The University Research Awards provide Rochester faculty with seed grants for promising, high-risk projects.
Overview and deadlines
Originally called Provost’s Multidisciplinary Awards, the University Research Awards provide seed grants for promising, high-risk projects, says Robert Clark, provost and senior vice president for research.
The fund has been increased from $500,000 annually to $1 million, effective from the 2018–2019 academic year. Half of the funding comes from the President’s Fund, with the rest being matched by the various schools whose faculty members are recipients.
Applications are sought from faculty across the University, and funding is awarded to recipients who demonstrate their projects favor new research with a high probability of being leveraged by future external funding. A review committee of faculty from across the University provides peer review of the applications.
The RFP describes the process, and the fill-in application can be downloaded here:
Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m. on February 3, 2020. Late submissions or revisions will not be accepted.
Contact Adele Coelho, Faculty Outreach Coordinator, Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Research, with questions. Completed applications should be e-mailed directly to her as well.
2019 University Research Award Winners
- Polyoxovanadate Clusters as Single-Source Precursors for Colloidal Vanadium Oxide
- Kathryn E. Knowles, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry
- Ellen M. Matson, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry
- Neural Mechanisms of Foveal Vision
- Jude Mitchell, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
- Michele Rucci, Professor, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
- Chirped-Pulse Microresonators
- William Renninger, Assistant Professor, The Institute of Optics
- Jamie Cardenas, Assistant Professor, The Institute of Optics
- Surface Chemistry for Reflective Interferometric Sensing
- Lewis Rothberg, Professor, Depts. of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
- Alexander Shestopalov, Associate Professor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
- Flexible and Efficient Deep Learning in Optics
- Yuhao Zhu, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science
- Nick Vamivakas, Associate Professor, The Institute of Optics
- What Maintains Genetic Variation Affecting Health and Reproduction? A test of a Novel Hypothesis
- James D. Fry, Associate Professor, Dept. of Biology
- Sina Ghaemmaghami, Associate Professor. Dept. of Biology
- Confocal Raman Microscopy for the Identification of Microplastics in Cells and Tissue
- James McGrath, Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
- Andrew Berger, Professor, The Institute of Optics; Associate Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
- Wayne Knox, Professor, The Institute of Optics
- Lisa DeLouise, Associate Professor, Depts. of Dermatology, and Biomedical Engineering
- Jonathan Flax, Research Assistant Professor, Dept. of Urology
- Mahlon Johnson, Professor, Depts. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Neurosurgery; Director, Neuropathology, Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
- Non-invasive Cerebral Blood Flow and Evoked Potential Monitoring in Adults Undergoing Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
- Regine Choe, Associate Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
- Imad Khan, M.D., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Medicine
- Ross Maddox, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
- Sunil Prasad, M.D., Professor, Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery
- Advancing Translational Research to Drive Universal influenzae Vaccine Development: Novel Methods for Assessing Clinical Antibody Responses
- Sally Quataert, Research Associate Professor, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, Micro Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology (CVBI)
- Mark Sangster, Research Professor, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, Micro Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology (CVBI)
- Vision in a Natural Context: More than Meets the Eye?
- Farran Briggs, Associate Professor, Depts. of Neuroscience, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and in the Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Center for Visual Science
- Embryonic Origin of Natural Killer Cells
- James Palis, MD, Professor, Center for Pediatric Biomedical Research, Dept. of Pediatrics
- Bacterial Pathogens, Fibronectin Mimicry and Intestinal Permeability
- Denise C. Hocking, Professor, Depts. of Pharmacology and Physiology, and in the Dept of Biomedical Engineering
- Michelle Dziejman, Associate Professor, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology
- Targeting AXL in Alzheimer's Disease
- M. Kerry O’Banion, MD, Professor and Vice Chair, Dept. of Neuroscience
- Michael Rusty Elliott, Associate Professor, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology
- Safety and Efficacy of Whole Food Plant Based Diet in the Management of Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease
- Scott Liebman, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Division of Nephrology
- Susan Friedman, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics
- Rebeca Monk, MD, Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Division of Nephrology
- Novel Approaches to Genetic Diagnoses and Secure Genomic Data Analyses in Critically Ill Infants
- Laurie Steiner, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
- Kate Ackerman, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
- Muthu Venkitasubramaniam, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
- Alex Paciorkowski, MD, Assistant Professor, Depts. of Neurology, Neuroscience, Neurotherapeutics Discovery, Pediatrics, and in Biomedical Genetics, Division of Neurology and Pediatrics