Arts & Sciences Awards Seed Grants for High-Impact Research
The University of Virginia’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences has announced the recipients of its second round of biannual seed grants, continuing its commitment to investing in early-stage faculty research across a wide variety of disciplines.
The awards are designed to help faculty launch innovative projects, form new collaborations and develop preliminary work that can lead to external funding. This year, nearly half of all proposals submitted were funded, reflecting both a high level of participation and a competitive selection process.
“These seed grants allow faculty to take intellectual risks and pursue ideas that may not yet fit traditional funding models,” said Christa Acampora, Buckner W. Clay Professor of Philosophy and dean of Arts & Sciences. “They are an important part of our commitment to strengthening research excellence and supporting scholarship that crosses disciplinary boundaries.”
Research Across Disciplines
Projects funded in the second round span a wide range of research topics, from theoretical mathematics and physics to environmental science, health and the study of social institutions.
Physics and mathematics
- Kent Yagi (physics), “Black Holes or Something Else? Gravitational Waves as a Window to New Physics”
- Joseph Poon (physics), “Quantum Information Science Driving Materials Design”
- Julie Bergner (mathematics), “The algebraic structure of higher Segal spaces”
Life sciences, chemistry and health
- Katja Kasimatis (biology), “Uncovering the Reproductive Microbiome and Its Impact on Fertility”
- Xin Ma (chemistry), “Spatial and Longitudinal Metabolomics for Understanding Telescoping Effects in Substance Use Disorders”
- John Van Horn (psychology), “The NeuroGemini Project: Building Digital Twins of Human Twin Brains”
Environmental sciences
- Stephan De Wekker (environmental sciences), “Estimating Evapotranspiration Using Multirotor Copters Over a Forested Mountain Site”
- Frederick Cheng (environmental sciences), “Linking form to function: The role of wetlandscape structure in controlling watershed water quality”
Social sciences and global studies
- Natalie Aviles (sociology), “The impact of organizational change on federal scientists’ research and policy work”
- Yingyao Wang (sociology), “The Rise of Area Studies in China”
- Levi Vonk (global studies), “Muddy Bloody Water: Long-term environmental and health effects of paper mill production in coastal Georgia”
Catalyzing Future Discovery
Sarah Kucenas, Owen R. Cheatham Professor of the Sciences and associate dean for research at A&S, said seed funding plays a critical role in the research ecosystem by enabling faculty to gather preliminary data and refine ambitious ideas.
“Programs like this are essential for helping researchers move bold concepts toward competitive external proposals,” Kucenas said. “They provide the momentum needed to turn promising ideas into sustained research programs with the potential for broad impact.”
Across Arts & Sciences, 48% of submitted proposals were funded in the second round — nearly half of all applicants. Funding rates varied by division with 45% of proposal in the sciences receiving funding and 75% of proposals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
The seed and planning grants program is a key component of Arts & Sciences’ long-term research strategy, supporting faculty at critical early stages while reinforcing the college’s role as a center for innovative, interdisciplinary scholarship.
The A&S Research Team has revamped the seed grant program in response to feedback from applicants and reviewers, and an announcement of the new SPARC Seed Grant mechanism will be made in the upcoming weeks. Applications will be due March 13.
