Awards: Strategic Seed Grants for Facilities & Equipment (2024)

The AES funded 8 requests for equipment or infrastructure to advance research and research capacity for existing Hatch/Multistate Projects.

Selected For Support (CALS funding unless noted otherwise)

TitleDepts.Award AmountPI and TeamAssociated Hatch/
Multistate Project(s)
A New Cold-Hardy Grape Vineyard for Pest and Disease ResearchHORT$9,830Suzanne Slack
Randall Vos
NE2220,
IOW04201
Tracking Pollinators with Telemetry ArraysNREM
EEOB
PPEM
$37,371Katherine Kral-O'Brien
Gunnar Kramer
Phoebe Edwards
Adam Janke
Amy Toth
IOW05619,
IOW05601
Automating ELISA for Water Quality TestingEEOB$26,466Charlie Loewen
 
IOW05684
The High-Performance Liquid Anion-Exchange Chromatography for the polysaccharide compositional characterization from plant tissues to increase plant growth, stress resistance, and fiber quality.BBMB$54,000Olga ZabotinaIOW05635
Improving Proteomic Analyses In Animal PhysiologyANSCI$27,550Aileen Keating
Joshua Selsby
Karl Kerns
Elizabeth Bobeck
Lance Baumgard
IOW05513, 
IOW05738,
IOW05627,
IOW03921,
IOW0567,
IOW03921
Gas Sterilizer to Enhance Pest, Pathogen, and Pollinator ResearchPPEM
EEOB
$48,179Amber Crowley-Gall
Thomas Baum
Gary Munkvold
Alejandro Olmedo-Velarde
Amy Toth
IOW04108,
IOW04308,
IOW05761,
IOW05639,
IOW05740
Advanced microbial phenotypic profiling via OdinANSCI
FSHN
PPEM
$71,250Daniel Unruh
James Dickson
Larry Halverson
Melha Mellata
Gary Munkvold,
Stephan Schmitz-Esser
IOW04121,
IOW05682,
IOW05700,
IOW04202,
IOW04108,
IOW05639
Using CO2 isotopes for climate-smart soil researchEEOB
AGRON
$36,475Wenjuan Huang
Marshall McDaniel
IOW03750,
IOW05663
Advanced Biomass Cropping Systems EquipmentAGRON$86,394Nicholas Boersma
Andy VanLoocke
Marshall McDaniel
IOW05663
Dual flow continuous culture system for ruminant nutrition researchANSCI
FSHN
$110,000Ranga Jayasooriya-Arachchige
Lance Baumgard
Stephan Schmitz-Esser
Zhiyou Wen;
James Koltes;
Gail Carpenter
Dathan Smerchek
IOW05731,
IOW03921
A comprehensive lab animal monitoring system (CLAMS)FSHN
ANSCI
$147,920Kevin Schalinske
Peter Clark
Aileen Keating
Marian Kohut
Elizabeth McNeill,
Matthew Rowling
Joshua Selsby
Mike Wannemuehler
IOW04002,
IOW05513,
IOW05738,
IOW05627

Total funded

 $655,435   

 

Request for Proposals & Selection Process

RFP

Available Funds 
Number of Applications16
Total Funds Requested$1,222,540
Lead PI Department, All Applications8
Average (mean) Request Amount$76,408
Number of Proposals with Matching Funds4
Average Matching Funds (Where Included)$24,295

Primary Reviewer Selection

  • Proposals were randomly assigned to reviewers with no COI (per the COI list submitted by PI and reviewer agreement of no COI).

Review Process

  • 16 proposals were classed into eight sets, with three to four proposals each. These were organized, so each proposal ended up with two reviews.
  • A primary reviewer reviewed each set. These four were ranked relative to each other based on the potential to expand the scope of existing projects, alignment to strategic initiatives, potential to facilitate team-based initiatives, and potential use for developing or enabling future requests for funding.
  • Secondary reviewers (from ISU Administration) met to discuss the primary reviews and to compare rankings with available funds.
  • Highly ranked proposals were selected for funding. Some proposals were only partially funded to arrive at a figure near the funding allocated for this opportunity. 
Primary Reviewers15
Primary Reviewer Departments6
Secondary Reviewers5
Secondary Reviewer UnitsVPR, CALS Administration, Office of Biotech

Selected Applications

Full Funding6
Partial Funding5
Lead PI Departments8
Included Matching Funds3
Average Matching Funds$20,302
Total Funds Awarded (including match)$736,643