UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State faculty researchers from any campus or combination of campuses are encouraged to apply to the Communication, Science, and Society Initiative (CSSI) for its Fund Opportunity 2025, which focuses on human-environment interaction.
Funded projects will run through June 2027 and explore the relationships between humans and the environment. The initiative seeks research aligned with one or more of the Strategic Research Priorities identified by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
“The CSSI grants offer funding with very rapid turnaround in the submission process,” said CSSI Director James Dillard, distinguished professor of communication arts and sciences. “We are hoping to make awards that will crystallize teams right away and move them into problem-solution mode as quickly as possible.”
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the ethical, social and practical dimensions of environmental issues, such as managing invasive species, air quality and ecological health, human migration, and vaccine-preventable disease in rural communities.
Interdisciplinary teams are required, with preference given to projects that foster multidisciplinary collaborations between the life sciences, social sciences and/or humanities, and especially those addressing the intersection of communication, science and society.
Awardees will present their work at an on-campus symposium in Fall 2026. Projects will be supported with the expectation that they lead to proposals submitted to the Huck seed grant program or the Social Science Research Institute’s Level 2 funding program.
More information on eligibility, guidelines and the submission process is available under the "Collaborate" tab on the CSSI website. Proposals will be accepted beginning Oct. 1 and considered on a rolling basis until funds are depleted.