The Office of the Vice President for Research is offering a seed grant program to encourage researchers to use the Materials Analysis, Testing, and Fabrication (MATFab) Facility to help secure further external funding. 

Proposals must be submitted by January 3, 2025, and awards will be announced January 21, 2025, after consideration by an internal review committee. Unused funding expires October 31, 2025, for awarded projects.

Purpose and Expectations

Funds provided through the MATFab Seed Grant Program may be used to develop new research directions, make use of instrumentation they have not previously utilized, or employ new applications of instrumentation—all with the purpose of securing proof of concept and generating data to be used to pursue external funding for their work. This program is open to University of Iowa faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. Postdoctoral scholars and graduate students must have approval from their research mentor for submission.

Awardees will be required to:

  1. File a short progress report.
  2. Submit the proposal to an external agency within a year of the award.

Awardees who do not submit a proposal within this timeframe may be charged for the requested instrument fees. We will also encourage awardees to present at the annual MATFab symposium poster session after completion of the project.

Application Process

To be considered for a grant under the program, fill out and submit the online application form along with supporting documentation. Projected proposal (maximum of two pages with references, size 11 Arial font) is required for online submission. 

Project description should include: 

  1. research question and hypothesis, 
  2. brief description of planned experiments/characterization, 
  3. instrumentation needs, and 
  4. strategy for securing external funding. 

In addition, the applicant should develop a proposed project budget that includes either total hourly instrument needs or number of samples for analysis as a second file upload on the application portal. Proposed budgets can be estimates and the MATFab facility may offer a revised budget based upon the description of planned experiments/characterization. Applications will be reviewed based upon feasibility of completing the work in the MATFab facility and plans to secure additional funding. Applications from new users will also be prioritized.

Contact

Questions regarding this opportunity can be sent to matfab-staff@uiowa.edu.

The MATFab facility is supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research.