Career Development Awards are limited to full-time faculty at the rank of assistant professor (all title series are eligible including regular, research, clinical, and special) at UK, and is intended to support early-career investigators as they build their capacity to design and implement innovative, studies in environmental health sciences that will lead to NIEHS pilot and extramural funding. Post-doctoral trainees are not eligible for this award.

The Career Development Awards (up to $30,000 in total direct costs, plus 53 percent for facilities and administrative costs (F&A) for up to nine months) will be made on a competitive basis to support activities designed to grow the faculty member’s EHS program of research. It is anticipated that funds will be available for one to two awards depending on the number of meritorious applications and needs of the specific project.

If you are interested in applying, please visit the Career Development Program page on our website.

• Purpose: This award is to support community‐academic partnerships that address critical research needs identified by community partners. The research must address an environmental health issue of significance to Appalachia.
• Funding: The award amount is up to $10,000. The amount will be shared between the community‐academic partners to accomplish the goals of the project. This award could be in conjunction to the above awards to support the community partnerships.

The UK-CARES Pilot Project Program provides three funding opportunities.

Innovation and High Impact Award

• Purpose: This award is intended to stimulate innovation and to support pilot studies that will advance the field of environmental health sciences.
• Funding: This award is up to $50,000 in direct costs which must be spent over 12 months. If a community partner plans a key role in translational science, an additional amount of $5k may be requested to support the research led by the community partner.

Early STAGE/nEW TO ehs Award

• Purpose: This award is intended to support pilot studies by early stage investigators or those new to the field of environmental health sciences.
• Funding Support: The maximum award will be $25,000 in direct costs which must be spent over 12 months. If a community partner plans a key role in science, an additional amount of $5k may be requested to support the research lead by the community partner.

community-engaged research award

• Purpose: This award is to support community‐academic partnerships that address critical research needs identified by community partners. The research must address an environmental health issue of significance to Appalachia.
• Funding: The award amount is up to $10,000. The amount will be shared between the community‐academic partners to accomplish the goals of the project. This award could be in conjunction to the above awards to support the community partnerships.

UK-CARES Pilot Program offers Rapid Response Awards:

These awards are open throughout the year to enable researchers to respond to disasters, such as the flooding.  This funding is open to any UK faculty member who can address a research question related to extreme weather events or disasters and their impact on human health or patient care. Funding can also be used to support development of research-related tools,  technologies or design concepts that can be used to help those affected by extreme weather events or disasters. Investigators may request up to $10,000 in direct research costs. Projects must be completed by March 31, 2026. This award is intended to stimulate innovation and to support pilot studies that will lead to extramural funding.  Teams of faculty including an environmental health science expertise is preferred. Submissions will be reviewed and awards granted as applications are received; applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible because program funds might be depleted. Because of the short duration of these proposals, the required documentation such as IRB, IACUC, etc., must be in place at the time of submission. This mechanism will not fund clinical trials (NIH definition).  Please submit your application in REDCap here.