May 2026 Announcements

From DELTA:

• Jessie Sova, assistant vice provost for finance and business at DELTA and NC State Continuing and Lifelong Education, has been honored by UPCEA (the online and professional education association) with the 2026 Business and Operations Award for Operational Excellence. UPCEA is the leading national association for online and professional education, and this award represents one of the highest individual honors in the field. Sova was formally recognized before a national audience of her peers at the 2026 UPCEA Annual Conference held this April in New Orleans.
• When Jodi Driedger, director of undergraduate programs in NC State’s Department of Horticulture Science, approached the DELTA Grants team, she had a clear problem with no simple solution.​

Students in HS 201 (The World of Horticulture: Principles and Practices) struggled to engage with the material on plant nutrition. It was dense, visual and technical – depending heavily on memorization and static images. Even strong students found it difficult to move from identifying symptoms to diagnosing underlying issues. While the course worked, it didn’t “stick.”

Enter the DELTA Grants team. What began as a search for better instructional tools evolved into a fully immersive, digital case-based experience where students solve plant “murders.” Learn more.

From the Office for Faculty Excellence:

• Join the OFE team! We are looking to fund ten Office for Faculty Excellence Faculty Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year. Each fellowship begins August 17, 2026, and ends May 14, 2027. Some positions may have the possibility for renewal through a second year.

In addition to submitting the application form, all prospective fellows must provide a letter of support from their department head. These letters should be emailed to Jonathan Holloway (jphollow@ncsu.edu).

From the Office of Global Engagement:

• NC State proudly recognized its 2024-25 cohort of Chancellor’s Study Abroad Scholarship recipients at a reception held in April at Talley Student Union’s Ocracoke Ballroom. The event recognized more than 50 students who participated in study abroad programs over the past academic year and celebrated the growth that came out of their unique global experiences.

The Chancellor’s Study Abroad Scholarship is the university’s most prestigious award for global learning. Funded through institutional support and donor contributions, the scholarship provides critical financial assistance to students who may not otherwise have access to international education, empowering them to engage more deeply with the world beyond campus.

• The longstanding partnership between NC State and Nagoya University continues to open new pathways for global research collaboration. The NC State – Nagoya University Collaborative Seed Grant program supports interdisciplinary projects that spark new ideas and build lasting research partnerships. With a history spanning 40 years, this initiative is designed to catalyze innovative work that leads to publications, external funding opportunities and expanded academic and industry engagement.

For the 2026 cycle, proposals are invited around the theme of resilience during periods of significant change. Priority areas include:

• Emerging technologies, data and advanced materials
• Climate transitions and community resilience
• Evolving cultures and societal landscapes

Up to two projects will be funded, with support for travel, workshops and collaborative research activities. Eligibility is open to full-time faculty and research professionals at NC State and full-time faculty at Nagoya University. Application deadline: May 21 at 5 p.m.

• The University Global Partnership Network Research Collaboration Fund is now open for proposals. This global initiative brings together NC State, Universidade de São Paulo, University of Surrey and University of Wollongong to support high-impact, transdisciplinary research collaborations.

For 2026, the call focuses on advancing clean and reliable energy solutions, with an emphasis on projects that:

• Address global challenges aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals
• Foster interdisciplinary and international collaboration
• Engage early-career faculty and researchers

Funding of up to $10,000 per institution is available for bilateral and trilateral projects, supporting research activities, travel and collaboration across partner universities. Projects should contribute to both academic and societal impact, from peer-reviewed publications and external funding proposals to policy engagement and community-focused outcomes.

Key dates: 

• Submission deadline: May 29
• Award notifications: July 24

Eligibility is open to full-time faculty and eligible research professionals across UGPN member institutions.

• NC State is expanding opportunities for global learning right here on campus. The Office of Global Engagement’s Advancing Global Learning at Home grant supports innovative faculty and staff projects that bring international perspectives and global skills development directly to NC State students in Raleigh.

With awards of up to $5,000, this funding encourages initiatives that:

• Integrate global and intercultural content into courses and curricula
• Create new globally focused co-curricular or campus-based experiences
• Foster engagement between international and domestic students
• Explore innovative formats such as virtual exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning

Projects may take place in person or virtually and are designed to prepare students for success in an increasingly interconnected world.

Eligibility is open to permanent, full-time NC State faculty and staff.

• Application deadline: July 31
• Award notifications: Late August to early September

From the Global One Health Academy:

• In 2025, the Global One Health Academy offered Postdoctoral Support Awards to accelerate postdoctoral research in One Health at NC State. Charles Kwadha was a recipient of the 2025 Postdoctoral Support Awards for a project on olfactory-mediated behavior of bed bugs. He has since moved on from NC State and is now a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research. Learn more about Kwadha and how the Global One Health Academy helped support his research on detection and treatment of bed bugs through his featured spotlight.
• The Global One Health Academy is excited to announce the recipients for the Fall 2026 Graduate Travel Awards to support international or domestic travel that advances global One Health-related research. Two eligible NC State graduate students were awarded funding for travel occurring July through December 2026. Congratulations to Emma Budden (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) and Andrea Landaverde (College of Sciences)!

From the Office of Information Technology:

• Employees have recently received an influx of successful phishing emails. Stay vigilant. Cybercriminals don’t take a summer break.
• NC State has achieved a 77.5% reduction in website WCAG 2.1 AA errors since October 2025. This achievement highlights the university’s commitment to ensuring its digital landscape is accessible to all users.
• The university is transitioning to Entra ID as its new single sign-on solution. This is a gradual change that you may have noticed when logging in to some systems.
• Nicol C. Lewis has been selected as NC State’s next chief information security officer, effective June 1. She is an accomplished security professional with two decades of experience.

From the Institute for Emerging Issues:

• To continue the momentum from the 2026 Emerging Issues Forum: Future Forward Water, we are kicking off a special series of The Connector podcast–Water Wednesdays. In this episode, IEI Policy and Program Manager Jessica Solis Aguilar sits down with three guests: North Carolina Coastal Federation Coastal Management Program Director Kerri Allen, GROW NC Deputy Director for Engagement Scott Elliott and Haw River Assembly Executive Director Emily Sutton. Together, they dive deeper into these challenges, sharing insights on how practitioners and local leaders can prepare our water systems for a more resilient future.

From Institutional Effectiveness:

• Packways: Learning by Doing marked a major milestone as it wraps up its first launch year — 100 Packways-Recognized HIEs! Packways celebrated and thanked the leaders of these transformative experiences at a luncheon in April. Hundreds of students will benefit from these HIEs in the coming academic year, thanks to the faculty and staff in the Packways community. Opportunities to join can be found here. 
• End-of-year events offer lessons on facilitating strategic change. In this month’s Implementation Insights, discover three high-impact, simple practices to embed clarity, alignment and transparency into an event. Transform year-end transitions into opportunities that support long-term strategic change. Implementation Insights is a regular article series with initiative updates and cross-cutting observations from NC State’s implementation plan.  

From the NC State University Libraries:

• Lenovo has made a transformational gift to the NC State University Libraries that will name the Lenovo Esports Arena on Main Campus and the Lenovo Esports and Gaming Lab at the Hunt Library. As the most significant corporate gift to the Libraries and NC State Esports to date, Lenovo’s support establishes the university’s program as a national esports leader.

In addition to its naming commitment, Lenovo is providing enterprise-grade hardware and infrastructure to power competition, broadcast and production capabilities within the arena. 

This gift allows esports operations to expand into the new arena opening on Main Campus, bolster experiential learning and research at the university and grow the Libraries’ and Esports’ selection of workshops, industry collaborations and dynamic teaching environments for faculty.

• The Libraries’ Makerspace Program—which includes some of the busiest learning spaces on campus—now has its own endowment. The Tucker Family Libraries Makerspace Endowment will support the Libraries’ Makerspace Program, including the Makerspace at the Hill Library and the Maker Studio at the Hunt Library. The Tuckers’ generous gift helps ensure that 3D printing, sewing, crafting, electronics and more will be accessible to all NC State students. 
• The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have announced changes to the way researchers will submit Data Management and Sharing Plans (DMSPs) as part of the grant proposal process. The new workflows are designed to ease the burden on researchers, improve consistency in how plans are written and reviewed and facilitate tracking of research outputs. Learn more.

From University Sustainability:

• Join Campus As A Classroom: Have a sustainability project that could benefit from student support? Faculty and/or staff should submit a project proposal for next academic year’s Campus As A Classroom program to:
  • Receive student recruitment, interviewing and hiring support
  • Have students ready to start on first day of school
  • Professional development opportunities for hired students
  • Advance campus sustainability goals through applied learning. 

Learn more and apply by June 1 at go.ncsu.edu/cac-internships.