For successful grant proposal samples and advice on grant writing and broader impacts, see the:
For queries on…
- proposal budgeting, internal deadlines or procedures? Contact the business office at math-business@illinois.edu.
- overhead, tuition remission and fringe benefit rates? Consult the university’s Business & Finance site.
- balances and expenditures on your current grants? Visit My-UI-Financials. Note: first log in to the VPN, if you are off-campus.
- campus policies and procedures? See the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR).
National Science Foundation
Quick-Start Guide to NSF proposal preparation
…what the business office will do and what you need to do, for creating the proposal.
Please upload your proposal to Research.gov TWO WEEKS before the NSF deadline, so that the Mathematics business office and campus Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) can complete their required reviews and processing.
- DMS disciplinary programs (August-December) – solo and collaborative research
- CAREER program (July) – pre-tenure faculty and application tips
- DMS conference and workshop funding (rolling) – see the DMS Priorities in the solicitation and document FL-26 for special conditions
- EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research EAGER – short proposal, potentially transformative research (rolling)
- Focused Research Groups FRG (next deadline in 2025)
- Innovations in Graduate Education IGE – limited submission (March)
- Rapid Response Research RAPID – short proposal for urgent data collection (rolling)
- Research Training Groups RTG (August)
- Research Experiences for Undergraduates REU (August) – see advice on best practices
- Research Traineeships NRT (September)
- Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) – limited submission (March)
- US-UK joint research (August-December)
- DMS announcements listserv – for funding opportunities
- Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide PAPPG – effective January 22, 2024 – see the recent changes to the PAPPG
- NSF award search and links to DMS awards
Simons Foundation
- Travel Support for Mathematicians (January) – travel, memberships, equipment for tenure track and tenured faculty. Note. In your application, enter the Signing Official as Paul Ellinger, and the Financial Officer as Karen Thomas. The gift receiving entity is the UIUC Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA).
- Targeted Grant (rolling) – high-risk projects of exceptional promise and importance
- Collaborations in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences (October) – progress on fundamental questions of major importance
- Simons Fellows in Mathematics (October) – sabbatical extension funding
- AMS-Simons Travel grants (February) – 2-year travel grant, PhD within the last four years
- NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (April) – pilot projects
OTHER agencies
- John Templeton Foundation Mathematical & Physical Sciences Research Grants (August) – Cosmology, Quantum Foundations, Complexity and Emergence
- Association for Women in Mathematics – travel grants (February, May, October), mentoring travel grants (February, August)
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research – funding opportunities and visiting scientist programs
- Army Research Lab – funding opportunities
- DARPA – funding opportunities and young faculty award
- Dept of Energy – Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), incl. Quantum Information Science
- NSA – conferences, Research Experiences for Undergraduates
- Office of Naval Research – funding opportunities and Young Investigator Awards in certain research areas
Campus funding
- Campus Research Board (August, October, January, March) – proposals should be written to support your research; the project can be joint with a student but should not be presented as solely the student’s work.
RA budget figures for a 50% RA stipend: $13,450 for Spring 2025, $6180 for Summer 2025 (2 months), $13,720 for Fall 2025. The amounts include fringe benefits, and the summer figure includes a couple of hundred dollars additionally to cover extra fringes that get charged if the student is registered for fewer than 3 hours. The pay received by the RA will be lower than the figures above (since the figures include fringe benefits). We recommend that you request two semesters and a summer of funding, which will already exceed the Research Board’s maximum request of $30,000. Please confirm your budget calculations with the business office each semester before assigning an RA position. You may need to reduce the percentage appointment. Over-expenditures will be your responsibility, NOT the department’s, so please check with the business office.
Travel budget figures: requests are considered for research-related travel such as travel to work with collaborators (but not conference travel, which is supported instead under the Scholars’ Travel Fund below). Include per diem figures in your request and put an itemized travel budget in the “Budget Justification” section of the application.
Other resources: get your internal balances from My-UI-Financials (using the VPN if not on campus). If you have more than $60,000 in internal balances then do not apply to the Research Board. If you have no internal funds, then explain briefly in the budget section (eg “start-up all spent”). If you hold an external grant, explain why it does not cover the RA requested from the Research Board. - Scholars’ Travel Fund (monthly) – conference travel support for faculty members, incl. some specialized faculty
- Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement PITA (March) – grants of $7500 for instructional improvements
- Departmental travel support (monthly)
Actuarial Science and Risk Management funding
- Canadian Institute of Actuaries (various)
- Casualty Actuarial Society (various) – Opportunities & Open Calls
- Mapfre Foundation (October)
- Society of Actuaries (various)
- TIAA Institute (September)
- Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK) (various)
Collaboration in residence programs
- American Institute of Mathematics SQuaREs (November) – 4-6 researchers
- BIRS Banff Focused Research Groups and Research in Teams (rolling) – 2-8 researchers
- CIRM Luminy Research in Residence (rolling) – 2-4 researchers
- ICERM Collaborate@ICERM (May and October) – 3-6 researchers
- ICMS Edinburgh Research in Groups (February, May, October) – 2-6 researchers
- IMSI Chicago Research Collaboration Workshops and Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (rolling) – small groups
- Institut Henri Poincaré Research in Paris (May and October) – 2-4 researchers
- MFO Oberwolfach Research Fellows (rolling) – 2-4 researchers
- MSRI Summer Research in Mathematics (October) – 2-6 researchers
Research communities
- American Institute of Mathematics Research Communities (November) – 40+ researchers