Seventeen projects, ranging from topics such as electrical stimulation for advanced wound healing to establishing a Radio Astronomy Data Science Center at UW–Madison, and expanding the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) into the next decade, have been chosen for Round 5 of the UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative.
These projects, with an average award amount of $385,802, were among 74 proposals submitted from across campus. The initiative is funded by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The Graduate School also supplies direct support for some research assistants.
Samuel Gellman, professor of Chemistry and BTP mentor, is leading a project titled “Acquisition of a State-of-the-art LCMSMS Instrument to Support Rapid Discovery of New Molecules and Synthetic Methods.”
This brings the total number of UW2020 projects to 85 since the first-round awards were announced in 2016. This round includes nine infrastructure projects and eight research projects. They include 137 faculty and academic staff investigators on the project teams from eight schools and colleges, and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education centers.
“As with the other rounds of UW2020, we have leveraged multidisciplinary collaborations to lead the way to new discoveries that will transform lives,” says Norman Drinkwater, interim vice chancellor for research and graduate education. “With Round 5 we also see a commitment to support rapidly growing and emerging areas of research including data science and nanotechnology, but also the need to build on the areas we already excel in, to remain competitive moving forward.”
The projects were reviewed by faculty across the university. The UW2020 Council, a group of 17 faculty members from all divisions of the university, evaluated the merits of each project based on the reviews and their potential for making significant contributions to their field of study.
The goal of UW2020 is to stimulate and support highly innovative research at UW–Madison and to support acquisition of shared instruments or equipment that will foster significant advances in research.
Visit the UW2020 website to find descriptions of all of the chosen projects and more information.