Research Funding Opportunities: October 3, 2025

Category: All

First Opportunity

• Sponsor: UF AI and Informatics Research Institute
• Funding Opportunity Title: 2026 UFAIIRI Seed Fund Announcement
• Key words: Artificial Intelligence, Informatics, Machine Learning, Data Science 
• Link to RFP:  https://ufresearch.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1994837
• Deadline: 12/1/2025
• Funding available: AIIRI will make a total of up to $500,000 available for this RFP depending on the quality of submissions and budget available. We anticipate awarding approximately $400,000 towards 7-10 research projects (Track 1) and approximately $100,000 towards 3-5 data projects (Track 2).
• Period of performance: 12 months
• Program Background: The UF Artificial Intelligence and Informatics Research Institute invites proposals for faculty initiated interdisciplinary research projects (Track 1) or data projects (Track 2).
• Program Objective:
  1. Track 1: We invite research project proposals in Artificial Intelligence, Informatics, Machine Learning, Data Science or a related area. Projects should be interdisciplinary and have strong potential for garnering future funding from external sources. These seed funds are not intended to support on-going efforts but rather help start new projects and/or new collaborative partnerships. Projects should be “shovel-ready” meaning seed funds will be used to produce proof-of-concept results that can be used for seeking external funding.
  2. Track 2: We invite data project proposals to curate existing large existing data sets into “AI-ready” data sets that follow FAIR data standards. These seed funds are not intended to be used to collect new data, but rather enable the cleaning and curation needed for an existing data set to make it publicly available for use with AI methods. We encourage data projects to also establish benchmarks for the proposed dataset (i.e., outlining AI training, validation and testing subsets along with evaluation methods and metrics).

Second Opportunity

• NOTE: This is a limited submission and UF can only submit one application. 
• Sponsor: Hearst Foundation
• Funding Opportunity Title: Hearst Foundation Grants
• Key words: culture, education, social service, health
• Link to RFP:  https://www.hearstfdn.org/general-overview
• Internal deadline: 11/03/2025- submit project summary, budget, justification, and biosketches via Infoready portal: https://ufresearch.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1995535
• Agency Deadline: 01/01/2026
• Funding available: varies based on award, but typically range from $100,000 to $500,000
• Period of performance: not specified
• Program background: The mission of the Hearst Foundations is to identify and fund outstanding nonprofits, ensuring that people of all backgrounds in the United States can build healthy, productive, and satisfying lives. Through its grantmaking, the Hearst Foundations supports well-established nonprofit organizations that address significant issues within their major areas of focus—culture, education, health, and social service—and that primarily serve large demographic and/or geographic constituencies. In each area of funding, the Foundations seek to identify organizations that achieve truly differentiated results relative to other organizations making similar efforts for similar populations. The Foundations also look for evidence of sustainability beyond their support.
• Program Objectives:
  • Culture: The Hearst Foundations support cultural institutions that offer enriching programs in the arts and sciences, prioritizing those that foster engagement among young people and create a lasting, measurable impact.
  • Education: The Hearst Foundations support educational institutions demonstrating uncommon success in preparing students to thrive in a global society, with a significant focus on higher education institutions
  • Social Service: The Hearst Foundations support direct-service organizations that tackle the roots of chronic poverty by applying practical solutions to the most challenging social and economic problems, with a prioritization of programs that have proven successful in facilitating economic independence and in strengthening families
  • Health: The Hearst Foundations support leading regional hospitals, medical centers, and specialized medical institutions providing access to healthcare for high-need populations.

Third Opportunity

• NOTE: This is a limited submission and UF can only submit one application. 
• Sponsor: Dr. Scholl Foundation
• Funding Opportunity Title: Dr. Scholl Foundation Grants
• Key words: education, social service, healthcare, civic and cultural, environmental
• Link to RFP:  https://www.drschollfoundation.com/application-procedures/preferences-limitations/
• Internal deadline: 11/18/2025- submit project summary, budget, justification, and biosketches via Infoready portal: https://ufresearch.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1995391
• Agency Deadline: 01/31/2026
• Funding available: varies based on award, but typically range from $5,000 to $25,000
• Period of performance: 12 months or less
• Program background: The Dr. Scholl Foundation is seeking to provide financial assistance to organizations dedicated to improving the world through innovative solutions to problems that embody the values of innovation, practicality, hard work, and compassion.
• Program Objectives:  Applications for grants are considered in the following areas:
  • Education
  • Social Service
  • Healthcare
  • Civic and Cultural
  • Environmental

Category: Research Funding Opportunities
Tagged: Artificial Intelligence civic and cultural Data Science Education environmental health healthcare Informatics Machine Learning social service
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