Limited Submissions

Limited Submission Opportunities (LSO) are extramural funding opportunities that limit the number applications submitted per institution. Researchers interested in submitting to a specific LSO must apply to an internal competition and be selected for full proposal submission to the opportunity's sponsor. Internal competitions help verify the eligibility of an applicant and ensure that another application has not already been selected to submit to a specific limited submission opportunity.

How to Apply

The University of Utah uses InfoReady Review software to host and manage all internal competitions for LSOs. The VPR Office attempts to identify available limited submission opportunities, and provide internal competitions for institutional selection, in a timely manner. However, identifying every possible opportunity in advance is unfeasible, and requires collaboration with the UofU Research Community. Investigators who wish to apply to a LSO that is NOT published in the UofU LSO Portal should contact vprgrants@utah.edu as soon as they become aware of the opportunity, and prior to submitting any pre-application or LOI information to the program's sponsor. This email notification should include the sponsor, program title, first available deadline (LOI and/or application deadline) and a link to the solicitation. Failure to comply with this internal submission process may lead to the automatic rejection of a proposal selected by the University of Utah (see University Best Practices for LSO Internal Competitions for more details.)

A list of available LSOs that the VPR Office has created internal competitions for can be found on the UofU LSO Portal. Active internal competitions for LSOs are listed in the opportunity grid. The opportunities have one of three statuses:

OPEN: The internal competition is open and accepting applications. All interested applicants should click on the opportunity title for more details about the internal competition or required application materials.
EXTENDED: The internal deadline has passed for an opportunity BUT one or more application slots remains open. These opportunities remain open until filled or until the opportunity's external deadline passes. Interested applicants should email vprgrants@utah.edu for instructions to compete for the remaining allowable submission slot(s).
CLOSED: The internal deadline has passed for an opportunity and all allowable submission slots have been filled.

You can click on the "Category" header on the grid to the left to filter these opportunities by status.

Learn More

Preferred Timeline for Internal Competitions

Standard Application Materials

Internal Competition Compliance Information

The University of Utah Foundation Relations team manages a number limited submission opportunities sponsored by various foundations each year. Foundations Limited Submissions are reviewed by a Foundations LSO Committee that selects applications most likely to:

Perpetuate success for the University;
Assist the selected faculty member in advancing their research; and
Meet the goals and expectations of the sponsor

All Foundation-sponsored LSOs are managed by the UofU CFR Office are listed below, with links to learn more about each program. The InfoReady internal competition links for each program will be published as they are created. Internal competitions for foundation-sponsored LSOs are published three times a year - Fall competitions, Spring competitions, and Winter competitions. Interested faculty members must apply to the internal competition and be selected by the LSO Committee for each program. Please contact Gwen Allouch if you have questions about applying for an opportunity listed below. Additional foundations funding opportunities can be found on the foundation relations website.

The William T. Grant Scholars Program supports career development for promising early-career researchers. The program funds five-year research and mentoring plans that significantly expand researchers’ expertise in new disciplines, methods, and content areas. Applicants should have a track record of conducting high-quality research and an interest in pursuing a significant shift in their trajectories as researchers. Applicants of any discipline are eligible.

Applicants select from one of the two focus areas: reducing inequality or improving the use of research evidence. Award recipients are designated as William T. Grant Scholars, and each receives up to $350,000, distributed over five years.

The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. This program does not fund clinical trials research. Strong proposals will incorporate particularly creative and pioneering approaches to basic, translational, and applied biomedical research. Candidates whose work is based on biomedical principles but who bring in concepts and theories from other fields are encouraged to apply. The current grant level is $300,000; $75,000 per year for a four-year period.

The objective of the BFR Scientific Innovations Award is to support senior faculty member (Associate and Full Professor) projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings. It is expected that investigations supported by these grants will yield high impact findings and result in major grant applications and funding as well as significant publications in high impact journals.

The award provides funding for innovative science in both basic and clinical neuroscience. This funding mechanism is designed to support creative, exploratory, cutting-edge research in well-established research laboratories, under the direction of established investigators. The grant period is for two years totaling $150,000.

The Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering Program invests in future leaders who have the freedom to take risks, explore new frontiers in their fields of study, and follow uncharted paths that may lead to groundbreaking discoveries. Packard Fellows are inquisitive, passionate scientists and engineers who take a creative approach to their research, dare to think big, and follow new ideas wherever they lead. 2024 Guidelines can be found HERE. Recipients will receive individual grants of $875,000 distributed over five years. Of the $175,000 paid each year, $17,500 is available to the university as compensation for administrative costs.

The Ono Initiative supports creative research conducted by emerging early/mid career Chemical Biologists in search of new discoveries, solutions, and the development of high-impact science. Target research of Chemical Biology is not specified by the Ono Initiative. Chemical Biology is defined as research that deals with the interface between chemistry and biology. The criteria for this field are deliberately broad so as not to disqualify potentially innovative and groundbreaking projects. Funding consists of a three-year research award totaling $1,035,000 ($900,000 project costs + $135,000 indirect costs at 15%).

The Edward J. Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation has invited the University of Utah to submit two nominations for the Mallinckrodt Scholar Awardslimited submission opportunity. These awards support early-stage investigators engaged in biomedical research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis, or treatment of disease. Scholars will be supported for four years, commencing October 1, 2024. The stipend will consist of $125,000 annually. Please refer to the Mallinckrodt Scholar Awards website for eligibility criteria. Please contact Gwen Allouch if you have any questions about this limited submission opportunity.

The Office of the Vice President is seeking interdisciplinary and transformative project concepts for the W. M. Keck Foundation. Keck seeks to benefit humanity by supporting projects in two specific areas (1) medical research and (2) science and engineering that:

Focus on important and emerging areas of research;
Have the potential to develop breakthrough technologies, instrumentation or methodologies;
Are innovative, distinctive and interdisciplinary;
Demonstrate a high level of risk due to unconventional approaches, or by challenging the prevailing paradigm;
Have the potential for transformative impact, such as the founding of a new field of research, the enabling of observations not previously possible, or the altered perception of a previously intractable problem;
Do not focus on clinical or translational research, treatment trials or research for the sole purpose of drug development;
Fall outside the mission of public funding agencies; and
Demonstrate that private philanthropy generally, and the W. M. Keck Foundation in particular, is essential to the project’s success.

Funding requests are traditionally $1,000,000 in direct costs over three years, however the foundation has recently permitted budgets to exceed that amount (we recommend a cap of $1,400,000 over three years). Please reach out to Lynn Wong with any questions or to discuss applicability of an idea.

Supports the research and teaching careers of talented early career faculty in the chemical sciences.

Eligibility: The PI must be from academic institution that grants a bachelor’s or higher degree in the chemical sciences, including chemistry, biochemistry, materials chemistry, and chemical engineering; Hold a full-time tenure-track academic appointment focused on the chemical sciences; Normally expected to have been appointed no earlier than mid-year 2018; From Ph.D. granting departments in which scholarly research is a principal activity and undergraduate education is an important component. The Award provides an unrestricted research grant of $100,000.

Vice President for Research

How to Apply

LSO Best Practices

Sign up to receive notices when new LSO internal competitions are created.

Foundation-Sponsored Limited Submission Opportunities