FY23 Seed Grant Proposal Submissions Open!

The Center for Coastal Studies invites seed grant proposals from members of the Virginia Tech community to increase our institutional capacity in coastal-zone research, extension and engagement, and education. The goal of the seed grants is to form and foster interdisciplinary groups to address research, extension and engagement, and educational needs to better understand and find innovative solutions for complex contemporary and emerging environmental, societal, security, political, and economic issues in the coastal zone.
 
A total of at least $50,000 is allocated, from which we anticipate being able to fund five to seven grants. The maximum proposed budget is $15,000, but we welcome smaller grants as those will allow us to fund more projects. Submissions are open now and remain open until 12pm (noon), March 31, 2022. The funding decisions by an ad hoc committee of peers will be made by April 15, 2022, and it is expected that the funds will be available during the first month of the 2023 fiscal year which begins on July 1, 2022. The funds have to be spent within FY23. All investigators on an awarded seed grant will be expected to be affiliates of the Center for Coastal Studies prior to funding being received.

The proposals will be submitted through this Google Form and consist of a title, list of participants (position, rank if applicable, department or school), a description of the proposed work (maximum of 2000 characters), an itemized budget, and budget justification (maximum of 2000 characters). Proposals will be reviewed and ranked based primarily on the following two criteria: (1) Likelihood to strengthen Virginia Tech’s interdisciplinary capacity to address complex contemporary and emerging coastal zone issues; (2) Merit of proposed work as it relates to one or more of the three pillars of the Center for Coastal Studies: research, education, and/or extension and engagement. Final selection will also consider project portfolio diversity, budget and budget justification. Projects funded through our FY22 competition are summarized here.

Please email Robert Weiss at weiszr@vt.edu with any questions you might have.