The Office of Research and Innovation is pleased to announce several new internal funding awards made in spring and summer 2026, which were supported with funds provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation, the Nebraska Tobacco Settlement Biomedical Research Development Fund and R&I.
Collaboration Grants: Catalyst Program
Two Catalyst Grants were made through the Collaboration Grants program. These grants support well-established collaborative teams to implement a robust project that will enhance competitiveness for major external funding and begin to position the team for long-term project sustainability. Up to $150,000 is available per award.
Catalyst Grant recipients and projects:
- Nirupam Aich, civil and environmental engineering, “AI-Driven Materials Discovery Platform for Next Generation Water Treatment”
Collaboration Grants: Development Program
Nine Development Grants were made through the Collaboration Grants program, which provide support for teams to conduct collaborative projects that are more preliminary and/or exploratory in nature and occur at an earlier stage of a team’s progression than work supported by Catalyst Grants. Up to $50,000 is available per award.
Development Grant recipients and projects:
- Forrest Kievit, biological systems engineering, “Establishing Neural Biocomputing as an In Vitro New Approach Methodology for Neuropharmacology Testing”
- Angela Pannier, biological systems engineering, “Building an Integrated Pipeline to Isolate Spider Venom Extracellular Vesicles and Evaluate Their Bioactivity Using Cancer Cell Models”
- Ravi Saraf, chemical and biomolecular engineering, “From Observables to Connectivity: Learning and Designing Self-Assembly of Disordered System via Graph-Based Machine Learning”
Research and Innovation Grants Program
Seventeen projects will be supported through the R&I Grants program, which provides support to UNL faculty members seeking to advance their programs of research, scholarship and/or creative endeavors. Up to $15,000 is available per award.
R&I Grant recipients and projects:
- Barry Cheung, chemistry, “Transcriptomic Analysis of MRSA Response to Plasma-Activated Chlortetracycline”
