Funding | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

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Our dedicated team of experts provides access to and support for a wide variety of funding opportunities and resources that pave the way to successful research and graduate study outcomes.

The College of Health and Human Development Office of Research and Graduate Education is here to assist faculty and students working together to achieve academic pursuits and research goals at the graduate level.

Graduate Education

Facilitating graduate programs in all departments and schools, we communicate graduate policy issues and support graduate student recruitment and funding.

Proposals, Grants, and Contracts

In addition to providing advice and preparation of applications for external funds to support research, we administer post-award administration activities and stimulate and facilitate research funding initiatives and activities.

In accordance with Penn State requirements, all grant proposals must receive institutional approval prior to formal submission. Faculty must submit all proposals and awards through the College's Grants and Contracts Office to avoid contractual and budget problems prior to submission.

Funding Opportunities

This list includes the most common funding sources accessed by faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and students in our college.

Last updated 11/2020

Penn State seed grant funding: Center for Security Research and Education (CSRE) - CSRE promotes research and education to protect people, infrastructure, and institutions. They offer grants to support relevant interdisciplinary research, curricular development, and educational activities.

Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) - CTSI encourages collaboration to discover new treatments, medical procedures, and ways to diagnose disease. CTSI offers several funding opportunities for translational research.

Federal Statistical Research Data Center (RDC) - Part of SSRI, the RDC offers funding for developing research using Federal Census data.

Huck Institute - Huck promotes communication and collaboration across the life sciences. They offer funding on a variety of specific topics.

Institute of Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) - ICDS facilitates the application of big data and big simulation methods across the research landscape. They offer seed funding for relevant projects for which investigators plan to seek major external grants.

Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) - IEE works to solve energy and environmental challenges. They offer funding to foster relevant basic and applied research.

Rock Ethics Institute (REI) - REI promotes engaged ethics research and ethical leadership. They provide funding for relevant research.

Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) - SSRI supports novel interdisciplinary research to address critical human and social problems. They offer a variety of funding initiatives.

Broader Penn State funding: Foundation Relations Office - This office develops relationships between internal partners and foundation leadership. Open this Box file for an updated list of foundation opportunities.

Internal limited submissions (Down selects): Some funding sources permit only one funding proposal per institution. In these cases, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research selects the proposal that will represent Penn State.

Invent Penn State - The Fund for Innovation accelerates the development of Penn State’s commercially promising research for the purposes of licensing or venture formation.

Office of Industrial Partnerships (OIP) - OIP's Innovation Gateway program connects Penn State researchers to the technical challenges and needs of industry.

External funding: Federal Register - contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices; published every weekday

Federal Government Offices - lists the offices in the executive branch

Funding Institutional- helps researchers identify new funding sources

Grants.gov - is a search engine for Federal grants

National Institutes of Health (NIH) - funds research to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability

NIH Fogarty International Center - advances the NIH mission by supporting and facilitating global health research

NIH Loan Repayment Program - repays up to $50,000 annually of a biomedical or biobehavioral researcher's qualified educational debt

National Science Foundation (NSF) - funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering

Science.gov - searches over 60 databases and 2,200 scientific websites that contain information about Federally funded research

For postdoctoral researchers: NIH Loan Repayment Program - repays up to $50,000 annually of a biomedical or biobehavioral researcher's qualified educational debt

For graduate students: Graduate School - helps students understand and access funding options

Huck Institute - offers funding opportunities to affiliated students and lists other resources

For undergraduate students: Undergraduate Research and and Fellowships Mentoring Office (URFM) - supports students in the pursuit of undergraduate research and fellowship experiences