Seed Grant Program

Please read carefully for eligibility and online submission process instruction.

The Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) Seed Grant Program provides funding to CUNY researchers pursuing interdisciplinary STEM projects that strive to inform and potentially lead to improved human, societal, and environmental well-being in the years to come. We seek to support creative, collaborative, and convergent research that addresses complex questions relevant to the most pressing challenges in STEM. A primary goal is also to seed research that will become the basis for new external funding. As such, submissions that have a clearly defined research question and a goal to collect critical preliminary data for a future grant proposal will be prioritized.

The program encourages proposals that leverage the ASRC’s five Initiatives (Nanoscience, Photonics, Structural Biology, Neuroscience and Environmental Sciences), 15 core facilities, and their analytical and human resources through collaboration.

The 2022 Seed Program will award six 12-month, $20,000 grants (in Research Foundation funds) to CUNY tenured, tenure-track, or research-track faculty who are pursuing collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects that are well-defined, compelling, innovative, and have a potential to yield meaningful, rather than incremental, advances. Researchers in any STEM field may apply, but those that take advantage of the ASRC’s facilities and resources will be prioritized.

In addition, awardees will participate in a symposium at the end of the funding period to present their findings to researchers from across CUNY, with the opportunity to discuss next steps towards securing additional funding and peer-reviewed publication.

It is strongly encouraged that you discuss your proposal, prior to submission, with the ASRC Investigator(s) and/or Core Facility Director(s) that you propose to work with to ensure feasibility. However, it is expected that the PI take full responsibility for writing the proposal.

Please direct program inquiries to: