How to Find Funding
Internal Funding Opportunities
Programs Not Administered by Office of Research
Open Access Agreements & APC Waivers
OhioLINK has open-access (OA) publishing agreements with a number of publishers. This allows UToledo-affiliated authors to publish open access articles without paying Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Faculty Professional Development Fund
This program provides financial support for conference travel and professional engagement when departmental resources are limited—helping faculty grow, connect, and lead in their fields.
Find Funding Opportunities
InfoEd Global's SPINPlus
Create a profile to receive daily notices funding opportunities and save search criteria. For assistance with setting up your account, please contact Rick Francis at 419.530.2936.
Forget your password? Email Rick Francis and he can assist your with resetting it.
USA.gov
An A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies.
Grants.gov
Search for federal announcements, retrieve guidelines and instructions, and obtain application packages. Then sign up for automated notification of postings.
Instructions for setting up a Grants.gov account and using the Workspace tool.
Research.gov
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) centralized online platform for managing research grants and related activities. It provides a secure, user-friendly environment for researchers, institutions, and the public.
Ohio Humanities
Funding available through Ohio Humanities with guidelines and sample applications.
The Ohio Grants Partnership
State of Ohio's funding opportunities.
UToledo Lib Guides
UToledo librarians have created a number of library guides (Lib Guides) to share information. The linked Lib Guide focuses on finding funding resources.
Limited Submissions
A limited submission refers to a funding opportunity that places a limitation on the number of proposal or other applications a single eligible entity can submit each cycle. The University of Toledo has an internal selection process in place to determine which application(s) will be submitted to sponsors for consideration. The Office of Research oversees this process for the institution.
Contact LimitedSubmits@UToledo.Edu with questions.
Current Limited Submission Calls
Major Research Instrumentation Program - NSF
Program Summary
The Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program supports the acquisition or development of multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training at institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. MRI-supported instruments are generally too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs.
MRI provides support to acquire critical research instrumentation and to develop next-generation research instruments that open new opportunities to advance science and engineering research. MRI awards are also expected to enhance research training for students who will become future instrument users, designers, and builders.
Funding Request Amounts and Institutional Limits
An MRI proposal may request up to $4 million from NSF for either acquisition or development of a research instrument. Each performing organization may submit up to four MRI proposals within the track limits below.
Track 1
Greater than $100,000 and less than $1,400,000. Limited exceptions allow requests below $100,000 for eligible mathematics or social, behavioral, and economic sciences instrumentation, or for non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education requesting instrumentation in any NSF-supported disciplines. No more than 2 applications
Track 2
Greater than or equal to $1,400,000 and up to and including $4,000,000. No more than 1 application.
Track 3
Greater than or equal to $100,000 and less than or equal to $4,000,000 for purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment and instrumentation to conserve or reduce helium consumption. No more than 1 application.
Timeline
Internal deadline
Friday, September 4, 2026
NSF deadline
Anticipated Monday, November 16, 2026
Internal Application Materials
For your proposal to be considered for the campus selection process, please send the following as a single PDF attachment to limitedsubmits@utoledo.edu.
- Project title in the format required by NSF MRI guidelines (for example, “MRI: Acquisition of …” or “MRI: Development of …”).
- Cover page that lists the investigators and the MRI Track number.
- Project Summary, maximum 1 page, addressing Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.
- Project Description, maximum 3 pages, a high-level overview of the project describing the instrument, research and research-training uses, shared-use plan, broader impacts, and how the new or enhanced capability will support teaching, training, or learning.
- If previously submitted to NSF MRI: submit reviewer comments and scores as separate documents, plus one additional page explaining how the resubmission will address reviewer feedback.
- Management Plan, including instrument location, access management, infrastructure and technical expertise for effective use, and plans for operations and maintenance.
- Budget estimate, including the anticipated NSF request and any institutional or partner commitments if applicable.
External Funding Opportunities