The Collaborative Research Grant program, jointly organized by RI Commerce, RI Science and Technology Advisory Council, and RI NSF EPSCoR, provides funding to projects that focus on building research capacity across institutions and advancing the competitiveness of RI researchers to secure additional funding.
Grants are also awarded to projects that contribute to current or future economic development of the state through technology development and commercialization or contribute to infrastructure development that significantly advances the competitiveness of scientists in Rhode Island to secure additional funding.
2026 Call for Proposals
A total of $500,000 in competitive funding is available in this round. Eligible projects for the 2026 Call for Proposals are those that enhance RI’s competitiveness in ocean technology and coastal sciences. Proposals aimed at accelerating discoveries that catalyze the transition to commercialization and user application of novel advances in ocean sensors, ecosystem modeling, and marine science are encouraged.
Proposals addressing the following topics are also encouraged, including those that support the organizational infrastructure for science teams managing or competing for NSF EPSCoR E-RISE proposals.
- Creating novel approaches to understand the quantity, composition, and impact of nano and/or microplastics in complex marine environments, as well as developing innovative approaches to:
- Model the fate and transport of nano and microplastics within the Narragansett Bay ecosystem
- Elucidate trophic-level pathways and/or human impacts of plastic pollution across Rhode Island’s coastal aquatic ecosystems.
- Collecting or curation of new and historical observations of Rhode Island’s waterways, including the development of visualizations of regional data suitable for websites, dashboards, and/or museums.
- Advancement of sediment transport models that simulate erosion-accretion.
- Development of extreme weather event models and concurrent atmospheric transport models.
Please consult the Collaborative Research Grant Guidelines for complete instructions on preparing proposals prior to submission. View 2025 Collaborative Research Grant awardees.
Deadlines
- Letter of Intent – Monday, January 5, 2025, 5pm ET
- Full Proposal – Monday, March 2, 2026, 5 pm ET (If LOI is selected)
The Letter of Intent should be submitted by email to riresearchalliance@commerceri.com. Submissions are timestamped at the end of the response process, which includes the time it takes to upload your files and verify that all data fields are complete. Submissions that are timestamped after each deadline will be invalid. Applicants must log in to submit application.
RI NSF EPSCoR is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under EPSCoR Cooperative Agreements #OIA-2433276 and in part by the RI Commerce Corporation via the Science and Technology Advisory Committee [STAC]. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation, the RI Commerce Corporation, STAC, our partners or our collaborators.