UGA's Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program LOIs due Aug. 1

In response to the success of the previous two offerings of this program, President Morehead has committed funds for a third competition of the Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program. Interdisciplinary faculty teams are invited to submit proposals that address a significant challenge at the local, national, or global level and support UGA’s 2025 Strategic Plan goal of growing research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Challenge examples include those in areas identified by the Provost’s Task Force (precision agriculture, security, climate and environment, and brain and behavioral sciences), those requiring close collaboration between social/behavioral and biomedical faculty, and those leveraging advances in data science and AI.

Interested teams must submit a short letter of intent (LOI) by Sunday, Aug. 1. UGA’s internal grants and awards webpage contains more information about the application and review process and is open for LOI submissions on Tuesday, June 1.

Up to $1.5 million will be available to support interdisciplinary teams of UGA faculty who submit compelling proposals. Applications may include external collaborators from academia, government agencies, or the private sector, but any funds awarded through this program must be spent at UGA. Proposals must describe work that will position teams to be competitive for specific, externally-funded, multi-investigator, and/or multi-institution awards. Proposals may include academic and public service faculty and both research and outreach components when appropriate.

Proposing faculty teams that did not participate in the Team Interdisciplinary Research Pre-Seed Program may compete, but if successful, such teams must budget for and engage in a focused team Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Workshop during the first two months of their award period in coordination with the Office of the Vice President for Research’s Integrative Team Initiatives.

Awards may range from $50,000 to $150,000 per grant proposal, with actual amounts based on itemized and justified budgets. Awarded funds will be available Wednesday, Dec. 1 and must be expended by June 30, 2023.