Announcing the Fall 2023 Here & Next Seed Grant Awardees
The Research Development Office, housed within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, is pleased to announce awardees from Fall 2023 Here and Next Seed Grant Program. This program’s broad goal is to encourage novel and innovative interdisciplinary research excellence amongst Washington University researchers, aiding them in laying the groundwork to be competitive and successful in submitting proposals to external funding opportunities. Research must address five key areas of focus within the Here & Next agenda: Public Health, Global Health, Environmental Research, Digital Transformation, and Research Impacting the St. Louis Community.
Congratulations to the below teams!
More information about open competitions can be found on the InfoReady platform: https://wustl.infoready4.com/#hereandnext. Questions about the programs can be sent to researchseedfunding@wustl.edu.
Tier 1: Spark Funding
We launched our first Tier 1: Spark Funding, Proposal Development program in August of 2023. Designed to support interdisciplinary faculty teams with proposal development costs leading up to competitive external funding opportunities, this program accepts applications on a rolling basis until April 30, 2024.
Fall 2023 Tier 1: Proposal Development awards were made to:
- Environmental Humanities Working Group
Here & Next Priority Areas: Environmental Research
Co-PIs: Stephanie Kirk, Arts & Sciences; Bret Gustafson, Arts & Sciences; Derek Hoeferlin, Sam Fox School; Diana Montano, Arts & Sciences; Patricia Olynyk, Sam Fox School; Ila Sheren, Arts & Sciences - Developing a Measure of Trust in Mental Healthcare Services
Here & Next Priority Areas: Public Health
Co-PIs: Morgan Shields, Brown School; Chih-Hung Chang, School of Medicine; Karen Joynt Maddox, School of Medicine
The Tier 1: Spark Funding, Pop-Up Initiative was announced in November of 2023. Applications for the Pop-Up Initiative Grant, which aids research teams in securing the time and resources for early-stage collaborations over one summer month in 2024, will be accepted until January 31st, 2024. Awardees will be notified in April of 2024.
Tier 2: Interdisciplinary Project Support, Fall 2023 Cycle
We have completed our first cycle of Tier 2: Interdisciplinary Project Grant. These year-long grants are designed to support innovative collaborative teams for a period of one year. After a rigorous review by an interdisciplinary panel of senior researchers, ten awards were made across all H&N priority areas. Competitions will be held every Fall and Spring semester. The next deadline is January 31st , 2024 for required Letters of Intent to be submitted via InfoReady. Full Proposals will be due February 16, 2024.
The following projects and faculty were awarded for the Fall 2023 cycle:
- AI for Examining and Predicting Family Involvement with Child Protection Systems
Here & Next Priority Areas: Digital Transformation, Public Health
Co-PIs: Eunhye Ahn, Brown School; Yevgeniy Vorobeychik, McKelvey Engineering - Using Mobile Health Technology to Assess Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy
Here & Next Priority Areas: Digital Transformation
Co-PIs: Jacob Greenberg, School of Medicine; Caitlin Kelleher, McKelvey Engineering; Brian Johnson, School of Medicine - Improving Student Mental and Behavioral Health in High-Poverty Schools: A Community-based Participatory Research Project
Here & Next Priority Areas: Environmental Research, Digital Transformation, Research Impacting the St. Louis Community
Co-PIs: Jason Jabbari, Brown School; Kelly Harris, School of Medicine - Developing a contracting measurement tool for decisionmakers who are scaling up evidence based treatments in publicly funded children’s mental health
Here & Next Priority Areas: Public Health
Co-PIs: Rebecca Lengnick-Hall, Brown School; Elvin Geng, School of Medicine; Nicolas Argyres, Arts & Sciences - The Impact of Economic Inequality on Chronic Disease Risk Factors
Here & Next Priority Areas: Environmental Research, Public Health
Co-PIs: Stephen Roll, Brown School; Yung Chun, Brown School; Kia Davis, School of Medicine; George-Levi Gayle, Arts & Sciences - Asylum Support Initiative: Providing forensic evaluations through a community-academic partnership
Here & Next Priority Areas: Public Health, Global Health, Research Impacting St. Louis Community
Co-PIs: Kim Thuy Seelinger, Brown School; Julia Lopez, School of Medicine; Katie Meyer, School of Law - Measuring Spatial Inequities in urban communities
Here & Next Priority Areas: Environmental Research, Public Health, Global Health, Research Impacting the St. Louis Community
Co-PIs: Rodrigo Siqueria Reis, Brown School; Nathan Jacobs, McKelvey Engineering - Leveraging AI to optimize mHealth’s Impact for reducing opioid-related overdose deaths in Missouri
Here & Next Priority Areas: Digital Transformation, Public Health, Research Impacting the St. Louis Community
Co-PIs: Hannah Szlyk, School of Medicine; Chenguang Wang, McKelvey Engineering - Smart Kitchen to Support Independence for People with Subjective Cognitive Decline
Here & Next Priority Areas: Digital Transformation, Public Health
Co-PIs: Lisa Tabor Connor, School of Medicine; Chenyang Lu, McKelvey Engineering; M. Carolyn Baum, School of Medicine - The environmental sources of the infant nasal microbiome
Here & Next Priority Areas: Environment Research, Public Health
Co-PIs: Leyao Wang, School of Medicine; Jian Wang, McKelvey Engineering
Tier 3: University-Wide Research Initiative Grant Program
Our third tier of Here and Next Seed grants supports large, multi-project teams as they move towards securing external funding through competitive and complex federal proposals for centers and institutes.
There has been one funded University-Wide Research Initiative thus far.
- Geospatial Research Initiative
Here & Next Priority Areas: Public Health, Environmental Research, Digital Transformation
Co-Leads: Nathan Jacobs, McKelvey Engineering; Alex Bradley, Arts & Sciences; Michael Frachetti, Arts & Sciences; Jennifer Moore, Libraries/Arts & Sciences
Applications for URIs will be accepted until April 30, 2024.