Refer to the following guidelines in determining your eligibility as well as proposal requirements. For additional questions, please contact ICDS-SEED-GRANTS@LISTS.PSU.EDU.

Purpose

The Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) at Penn State invites proposals for its Mid-Scale Seed Grant Program, designed to catalyze multi- and interdisciplinary research collaborations that involve computational and data sciences across its five Research Hubs (Artificial Intelligence, Computational Sciences, Data Sciences, Digital Twins, and Quantum Sciences) and ICDS-affiliated Centers. Proposals are due Oct 22, 2025.

Cross-cutting research relevant to two or more hubs is particularly encouraged.

Note that ICDS funds may be used to fund a Research Assistantship (Quarter-Time or Half-Time) and fringe for graduate students, but may not be used to fund student tuition.

Proposal goals may include:

• Establishing or strengthening collaborations among researchers spanning multiple disciplines, departments, and/or colleges;
• Increasing the competitiveness of a specific upcoming proposal for high-risk, high-reward research;
• Increasing the competitiveness of a specific upcoming proposal for external support by addressing specific issues identified during the review of a previous version of the proposal;
• Increasing the competitiveness of the PI for future external funding calls in light of a recently canceled grant, denial of a request for a first no-cost extension, and/or cancellation of a grant proposal that has previously funded the PI’s research group;
• Building a foundation for future large proposals for external support (e.g., NSF Center or Institute, NIH Institutional Training Grants);
• Acquiring equipment that provides a qualitative improvement in the data available to support research programs of multiple ICDS-affiliated researchers; or
• Supporting Penn State researchers contributing to a multidisciplinary team spanning multiple universities/institutions, especially when in support of parallel proposals by researchers at other institutions.

Eligibility

PIs should be Penn State Tenure-line Faculty (from any colleges or campuses). Co-PIs and team members may include Penn State Ph.D. students, postdocs, and non-tenure-line faculty. ICDS encourages projects that involve either a collaboration spanning multiple units at the University Park campus (UP) and a collaboration between researchers at UP and one of Penn State’s Commonwealth campuses. Proposals for collaborations with Penn State Hershey will be solicited under a separate call.

Timeline

Proposals due: Oct 22, 2025
Proposers should keep in mind that award notifications are expected in mid-December. Given the timeline, PIs are strongly discouraged from requesting funds for a graduate assistantship in Spring 2026 if that student will be requesting a teaching assistantship during Spring 2026.

Available Support

All tenure-line Penn State faculty are eligible to propose for up to $50k to be spent during January 2026-June 2027.

ICDS will consider proposal with budgets up to $100k for particularly strong proposals that meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Request support for two graduate student/postdoctoral researchers based in different departments and/or colleges.
• Request support for a project involving two or more ICDS faculty co-hires in a PI or Co-I role.
• Request support for a project making a substantive connection between two ICDS Research Hubs (Artificial Intelligence, Computational Sciences, Data Sciences, Digital Twins, and Quantum Sciences).

While proposals may support long-term goals that would require effort beyond June 2027, the proposal should describe the specific objectives for the work to be funded by this call.

Review Criteria

• Proposals will be reviewed according to:
• Anticipated Impact on Research Program: The potential for the proposed activities to enable teams to establish or strengthen multi-disciplinary teams and lead to collaborative publications or other discipline-appropriate outcomes.
• Strength of plans for engaging in inter and/or multidisciplinary research and connection to the mission of ICDS, its Research Hubs, and/or affiliated centers.
• Feasibility of proposed goals and objectives given the proposed time frame and budget.
• Anticipated Benefits to Future External Funding Proposals: The potential for the proposed activities to strengthen the team’s ability to secure significant external research funding in the future. ICDS anticipates that proposals from Assistant Professors will focus on enhancing competitiveness for calls targeting an individual PI or small team. Full Professors are strongly encouraged to consider targeting larger proposals, center or institute-level support.
• PI’s track record, particularly in regards to outcomes of past ICDS funding

What is allowed in budgets:

• Salary and fringe to support Penn State graduate students, postdocs, and/or non-tenure-line faculty engaging in proposed research. However, seed grant funds may not be used to pay student tuition. Proposals requesting a stipend for a graduate student during the academic year must include an explicit plan for how the PI will fund tuition.
• Faculty-led workshops to plan/supporting organizing external proposals,
• Funds for participation in meetings or workshops to enhance the chances for success of the proposed research.
• Travel for faculty, postdocs and/or graduate students to participate in conferences outside of the research group’s primary discipline.
• Credits for computing and/or storage resources on the Roar Collab system. See https://www.icds.psu.edu/service-details/ for current offerings and rates. Requests for Roar Collab credits should be based include a breakdown of how credits will be used and based on benchmarks performed on Roar Collab.
• Funds for accessing commercial AI tools.
• Time from ICDS RISE team (subject to availability) to help setup tools and/or workflows on the Roar Collab system.
• Time from a Campus Champion to advise in the selection of national supercomputing centers and preparing to apply for additional computing resources.
• ICDS mid-scale seed grants are not intended to fund teaching releases. Such requests are discouraged, but may be considered in particularly compelling scenarios. Any such requests should include an explicit budget justification for why that effort is critical for the success of the proposed project, why the required faculty effort could not come from existing appointments, and whether the PI would accept a smaller award that excluded a teaching release.

What is NOT allowed in budgets:

• ICDS seed grant funds may not be used to pay student tuition. PIs who are considering paying tuition from a grant should consult with their unit finance office to confirm that will be allowed prior to submission.
• ICDS seed grant funds may not be used to pay supplemental salary for tenure-track faculty.

Reporting Requirements

Project investigators are required to submit a final report within one month of the project end date describing the progress towards the proposal’s specific objectives, and at least one follow-up report within two years describing the impact(s) of the award. Follow-up reports should include a list of publications, proposals submitted, and grants received that benefited from the work done as part of the seed grant. PIs should also notify ICDS when they have external funding success beyond 2 years that is related to a previous ICDS seed grant. Failure to submit either a final report or follow-up report will negatively affect the evaluation of the team’s future proposals for ICDS funding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  Can proposals request tuition for a graduate student?
A:  No.  One option is for the proposal to request ICDS provide support for wages and fringe for a grad student during the summer when on tuition is due.  In some cases, that could free up other funding sources to support the student during the academic year.  ICDS is aware this can be a difficult limitation and is looking into how to avoid this constraint in future calls.

Q: May PIs request matching funds from their department, college and/or campus?
A: Yes. While not required, PIs are encouraged to identify complementary funding sources that can help amplify the impact of ICDS funds. Examples could include additional funds, tuition for a graduate student, and/or a course release from their department. Proposers should contact their respective units directly to inquire about the potential availability of matching funds. Information on the source, amount and purpose of matching fund commitments should be described in a letter of support attached to the proposal.

Q: What should be included in Letter(s) of Support?
A: Not all proposal will require an additional letter of support. PIs may upload additional supporting documents as they see fit given the unique considerations of their proposal. For example, if the proposal involves an external collaborator, then the PI should upload a letter of support describing the nature of the collaboration and any resources being committed. If additional resources at Penn State are required to successfully complete the proposed project, then a letter of support from a Department Head or Dean should document the resources being committed. If the proposed project is to help the PI prepare a proposal for an upcoming external call, then the PI should upload the text of the upcoming call and documentation for its timeline. If the proposed project is to support revising and resubmitting a previous proposal, then the PI should upload the body and all available reviews of the proposal previously submitted for external funding. If the proposed project is motivated by the recent cancellation of a grant or denial of a request for a first no-cost extension, then the PI should provide documentation of documentation for an external grant being canceled or denied a no-cost extension.

Q: Should the proposal include references? If so, where should they appear in the proposal documents?
A: It is expected that the vast majority of proposals will include at least some references. The intent was that the 4 pages proposals would include references. However, if a proposal has a particularly long list of references, then the PI may upload a complete set of references as a supplemental document.

Q: What format should I use for CV?
A: PIs may use whatever format they already have available (e.g., NSF, Activity Insight, custom). Some PIs may want to submit a CV that is longer than NSF allows to help support their plan’s feasibility and demonstrate their track record.

Q: Do budgets need to include fringe?
Yes, see https://researchsupport.psu.edu/document-library/rate-summary-sheet/ for fringe rates.

Q: Do budgets need to include Indirect/Facilities & Administration costs (often referred to as “Overhead”)?
A: No

Q: What is a Campus Champion?
A: The RISE team includes multiple “Campus Champions” who are familiar with options for supercomputing resources at Penn State and at national supercomputing centers and programs such as ACCESS (formerly XSEDE). Faculty can request their assistance in selecting which facilities are likely to be a good fit for their needs, requesting small starter allocations to benchmark their codes, and preparing applications for additional supercomputing resources.

Q: What areas of expertise are contained in RISE?
A: RISE team members have experience in computer programming, including code optimization, parallel programming, GPU programming, software engineering, and developing computational notebooks (e.g., Jupyter, RStudio). RISE team members also have experience applying AI and Machine Learning techniques (e.g., regression, classification, clustering, decision trees, neural networks) in multiple domains. As methodology gets more specialized (e.g., convolutional neural networks, natural language processing), fewer RISE team members have significant experience, and those that do may already be reserved. Therefore, requests for support from the RISE team will be handled separately (and on a different timeline) than the rest of this program. We encourage faculty to identify potential ways that a RISE team member could support their proposal, but to make sure their learning plan will be successful even if a RISE team member is not available to assist.

For additional questions, please contact ICDS-SEED-GRANTS@LISTS.PSU.EDU.