The Research Development Office within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) is pleased to announce the awardees from the Fall 2025 semester. The WashU Research Seed Grant program’s broad goal is to encourage novel, innovative interdisciplinary research excellence amongst WashU researchers on both the Medical School and Danforth Campuses. Largely writ, these programs aid researchers in laying the groundwork to be competitive and successful in submitting proposals to external funding opportunities, particularly complex, large proposals.
In Fiscal Year 2026, the programs have a special focus on Public Health. Awarded research projects and teams are fundamentally interdisciplinary and innovative.
Programs currently accepting applications can be found here.
Questions can be directed to researchseedfunding@wustl.edu.
Congratulations to the below teams!
Fall 2025 Ignite Interdisciplinary Grant Awardees
- Addressing gaps in cancer communication through AI to improve pediatric cancer outcomes in low-income settings; PIs: Kimberly Johnson (Brown, SPH), Dennis Barbour (McKelvey)
- Investigation of Headaches Triggered by Exposure to Wildfire Particulate Matter; PIs: Benjamin Kumfer (McKelvey) and Yu-Qing Cao (WUSM)
- BLOOM App Development: A Novel Perinatal Prevention; PIs: Joan Luby (A&S), Lora Iannotti (SPH); Lindsay Stark (SPH)
- Sustaining Health: Promoting Practices in Early Care and Education Settings: A Participatory Systems Modeling Approach; PIs: Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan (SPH), Todd Combs (SPH), Nathan Jacobs (McKelvey)
- Obusobozi: A Culturally Adapated Family Intervention to Enhance School-Based Suicide Prevention for Adolescents in Uganda; PIs: Massy Mutumba (SPH), Ryan Lindsey (Brown), Mary McKay (Brown), Nhial Tutlam (Brown), Saras Chung (Brown)
- Characterizing the Social, Biological, and Environmental Drivers of Novel Herbicide Resistance in US Weedy Rice to Enable Sustainable Food Security; PIs: Kimberly Parker (McKelvey), Kenneth Olson (A&S), Ross Hammond (SPH)
- AIR-NET (Action for Integrating AIR in Nigeria’s Asthma Treatment); PIs: Kaharu Sumino (WUSM), Emmanuel Tetteh (SPH), Penina Laker (Sam Fox)
- Bridging Public Health and Clinical Medicine: An Interdisciplinary Study to Charting the Roads to Chronic Opioid Therapy in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD); PIs: Kevin Xu (WUSM)
Spark Funding Awardees
The Spark Funding program accepts applications on a rolling basis during the academic year under two tracks: Proposal Development Track and Convening Track.
Proposal Development Track (FY2026 through Jan 2026)
Proposal Development Track grants provide support to teams as they prepare, write, and submit large competitive grants to external sponsors.
- Energy Materials Discovery through Quantam Sensing Innovation; Chuanwei Zhang (A&S), Lan Yang (McKelvey), Chong Zu (A&S)
- Engineering Methods Enabling Reproductive and Gynecologic Excellence (EMERGE) ; Philip Bayly (McKelvey), Yong Wang (WUSM); Linying Zhang (WUSM); Christine O’Brien (McKelvey); Sara Roccabianca (McKelvey); Matthew Bersi (McKelvey), and Alexandra Rutz (McKelvey)
Convening Track
Convening Track grants provide support to developing initiatives as they plan their larger research trajectory.
- From Insight to Impact: Catalyzing Innovation in Disability Research; Tim McBride (SPH), Kenton Johnson (WUSM)
- Urban Wildlife, Climate, and Health Equity in St. Louis: A Proposed Convening Initiative; Rachel Penczykowski (A&S), Laura Brugger (Brown)
- Development of Multicomponent Treatment Strategies to Address Cardiometabolic Risk in Subjects with Serious Mental Illness; Victor Davila-Roman (WUSM), Leopoldo Cabassa (Brown), and Lindsey Filiatreau (SPH)
- Patient Portal Communication Initiative; Mary Politi (SPH) and Bryan Sisk (WUSM)