The Office of the Vice President for Research has awarded its first round of Large-Scale Center and Initiative Planning Grants to a pair of teams at the University of Michigan that are working to strengthen and expand research activity around engineered materials and sustainable systems.
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A research team led by Nancy Love, Borchardt and Glysson Collegiate Professor, JoAnn Silverstein Distinguished University Professor of Environmental Engineering, and professor of civil and environmental engineering, recently received a $100,000 grant, which it will use to better position the university for a National Science Foundation Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks grant, a program focused on creating sustainable and equitable food, energy and water sociotechnical systems.
Alan Taub, professor of materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, and macromolecular science and engineering, also received about $100,000 to increase competitiveness for when U-M materials science researchers seek future funding opportunities from the NSF.
OVPR launched its Large-Scale Center and Initiative Planning Grants last spring to promote impactful interdisciplinary research and to provide research teams with support for preparing and submitting competitive large-scale grant proposals.
“If we as a research community want to remain competitive for these large-scale grants, our teams have to conduct significant advanced planning, which often includes developing strong preliminary data and fostering collaboration across a variety of disciplines,” said Rebecca Cunningham, vice president for research and the William G. Barsan Collegiate Professor of Emergency Medicine.
“This type of significant advanced planning requires resources and financial support, which is exactly why we created these Large-Scale Center and Initiative Planning Grants. Our ultimate goal here is to position our research teams for continued success.”
Love and her team will work to identify and develop relationships with community partners throughout Michigan. These partnerships can help researchers develop equitable solutions to current issues within the American infrastructure systems. These efforts also aim to enhance team members’ leadership skills so they are better prepared to lead large, interdisciplinary research groups.
“We aspire to build ourselves into a convergent, collaborative network at U-M so that we can elevate our ideas and accomplishments into multiple, competitive proposal efforts over the next few years,” Love said.
Taub, who is also director of the Michigan Materials Research Institute, and Stephen Maldonado, professor of chemistry, will use the OVPR grant to better position their team to apply for a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center grant and a Center for Chemical Innovation grant — both of which are sponsored by NSF.
Securing these NSF grants would encourage a high level of interdisciplinary study across U-M, while providing sustained support for long-term research and education. This can spur innovation and attract broad interest from both internal and external partners.
“This new grant puts us one step closer toward our ultimate goal of bringing together researchers with diverse expertise to support high-risk, transformative science, which can further energize our scientific community to tackle grand challenges,” Taub said.
