College of Humanities and Sciences

Seed Awards

The Seed Awards program offers and administers competitive funding for faculty-driven research and scholarship and are open to full-time CHS faculty. These awards provide funding of up to $5,000.

Impact Awards

Grants of $3,500 planned to result in the creation and implementation of innovative and sustainable practices in the classroom that lead to increased student retention, heightened engagement and improved teaching and learning.

Lift Awards

The Lift Awards supports the professional development of non-tenure eligible faculty to enhance their valued contributions to the College Humanities and Sciences’ teaching and service missions and to help them achieve career milestones as delineated by the CHS’s promotion and tenure guidelines.

Universitywide

HRC Research Travel Grants

Research travel grants from the Humanities Research Center foster excellence in research and creative scholarship at Virginia Commonwealth University by providing funds to support direct research costs incurred by faculty. 

HRC Conference Travel Grants

Funds grants supporting travel by VCU faculty in the humanities to present their scholarly findings at major domestic and international conferences.

HRC Residential Fellowships

Four faculty members who are working on related issues or topics are released from all teaching responsibilities for one semester so they can focus on their individual research projects and at the same time engage regularly with each other. The topic or issue that unites the group can be broad (for example, race relations in urban environments, gender and sexuality in the early modern world, or the politics of virtue). The goal is to foster intellectual exchange and to enhance the quality of research at VCU by exposing faculty to different perspectives and methodologies.

Commercialization Fund

This fund supports the development of inventions that have been disclosed to VCU Innovation Gateway. 

Presidential Research Quest Fund

Supports new, emerging or continuing research by all VCU faculty. Where possible, the proposed work should advance interdisciplinary research and intercampus collaboration. The maximum total award is $50,000 and requires that the PI’s department or college provide at least 40% cost share.

American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grants

Funds small research grants of up to $30,000 for junior faculty to conduct one year of basic, preclinical, clinical and cancer control research studies. Applicants should not have received a nationally competitive research grant.

Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases Research Award Fund

Provides seed money to researchers in Virginia to stimulate innovative research into biomedical and psychosocial aspects of dementia, including cell biology, caregiving and animal modeling. Awards are limited to $45,000.

CCTR Endowment Fund

Supports meritorious pilot and feasibility clinical and translational research, up to $50,000. All VCU faculty are eligible, and applications including investigators from multiple disciplines are encouraged. Proposals due Nov. 1, Feb. 1, May 1 and Aug. 1.

Geriatric Training and Education Initiative

Funds workforce training and education initiatives that can be completed within the fiscal year. Applications for training projects, conferences or similar educational programs are appropriate. Awards from $1,000 to $25,000.

Harris Manchester College Oxford Summer Research Institute

Each year the Global Education Office, in collaboration with the Office of Research and Innovation, solicits applications from VCU faculty for participation in Oxford’s Harris Manchester College summer research institute to enhance a research project through a week of focused study.

VYTP Small Grants Program

The primary purpose of the VYTP small grants program is to expand the network of researchers conducting studies on the causes and prevention of youth tobacco use in Virginia. In particular, this initiative is intended to attract new faculty scholars to work on problems of youth smoking, encourage multi-university collaborations and stimulate pilot studies that can be used to attract additional outside funding.

Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The honors summer undergraduate research program provides a $600 stipend for up to 15 individual faculty members or faculty teams members who offer an intensive, nine-week summer research experience to selected honors students. Applications from postdocs as well as full-time faculty are welcome, and projects that engage the local community or address topics of diversity and inclusion are strongly encouraged. Faculty members in any discipline may apply.

KL2 Program

The KL2 program established in 2010 has uniquely focused on high quality career development in clinical and translational research, engaging a diverse pool of faculty mentors and mentees across a range of disciplines to approach science through a 'disease-agnostic' translational lens. During the three-year award, KL2 scholars will have 75% protected research time and receive a supplement of $25,000 per year for research support. All scholars will be enrolled in a personalized curriculum.

VCU Center for Community Engagement and Impact Service Learning Grants and Fellowships

The Center for Community Engagement and Impact provides a variety of resources to help faculty enhance their teaching and scholarship.

Please note, the CHS Sponsored Programs Office strives to keep this list up-to-date and comprehensive. If you are aware of other internal opportunities not on this list please email them to chsresearch@vcu.edu.