Funding
Funding Opportunities for Faculty and Students
Research Funding
LiMC2 supports researchers with internal funding and assembles teams to pursue external funding.
Funding for Professional Development
The International Partnership for Responsive Infrastructure using Sustainable Multifunctional Materials (iPRISM), funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF), is an 8 week international research internship that aims to improve the construction, performance, and maintenance of buildings.
Internal Funding Opportunities
The LiMC² Concept Catalyst Fund
A rapid, low-barrier pathway for individual PIs to test bold new ideas and generate early proof-of-concept results.
The LiMC² Concept Catalyst Fund is designed to support bold, early-stage research ideas led by individual PIs that have not yet received external or internal funding and are not yet ready for larger or team-based seed programs. The program provides rapid, low-barrier support for materials, supplies, undergrad researcher wage and/or computational resources needed to demonstrate initial feasibility or generate preliminary results.
This fund is intentionally lightweight and exploratory in nature, enabling investigators to test new directions, de-risk innovative concepts, and position ideas for future collaborative seed grants or external funding opportunities. By lowering the activation energy for innovation, the Concept Catalyst Fund aims to catalyze creative exploration, generate preliminary results, and accelerate the transition of promising ideas into collaborative LiMC² seed projects.
How to Apply
Eligibility
- Open to all LiMC²-affiliated individual PIs
- Ideas must be new, exploratory, and not previously funded (internally or externally)
- Projects must be clearly positioned as pre-seed and not yet ready for team-based or interdisciplinary seed programs
Application Materials (up to 500 words)
- Brief Statement of Work
- The core idea and motivation
- Why this represents a new or high-risk direction
- What meaningful preliminary results could look like
- How this effort could position the idea for future LiMC² seed or external funding
- Ballpark Budget (up to 40 words)
- Approximate funding request
- Use of funds limited to materials, supplies, wage payroll and/or computational costs
Submission Process
- Submit applications here
- Rolling submissions pending availability of funds
LiMC² Seed Grant: Advancing Living Multifunctional Materials
The LiMC² Seed Grant Program will support early-stage, transdisciplinary projects that advance engineered living multifunctional materials. Proposals are expected to align with the Center’s research themes, including:
- Living Engineered and Bio-Sourced Materials
- Adaptive Architecture & Infrastructure
- Advanced Manufacturing of Hybrid Systems
- Systems-Level Design & Applications
These grants are designed to spark innovative collaborations, generate preliminary results, and position teams for larger external funding. Full Request for Proposals coming October 2025.
MRI Funding Opportunities Launching October 2025
This October, the Materials Research Institute will open its Seed Grant Programs to spark new interdisciplinary collaborations and advance bold research directions. The Interdisciplinary Seed Grants (up to $50,000) will support high-risk, high-impact projects in MRI’s strategic areas—Materials Sustainability and Energy-Efficient Processing, Digital/Additive Manufacturing for Healthcare, Critical Materials Innovation, and Living Multifunctional Materials. Complementing this, the Transdisciplinary Teaming Initiative (up to $20,000) will help visionary teams form new partnerships across colleges and campuses as they prepare competitive large-scale proposals. Together, these programs reinforce MRI’s commitment to catalyzing transformative research that addresses pressing global challenges.
External Funding Opportunities
LiMC² brings together interdisciplinary teams of Penn State faculty and collaborators across institutions to pursue bold, convergent research initiatives in living and multifunctional materials, spanning bioinspired design, adaptive systems, and sustainable manufacturing. The center facilitates team formation, supports proposal development from concept to submission, and strategically aligns efforts with major external funding opportunities. Check here for upcoming opportunities to collaborate and compete for large-scale, high-impact awards.