Innovation Grants

Innovation Grants is sponsored by Princeton Engineering. Provides funding for interdisciplinary research projects with significant potential for societal impact.

Innovation Grants - Princeton Engineering The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) is pleased to announce the Fall 2025 Call for Innovation proposals. This endeavor is made possible through the generosity of donors to Princeton, enabling SEAS to offer an assortment of grants to distinguished faculty who work on pioneering and cutting-edge interdisciplinary research across diverse areas, departments and units.

The grants will support SEAS initiatives, promote bold research ideas with significant potential for societal impact, and encourage interdisciplinary collaborations encompassing not only SEAS faculty but also colleagues from other academic disciplines and collaborations with industry partners.

Furthermore, the grants aim to facilitate nascent research, allowing faculty members to generate sufficient preliminary results/data that enhance the chances of securing outside funding, establishing the foundation for securing large external grants, such as an NSF Center.

Innovation research grants are designed to allow faculty members to engage in research that is not easily fundable through standard outside channels , or to provide sufficient preliminary research to enhance chances to secure continued outside funding.

Proposals that demonstrate a clear path for outside grant application and that involve new collaborations across SEAS departments and centers and units on campus will be given preferential attention. Grant amount: up to $230K for up to two years of research. Proposals with a budget over $120K require teams of at least two principal investigators.

Research areas of interest include those from both traditional engineering disciplines and interdisciplinary “high-risk-high-reward” efforts. Internal support for other SEAS initiatives such as the new Dean’s Clusters of Excellence, Bioengineering, AI at Princeton and Energy & the Environment is available through separate funding sources.

Detailed overview of the proposed research (three-page maximum) Detailed budget (up to $230K) outlining how the funds will be used. The grant can cover salaries (for graduate students, post-docs, and undergraduate summer stipends, but not faculty summer salaries ) and other reasonable research expenditures. No overhead will be charged to these awards.

Budgets will be reviewed carefully for reasonable and appropriate expenses. Two-page CV and a list of current and pending research support for all team members Proposals will be reviewed by a faculty committee and funding decisions will be announced in Spring 2026. Faculty members are not eligible to apply for a SEAS Innovation Research Grant if they currently have an active Innovation grant from SEAS.

At most, each faculty member could have one SEAS innovation research grant and one SEAS seed grant at the same time, provided that the two are on different topics. Large proposals over $120K and up to $230K require teams of at least two PIs. SEAS expects that funds will be spent according to the proposed budget.

Any major change in budget allocation should be discussed in advance with SEAS. Extensions (including no-cost extensions) to project duration will not be granted unless exceptional circumstances arise; please choose appropriate research start and end dates during the application process. Please note projects can range from three months to two years.

Proposals selected for funding will be required to submit a summary report annually to provide an update on research objectives and fund expenditures, as well as a final report at the conclusion of the project, which should also include a description of how the support from the project will be leveraged to pursue outside funding and/or larger proposals. Any unspent funds at the end of a project must be returned to SEAS.

Proposals must include a minimum of one SEAS faculty member. Collaboration with researchers outside SEAS is welcome, as long as a SEAS faculty member is the lead PI on the project. The current application cycle has ended.

Please check back in the Fall of 2026 for the next funding opportunity.