Research Insights

Twelve faculty teams at the University of Georgia have been selected to receive research awards through the institution’s Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program. More than 150 faculty teams submitted research proposals to this competitive program.

“I want to congratulate the recipients of these awards on their outstanding research proposals,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “I am excited about the potential for their work to help address a wide range of grand challenges facing our state, nation, and world and to feed the growing momentum surrounding the research enterprise at UGA.”  

Morehead noted that the budget for the seed grant program was capped originally at $1 million, but the high number of strong proposals led him to increase the budget to approximately $1.4 million in order to fund a greater number of promising research projects.

Proposals were reviewed by a team of UGA faculty and administrators jointly assembled by Vice President for Research David Lee and Vice President for Public Service and Outreach Jennifer Frum.

“The review team was pleased to receive so many excellent proposals from across the University,” Lee said. “The great interest in this program is a clear sign of the deep commitment among our faculty to collaborate across traditional disciplinary lines to create new knowledge and make discoveries that improve the world around us.”

The review team selected winning proposals based on demonstrated potential to address key grand challenges and to generate new external funding in the future. Inclusion of public service and outreach components also was considered, among other criteria.

“Above all else, the winning proposals reflect what makes the University of Georgia special as a land-grant institution,” said Frum, “and that is the ability to harness vast resources in teaching, research, and service to address the complex challenges facing communities across Georgia and beyond.”

See winning proposals and investigators.