A second round of the OHSU-UO Collaborative Seed Grant funding program has been announced by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.
The program develops and builds new collaborations between researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Oregon.
“This internal award program represents a true collaboration between two great institutions,” said David Conover, vice president for research and innovation. “We’ve seen some high-impact partnerships develop during the first round of funding, and we look forward to building on those collaborations during this second round to further our research strengths and amplify scientific discovery and innovation in Oregon and beyond.”
This year’s funding supports three types of grant mechanisms: Convening grants to bring together faculty from both institutions to incubate collaborative ideas; phase 1 piloting grants to support studies designed to provide feasibility evidence or preliminary data for joint UO-OHSU grant applications; and phase 2 piloting grants for continued support for current piloting grant recipients to build their research program as they pursue or await receipt of external funding.
Interested faculty members are invited to participate in a webinar on the internal award program from 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 13. The information session includes a question-and-answer period with some of the current grant recipients.
Attendees can participate in the session at the following link: https://zoom.us/j/292771469, with meeting ID: 292 771 469.
Launched in February 2018, the OHSU-UO Partnership program is meant to build on strengths of faculty members at both institutions, deepen UO-OHSU partnerships and prepare UO-OHSU teams to apply for external funding that will provide long-term support for research programs, with the ultimate goal of significantly increasing the number of externally funded UO-OHSU collaborative projects. Senior leaders at OHSU and the UO are driving efforts to increase partnerships among faculty members at both institutions.
“We are committed to encouraging robust collaborations between the two institutions, and consider this seed grant program to be an important first step in developing our trans-institutional relationships,” said Peter Barr-Gillespie, chief research officer at OHSU.
Last year, the OHSU-UO Collaborative Seed Grant program funded 10 faculty teams focusing on areas as diverse as optogenetics, biophysics, neuroscience, chemical biology, biology in the built environment, reduction of health disparities and a host of other specialties. Research teams have engaged in a activities such as holding structured meetings to bring together colleagues to design long-term collaboration strategies, conducting pilot studies, and submitting manuscripts and proposals for external grants.
The two research institutions jointly issued a request for applications for the second round of funding for the program Feb. 4.
Questions about the program can be directed to Kate Petcosky-Kulkarni, director of strategic research initiatives for Research and Development Services, the UO department supporting faculty members and researchers in funding and program develo