Seed Funding Sparks Innovation and Collaboration
Through the Strategic Investment Fund, UVA has provided grants to Grand Challenges in the Strategic Research areas, some of which has gone to seed funding for researchers to take their projects to the next level, building prototypes and datasets that allow them to apply for largers grants. Funding programs like 3Cavaliers bring together a team of three researchers in different schools or departments to collaborate on new innovative projects projects that can only be done across disciplines.
3D Printing Soil Structures
This 3Cavaliers project, 3D Printing soil structures, was done as a collaborative project between faculty in the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the College of Arts and Sciences Dept of Environmental Science. The team was invited to showcase the innovative plans developed from the project at the Venice Biennale, a prestigious international cultural exhibition.
“The team at the Office of the Vice President for Research has been instrumental in spurring collaboration between architects and engineers,” Ehsan Baharlou said. “Our collaborative projects do more than demonstrate how to use local materials and provide improved quality of construction for buildings manufactured at a very fast pace. Our cross-discipline integration is helpful for society and humanity by advancing the applications of bio-based materials.”
Mineral reducing carbon
A Spark Grant from the Environmental Institute to a team from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering made it possible to find out how rock dust, a crushed byproduct of mineral resource extraction, can both improve nutrients in the soil as well as sequester carbon. The grant allowed Justin Richardson and Lisa Colosi Peterson to explore commercialization of the rock dust product.
Alzheimer’s Disease Research
2024 Transformative Neuroscience Pilot Grant awards from the Brain Institute provide the seed funding researchers need to jump start new projects. Lulu Jiang and Huan Bao applied for a project to look at how lipids, proteins and RNA contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Their research aims to develop better personalized therapeutic strategies for the disease.
This article was featured in our 2025 Annual Research Report. You can find the full report with more research stories here: https://research.virginia.edu/about/fast-facts/annual-report-2025