Internal Funding Opportunities

Internal Funding Opportunities

The University of Virginia supports the development of research through a variety of mechanisms. In addition to its major investments in research through the Pan University Institutes and the Strategic Investment Fund, the University provides funds to enable and sustain sponsored research through seed and interim funding programs. This page provides a directory of some of these programs. There may be additional opportunities available through the individual schools within the University.

You may view and apply for a number of active Limited Submission, Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, Pan-University Institute, and other internal funding opportunities via our online submission site InfoReady.

Seed Funding Opportunities

Office of the Vice President for Research

Office of the Provost

  • The Office of the Provost manages the 4-VA at UVA Collaborative Research Grants Program. 4-VA is a partnership between eight Virginia institutions (UVA, VT, JMU, ODU, VCU, GMU, W&M, and VMI) whose mission is to promote inter-university collaborations that leverage the strengths of each partner university in order to accomplish much more than any individual university could achieve alone.  All interested applicants must submit a letter of intent via the below InfoReady link by Friday, January 29, 2021 (full proposals will be due March 19). LOIs will not require any materials to be uploaded, and will ask only a few short questions of each applicant. All applicants who submit a LOI will be invited to proceed to the full proposal stage. For questions related to the Collaborative Research Grants program, or 4-VA more generally, please contact Matt Banfield (mb3qb@virginia.edu), Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. Full proposal information is available via the below link.

    SUBMIT LOI HERE: https://provost-virginia.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1830915  

The Pan University Institutes

  • The Brain Institute has created seed funding programs for Transformative Neuroscience Pilot Grant and shared instrumentation, which foster cross-Grounds collaboration and enable collaborations that break down barriers, including providing support and infrastructure for research trainees – students and postdoctoral fellows - that transmit new ideas and approaches between research groups.
  • The Environmental Resilience Institute (EI) offers CoLabs seed funding opportunities facilitate the cross-disciplinary connections needed to form sustainable collaborations. 

The TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative (TUMI)

The TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative (TUMI) administers Pilot and Feasibility Projects  which can focus on the microbiota at any body site of human, animal, plant, or water systems and its relevance to human health. Projects can focus on composition and/or function of bacterial, fungal, archaeal, or viral communities as well as their physiological and pathological effects on their hosts. Please reach out to the Program Manager (Casandra Hoffman, clh4he@virginia.edu) if you have questions regarding the relevance of your project to this funding opportunity.

Licensing and Ventures Group

  • The UVA LVG Seed Fund provides capital and other resources to accelerate technologies based on UVA research to market. The fund is evergreen and will re-invest its gains to provide capital for additional investments. Investment decisions are made with the oversight of the Seed Fund Committee, which also led the search for the managing director.

Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV)

  • The Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia offers a Research Concierge Portal that includes a directory of seed funding opportunities relating to translational health. 
  • The iTHRIV Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies (PTC) Program is a core component of the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Sciences Award, “The integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV): Using Data to Improve Health.” The goal of the iTHRIV PTC Program is to help teams transition from early-stage seed grants and proof-of-concept studies to externally funded translational research and clinical application. The iTHRIV PTC Program is particularly interested in funding projects related to data science and those that involve collaboration across the iTHRIV partner institutions Inova, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic.
  • The iTHRIV Community Seed Grant Program supports community-based research projects that may address a wide range of health-related topics, including any health outcomes, or social determinants of health such as economic development, education, etc. 

The Comprehensive Cancer Center

The UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center provides funding for numerous pilot projects and seed projects that span multiple areas of research focused on cancer. These funds support small, innovative start-up projects that are cancer-relevant. The goal of these pilot funds are to support the generation of preliminary data that will eventually lead to external funding and peer-reviewed publications. 

  • The types of pilot project and seed grants include: Cancer Center-wide opportunities; topic-specific projects (e.g., breast cancer, RNA biology, population health, etc.); Investigator-Initiated Trial (IIT) support; trainee support and travel support; various other opportunities related to community and population health; and pediatric cancer research.
  • Our team utilizes the InfoReady system which streamlines the application and review process to provide a fair and organized competition for each opportunity.
  • We welcome the UVA research community to apply to our competitions – if you have questions, please contact our Associate Directors in the Basic Sciences, Clinical Research, and Population Science for more information about our Research Programs and Translational Research Teams.
  • Total award amounts range from $10,000-$100,000+ per opportunity. 

School of Medicine

  • The School of Medicine Research and Development Program provides a limited number of small ($10K – $30K) research awards as seed money for new projects, development of new methods or reagents, or to enter a new area of research.  Announcements are made to all faculty; there are usually two grant cycles per year.  See both the application instructions and the application form. 
  • The Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center welcomes both clinical and pre-clinical proposals from UVA investigators centered on the use of FUS for potentiating immunotherapies against solid tumors, with a strategic focus on treating melanoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and both primary and metastatic brain tumors.

 Translational Research

  • The Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Partners Program,  which supports collaborative translational research projects in the field of Biomedical Engineering, has multiple funding mechanisms. Spring funding cycle invests approximately $700,000 in six to eight projects. These grants are typically $100,000, but range from $75,000 to $175,000. The Program also funds seed projects on a real-time basis, ranging from $5,000 to $40,000.
  • The Ivy Biomedical Innovation Fund was created by The Ivy Foundation to support biomedical innovation and translational research projects at the University of Virginia. The program plans to make 5 awards averaging $100K each for 12 months. The requested amount of funding must be commensurate with the project stage and goals. To generate and advance novel and compelling translational ideas, we strongly encourage projects that involve faculty co-investigators from multiple departments, schools, or specialties at UVA.
  • The Launchpad for Diabetes Program is an internal, translational research fund supporting collaborative research projects proposing innovative solutions for the treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The goal of this program is to support/develop translational research projects that address unmet clinical needs and lead to improvements in care of patients with diabetes mellitus. Examples of desirable outcomes include improved diagnosis and treatment of disease through new medical devices, biomarkers or diagnostics, therapeutic targets and agents, or new clinical adoption of existing tools. Although not required, it is anticipated that most projects will result in new intellectual property, commercial partnerships, or lead to start-up company creation. On average, the program supports 4-6 projects averaging $80,000 each for 12 months.
  • The Center for Engineering in Medicine provides over $1 million per year in seed funding to support the formation of new collaborations and launch promising new projects at the engineering-medicine interface. 

The Center for Advanced Biomanufacturing

  •  The Center for Advanced Biomanufacturing offers seed fund grants to support innovative research  that makes use of the Center's equipment. Seed grants lead to competitive external grant applications, provisional patents, and peer-reviewed publications in a 6-18 month time frame from the date of funding.
    • Applications are reviewed by the Steering Committee on a rolling basis.
    • Projects must include a Center Steering Committee as a collaborator.
    • Total award amount can range from $1,000-$20,000 per grant.

Interim Support and Proposal Development Funding

Other Research Funding

  • The School of Medicine maintains a listing of internal funding opportunities supported by SOM and UVA.

  • The Bankard Fund for Political Economy was established with gifts by Merrill H. Bankard and his wife, Georgia S. Bankard. The fund supports research programs at the University of Virginia that will have the greatest possible influence upon the development and continuation of the public policy necessary for a healthy private business system and a healthy national economy.

  • Oak Ridge National Lab-UVA Travel Grant Program provides travel grants for students, faculty, and research staff visiting Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) to use ORNL’s world class user facilities and/or to collaborate with ORNL scientists. 

  • The Jefferson Trust funds new programs and projects that enhance UVA and enrich the student experience. Any student, faculty, or staff member may apply, with grants typically ranging between $1,000 and $300,000.

  • Research Support for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. In collaboration with the College of Arts & Sciences, the VPR also provides funding for the biannual research support grants in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences through a competitive grant program. Funding may be requested for up to $3,000 for any activity or expense associated with a scholarly or research project. Contact Jenn Bair (jlb5md@virginia.edu) .

  • Small Grants/Travel Grants provides funds for supplies, editing, travel to libraries, and other small requests for faculty in the humanities and social sciences departments in the College of Arts & Sciences.

  • Emeritus Small Research/Travel Grants. Small grants are available to emeritus faculty to support research- and conference travel-related expenditures.  A letter of request for such funding, outlining the purpose of the request, the dates involved (if request is travel-related) and a summary of expenses should be e-mailed to Jessica Worsham (jlw4gd@virginia.edu) at the Office of the Vice President for Research to the Attention of Chair, Small Grants Committee.

  • Summer Stipends. The President of the University and the Dean of Arts & Sciences annually allocates funds for faculty awards to support full-time summer research in the social sciences and the humanities (including original creative works in the fine arts). For additional information, contact Jenn Bair (jlb5md@virginia.edu) .

  • Matching Funds. Some grant proposals may require a statement of university matching funds. Matching funds should be requested from your department and coordinated with your school's Associate Dean for Research. Requests should then be submitted by the Associate Dean to the Vice President for Research.

  • The Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation (CGII) seeks to stimulate research addressing problems and challenges of global scale, scope, concern, perspective, and impact. To support this effort, the Center administers several types of grants open to UVA faculty and graduate students. They are particularly interested in proposals that outline innovative methods and promote cross-university and international collaborations. 

  • The Office of Undergraduate Research offers several grants to students to fund research projects.

  • The iTHRIV Scholars Program is a mentored, career development award over a two-year period.  A request for applications is released in the fall each year and requires an NIH-like submission process with study section review and assessment.  Finalists are interviewed in person; awards are announced in the spring, and awards begin on July 1st.  Attendance and participation in weekly curriculum and activities are a required part of the program and offers an opportunity for each cohort to develop a community of practice within their own group as well as with the other Scholar cohorts and greater iTHRIV community.