Undergraduate New Investigator (UNI) Grants
ACS PRF Undergraduate New Investigator Grants fund early-career faculty at non-doctoral U.S. institutions to start original, fundamental petroleum-related research involving undergraduate students.
Funder: American Chemical Society
Due Dates: March 6, 2026 | October 9, 2026
Funding Amounts: $55,000 over 2 years; no indirect/overhead costs allowed; at least 40% of budget for student support.
Summary: Supports new faculty at undergraduate institutions to launch fundamental petroleum-related research and provide undergraduates with hands-on scientific experience.
Key Information: For Assistant Professors in non-doctoral U.S. departments within 5 years of first appointment only.
Description
This program provides seed funding to early-career faculty at U.S. undergraduate institutions (departments without doctoral programs) to initiate fundamental research in the petroleum field or related pure sciences. The aim is to enable promising new investigators to generate preliminary data for future funding applications while engaging undergraduate students in high-quality research experiences. Projects must represent a new research direction for the principal investigator and cannot be a logical extension of prior graduate or postdoctoral work.
