Pitt Momentum Funds

The Pitt Momentum Funds is a large-scale research development fund that resulted from a collaboration between the then-Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Ann E. Cudd (2018-23) and Senior Vice Chancellor for Research Rob A. Rutenbar. It aims to enhance and streamline internal funding opportunities for faculty research and support high-quality research and creative endeavors. The fund restructured the University’s internal funding programs to provide allocations for research projects based on field of study and scope of the project team.

The Internal Funding Showcase event was introduced to kickoff new funding cycles, providing a venue for awardees to share their work, receive recognition for their research findings and engage with researchers from across the University.

View the Pitt Momentum Funds 2024 Award ees >>

Types of Grants

Awards are made across the breadth of interdisciplinary scholarship at the University, and all eligible faculty are encouraged to propose new, innovative 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

1-year term with an award cap of $3,000. A&H Microgrants are specific for faculty in the Arts and Humanities to support existing projects, works-in-progress, or test the feasibility of a larger grant idea.
Fall 2024 applications are due by October 21, 2024, 12 p.m.

Priming Grants

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.
Fall 2024 Expressions of Interest are due by September 27, 2024, 12 p.m.

Teaming Grants

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. For scholarly communities where $60K is considered a large award, a Teaming Grant may propose a 2-year project timeline.
Fall 2024 Expressions of Interest are due by September 27, 2024, 12 p.m.

Scaling Grants

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.
Fall 2024 Expressions of Interest are due by September 27, 2024, 12 p.m.

Note: There is no requirement for awardees of Scaling Grants to have previously won Teaming Grants, and, similarly, there is no requirement for awardees of Teaming Grants to subsequently apply for Scaling Grants.

Eligibility

Applicants must be full-time faculty members at the University of Pittsburgh. Eligible appointment stream faculty must have research as their core responsibility.
Please note that only faculty or eligible community partners may be listed as co-investigators on PMF applications. Undergraduate, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research associates, or visiting (non-permanent) faculty members may participate in funded PMF projects.
Awardees from the immediate previous funding cycle may not apply to the same grant-type they were awarded funds for previously (e.g., Teaming grant awardees from FY24 cannot apply for a Teaming grant in FY25). This applies to all PMF award types.
Please refer to the individual Award Guidelines to see eligibility restrictions for specific award types:

Pitt Momentum Funds Frequently Asked Questions

View Frequently Asked Questions about the Pitt Momentum Funds

Pitt Momentum Funds Info Session Video

The Pitt Momentum Funds provide internal funding for Pitt researchers to explore the biggest problems facing them in their fields of expertise.

For more information, please watch the following informational session.

During this session, we discuss eligibility, proposal submission guidelines and deadlines, evaluation criteria, proposal review and award procedures, and participation requirements. The session will be recorded and made available. If you have more questions, please email PMF-Info@pitt.edu.

Pitt Momentum Funds Timeline

Below is a table that outlines the timeline for the 2024-25 Pitt Momentum Funds.

August 2024	PMF 2024-25 Awards Announced
September 3 & 4, 2024	Virtual Information Sessions with Pitt's OSVCR and Office of the Provost
September 27, 2024	Deadline to submit required EOI for Priming, Teaming & Scaling Awards
October 21, 2024	Deadline to submit applications for Art & Humanities Microgrants (fall session)
November 1, 2024	Deadline to submit applications for Priming, Teaming & Scaling Awards
January 2025	Pitch session for Teaming & Scaling Awards
February 2025	PMF Priming, Teaming & Scaling awardees announced
February 14, 2025	InfoReady Application Portal Opens for Spring Microgrants
March 28, 2025	Deadline to submit applicaitons for Spring Microgrants
April 2025	Microgrants awardees announced

Pitt Momentum Funds Awardees Archive