The President's Research Excellence (PRE) program provides seed support to catalyze and accelerate multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or convergent research teams pursuing external funding. Administered by the Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge (ERIK), the program awards up to $2.5 million per year through two tiers of grants.
- Accelerator grants of up to $50,000 for 12-month projects are awarded to small teams of 2-3 investigators from two or more distinct disciplinary perspectives that are formed to pursue curiosity-driven, high-risk, high-reward, pilot-scale research towards an identified proposal target.
- Catalyst grants of $150,000 - $300,000 for up to 24-month projects are awarded to medium or large teams of 3-5 investigators representing three or more distinct disciplinary perspectives that are formed to pursue high-impact research towards an identified national-leadership level or highly strategically significant proposal target.
Proposal Process, Requirements and Deadlines
Accelerator Grants
During the Fall semester, proposals are being accepted for Accelerator projects, with awarded projects beginning on January 1, 2026. Applications in any topic area are invited. Space and/or defense-related research topics, which can span nearly every discipline and encompass approaches from fundamental to applied, are encouraged.
Successful teams will make a compelling case for the merit of the proposed research in terms of anticipated scientific, technological or societal impacts that will result. All PRE proposals will be reviewed and scored using 4 criteria: merit; impact; team; and budget.
Accelerator Timeline
- September 10, 2025 - Call for Proposals released (name.# login required)
- September 18, 2025 – PRE Accelerator Informational Briefing at 11 a.m. (optional) - RSVP
- September 26, 2025 - Required Letters of Intent due, via this form
- October 24, 2025 - Full proposals due (name.# login required)
- December 10, 2025 - Decisions announced
- January 1, 2026 – Accelerator Project period start
- December 31, 2026 - Accelerator Projects end
Teams seeking Accelerator funding must complete a mandatory Letter of Intent (LOI) by Friday, September 26, 2025. The LOI, submitted online, must include the project name, team and a 250-word or less abstract summarizing the proposed research challenge and its significance along with expected research deliverables. Letters of Intent will be reviewed by Research Development staff for compliance.
General Project Requirements
- The lead PI must be an Ohio State faculty member. Co-PIs can be faculty, research staff or post-docs from intellectually distinct disciplines. External collaborators are permitted, but do not count towards team composition requirements and cannot be supported with project funds.
- PI or Co-PI may only be named on one PRE Accelerator or Catalyst active project and proposal at a time. Those already serving on another PRE project can be a team member on another project but not a PI or Co-PI. Review the list of those currently on an active project before submitting.
- Funded projects are required to submit an external funding proposal by the end of the grant period or the closest, next deadline for the opportunity(ies) identified in the proposal.
- A final report and a copy of the submitted external funding proposal are required at the conclusion project.
Budget Information
PRE funding may be requested to support project-specific expenses including:
- Project-specific consumable research materials and supplies
- Project-specific facility user or service center fees, subject payments (with approved IRB), or other contractual costs
- Project-specific personnel support, not to exceed 60% of total requested funds, to support student stipends and required tuition/fees and/or salary and benefits for staff scientist(s) and/or post doc(s)
- Project-specific travel to meet with external collaborators, sponsors, or to host collaborator meetings on campus (campus costs only; no travel support for non-Ohio State personnel)
Funds cannot be used to support or supplement:
- faculty salaries
- travel to conventional academic meetings or conferences
- publication costs
- support of external collaborators on the project