is planned that awards will be made promptly after internal review by OVCR leadership and offered on a deliverables oriented schedule. Up-to date instructions will always be kept on the ORD website.
UNC Office of Research: Bridge Funding
The SOM Office of Research is pleased to announce the second round of applications for Bridge Funding this fiscal year. This funding opportunity is open to faculty with primary appointments in the SOM. Bridge Funding provides critical support for successful research projects experiencing a temporary lapse in funding. Eligible investigators for this round should have had a competing renewal application for an R01 or equivalent grant reviewed in the most recent review cycle. The deadline for applications is January 30, 2026 at 5PM. Please contact OoR_Submissions@med.unc.edu with any questions.
UNC Office of Research: Parachute Fund
The School of Medicine is committed to supporting SOM labs that have been impacted by recent delays in the NIH grant pipeline. To assist with this temporary need, the SOM will administer the Parachute Fund (PF). The fund is targeted for R01/R35, U, and P competitive renewals which received highly fundable scores in study section (within institute paylines) but have not yet received a Notice of Award (NOA) due to the current delay in council meetings. In keeping with the principle of putting people first, the PF program will help support lab personnel as research labs await an NOA. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis to OoR_submissions@med.unc.edu. For questions, please contact Janelle Cross. For more information, please see the announcement attached.
UNC Office of Research: Sunset Fund
The SOM is committed to supporting SOM labs that have been impacted by recent terminations of existing grants in the recent months following the executive orders and subsequent changes at the NIH and other federal agencies. To assist with this critical need and support the people in our research labs, the SOM will administer the Sunset Fund (SF). The SF is targeted to terminated grants (not Stop Work orders). We will provide up to $50,000 for previously funded R01/R35/R00, U, and P grants (or similar) that were terminated unexpectedly in mid-cycle. We will provide up to $30,000 for R21 grants and independent K01/K08/K22/K23 (or similar) grants. For more information, please see the Sunset Fund RFA.
UNC SOM Physician Scientist Training Program
The School of Medicine is soliciting a new round of applications for the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) – a training initiative to support the career development of Physician Scientist trainees near their transition to faculty positions. This program, supported by the SOM Strategic Plan, supports physician scientists at two stages: resident/fellowship level and early-stage faculty level. The program partners with trainees’ home departments and provides funding to support research efforts of the trainees (Resident/Fellow Award – $35,000/year and Faculty Award -$ 55,000/year salary support + $ 25,000/year project support). Additionally, trainees enter a career development training program with peer-level physician scientists across multiple clinical disciplines. Each awarded trainee will receive two years of support from the program. The program is seeking nominations of eligible applicants for awards with support to begin for the 2026-2027 academic year (July 1, 2026). Each department may nominate up to two candidates for each award. See the attached RFA for more details and email Alex Duncan with questions about the program.
Applications must be submitted to the Department first. LOIs including name, requested level of support, mentor’s name, and a brief summary of the project and title are due to Kate Matthews by January 23, 2026. Applications, less Chair support letter, are due to Joseph Hatch and Kate Matthews by February 6, 2026 at 12PM for internal review prior to final program deadline on March 5, 2026.
UNC SOM Translational Team Science Award
The School of Medicine’s Strategic Plan supports the annual Translational Team Science (TTS) Award, designed to foster new interdisciplinary collaborations between basic science and clinical investigators at UNC. These awards aim to capitalize on UNC’s “culture of collaboration” and support early-stage, de novo research teams that bridge basic and clinical disciplines. Projects are not restricted to human subjects or tissues, research using cellular and animal models is welcome, as long as it translates across basic and clinical domains.
Award Structure:
- Phase I Feasibility Grants: 12-month period to engage team members and develop a competitive continuation proposal
- Phase II Continuation Grants: Additional 12 months, contingent on merit and progress
The goal is to provide planning time and initial funds for teams to pursue novel interdisciplinary program project grants and multi-PI R01s. Applications are due January 30, 2026.