Nebraska EPSCoR's FIRST Award Program

Nebraska EPSCoR's FIRST Award program is designed to help early career faculty to initiate their research programs and compete more effectively for NSF CAREER grants.

Approximately six FIRST Award grants are awarded each year; the awards are limited to $25,000 each and require a one-for-one match. An assistant professor in a tenure-leading position in any of the the colleges or universities in the state is eligible to submit a pre-proposal. The faculty member must be in his or her first four years of initial academic appointment at the time of submittal. Any project that potentially could be supported by a NSF competitive research grant is eligible.

Phase one of the application process involves the submission of a short pre-proposal that will be reviewed by a panel comprised of members of Nebraska's scientific community. Ten or fewer proposals are invited to advance to the final phase: the submission of a full, NSF CAREER-like proposal. Full proposals from these finalists will be evaluated using NSF proposal review criteria by external experts in the field. The Nebraska EPSCoR Committee will select FIRST Award recipients.

Grantees are required to submit a CAREER Award proposal to NSF within the next award period. Check Nebraska EPSCoR's Requests for Proposals page for submission details and to submit a pre-proposal online.

Proposals are due Oct. 1, 2018 by 5 P.M. CST.

Please contact the Office of Research and Creative Activity at 402-554-2286 or unosponpro@unomaha.edu if you intend to apply.