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Funding Opportunities

Internal Funding Opportunities

SDSU's Division of Research and Innovation provides extensive training on how to find research funds and offers a myriad of internal funding opportunities.

The SDSU Seed Grant Program, formerly known as the University Grants Program, aims to assist faculty in their career and research goals. Awards are limited to $7,500, awarded for an 12-month period, and available to all unit-3 faculty.

Applications closed for the 2025 cycle and will re-open in August 2025 for the next academic year.

The Division of Research and Innovation offers two Assigned Time for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities programs–an individual program and a team program.

The call for applications for the 2025-2026 academic year closed in November 2024 and will re-open in Fall 2025.

The purpose of the individual program is to provide faculty with time (3 units) to ensure the successful commencement, continuation, or completion of research, scholarship, or creative activity projects at SDSU.

The team program provides 3 units of assigned time for 2 to 3 SDSU faculty who are working on a grant proposal as a team (a grant proposal submission is required for this program).

The SDSU Grants for Established RSCA Program is designed to help faculty respond quickly to funding opportunities as they emerge.

Applications for the 2024-2025 academic year are open on a rolling basis.

The primary purpose of this program is to provide support for projects that will lead to an extramural funding proposal or projects that need immediate grant writing support in response to an extramural funding announcement.

Faculty who receive this funding are required to submit a proposal for extramural funding (e.g. federal, state, local, foundation, etc.). Award periods can range from three to six months. The total amount of an individual award can range between $10k - $20k, depending upon the amount of extramural funding sought.

Applications are accepted during the fiscal year until all funds for the program are expended.

Funds are available to support Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (RSCA) endeavors at SDSU and SDSU Imperial Valley.

The call for applications will re-open in Fall 2025.

The purpose of this program is to provide support to faculty RSCA efforts that will have significant long-term impacts on the research, scholarship, and creative activities of our campuses. DRI will be providing funds to support Postdoctoral Fellowships (with faculty matching) for a period of two years.

Every two to three years and depending on sufficient funding, the Division of Research and Innovation provides support for equipment or facility upgrades ($50k-$200k) as well as for the purchase of datasets for secondary analyses ($25k-$50k).

This program has been postponed until the 2025-26 academic year.

Funds are available to support RSCA endeavors at SDSU and SDSU Imperial Valley that will have significant long-term impacts on the research and scholarship of our campuses.

Requests can focus on the purchase of more significant equipment that is currently absent from our campuses, an upgrade of a core facility, or the purchase of large datasets used for secondary analysis research projects.

All requests must impact the research programs of multiple faculty. Requests serving a single faculty member will not be considered.

Cross-college requests are permissible. Colleges are required to match 30% of the equipment/dataset costs.

External Funding Search Resources

Connect with grant opportunities through these search services or by contacting our Research Advancement team.

The SDSU Research Foundation offers workshops to assist faculty, principal investigators and staff with developing, submitting and managing grant proposals and awards.

Allows for greater customization by you, the user, and connects grant-seekers to proprietary grant support services that we have contracted for with Hanover.

Please sign up for this notification service on the Hanover Research website.

PIVOT is a customizable, key-word based grant opportunity search engine. You have access to this database via your SDSUID single sign-on.

We recognize that not everyone is seeking funding opportunities with the same intensity at the same time.

If you would like a more specialized search experience, please contact Nadia Campbell ([email protected]) from our Research Advancement team.

Graduate Student Funding

Many of our largest internal funding opportunities require a faculty member to nominate an exceptional and deserving graduate student. We also encourage students to apply for funding from national funding agencies within their field.

The University Graduate Fellowship supports up to 30 graduate fellows with an annual stipend, plus benefits. Accompanying support from an external funding source is required to receive this fellowship.
The Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship is for non-resident graduate students who demonstrate outstanding potential for achievement. Recipients must be nominated by advisors.
The CSU Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program provides student loans to doctoral students who show promise of teaching within the CSU system, as well as loan forgiveness to those who obtain a CSU instructional position.

Undergraduate Student Funding

For an undergraduate to receive research funding they almost always need a faculty mentor to help them with their research proposal and oversee their work. Learn how to find a mentor.  Additionally, SDSU undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds have a handful of research-related scholarships available to them.

The SDSU Undergraduate Research Program offers $3,600 stipends to select students participating in research with a faculty mentor for 10 weeks during the summer term and $7,200 stipends to select students participating in research with a faculty mentor for 20 weeks over the spring and summer terms.
The Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholarship is available to select juniors, seniors, and graduate students interested in obtaining research doctorates. The College of Graduate Studies holds workshops for students interested in applying.

SDSU's Maximizing Access to Research Careers program provides scholarships to juniors and seniors interested in obtaining a doctoral degree in STEM fields.