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This year’s awards, announced by the ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ Office of the Provost and  (RIO), are funding 25 grants for up to $50,000 each, including $200,000 for four projects supporting work directly connected to the . The seed grant program stimulates new and exciting areas of research and creative work on campus, as reflected in the projects of the 2019 Research & Innovation Seed Grant Program winners.

About the 2019 program

The 2019 program featured a record 120 applications, which were reviewed by 44 faculty volunteers, including previous seed grant recipients.

The program and projects signify an investment in the future research and scholarly or artistic vitality of the university. Awardees come from disciplines across the university—including ventures involving interdisciplinary work that will foster collaborative interaction among faculty—as well as disciplines not traditionally connected to sponsored research. A small selection of awardees illustrates the breadth of this year’s submissions:

• Allison Attebery—Mind the Gap: Partnering to Narrow Denver’s Achievement Gaps by Retaining Top Teachers
• Lori Emerson—Handbook for Feminist Labs
• Abbie Liel—Building Seismic Resilience of Incrementally-Constructed Buildings
• Hanspeter Schaub—Electrostatic Control in Low-Earth Orbit Plasma Wakes

Grand Challenge category awardees were Jeffrey Cameron (Light and Life), Sebastian Kopf (Measuring the pulse of global change at the interface of Earth & Life), Stefan Leyk (Measuring Vulnerability of the Built Environment in Coastal Communities of the United States: A Geospatial Framework), and Luis Zea (Biological Approach to Extracting Resources in Space and on Earth).

The 2019 program also featured a special category for “center planning grants.” This category targeted grants are aimed at investing in promising research directions where internal seed level investment can lead to externally funded “center-scale” research programs. Grantees in this category were Teri Rueb (Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media) and Nathan Schneider (Media Enterprise Design Lab). 

Long-term impact

Since 2008, the program has provided more than $12 million to fund 279 innovative projects across campus. While 2017 and 2018 projects are still underway, results from previous years demonstrate the program’s impact.

Seed grant projects have resulted in measurable impacts including published manuscripts, artist residencies, inventions and millions of additional funding dollars for ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ research. Outside of the measurable benefits, other seed grant impacts across campus are less quantifiable but equally powerful. New data, partnerships and research directions are often achieved, opening up opportunities that may otherwise not come to fruition. Additionally, funded projects provide undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and other investigators with critical research development and creative work experiences.

The 2020 cycle

Research & Innovation Seed Grant submissions will open in late fall 2019 with a deadline in January 2020. Reviews will take place in February and March 2020, and selections announced in March or April.

Actual dates for the 2020 RISGP will be announced in the fall of 2019.  

For more information on this program and other funding opportunities, visit the Research & Innovation Office Seed Grant webpage or .