The Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) is pleased to announce a new large-scale, inter-disciplinary seed-funding program to support the NC Plant Science Initiative (PSI). This program, the Game-Changing Research Incentive Program for the Plant Sciences Initiative (GRIP4PSI) is funded with generous commitments from the Office of the Provost, ORI, the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science, and the NC State Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), Engineering (COE), Natural Resources (CNR), Sciences (COS), Management (PCOM) and Textiles (WCOT). Collectively, $2.3 million in seed-funding has been made available for this program.
The PSI aspires to make NC State the premier academic home for plant research in the world. Three factors will enable NC State to achieve this lofty goal:
1) NC State has, and will continue to assemble, outstanding research faculty with a track record of working collaboratively on plant science. These interdisciplinary research teams span multiple NC State colleges, and include researchers from industry and government.
2) North Carolina is uniquely suited geographically. Our state features distinct soil and climate regimes, and NC State researchers have access to 18 research stations and field labs across NC that can be used to do research projects on crops that are grown around the world.
3) A new plant science research building will be constructed on Centennial campus that is projected to open at the end of 2021. This building is designed to facilitate the interdisciplinary research efforts of academic/industrial teams working on agricultural grand challenges. GRIP4PSI awardees will be considered, in whole or in part, to be occupants of this new facility.
The GRIP4PSI RFP, and an Appendix that details the research platforms that form the basis of the PSI, are attached to this announcement. To provide more information about the PSI and the GRIP4PSI seed-funding program, two informational meetings have been scheduled as well as a speed networking/collaboration meeting that will be held in January 2019. Please plan to attend one or more of the following informational meetings. If you are unable to attend, the session on January 15th will be recorded and archived on-line for viewing:
January 23, 2019, Room 4106 in the Hunt Library from 1:30 – 3:00 pm
On Friday, January 25th, a speed networking/collaboration session will be held at the University Club on Hillsborough Street at 3 – 5 pm followed by a reception that will conclude at 6 pm. This session will provide a wealth of information regarding faculty interests and capabilities, and facilitate the discovery of mutual areas of research collaboration. You will not want to miss this event!
Please register for the informational meetings and the speed networking events using this Google form.