The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI) offers support for faculty research and scholarship across all disciplines. These programs are designed to support and foster the research enterprise at UO. The internal award programs seed new research initiatives and collaborations, help translate research innovation into commercial success, support creative endeavors and scholarly projects in disciplines with limited external funding opportunities, and provide other support to further our research mission.
If you are interested in internal grant programs offered beyond the OVPRI, a list in development is available in the Pivot funding database.
OVPRI Programs
Interdisciplinary research
individual Research
Other internal funding
Other Internal Funding at UO
Faculty and graduate research programs
Pivot Funding Database
Interdisciplinary Seed Funding Programs
Data Science Initiative Seed Funding Program
The goal of this cross-disciplinary effort is to bring together existing faculty members and recruit new scholars to create novel research and educational programs in data science. The acquisition of new grants to fund investigator-initiated research, graduate training, and the development of major centers or institutes centered on data science will be essential to the success of this initiative.
Resilience Initiative
The Resilience Initiative aims to build new, transdisciplinary collaborations and support the development of new research agendas in social-environmental research. Sponsored by the OVPRI, this seed funding program supports creative and innovative approaches to research and scholarship that are rigorous in approach and inventive in design, while also grounded in principles of ethical leadership and social and environmental justice.
Incubating Interdisciplinary Initiatives (I3)
The Incubating Interdisciplinary Initiatives (I 3) award program fosters new interdisciplinary research projects at UO. I 3 partnerships should emerge from shared research interests and needs and be developed in light of external funding opportunities, UO’s institutional strengths, academic priorities, and institutional history. Partnerships may include external institutions of strategic importance.
UO-OHSU Collaborative Seed Projects
Collaborative Seed Projects (CSP) — The program aims to build on strengths of the faculty at both institutions, deepen UO-OHSU partnerships, and prepare UO-OHSU teams to apply for external funding that will provide long-term support for research programs. The overall purpose of this CSP is to significantly increase the number of externally funded UO-OHSU-UO collaborative projects. There are 3 types of projects funded through the CSP: Convening Grants, Phase 1 Piloting Grants, and Phase 2 Piloting Grants. Sign up for the UO-OHSU Partnership mailing list.
Individual Faculty Awards
Faculty Research Awards
Faculty Research Awards are made annually through the Office of the Vice President for Research & Innovation to UO faculty from all disciplinary backgrounds.
New Junior Faculty Research Awards Program
This award provides up to $3,000 to support research expenses to all eligible faculty members in the first year of their appointment. No application is required.
The D.C. TRIP: Travel for Research, Innovation, and Partnerships
The DC TRIP supports the professional development of junior faculty by facilitating interactions with prospective federal sponsors.
Incentives for NIH Trainees
The OVPRI provides the following support for F32 award recipients and T32- supported trainees.
- F32 awardees will receive $1000/year of the award in a research support account, for up to 3 years.
- For T32- supported trainees, the OVPRI will pay the tuition differential when the guidelines restrict charging the full tuition amount to the grant budget.
- When Training Program Directors are restricted from charging the full OPE costs for T32-supported postdoctoral fellows directly to the grant budget, the OVPRI will pay the differential amount.
Note: Please include language describing these commitments when submitting applications to T32 or F32 programs.
UO Nominees for NEH Summer Stipend
This program is designed to encourage tenured-related faculty to apply to the limited submission, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend program. A humanities scholar who is selected by UO's internal faculty committee to represent the UO to NEH, but is not ultimately selected by the NEH, will receive a $6000 stipend (includes OPE) from the OVPRI.
Undergraduate Research
Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellowship
This program is designed to increase the research opportunities for UO undergraduate students in the academic disciplines associated with the humanities. The program immerses a cohort of students in sixteen weeks of research during the winter and spring terms.
Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholars
This program is a comprehensive research experience designed to develop the next generation of leading researchers. The program immerses a cohort of students in a full year of research in a Knight Campus affiliated lab from January to December each year.
Mini Grants
This program provides up to $1000.00 of support to undergraduate students that are conducting research or creative scholarship under the guidance of a University of Oregon faculty member.
O-Day Fellowship
The Peter O’Day Fellowship in Biological Sciences supports an undergraduate student partnering with a graduate student to conduct summer research. The fellowship is awarded to four pairs of students each summer that are conducting authentic research in the University of Oregon’s many and diverse research laboratories.
P-Chem
This program provides students with an opportunity to conduct research full time during the summer in a physical chemistry lab at the University of Oregon. The fellowship was created through funding provided by Physical Chemistry Division in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
PURS
The Presidential Undergraduate Research Scholars (PURS) program provides undergraduate students in the fields of chemistry, physics, earth sciences, mathematics, and computer science with an opportunity to conduct research during the academic year under the guidance of a UO faculty mentor. The program emphasizes engaging students in research that are from populations underrepresented in these fields.
VPRI Fellowship
The Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) Undergraduate Fellowship awards fellowships to students who conduct research, creative scholarship or complete work on an innovative project full-time during the summer.
Other Internal Funding
Innovation Fund Program: Translational Research Grants
This new program, supported by the OVPRI and the University Venture Development II fund, aims to foster the accelerated translation of innovations developed at UO into new products, services and businesses.
Research Instrumentation and Equipment Program for Research Core Facilities (RIEP)
This program helps Research Core Facilities acquire new and repair, upgrade or replace existing instrumentation critical to UO’s research infrastructure.
Note: Emergency funds for Core Facilities do not follow the above deadline. Please use this form to apply for emergency funds on a rolling basis.
Bridge Funding Support for Research
The competitiveness of the federal funding climate presents unique challenges to principal investigators, especially as unanticipated gaps in funding have negative effects on the continuation of active research programs. The Bridge Funding Support program provides interim resources to mitigate a challenging federal climate and to facilitate the ongoing viability of federally funded research projects.
UO Sustainability Award
The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation is seeking nominations for individuals or research teams for the 2020 Sustainability Awards. This award program aims to recognize individuals whose contributions deepen our culture of sustainability across a range of institutional activities. The OVPRI sponsors 2 of the Sustainability Awards: one for research and scholarship, and one for innovation. Award recipients will receive $500 in research funds ($1000 will be provided to a team), and will also be featured in a video produced by the Office of Sustainability.
The nomination should contain a one-paragraph description of the nominee’s contributions to sustainability in research and scholarship or innovation, along with the nominee’s CV. If nominating a research team, please include CVs for all faculty team members. Preference is given to interdisciplinary environmental projects for the research and scholarship award.
Please submit nominations (self-nominations are welcome and encouraged) via the online-form by Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020.
The OVPRI executive team will review the nominations and select award recipients. The awards will be presented in a ceremony hosted by the Office of Sustainability May 12, 2020.
If you have any questions, please contact rds@uoregon.edu.
Funding to strengthen grant proposal
RDS has funding to help make your proposal content stronger. We can help coordinate and help pay for external review of proposals by content experts in your field, or provide funding for visualization and graphic design for proposals.
UO Departmental Support Programs
Below are are a selection of departmental funding programs. You can find more listings of internal opportunities in Pivot.
Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies - Faculty and Graduate Grants
Center for the Study of Women in Society - Research Grants
College of Arts and Sciences Internal Awards - multiple programs
Oregon Humanities Center - Faculty Research Fellowship
Presidential Fellows in Humanistic Study - Research Fellowships
Wayne Morse Center for Law & Politics - multiple programs
Prior OVPRI Internal Programs (not active)
2017 Interdisciplinary Awards in the Humanities and Social Sciences
The Interdisciplinary Awards in the Humanities and Social Sciences program provides seed funding to projects in the environmental humanities and social sciences. The award provides up to $25,000 for innovative projects that investigate the interrelationships between human activity and the environment while employing humanistic and social scientific modes of investigation.