News for CHSS Researchers (New!)

Mason's Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact will be offering an NSF CAREER Writing Program, which is designed to strengthen faculty competitiveness for the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program through a structured writing process, targeted mentorship, and access to grant writing resources. Registration is required.

COSSA will be hosting its 2026 Social Science Advocacy Day March 23-24, 2026, in Washington, DC. Social Science Advocacy Day brings together social and behavioral scientists and science advocates from across the country to engage with policymakers in Congress about issues important to our community, such as federal funding.

Qualtrics will be hosting several virtual training events this December including a Learn Qualtrics Live and Qualtrics AI: Getting Started with Core Features. Registration is required.

Headlines is a webinar series that helps keep COSSA member organizations apprised of the latest policy developments affecting social scientists and shares information on timely and emerging issues. COSSA will host its final webinar of 2025 on December 10, which will cover key policy developments and congressional activity that affected the social and behavioral sciences in 2025 and preview what’s ahead for 2026.

Faculty Research and Development Awards (FRDA), funded by CHSS, are short-term awards that are designed to help tenured and tenure-track faculty initiate new programs of research and scholarship or enhance existing ones. The application portal will open in January 2026. Complete applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on February 13, 2026, using the Submittable platform.

CHSS Research has partnered with University Libraries to provide an easily understandable "Guide to Navigating the Public Access Policy and How to Post Publications to PubMed Central." This guide provides important information on the new requirements for publishing articles that are federally funded.

George Mason University’s Office of Research Innovation and Economic Impact (ORIEI) invites the George Mason Community to learn about academic unit and university wide resources to support research, scholarship, and creative activity. ORIEI will host two events on January 14, 2026 that will deliver strategic guidance, insider expertise, and personalized support to make your research more competitive—and your next proposal more successful.

Do you need to be added to the Research Development listserv? The Research Development listserv is a great tool created by George Mason's Research Development Office where you can find out about limited submission funding opportunities.

The CHSS Pre-Award Winter Break internal deadline for submitting proposals is December 5th, close of business, for all proposals that are due to sponsors between December 19 and January 9.

Mason Enterprise will be hosting From Lab to Market: Navigating University Technology Licensing, an online practical workshop designed to help faculty members, researchers, and aspiring entrepreneurs understand how academic innovations move into the marketplace on November 19 at noon. Registration is required.

The Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Impact (ORIEI) Research Development Services, in collaboration with George Mason University Libraries, is developing a central resource of successful grant applications for all academic units. These grants will be stored on a private Open Science Framework platform. Only users approved by Research Development will be allowed to access grant documents.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is pleased to announce an opportunity for faculty to seek nomination to participate in the NHC's summer residency program that will be held June 1–26, 2026. Interested scholars must submit required information to CHSS by November 7 to be considered for nomination.

The National Humanities Alliance will be hosting a virtual advocacy training at 3 p.m. on November 13 that will review the appropriations process, give a funding overview of humanities policy priorities, and examine key ways on how you can have an advocacy impact for the humanities.

The updated National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy (NOT-OD-25-047) officially went into effect on July 1 (NOT-OD-25-101), for all applicable manuscripts, reflecting NIH's commitment to advancing public access to its funded research.

Due to the university's Thanksgiving closure, the CHSS internal deadline is November 12 for proposals that are due November 26–28. The Office of Sponsored Programs plans to submit all proposals due over Thanksgiving break by November 24.

The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans provides merit-based funding for new Americans, immigrants and children of immigrants, who are poised to make significant contributions to United States culture, society, and academia.

The Folger Institute in Washington, D.C., will offer several programs in spring 2026, including Early Modern Numeracy, directed by George Mason professor Jessica Otis. The application deadline for the spring 2026 programs is October 20.

Effective October 10, all faculty who plan to submit grant proposals to the NSF must complete research security training modules before submitting a proposal. The Research Security Training is designed to raise awareness of, and protect against, external threats and risks to U.S.-funded research that supports research activities at George Mason.

As we start a new year, we want to remind faculty to please use the CHSS Pre-Award Request for Proposal Assistance Form to start your proposal process.

Are you looking to elevate your research but struggling to find the right funding opportunities—or not sure where to start? Don’t let funding challenges hold back your innovative ideas! Fill out our Finding Funding Opportunities Meeting Request Form or check out our website to start working with our Pre-Award Research Administrators today.

Study leaves for term instructional faculty support professional development initiatives designed to advance scholarly research, teaching, and/or creative activity, including the development of innovative teaching approaches and methods. Applications for the 2026–2027 academic year must be submitted by October 10 at 5 p.m.

Study leaves for tenured instructional faculty, funded by the provost, provide paid leave during one semester or academic year to support scholarly research, teaching, and/or creative activity. Applications for study leave for the 2026–2027 academic year must be submitted by October 10 at 5 p.m.

We are pleased to announce that the Dean’s Office will offer an Introduction to Research Administration for faculty who are new to grants or are seeking a refresher about CHSS grant procedures. The session will take place via Zoom on February 11 at 11:30 a.m.

Faculty Research and Development Awards (FRDA), funded by CHSS, are short-term awards that are designed to help tenured and tenure-track faculty initiate new programs of research and scholarship or enhance existing ones. NEW in AY 2024-25, FRDA applications will be submitted online using Mason's new internal grants platform from WizeHive. Applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on February 14.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) from the Office of Research Integrity and Assurance (ORIA) has announced a new initiative to populate records in RAMP called "RAMP Transition by IRB." This new process, created based on feedback from researchers, involves the RAMP/ORIA team automatically transitioning the most recently approved documents from IRBNet on behalf of PIs.