Research Advancement

The College of Science Research Advancement Program comprises several internal funding opportunities to support the research and infrastructure needs of faculty in the college. The centerpiece of this program is the college's Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS) funding program.

The overarching aim of this program is to support the development of innovative and high impact research to:

• Increase the number of proposals submitted to external funding agencies (state, federal, industry, foundations and other), and
• Increase extramural funding awarded to the College of Science with the aim of enhancing the research stature of the college and university.

The College's research priorities are outlined in two strategic plans:

1. The college's 2022-2027 plan Extending the Reach and Impact of Science, and
2. Oregon State University's strategic plan, Prosperity Widely Shared: The Oregon State Plan.

The funds for this program come from Education & General Funds and several Foundation funds in the College of Science.

Our approach in achieving these aims are to center equity, inclusion and access in all our processes and services to ensure equal opportunity for success and prosperity for all members of the College of Science.

Below we list the various categories of funding that are available to research faculty in the College of Science.

SciRIS Program Funding Category Description

The SciRIS program has several funding categories that provide seed funding for individual PIs or collaborative teams in the College of Science. External collaborations, from outside Oregon State University, or within the university but outside the college are welcome. However, SciRIS funding can only be allocated to faculty and students within the college of Science. The different funding categories are described below. Each category may have additional unique requirements and limitations.

SciRIS Stages 1-3: Collaborative proposals

The SciRIS (Stages 1-3) program awards seed funding for high impact collaborative proposals that build teams, pursue fundamental discoveries, and create societal impact.

LOI Deadline: October 17, 2025.

SciRIS-ii: Individual proposals

The SciRIS Individual Investigator (SciRIS-ii) program awards seed funding to establish partnerships, accelerate project development, generate data and manuscripts, and foster proposal submissions. This program provides funds to establish partnerships, accelerate project development, generate data and manuscripts, and foster proposal submissions.

LOI Deadline: October 17, 2025.

SciRIS Disease Mechanism and Prevention Fund

Provided by a generous gift from David and Donna Gould to establish the College of Science, the SciRIS Disease Mechanism and Prevention Fund (DMPF) is to be used for the support of research into the mechanism, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of (human) disease by faculty within the College of Science.

LOI Deadline: October 17, 2025.

SciRIS Industry Partnership Program

The SciRIS Industry Partnership Program provides critical resources for projects that take a new direction, utilize a new technology or are in the “proof-of-concept” phase.

LOI Deadline: October 17, 2025.

Research Equipment Reserve Fund cost matching

The College of Science provides cost matches for RERF proposal submissions. Please contact [email protected] to submit an internal cost match request.

• COS Cost Match: Required
• COS Prior Approval: Required

Research Advancement Academy

The Research Advancement Academy (RAA) is a professional development program for faculty from across OSU to develop research leaderships skills. The goal of the Academy is to support faculty fellows successfully lead large transdisciplinary proposals & funded research programs.

• COS Cost Match: Required
• COS Prior Approval: Required

Transdisciplinary Research Seed Fund (TRSF) Program

This program supports OSU faculty as they build a transdisciplinary research team or seek to sustain momentum of an existing team and/or plan to scale-up collaborative research efforts towards the submission of large proposals that directly support Prosperity Widely Shared: The Oregon State Plan (PWS). Faculty teams are expected to use the TRSF seed funds to advance new research and partnerships and develop submission-ready proposals by the end of the award period.

• COS Cost Match: Required
• COS Prior Approval: Required

OSU Bridge Funding

The OSU Bridge Funding program seeks to assist faculty who are between externally funded research grants. A principal investigator is responsible for applying to the Research Office if they are seeking financial support from this pool. PIs will need to demonstrate a record of sponsored research awards and expenditures, define the critical bridging needed, describe the plan and timeline for securing new external funding, and secure the approval of their department and college leadership. Awards from the pool will be made through a review process managed by the Research Office.

• COS Cost Match: Not required
• COS Prior Approval: Required

Huang Complex Supercomputing Seed Fund

The purpose of the Huang Complex Supercomputing Seed Fund is to support OSU researcher teams as they scale up their GPU-based research computing projects to run on the Huang Complex NVIDIA supercomputer and thereby aid their ability to submit future proposals for large, computationally driven projects that directly support Prosperity Widely Shared: The Oregon State Plan (PWS). Such projects could use the supercomputer for any computational method including traditional simulations, data analysis, or artificial intelligence.

• COS Cost Match: Not required
• COS Prior Approval: Not required