News for CHSS Researchers (New!)

The new Data Management and Sharing Plans (DMSP) templates will go into effect in April and May. Help is available from the University Libraries, which have updated their research guides to reflect these changes.

Dr. Blair LM Kelly was installed as the seventh president and director of the National Humanities Center (NHC), located in Durham, North Carolina, in March of 2026. Additionally, the 2026 Summer Residents have been announced and include CHSS faculty Tamara Harvey and Jacqueline M. Burek.

Hanover Research supports colleges and universities with research development, grant writing, and strategic advising. George Mason faculty, staff, students and administrators have access to Hanover’s Grants Learning Center. Hanover Research will be hosting two webinars this spring on grant writing and effective research translation.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently hosted a webinar that discussed their purpose, some funding priorities, and grant writing tips. For 2026, unless specified otherwise in the NOFO/program, the NEH will prioritize projects that research American history and the culture and Western civilization.

The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) Program is a unique Fulbright Scholar Program initiative that is driven by U.S. institutions of higher education curriculum and teaching needs. Fulbright Scholar Program will host upcoming webinars in April and May to provide additional information about the program and competition. Deadline to apply to the Fulbright S-I-R Program is June 1, 2026.

Recent and upcoming Virginia graduate students (master's/PhD) are invited to apply for the 2026 Commonwealth Coastal & Marine Policy Fellowship sponsored by Virginia Sea Grant, the Virginia Environmental Endowment, and the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program. Application deadline is May 1.

The American Council on Education (ACE) Women’s Network Virginia will be holding its 2026 Annual State Conference, “Navigating Rough Waters,” on June 5 at Fuse at Mason Square in Arlington. The ACE Women's Network Virginia is seeking proposals for the 2026 Annual State Conference that will engage women leaders in higher education and help build their networks in times of uncertainty, challenge, and change.

CHSS recognizes the value of faculty participation at prestigious international conferences and has established a fund to help defray a portion of the travel costs for international overseas conference participation.

OSP has recently made some updates to the internal requirements for research security, including Malign Foreign Talent Program certification for all federal research proposals and research security training in MasonLeaps.

Universities nationwide are currently reporting technical hurdles with the new SciENcv biographical sketch requirement for federal applications. CHSS Pre-Award has provided some guidance to ensure your NIH application doesn't run into any issues!

CHSS Faculty Research Development Awards (FRDA) provide seed funding ($10,000–$15,000) for projects that position faculty to be more competitive when applying for external grant or fellowship funding. The project period is May 1, 2026–August 31, 2027. Complete applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on February 13, using the Submittable (formerly WizeHive) platform.

CHSS Pre-Award is excited to kick off 2026! The new PRA form has been updated and is now live, and the Finding Funding Opportunities (FFO) form is available for any faculty who would like some extra help finding alternative funding opportunities.

The National Science Foundation recently announced upcoming changes that may impact grant submission, including research security training modules and supplemental policy changes to the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedure Guide.

There are several NIH changes coming in 2026 including adoption of the Common Forms for all Biosketches and Current and Pending (Other) Support, new Research Security Training requirements (available in Mason LEAPS), and the removal of requirements for Letters of Intent (LOIs) and requirements for $500k or more in direct costs on unsolicited applications.

As we approach the end of 2025, the CHSS Pre-Award team would like to thank the faculty, students, and staff who have partnered with the CHSS Pre-Award team with proposal submissions.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has published a notice on their website that anticipates a late spring application deadline for their fellowship programs: NEH Fellowships and NEH Fellowship for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan.

The Research Affiliate Program at the Center for Advancement of Well-Being (CWB) offers a collaborative community for George Mason University faculty, research staff, and graduate students to share new knowledge and opportunities relating to well-being research. Fostering this network of scholars enables CWB to better advance, support, and celebrate interdisciplinary well-being research across the university.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.