Eligibility
Purpose
This award provides a post-doctoral fellow/associate or faculty who have started their position no earlier than August 2025 who plans to launch an independent research career in academia, funds to support a post-doctoral associate/fellow for two years once their new research group is launched.
Description
Building a productive research group as a new faculty member in chemistry and engineering is highly challenging. To that end, the support available to a faculty member in the first two years is critical to developing the foundation for a robust research program that attracts grant funding, provides holistic training and mentorship to graduate students, and contributes to the culture of the department and the professional community. In recognition of this need, the ACS Early Career Postdoctoral-Faculty Bridge Grant provides support at this crucial junction in the form of a salary for a postdoctoral fellow/associate, who can both help launch the new research lab and gain invaluable experience in the process that can be applied to their own ability to launch an independent career in the future. To ensure meaningful mentorship for the postdoctoral fellow/associate, the award stipulates that the new PI will participate in ACS-based training in green chemistry education and mentorship. This grant mechanism is synergistic with the ACS P2F workshop, which provides critical training to a select group of postdoctoral fellows/associates from around the country.
The program will grant multiple awards in January 2027. The award supports the salary, benefits, and travel of a postdoctoral fellow that the grantee will hire for a two-year period. The sum is capped at $125,000. No overhead cost may be charged, which includes secretarial and/or administrative salaries. Funds may not be used to support laboratory technicians, contractors, consultants, or visiting faculty. Awardees who are postdoctoral fellows/associates will receive a letter of award stating that the funds will be disbursed in the first three months following the start date of the faculty appointment. Note that the funds can only be dispersed to the university in which the awardee is a faculty member and that there is a time limit of two years (end of 2029) in which the funds can be held by the ACS for the awardee before it is no longer available for dispersal. In the case of awardees who have already secured a faculty position or have started their position since August 2025, the funds will be disbursed as soon as possible.
How to Apply
Application submission opens on July 13, 2026 (12:01 a.m. ET).
Deadline
5:00 p.m. ET, September 18, 2026
Eligibility
- Applicants (of any nationality) must currently hold a postdoctoral fellow or associate position at a U.S. institution (university, national laboratory, or company). Other eligible applicants may also include those who have secured a faculty position (but have not started), or in their faculty position no earlier than August 2025, at a U.S. Ph.D.-granting university.
- Applicants must not have exceeded 5 years, in total, of being a postdoctoral fellow/associate position in any number of universities or institutions.
- Applicants must be planning to pursue a faculty position in a U.S. Ph.D.-granting institution.
- Applicants must anticipate launching an independent research career focusing on green and sustainable chemistry.
- For applicants that are postdoctoral fellows/associates, this grant is not intended to fund your own postdoctoral research.
- The grant is intended for applicants applying for or are on tenure-track professor streams, and not for the non-tenure research professor stream.
To accept the award, applicants must commit to:
- Participating in a teacher-training workshop in green chemistry.
- Teaching either one undergraduate or graduate course in green chemistry and sustainability, or a chemistry course that explicitly incorporates green chemistry in their faculty post.
Funding Criteria
The award committee makes relative rankings of proposals and recommendations for funding on the basis of the following criteria (in order of importance):
- The relevance of the proposed research of the PI to green and sustainable chemistry.
- Novelty, overall quality, significance, and scientific merit of the proposed research, including the extent to which it will increase basic knowledge and/or stimulate additional research.
- Research track record of the applicant and its applications related to green and sustainable chemistry.
- Evidence of dedication and passion for teaching, with emphasis on green and sustainable chemistry.
More information here.