Current Funding Opportunities Information
The Mississippi Research Alliance (MRA) is excited to share four new funding opportunities designed to enhance the capacity and capabilities of the State's research ecosystem.
Opportunities for funding through the MRA include:
- Seed Grants: Support for faculty-initiated research projects
- Instrumentation Acquisition Awards: Acquisition of multi-user instrumentation
- Instrumentation Use Vouchers: Increase access to MRA affiliated resources
- Travel Awards: Travel to jurisdictional meetings and facilitate training
The MRA will help position Mississippi as a national front-runner in science and technology through making investments throughout the state’s research community. All academic institution granting four-year degrees are eligible to receive funding through the MRA through formal partnering with the program. Half of the funds are allocated to be awarded to emerging research institutions (ERIs), which are defined as an institution of higher education with an established undergraduate or graduate program that has less than $50,000,000 in federal research expenditures.
Budget
All budgets are to be submitted in NSF format. Budgets may include faculty salaries, postdoctoral salaries, graduate and undergraduate student salaries, fees, and tuition, supplies, contractual, equipment and travel. The budgets must include appropriate fringes on all personnel salary and must include F&A. No subcontracts are allowed. Cost-share is not required.
Proposal Review
Proposals will be reviewed by external reviewers for scientific merit, appropriateness of budget, potential for future funding, utilization of MRA resources, and training opportunities for students. The reviewers will provide scientific review without funding recommendations and the Mississippi EPSCoR Jurisdictional Steering Committee will make the final funding decisions.
Please refer to the MRA NOFO Document (click here) for complete descriptions of each opportunity, eligibility and application requirements.
Correction Notice: A previously circulated MRA NOFO document mistakenly referenced cost-share as required. This is incorrect. No MRA funding program requires cost-share and the NOFO document has been corrected to remove this reference.
Proposals should be contained in a single PDF file and submitted using the following links:
Applications due: May 30, 2025, at 5pm CST
Applications due: May 30, 2025, at 5pm CST
Applications accepted anytime
Applications accepted anytime
Applicants are encouraged to contact MRA personnel to discuss their proposals to submission.
MRA Contacts:
- Dr. Victor Bii, victor.bii@mvsu.edu
- Dr. Tristan Clemons, Tristan.clemons@usm.edu
- Dr. Alex Flynt, asflynt@olemiss.edu
Additional seed funding may be available for projects that align with other MS EPSCoR programs.
E-RISE RII: MS Nano-bio and ImmunoEngineering Consortium (NIEC)
We invite proposals that align with the Mississippi Nano-bio and ImmunoEngineering Consortium (NIEC) by addressing one of the three key scientific research focus areas: RFA1, which emphasizes Biomimetic Materials to Modulate Nano-Immuno Interactions via Protein Corona Engineering; RFA2, which targets Polymer Nanocarrier Design for Efficient Nucleic Acid Complexation and Release; or RFA3, focusing on Pathogen Resilient Bioinspired Polymeric Scaffolds for Tissue Regeneration. Alternatively, proposals that explore emerging research directions complementary to NIEC initiatives are welcome, particularly those that foster collaborative research and expand the state’s nanobio expertise. We encourage applicants to engage with the PI, Science Director, or co-leaders of the RFAs for preliminary discussions to ensure that their proposals are well-aligned with our strategic objectives prior to submission.
- PI: Dr. Adam Smith, aes@olemiss.edu
- Science Director: Dr. Tristan Clemons, Tristan.clemons@usm.edu
- RFA 1 Lead: Dr. Eden Tanner, eetanner@olemiss.edu
- RFA 2 Lead: Dr. Alex Flynt, asflynt@olemiss.edu
- RFA 3 Lead: Dr. Lauren Priddy, lbpriddy@abe.msstate.edu
Proposals should follow the same format as the MRA Seed Grant opportunity (MRA NOFO Document) and should be submitted using the MRA Seed Grant submission link: Seed Grants (MRA and NIEC) Proposal Submission Link (Click Here)
