Request for Proposals (RFP)

Award Amount: Up to $10,000
Number of Awards: At least three
Project Period: May 1, 2026 – April 30, 2027
Submission Deadline: April 3, 2026, 11:59 p.m.

Program Overview and Vision

Many of today’s pressing societal challenges—such as healthcare access, rehabilitation technologies, disaster resilience, public service improvement, and access to care and services—require interdisciplinary expertise that bridges engineering and public affairs/health science disciplines. The Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program is designed to catalyze transformative, cross-college research that addresses health or societal challenges through engineering innovation. This program supports translational research that moves discoveries from concept to practical impact, encourages community engagement, and fosters entrepreneurial approaches to solving complex challenges. Projects should also advance theory in engineering, health sciences, behavioral sciences, or public service and generate new knowledge to address real-world problems.

This program seeks to foster new and sustain existing partnerships between faculty in the College of Engineering (CENG) and the College of Public Affairs and Health Sciences (PAHS) to support research that lays the groundwork for competitive external funding proposals, particularly to Federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF: SCH, HCC, DARE, etc.)  the National Institutes of Health (NIH: NIBIB), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), as well as state and private foundations.

Seed funding of up to $10,000 is intended to support preliminary data collection, pilot studies, prototype development, feasibility testing, and external funding (TUF expenditure eligible) proposal development activities that position teams for larger extramural awards.

Eligibility Requirements

All tenured, tenure-track and clinical faculty in CENG and PAHS are eligible. Each proposal must include at least two Principal Investigators (PIs) who meet the following criteria:

  • College of Engineering PI (at least one required):
    The engineering PI must hold a primary appointment in a department within the College of Engineering.
  • College of Public Affair and Health Sciences PI (at least one required):
    The Public Affairs and Health Sciences PI must hold a primary appointment in a department within the College of Public Affairs and Health Sciences.

Each proposal must include at least two PIs—one Lead PI and one Secondary PI. The PIs are expected to play substantive and complementary roles in the design, execution, and dissemination of the proposed research. The Lead and secondary PIs must be from different colleges (PAHS and CENG). While faculty can participate in different teams, only one seed funding application may be submitted per PI team. Faculty may not serve as Lead PI on one proposal and Secondary PI on another, nor may they serve in the same role on multiple proposals. Funds will be distributed to the Lead PI’s home department. The Lead PI and their department are responsible for allocating and managing the awarded funds in accordance with the needs of the project.

Program Goals

  • Foster interdisciplinary research collaborations across the two colleges.
  • Integrate engineering methods or technologies with health, behavioral, or public service challenges.
  • Leverage social, behavioral, or organizational research methods to guide problem solving through engineering and system development.
  • Generate preliminary data or proof-of-concept results.
  • Deliver proposal(s) for major federal or private foundation research funding opportunities which are Texas University Fund (TUF) expenditure eligible.
  • Strengthen long-term cross-college research collaboration and impact.

Allowable Use of Funds

Seed grant funds (up to $10,000) may be used for, but are not limited to:

  • Pilot data collection or feasibility studies.
  • Prototype or tool development.
  • Research assistant support.
  • Study Participant incentives (e.g. survey, experiment, interview).
  • Materials, supplies, or limited equipment (no more than $5,000).
  • Proposal development activities (e.g., data needed for grant submissions).

Funds may not be used for faculty salary support or conference travel, external collaborators/consultants and staff.

Seed funding is expected to be spent by April 30, 2027, completion of the anticipated seed grant duration. Unspent funds will be re-tracked.

Expected Outcomes

By the end of the project period, funded teams are expected to:

  1. Demonstrate meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration.
  2. Produce pilot data, prototypes, or preliminary findings for external proposal(s).
  3. The PIs are expected to develop and submit a research proposal for a major external grant by the end of the seed grant project, April 30, 2027.

Proposal Requirement

The lead PI should submit the proposal to the submission portal before 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 3, 2026. The proposal should include the following:

  • Two-page white paper proposal with research objectives, scientific background, approaches, plan/timeline, expected outcomes and targeted funding agencies for submitting proposals based on the seed project.
  • Proposals with white papers exceeding 2-page limit will be declined without review.
  • List names of all Co-PIs and their department and college abbreviations under proposal title on the top of the first page of white paper. First listed Co-PI will be considered as a lead faculty for all follow through communications and award fund allocation.
  • Budget table with narrative paragraph (1 page limit).
  • References (no page limit).

Evaluation Criteria

  1. Strength and integration of the interdisciplinary collaboration with equal participation from CENG and PAHS faculty.
  2. Clarity and significance of the research idea with clear objectives of the proposed seed research, expected outcomes, defined research approaches, and research plan with notional timeline.
  3. Feasibility to complete the project within the seed grant budget and timeline.
  4. Clarity on targeted agency/opportunity (one or more) for external proposal submission(s) – indicate RFP (whenever such is available) and provide agency deadline (or anticipated deadline for next year) for a TUF eligible grant opportunity.
  5. Budget plan on how the seed funding will be spent for eligible purposes.
  6. Feasibility to have an external funding joint proposal(s) submission by April 30, 2027. Submission of more than one external research proposal based on seed funding is encouraged. Direct funding level sought in the joint external proposal should be above $100,000.

Seed project success will be tracked by the number of external funding proposal submissions and by the awards for such submitted proposals. Co-PIs on teams who failed to deliver a joint external proposal are not eligible to participate in the next year seed funding under this program (one skipped round).

Submit Seed Proposal to:

Interdisciplinary CENG-CPAHS Seed Grant Program Application – Fill out form

 Evaluation/Selection:

Committee with CENG and PAHS faculty members not participating in seed proposals will be formed for selections.

Dr. Tristan Lin, PAHS ADR
Dr. Andrey Voevodin, CENG ADR
Dr. Aaron Roberts, Associate UNT VPRI