Funding, News and Announcements

The ACS Office of Research Grants will be accepting proposals for Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) grants to support fundamental research in the petroleum field.  

Proposals must be directed to fundamental petroleum research including fundamental research related to petroleum derived materials in one of ten specified subject matter areas. However, please note that while the PRF Trust imposes certain restrictions, PRF currently funds many topics of current interest in sustainability and green chemistry.   

These include, for example, new catalysts and upgrading/utilization of methane and carbon dioxide. Interested individuals are encouraged to contact a PRF program officer or prfinfo@acs.org for more information regarding areas of supported research.

Grant programs are available for new professors beginning their first tenure track position, and also for established tenured or tenure track professors pursuing a new research direction.  

Separate grant programs are available for qualified professors in non-doctoral departments. Further, in a recently approved change, the eligibility period for Undergraduate New Investigator Grants in non-doctoral institutions has been extended to five years from beginning date of first tenure track appointment.  

Additionally, beginning with proposals submitted in this Spring 2023 submission window, the value of the ND (New Direction) grant is being raised from $110,000 to $125,000. 

Submission Process

Applications are made through a web-based portal and additional information may be found at www.acsprf.org.

A grant proposal submission through the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) Portal includes a two-step registration process:

• Step 1) ACS User ID registration, and
• Step 2) PRF Pre- Registration. 

You are advised to obtain your ACS ID and submit your PRF Portal Registration form in advance of the proposal submission period since access must be approved by PRF. Please do not hesitate to contact PRFSupport@acs.org if you have any questions regarding access to the PRF Portal.

Note: The ACS ID system is not administered by PRF, is free of charge and does not create any obligation to ACS. If you already have an ACS ID, you can bypass Step 1.

Deadlines

The internal deadline for applications is February 24, 2023. For questions regarding internal procedure, contact ird@dal.ca. 

Funder deadline is March 10 at 6pm AST. Contact email is PRFSupport@acs.org.