The Office of the Vice President for Research in partnership with Iowa State University's Office of the Vice President for Research (ISU), is pleased to announce the spring 2019 UI-ISU Partnership Seed Grant Program for collaborations between researchers at ISU and the University of Iowa (UI). The seed funds will support UI and ISU researchers in developing innovative, ambitious, interdisciplinary programs that have the potential to synergistically advance both institutions' research profiles, as well as lead to sponsored funding from government agencies, corporations, and/or foundations.  Seed funds may be used to develop new initiatives or expand existing collaborations. Successful projects will be awarded up to $50,000 per project, over a period of up to 2 years.

Informational Session:  The UI Office of the Vice President for Research invites UI researchers interested in applying to learn more about the UI-ISU Partnership program.  A program overview will be provided by Rich Hichwa, Senior Associate Vice President for Research, with an informal discussion to follow. Bring your questions and a brown bag lunch to Room C44-A GH (within the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science suite), on Friday, January 25, noon-1:00 PM. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/informational-session-about-ui-isu-seed-grant-program-registration-54374920852.

 Focus Areas:  Applications are required to address one or more of the following four areas that are consistent with the TEConomy-2017 Iowa Bioscience platforms https://www.iowaeconomicdevelopment.com/userdocs/news/IABIO_Report_122017.pdf. Only applications that address one of these four areas will be considered.
1) Medical Devices,
2) Biobased Chemicals,
3) Vaccines and Immunotherapy, and
4) Precision and Digital Agriculture.

Eligibility: Each team must have one Co-Principal Investigator from UI and one from ISU. Faculty from all disciplines may apply. In a change from 2018, applicants for 2019 funding need not be tenured associate or full professors; all faculty may apply. Faculty may not be on more than one proposal in a given funding cycle. Teams are expected to define an integrated (preferably interdisciplinary) research effort distinguished by intellectual excellence and driven by a clear vision of fundamental advances, new discoveries, or technological developments having state, national, and global economic and societal impact. Teams that received a UI-ISU Partnership Seed Grant Program award in 2018 are not eligible for the 2019 funding cycle.

Application instructions are available  at https://research.uiowa.edu/isu-ui-partnership-seed-grant-program.
The deadline is 5:00 pm on Friday, March 8, 2019.  Contact Rich Hichwa richard-hichwa@uiowa.edu  319-335-2106, with questions about the program, and please pass along this message to faculty that may be interested