Resources for New Faculty

Your starting point for research funding, compliance, and campus collaboration.

Welcome to Western Carolina University

We are excited to welcome you to WCU, where curiosity, creativity, and collaboration drive our mission forward. Whether you’re joining us fresh from graduate school, industry, or another academic institution, you are now part of a community that values scholarship and the people behind it.

Our team in the Office of Research Administration (ORA) is here to help you navigate the research and creative activity landscape at WCU. From finding funding to submitting proposals, managing awards, and building collaborations, we’re your partners every step of the way.

Your First Research To-Dos

To set you up for success, here are the first key actions to complete as a new WCU faculty member engaged in research, scholarship, or creative activities:

  1. Create or Update Your SciENcv Account
  2. Create or Update Your ORCID Account
  3. Update your Research.gov Affiliation
      • Ensure your profile lists Western Carolina University as your current institution for NSF submissions.
      • Access Research.gov
  4. Complete Your Annual COI Disclosure
      • Required by university policy to ensure compliance with federal and institutional conflict of interest regulations.
      • Submit your COI disclosure
  5. Share Your Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities with Us
      • Let us know what you are working on so we can help promote your work, connect you with collaborators, and identify funding opportunities.
      • Submit your project details
  6. Access SPIN for Funding Alerts
      • Log into your myWCU
      • Select Research Administration (InfoEd) under My Apps
      • In InfoEd, select SPIN located in the left-hand sidebar.
      • Follow this Funding Search Guide to begin your search for funding.
  7. Subscribe to Funding Alerts

New Investigator Grants

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Sloan Research Fellowships support fundamental research conducted by early-career scientists with a Ph.D. or equivalent degree in chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, or a related field. The two-year $75,000 fellowships are awarded annually to early-career researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders. Proposals due September 2026
American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy (AASPT)
The purpose of the New Investigator Research Grant is to support clinical research projects of AASPT members who are early in their professional careers. Research proposals that investigate issues within the broad discipline of sports physical therapy, including clinical practice, injury prevention and rehabilitation, epidemiology, and education are welcomed. Stage 1 proposals due July 2027
American Chemical Society
Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) grants provide start-up funding for scientists and engineers in the United States who are within the first three years of their first academic appointment at the level of Assistant Professor or the equivalent. Applicants may have limited or no preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue, with the intention of using the preliminary results obtained to seek continuation funding from other agencies. The DNI grants are to be used to illustrate proof of principle or concept, to test a hypothesis, or to demonstrate feasibility of an approach. Proposals due October 2026 and March 2027
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
The ACLS Digital Justice Grant program is designed to promote and provide resources for projects at various stages of development that diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and/or contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues.  This program supports digital projects across the humanities and interpretative social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities through the ethical use of digital tools and methods. Proposals due November 2026
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
The Early Career Research Innovation Grants support studies that will increase our understanding of suicide or test treatments and other interventions that save lives. Proposals due November 2026
American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation
The New Investigators Research Grant is designed to help further new investigators’ research activities by funding one-year, preliminary studies that could launch larger-scale research studies. Research, while not limited in topic, should be focused on matching a one-year scope and should have clinical relevance to audiology and/or speech-language pathology. Proposals due early 2027
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
The BBRF Young Investigator Grant provides support for the most promising young scientists conducting neurobiological research. Two-year awards up to $70,000, or $35,000 per year are provided to enable promising investigators to either extend research fellowship training or begin careers as independent research faculty. Basic and/or clinical investigators are supported, but research must be relevant to serious brain and behavior disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders or child and adolescent mental illnesses. Proposals due early 2027
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
The objective of the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to identify and engage researchers in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic and non-profit research institutions and expose them to national security needs and DARPA’s program development process. The YFA program provides funding, mentoring and industry and national security contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs. Proposals due early 2027
Department of Energy
The Early Career Research Program supports the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates research careers in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Isotope R&D and Production, and Accelerator R&D and Production. No more than ten years can have passed between the year the Principal Investigator’s Ph.D. was awarded and the year the application was issued. Stage 1 proposals due October 2026
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR)
The New Innovator Award program supports and promotes exceptionally talented new faculty who are conducting critical and highly innovative research addressing significant food and agriculture challenges. These awards allow grantees to focus exclusively on research without the pressure of securing additional funding. Stage 1 proposals due early 2027
Hearing Health Foundation
Early Stage Investigator Awards supports projects across the broadest spectrum of hearing research and balance research. Applicants must be early stage investigators and fulfill certain additional eligibility requirements. Stage 1 proposals due December 2026
National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center
The New Investigator Award Program (NIAP), in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association, is a prestigious funding opportunity designed to foster the career development of early-career investigators in the field of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) research. Proposals due Fall 2026
National Science Foundation
The CAREER: The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations. Proposals due July 2027
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are in their first or second full-time tenure-track or tenure-track-equivalent academic appointment, who have received their doctorate or equivalent degree in the past seven years, and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. Proposals due Fall 2026
Russell Sage Foundation
The goal of the program is to cultivate a pipeline of researchers conducting causal research on the criminal justice system. Criminal justice policies and practices include the work of police, courts, jails, prisons, probation and parole, and immigration detention. Stage 1 proposals due October 28, 2026
Simons Foundation
The Fellows-to-Faculty Award program supports talented early career scientists and their research vision as they transition into tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions. Fellows engage in a larger community of investigators, and receive funding toward the end of their postdoctoral career and a three-year faculty research grant. We seek to support early career scientists whose scientific vision for their future independent laboratory is within following scientific areas: Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) and Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB). Proposals due early 2027
The Greenwall Foundation
The Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics is a career development award to enable early-career faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research. The program is designed to support projects that address a significant bioethics problem and extend beyond current work in bioethics, while fostering a community of Scholars and Alums committed to advancing the field. Stage 1 proposals due September 2026
Whitehall Foundation
The Whitehall Foundation, through its program of grants and grants-in-aid, assists scholarly research in the life sciences. It is the Foundation’s policy to assist those dynamic areas of basic biological research that are not heavily supported by Federal Agencies or other foundations with specialized missions. The Foundation is currently interested in basic research in neurobiology, defined as follows: Invertebrate and vertebrate (excluding clinical) neurobiology, specifically investigations of neural mechanisms involved in sensory, motor, and other complex functions of the whole organism as these relate to behavior. The overall goal should be to better understand behavioral output or brain mechanisms of behavior. Stage 1 proposals accepted anytime
William T. Grant Foundation
The William T. Grant Scholars Program supports career development for promising early-career researchers. The program funds five-year research and mentoring plans that significantly expand researchers’ expertise in new disciplines, methods, and content areas. Proposals due early 2027

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