Grants and Funding

For successful grant proposal samples and advice on grant writing and broader impacts, see the:

ACF resources in Box.

For queries on…

For all external grant proposals, the Mathematics business office needs your complete proposal TWO WEEKS before the granting agency’s submission deadline, in order to complete reviews, finalize the budget, etc.

Proposals that are incomplete at SPA four business days before the sponsor’s submission deadline will not be submitted. SPA is serious. Get your proposal to them well in advance, or else your hard work may be wasted.

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.

Upload your proposal to Research.gov TWO WEEKS before the NSF deadline, so that the Mathematics business office can complete its required reviews, finalize the budget, and send the complete proposal to SPA at least four business days prior to the deadline. Later than that, and your proposal will NOT be submitted.

Simons Foundation
  • Travel Support for Mathematicians (January) – travel, memberships, equipment for tenure track and tenured faculty. Note. If the application system asks for a Gift Receiving Entity then enter “University of Illinois Foundation”; the Signing Official is “Christy Devocelle” (she is the CFO/Treasurer of the University of Illinois Foundation), the Financial Officer is also “Christy Devocelle”, and the Institution Administrative Contact is “Cody Mayfield”.
  • 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. It is important that you inform the Mathematics business office before you apply, so that the application can be completed accurately and the funding handled correctly if you are successful.
  • NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (April) – external grants
OTHER agencies
Campus funding
  • Campus Research Board (August, October, January, March) – proposals should be written to support your research, through RA support and/or research-related travel (see below). Publication fees are allowable too. The project can be joint with a student but should not be presented as solely the student’s work. A proposal for RA support should explain what the RA will do and what qualifications they possess for the work. Read the CRB policies for additional proposal and budget restrictions.
    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)
Collaboration in residence programs
Research communities