About the Pitt Momentum Funds

In the 2019–2020 academic year, then Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Ann E. Cudd and Senior Vice Chancellor for Research (SVCR) Rob A. Rutenbar collaborated to enhance and streamline internal funding opportunities for faculty research while continuing to support high-quality research, scholarship, and creative endeavors.

The result was a jointly funded large-scale research development fund—the Pitt Momentum Funds—which restructured the University’s suite of internal funding programs (Central Research Development Fund, Social Science Research Initiative, and Special initiative to Promote Scholarly Activities in the Humanities) and added a new SVCR/Provost Fund to provide allocations for research projects based on field of study and scope or size of project team.

To kickoff new funding cycles, the Internal Funding Showcase event provides awardees a venue to share their work and receive recognition for their research findings, as well as engage with researchers from across the University.

 

Awarded Pitt Momentum Funds

To showcase the achievements of our research community at Pitt, the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research built a dashboard to show all of the interdisciplinary projects awarded from around the University and our regional campuses as part of the Pitt Momentum Funds awards since 2019. This dashboard is meant to be interactive so researchers, faculty, staff and students can see what awards were made between different schools, centers and institutions. Clicking on a line (branch) between nodes (entities) will reveal all awarded Pitt Momentum Funds for that relationship over the years.

 

Pitt Momentum Fund Grants by Interdisciplinary Scholarship Projects Receive Internal Funding at Pitt

Awards are made across the breadth of interdisciplinary scholarship at the University, and all eligible faculty are encouraged to propose new, innovate ideas that can contribute meaningful insight, understanding, or solutions to societal challenge

Teamed projects are reviewed by multidisciplinary faculty panels and individual projects are reviewed by one of four committees:

  • Creative Arts, Performing Arts & Humanities
  • Engineering, Technology, Natural Sciences, and Mathematical Sciences
  • Health & Life Sciences
  • Social Sciences, which includes Business, Policy, Law, Education, Informatics, and Social Work

 

  • Arts & Humanities Microgrants (specific for faculty in the Arts and Humanities)
    The support existing projects, works-in-progress, or test the feasibility of a larger grant idea. Awards are for $3,000 for one year.

    • Spring 2024 applications are due by March 8, 2024, 5 PM.

  • Scaling Grants ($400,000)
    • 2-year term with an award cap of $400,000. Scaling grants enable multi-disciplinary teams to competitively scale their research efforts in targeted pursuit of large-scale external funding.
  • Teaming Grants ($60,000)
    •   1-year term with an award cap of $60,000. Teaming grants support the formation of new multi-disciplinary collaborations to successfully pursue large-scale external funding.
  • Priming Grants ($25,000)
    • 1-year term with an award cap of $25,000. Priming (formerly Seeding) grants support significant and innovative scholarship by individual or groups of faculty at all ranks at the University of Pittsburgh, with a particular focus on early career faculty and areas where external funding is extremely limited.
Apply to Pitt Momentum Funds

Prep for Next Year: View Pitt Momentum Funds Info Session Video

As researchers, there's a desire to understand how to approach a new way of doing research. The Pitt Momentum Funds provide internal funding for Pitt researchers to explore the biggest problems facing them in their fields of expertise. See below for a previously recorded Info Session for the Pitt Momentum Funds and start planning your next big research project. 

An overview of the program including eligibility, proposal submission guidelines and deadlines, evaluation criteria, proposal review and award procedures, and participation requirements is available through Pitt’s Office of Sponsored Programs. The application, along with downloadable program guidelines and a budget template, can be accessed at the Competition Space. A list of FAQs is also available. 

Pitt Momentum Fund Awardees Archive

The Pitt Momentum Funds provides internal funding for researchers at Pitt to work on interdisciplinary research projects of varying scope.

Momentum Funds 2022-23 Winners
Momentum Funds 2021-22 Winners
Momentum Funds 2020-21 Winners
Momentum Funds 2019-20 Winners