Internal Funding
These grant programs are intended to facilitate UIC research and lead to extramural funding. Please refer to the guidelines for specific eligibility requirements. Unless otherwise noted they are administered by the sponsoring unit, not OVCR.
If you are aware of a seed funding opportunity that is not on our list, please contact us! rds@uic.edu
UIC Seed Funding Heading link
- Awards for Creative Activity
- The Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research are pleased to announce the 2022 Awards for Creative Activity, a seed funding program to support scholarship in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Awards fall under three categories: Fine, Performing, and Applied Arts; the Humanities; and the Social Sciences.
- Awards range from $2,500 to $25,000 for 1 year.
- Center for Clinical and Translational Science Pilot Grants
- This program focuses on clinical and translational research, and as such, all applications must involve human subjects, facilitate human subject investigations, establish infrastructure related to human subject investigation, or concern disease mechanisms with clear, near term implications for therapeutics or prevention. Pilot funding aims to support several aspects of the collaboration that will lead to a successful, extramurally funded research programs.
- $30,000 per year for 2 years.
- Applications are usually due in July.
- Center for Health Equity Research Chicago
- Seed Grants. The Community Discussion & Dissemination Seed Grants (“Seed Grants”) aim to stimulate discussion around structural violence within diverse communities throughout Chicago, and to support the dissemination of new ideas and knowledge about how to address/minimize structural violence.
- Pilot Grants. The pilot project mechanism provides opportunities for early stage investigators to generate secondary data analyses, feasibility trial studies, or build upon existing protocols with an exploratory aim in the thematic focus area of CHER Chicago, which is structural violence, that can support subsequent development and submission of grant applications for larger studies.
- UIC Chancellor’s Innovation Fund
- Chancellor’s Translational Research Initiative (CTRI) funding is available to UIC researchers to support projects with high commercialization potential. The CTRI program provides up to $25,000 per project to help prepare early-stage technologies for future funding opportunities like the POC Awards Program or licensing and startup opportunities.
- The Proof-of-Concept (POC) Awards Program bridges the funding gap between basic scientific research and its entry into the marketplace as a sustainable technology. The program provides UIC researchers up to $200,000 per project over two phases to demonstrate proof-of-concept and commercial feasibility of their technologies.
- ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET) Pilot Awards –
- CACHET a UIC/UChicago NIH EHS funded center. CACHET typically runs three pilot award programs per year.
- Young Investigator Awards: up to $25,000 for one year. CACHET affiliate members (Research Associates, and Instructors) or CACHET members (Research Assistant Professors and Assistant Professors).
- Idea Awards: up to $25,000 for one year. No salary support for PI allowed. CACHET members or participants in the CACHET Community Engagement Core (CEC)
- Inter-Institutional Award: up to $35,000 for one year with a possible second year of funding. No salary support for PI. Proposals must be co-led by two CACHET members; one from each institution, with complementary expertise
- Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement Civic Engagement Research Awards
- These research award amounts vary year to year. Historically, awards have been between $10,000 and $20,000 per project. UIC faculty and research staff of UIC research centers, institutes, and programs are eligible to apply.
- Medical Accelerator for Devices Laboratory Applications
- The Medical Accelerator for Devices (MAD) Lab is an internally-funded innovation lab structured to take promising medical device ideas from abstract thoughts to tangible concepts ready for our partners for further development.
- MADLab reviews applications on a semi-annual basis.
- Midwest Roybal Center Pilot Grants
- The Midwest Roybal Center for Health Promotion and Translation holds two pilot grant competitions each year for UIC researchers whose studies aim to improve the health of older adults.
- The Doctoral Competition, restricted to UIC doctoral candidates is usually held in February.
- The Campus-Wide Competition is open to all UIC researchers — faculty, doctorate-level researchers, and doctoral students — and is usually announced in the summer.
- Office of Global Engagement Funding Opportunities
- Faculty awards are intended to encourage international program development at UIC by supporting faculty in activities that will result in an internationally enriched campus academic environment.
- School of Public Health Seed Funding
- The goal of the program is to fund as many projects as possible. Activities such as conducting preliminary research to inform study design, demonstrating feasibility of research protocols, pilot testing novel methodologies, exploring translational research methods in public health (all fields), or initiating new interdisciplinary research are encouraged.
- Both senior and junior faculty with primary appointments (40% or higher) in the School of Public Health are eligible.
- UICentre Funding Opportunity
- UICentre, the campus-wide drug discovery initiative at UIC, is seeking new collaborations. UICentre provides seed funding, consultation, project management, and core drug discovery services.
- Support varies depending on the mix of research needs for each project, ranging from $20-65k.
- UIC Postdoctoral Fellow Travel Award
- The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Office of Postdoctoral Affairs offers travel awards intended to assist UIC postdoctoral fellows who are presenting their research at national or international professional meetings and conferences.
- Four application cycles per year.
- Awards up to $500.
- Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award
- The Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award allows students who qualify for and have accepted Federal Work Study as part of their current year’s financial aid package to work as research assistants for hourly pay–at no cost to faculty or departments. Faculty apply online on behalf of the student(s) they have recruited.