VCU news

By Emily Komornik
Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation has announced grants totaling more than $4 million for 34 projects that aim to transform the human condition.

The latest grants to VCU faculty and researchers come from three internal funds – Breakthroughs, Momentum and Quest – that are supported by the One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan. To qualify for funding, projects must be aligned to its objectives. The plan’s four key initiatives are enriching the human experience, achieving a just and equitable society, optimizing health, and supporting sustainable energy and environments.

Now in its second year, the One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan has fostered new and continuing opportunities to serve as a catalyst for reaching the goal of improving the human condition by leveraging VCU’s unique strengths, student talents and community engagement.

Funding decisions were made based on recommendations of subject-matter experts and the One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan Advisory Council, with review by P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., vice president for research and innovation; Fotis Sotiropoulos, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president; and Marlon Levy, M.D., interim senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences. From 84 applications, 34 research teams received grants.

“It is critical that we continue to invest in our research enterprise, giving principal investigators and their teams the opportunities and support they need to launch their most creative inventions, ideas and innovations to public domain – whether it is the community, marketplace or from bench to bedside – to make a real difference locally, nationally and globally,” Rao said. “These funds do just that, but we are just beginning. Our momentum continues to build on rapid progress that the VCU research enterprise has been experiencing each year, and I know my fellow VCU leaders share my excitement in looking forward to what this cohort will accomplish with this round of investments.”

VCU Breakthroughs Fund supports transdisciplinary teams to design unique, creative and innovative large-scale approaches to confront societal grand challenges. Projects are designed to reach very specific outcomes or establish the capability to compete for external funding upon award completion. Each of the funded projects received up to $200,000.

VCU Momentum Fund promotes impactful interdisciplinary research by providing multi-PI research teams with support to prepare and submit competitive, external, multicomponent large-scale proposals. Each of the funded projects received up to $200,000.

VCU Quest Fund affords all faculty an internal funding opportunity to support new, emerging or continuing research. Requests for grant support may be based on an array of needs, from restarting an inactive research program to pilot studies that would produce preliminary results on which external grant applications could be based. Each of the funded projects received up to $50,000.

Breakthroughs, Momentum and Quest were the last three of the five total internal opportunities supported by the One VCU Research Strategic Priorities Plan that were funded this year. Grants from the VCU TechTransfer and Ventures Commercialization Fund, supported by the OVPRI, were announced in February, and grants from the VCU Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Fund, a collaboration between the OVPRI and the Provost’s Office, were announced in May.

For a full list of the projects that received funding, visit: onevcuresearch.vcu.edu/media/one-vcu-research/pdfs/FY2024fundingbyinitiative.pdf, onevcuresearch.vcu.edu/media/one-vcu-research/pdfs/FY2023fundingbyinitiative.pdf.

To learn more about these funds and previous awardees, visit the One VCU Research website. To explore external funding that supports knowledge creation in and across all disciplines, visit research.vcu.edu/resources/funding-opportunities/.