stephenturner Funding Opportunity Search
This skill performs a systematic web search for funding opportunities announced within the last ~7 days that are relevant to data science, artificial intelligence, computational science, statistics, and adjacent fields. The output is a formatted summary suitable for inclusion in a weekly research newsletter.
Context
The user is the Assistant Dean for Research at UVA's School of Data Science. Faculty research spans computational genomics, applied statistics, AI/ML, NLP, network science, computer vision, data ethics and policy, AI safety, biosecurity, digital twins, public health informatics, and responsible AI. Opportunities of interest include those funding research, training grants, infrastructure, workshops, and centers in these areas.
Search Strategy
Run web searches in three waves. Use today's date to anchor recency. For each search, include a time qualifier like "2026" or "this week" or "March 2026" (adjusted to the current date) to bias results toward recent announcements. Expect to run 10-20 searches total.
Wave 1: Federal Agency Announcements
Search for new solicitations from each of these agencies. Use queries like:
NSF new funding opportunity 2026orNSF dear colleague letter [current month] 2026NIH new RFA [current month] 2026orNIH notice of funding opportunity data scienceDOE funding opportunity announcement [current month] 2026DARPA broad agency announcement 2026ARPA-H funding opportunity 2026grants.gov new opportunities data science AI [current month] 2026USDA NIFA funding opportunity 2026NSF dear colleague letter 2026(DCLs often announce new priority areas)
Also search grants.gov directly for recent postings:
site:grants.gov artificial intelligence [current month] 2026site:grants.gov data science [current month] 2026
For NSF specifically, also check for new program solicitations:
site:nsf.gov new funding opportunity [current month] 2026site:nsf.gov program solicitation [current month] 2026
Use web_fetch on promising results pages (e.g., grants.gov search results, NSF new funding page) to extract details.
Wave 2: Foundations and Private Funders
Search for new opportunities from foundations known to fund data science, AI, and computational research:
Sloan Foundation new grant program 2026Schmidt Sciences funding opportunity 2026orSchmidt Futures RFP 2026Gates Foundation funding opportunity 2026Simons Foundation funding 2026Moore Foundation data science grant 2026Burroughs Wellcome Fund new program 2026Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funding 2026Hewlett Foundation grant opportunity 2026Templeton Foundation funding 2026MacArthur Foundation grant 2026Russell Sage Foundation RFP 2026Mellon Foundation grant 2026Carnegie Corporation grant 2026Google.org impact challenge 2026
Adjust the year and month to match the current date.
Wave 3: Aggregators and Broad Searches
Run broader searches to catch anything missed in Waves 1 and 2:
new funding opportunity artificial intelligence research [current month] 2026new grant data science research [current month] 2026new federal funding computational science 2026new RFP machine learning research 2026funding opportunity digital twins 2026funding opportunity AI safety 2026funding opportunity biosecurity bioinformatics 2026
Filtering
After collecting candidate opportunities, filter for:
- Recency: Only include opportunities announced or posted within approximately the last 7 days. If the posting date is unclear, include it but flag the uncertainty.
- Relevance: Include opportunities where a data science, AI, statistics, or computational science researcher could plausibly be PI or co-PI. Cast a reasonably wide net, but skip opportunities that are clearly outside scope (e.g., pure humanities with no computational angle, clinical trials with no data science component, equipment-only grants for wet labs).
- Deduplication: If the same opportunity appears in multiple searches, include it only once.
- New announcements only: Only include opportunities that were announced or posted within the last ~7 days. Do not include a "previously noted" or "still open" section for older opportunities. The goal is a clean list of what is new this week.
Output Format
Present results as a markdown list. For each opportunity, include:
- Funder and program name with a link to the solicitation
- One to three sentences describing what the program funds and why it may interest SDS faculty
- Funding amount if available (per-award range or total program budget)
- Deadline if available
- Posted/announced date if you can determine it
Use this template for each entry:
**[Program Name](URL)** (Funder)
Brief description of the opportunity and its relevance to data science faculty.
Amount: $X–$Y per award. Deadline: Month Day, Year.
Example output:
Pathways to Enable Secure Open-Source Ecosystems (PESOSE) (NSF) Supports translation of open-source science and engineering research products into sustainable ecosystems. Relevant to SDS faculty working on open-source software tools for data analysis, ML frameworks, or reproducible research infrastructure. Amount: up to $750,000. Deadline: September 1, 2026.
Science of Trustworthy AI (Schmidt Sciences) Funds technical research to understand, predict, and control risks from frontier AI systems. Directly relevant to SDS faculty in AI safety, responsible AI, and ML robustness. Amount: varies. Deadline: May 17, 2026.
Closing the Report
After listing all opportunities found, add a brief summary line stating how many new opportunities were found and the date range searched. If a search wave returned nothing new, say so. Example:
Found 8 new funding opportunities posted between March 19–26, 2026. Federal agency searches returned 5 results; foundation searches returned 3. No new DOE or ARPA-H solicitations were identified this week.
Always render results in the conversation first. Then save the same content to a markdown
file at /mnt/user-data/outputs/funding-opportunities-YYYY-MM-DD.md (using today's date)
and present it to the user so they can download it.
Important Notes
- Prioritize accuracy. If you cannot confirm a deadline or amount from the source, say "deadline TBD" or "amount not specified" rather than guessing.
- If a URL leads to a page that has been taken down or is behind a login wall, note this.
- Do not fabricate opportunities. Every entry must come from a real search result with a verifiable URL.
- When in doubt about relevance, include the opportunity with a note about which SDS research areas it might fit.