The Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy, and Climate (VSEC) is seeking research proposals that could be awarded up to $300,000 through its Seed Project Fund.
The SPF is designed to support early-stage, exploratory research on transformative ideas that foster interdisciplinary collaborations on topics relevant to the VSEC mission. The goal is to generate preliminary results that enhance Vanderbilt’s research reputation and position projects for securing external funding from federal agencies or philanthropic organizations.
All full-time, VU-employed faculty are eligible, including non-tenure track faculty, and projects must align with VSEC’s core pillars. They are energy integration; resource sustainability; climate change mitigation/adaptation; and system risk reliability, and resilience.
The fund supports two types of projects: collaborative research projects up to $150,000 per year (2-year max), with an additional supplement of up to $25,000 for experimental or computationally intensive projects, and center planning grants up to $50,000 for lead principal investigators preparing center-level proposals. In the latter case, funds may cover course buyouts, travel, or organizing symposiums to facilitate proposal preparation.
Proposals will be reviewed according to multiple criteria, including relevance to VSEC, intellectual merit, potential for broader impact, interdisciplinary collaboration, potential for external funding, and team qualification. The deadline to submit is February 21, 2025.
For more information, visit: https://vanderbilt.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1958584