The Office for Research and Innovation (OR&I) at Stony Brook University has announced the recipients of the 2025 the OVPR Seed Grant Program. This marks the 11th cycle of the internal seed grant initiative, with OR&I awarding $1.2 million in total funding to 22 faculty-led research projects, setting a new record for the highest total funding distributed in a single cycle for this award.
The 2025 program received 100 applications from across Stony Brook University, including faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Renaissance School of Medicine, the School of Health Professions, the College of Business, the School of Social Welfare, and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. The awarded projects span a range of disciplines and approaches, from proof-of-concept work to interdisciplinary collaborations that demonstrate strong potential for external funding.
Awardees include AI3 faculty Jiawei Zhou, Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics and Computer Science, Niranjan Balasubramanian, Department of Computer Science, and Owen Rambow, Department of Linguistics and Institute for Advanced Computational Science.
The OVPR Seed Grant Program is designed to catalyze innovative research by supporting preliminary work that can lead to larger, more competitive extramural funding proposals. Faculty applicants submitted abstracts and short proposals outlining a timeline for transforming their early-stage ideas into high-impact research endeavors. Proposals were reviewed by a panel of faculty peers using standardized evaluation criteria focused on the merits of the proposed project and the likelihood of future external funding success.
This year’s award rate was a historically high 22 percent. From its inception in 2018 through the end of FY 2024-25, the OVPR Seed Grant Program has received 743 applications and made 129 awards totaling over $6.7 million. The program, administered by the Office of Proposal Development (OPD), has completed 11 funding cycles to date and has achieved a return on investment of more than 9:1 based on external funding outcomes from completed projects.
“These awards represent Stony Brook’s continued commitment to supporting faculty-driven research at its earliest and most promising stages,” said Kevin Gardner, vice president for research and innovation. “Our research enterprise is only as strong as the people and ideas that fuel it. By investing in bold, original thinking across disciplines, we’re building the foundation for transformative discoveries and sustained external funding.”
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