Research

Internal Funding Sources

The University of Rochester offers the following sources of funding for Arts, Sciences and Engineering research projects.

The Drug Discovery Pilot Award Program, jointly funded by the University of Rochester Medical Center and the Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research at Temple University enables Rochester scientists to combine their knowledge of the underlying biology of disease with the ability of the medicinal chemists and pharmacologists at the Moulder Center to identify and create compounds suitable for medical research and eventual use in humans. The Pilot Award Program supports two categories of research:

  • Early exploratory studies in which scientists conduct focused preliminary experiments and access high throughput screening technologies to evaluate and identify suitable chemical compounds. The grants can range from $4,000 - $8,000 and are expected to support studies conducted at Rochester only.
  • Lead finding studies in which scientists take their research a step further by confirming that a compound and its target are a match, producing “second generation” compounds with improved activity against that target, and testing whether these compounds are compatible with the human body. Up to $25,000 will be considered to support studies at Rochester with Moulder support provided at no-cost, based on project needs and recommendations of Moulder Center leadership.

For details about submissions, contact Michael Rusnak at (585) 276-6610.

The Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) supports a limited number of meritorious Pilot Projects that are relevant to the theme of the EHSC: "Environmental Agents as Modulators of Human Disease and Dysfunction." The center is especially interested in proposals addressing how the environment modifies stem cell function, affects early life origins of adult diseases, and disrupts host/pathogen interactions. Applicants may request a maximum of $30,000 for the duration of one year. Applications from new investigators collaborating with existing EHSC faculty are encouraged. In most cases, funds are restricted to research expenses and cannot be used to support travel, faculty salary, or equipment purchases. To learn more, contact Michael O’Reilly, Michael_OReilly@urmc.rochester.edu or
Pat Noonan-Sullivan, Patricia_Noonan@urmc.rochester.edu.

The International Collaboration Fund (ICF) provides faculty and graduate students with new opportunities to further develop international research networks. The ICF offers seed money for new and current research development projects and travel grants for faculty and graduate students for short-term overseas research visits up to 6 months in duration. Individual grants range from $2,000 - $15,000. Contact Todd St. Vrain at todd.stvrain@rochester.edu to learn more.

Provost Multidisciplinary Awards of $25,000 per year fund multidisciplinary scholarship. The fund supports only research, defined broadly as all scholarly and creative work; 
research projects must cross two or more disciplines, within one school or from two or more;
and funding favors new research of recently formed teams, with a high probability of being leveraged by future external funding and disseminated.

PumpPrimer, a newly established intramural funding program for AS&E researchers, is designed to stimulate extramural funding for two kinds of projects that are otherwise difficult to launch:

The University’s Technology Development Fund promotes the transfer and translation of research into commercial applications. Awards can range from $40,000 to $100,000 to support projects of approximately one year in duration. Contact Michael Rusnak at (585) 276-6610 with any questions.