Undergraduate New Investigator (UNI) Grants
The American Chemical Society's Undergraduate New Investigator Grants fund early-career faculty to launch fundamental petroleum-related research with strong undergraduate student involvement.
Funder: American Chemical Society
Due Dates: September 14, 2026 (window opens) | October 9, 2026 (deadline) | February 15, 2027 (window opens) | March 12, 2027 (deadline)
Funding Amounts: $55,000 over 2 years; no indirect costs; at least 40% to undergraduate student support
Summary: Supports early-career faculty at U.S. non-doctoral institutions in launching independent, fundamental research in petroleum-related science with strong undergraduate student involvement.
Key Information: Applicants must be Assistant Professors within five years of their first appointment at a U.S. department without a doctoral program.
Description
The Undergraduate New Investigator (UNI) Grants, funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, are designed to help early-career faculty at U.S. colleges and universities without doctoral programs launch independent research careers in fields related to fundamental petroleum science. The program provides seed funding to generate preliminary data for innovative research projects, with a strong emphasis on student engagement and educational impact. Projects must be a new research direction for the principal investigator and cannot be a continuation of graduate or postdoctoral work. The goal is to support both foundational research and the advanced scientific education of undergraduate students, thereby cultivating the next generation of scientists and engineers in the petroleum field.
