Full Call for 2025 Expanded SPROUT Proposals

Cornell Engineering is pleased to announce an internal funding opportunity directed at supporting teams of investigators pursuing novel research at the intersection of multiple fields. Expanded SPROUTs are intended to grow research partnerships that span disciplines within Cornell Engineering and university-wide. This investment encourages the expansion of our research footprint at a time of potentially limited federal support.

For Expanded SPROUTs, we will entertain requests to support one Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) for one full year, beginning August 2025, and up to $20,000 to cover expenses in other categories, such as materials and supplies or publications. The application deadline is June 1, 2025.

Expanded SPROUT can support collaborative projects that meet any of the following three criteria:

• The project was submitted to an outside agency, reviewed well, but was ultimately not selected for funding.
• The project resulted in a collaborative, peer-reviewed publication since 2023.
• The research has been paused due to a stop-work order or other federal action, and it has not been addressed through the College’s support for untenured faculty members.

Cornell Engineering faculty members who submitted proposals for the standard SPROUTs cycle, which had a deadline of April 22, will be eligible to apply for the Expanded SPROUTs program under the third criterion.

Additional criteria for application: Two or more faculty must be invested in the project. Each faculty member can only be associated with one submission. The faculty lead for the project must have an appointment in Cornell Engineering. Teams of faculty who have received stop-work or termination orders for existing research grants (and not had them covered through the College’s relief program for untenured faculty) will be prioritized.

Support for Promising Research Opportunities and Unconventional Teams (SPROUT) awards provide support for interdisciplinary projects that would benefit from internal support. This generation of Expanded SPROUT awards may, like standard SPROUTs, support projects that were submitted to an outside agency, reviewed well, but were ultimately not selected for funding. In such cases, evidence of a positive review must be presented. This call also prioritizes projects that received federal funding but have been paused due to a stop-work orders or other federal action. To facilitate timely reviews of Expanded SPROUT proposal submissions in this latter category, investigators are asked to provide details about the current status of any paused or stopped awards in the application. Support will also be considered for collaborative projects that resulted in the publication of a peer-reviewed article since 2023.

Funds are intended to support one graduate student to advance the project. Additional funds can be used for supplies that support the project. Expanded SPROUT funds cannot be used to directly support faculty, e.g. through summer salary.

To apply for the Expanded SPROUTs opportunity, fill out the required Qualtrics survey, which is also available on the SPROUTs website.

In the survey, you will be asked for some basic information about your submission. You will also be asked to upload a two-page proposal describing the project, its impact, and how it advances Cornell Engineering’s priority research directions, paying special attention to these points:

• Justify why the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and provide the approximate relative weight of contribution from each faculty member.
• Explain how this project is interdisciplinary, and how this cross-disciplinary effort can advance the field beyond traditional approaches.
• Articulate your anticipated strategy for pursuing external funding to support the next stages of your project following Expanded SPROUT funding. While we understand that specific opportunities may be uncertain given the current limitations imposed by federal stop-work orders, we encourage you to identify potential agencies or funding entities aligned with your work. Rather than requiring a specific proposal or solicitation, please describe how this funding will position the project to be competitive for future external support, whether through federal agencies, industry partners, or philanthropic organizations.

Within the body of the proposal, please elaborate on your prior collaborative efforts, keeping in mind the following instructions :

• If you reference a previously declined proposal, please briefly summarize reviewer feedback and explain how Expanded SPROUT support will help you address those critiques, whether or not it leads directly to a resubmission in the near term.
• If you provided a link to a collaboratively published paper, please indicate how this funding will strengthen or expand this collaboration in ways that could support future proposal development.
• If your project was paused, please provide information, such as the notification from the agency (the stop-work order or email from the program director), with any indication of the extent of the delay.

Please provide information about your total budget. Expanded SPROUT awards will support one GRA for a full year, beginning August 2025, as well as eligible expenses up to $20,000.

The Expanded SPROUT cycle runs for a full year. Funds will be available from at the start of fall semester in August 2025 through the end of the summer term in 2026.

Applications must be received by June 1, 2025.