About: AGeS-Future

Typical award amount: Up to $18,000
Estimated number of awards: 7-10 each in 2023, 2025, and 2027
Deadline:  October 1, 2025. The AGeS-Future proposal submission portal will open on the AGeS-Future-How to Apply page approximately 2 months before the deadline.

Start date and duration of funded AGeS-Future projects: Projects funded in 2025 will have a project duration of Jan 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, during which all awarded funds should be expended.

Eligibility details:

• Proposals can be submitted by scientists anywhere in the U.S. (e.g., accredited colleges and universities, government agencies, national labs, other non-profit academic research institutions), including by those at the faculty, senior scientist, postdoctoral scientist, and graduate student levels. In addition to the lead-PI, it is an option for a co-PI to be included on the proposal.
• For the 2025 proposal cycle, 2023 DiG awardees are not eligible to apply for AGeS-Future funding.

Goals of AGeS-Future

• Provide new opportunities for engagement and education in geochronology to students who do not have easy access to geochronology data and training. The student group may be based anywhere in the U.S. at the undergraduate, community college, or high-school levels.
• Generate and test innovative ideas to expand student access to geochronology laboratories and training.
• Train future geochronologists and/or users of geochronology.

Program Overview

AGeS-Future provides support for scientists to engage, train, and educate student groups who do not have access to geochronology resources. The outcomes may position the awardees to successfully seek future support from funding agencies to continue and/or broaden their project’s scope. AGeS-Future projects should also inspire the next generation of earth scientists in STEM fields. Proposals should clearly: i) identify the student group(s) who will be engaged; ii) make the case that students of this group do not otherwise have ready access to geochronology, and therefore are appropriate to target with an AGeS-Future project; iii) outline how these students will be recruited to and selected for the project; iv) describe the mentoring/retention plan; and v) explain the science motivation for the project. Resources on inclusive practices for recruitment, selection, mentoring, and retention of students can be found on the AGeS Inclusive Community pages. Pre- and post-surveys will be conducted by the AGeS team as part of the AGeS evaluation activity of all students who participate in AGeS-Future projects.

Types of Projects Supported by AGeS-Future

Priority will be given to projects that: emphasize authentic research experiences, mentor two or more students, foster a cohort experience for participants, articulate an effective recruitment and mentoring/retention plan, and include a stipend for the student participants. Examples of possible AGeS-Future projects include but are not limited to: opportunities for student groups with little or no access to geochronology to visit labs in person to acquire data for project(s); training of an such groups in geochronology methods and remote data acquisition for a project; or other innovative concepts.