Seventeen projects promoting cross-disciplinary research across the University of Georgia have been awarded 2025 Teaming for Interdisciplinary Research Pre-Seed grants.
In partnership with the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the Office of Research provides pre-seed funding to facilitate interdisciplinary faculty teams and collaboration across critical and emerging research topics. To qualify, teams must consist of six to 12 faculty members from at least three disciplines.
The grants’ purpose is to jump-start interdisciplinary projects through low-dollar, high-impact pre-seed awards that prioritize relationship building and idea generation over immediate results.
“These seed grant programs incentivize teams to form around interesting new ideas, and those teams are often successful in going after other funding, even if they don’t get one of our awards,” said Nate Nibbelink, associate vice president for strategic research growth in the Office of Research. “It’s been a real benefit in helping teams incubate novel research ideas and be better prepared to apply for the Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant competition or other external funding.”
Funding is determined by the number of people on the team — $500 per faculty member — with awards averaging around $5,000. Out of 26 submitted proposals, 17 were awarded, totaling $77,000 in total funding.
Health was a recurring theme throughout several project proposals, which Nibbelink attributes to the impending launch of the university’s School of Medicine and School of Nursing.
Below is a snapshot of selected awarded projects. For a full list of the 2025 cohort, visit the TIR Pre-Seed website.
Forwarding Advanced Technologies in the Health Professions: An Interdisciplinary Team Formation Initiative
Mary Frances Early College of Education Professor Matthew Schmidt will lead a project that explores the use of artificial intelligence and extended reality in health professions education. The goal is to improve how health professionals learn complex material, practice clinical decision-making and communicate across disciplines and care settings.
“By bringing together transdisciplinary expertise across pharmacy, medicine, education, engineering and artificial intelligence,” Schmidt said, “we’re building the groundwork needed to pursue competitive federal funding and to position UGA as a leader in this space.”
Team members include Richard Lamb (College of Veterinary Medicine), Jie Lu (Mary Frances Early College of Education), Prashant Doshi (School of Computing), Kyle Johnsen (College of Engineering), Sun Joo “Grace” Ahn (Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication), Erica Brownfield (School of Medicine), Janette Hill (Education and Medicine) and the College of Pharmacy’s Eunice Kim, Joshua Cabellero, Michael Fulford and Susan Smith.
Cultivating Care: Advanced Therapeutic Horticulture for Georgia’s Well-being and Resilience
Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, director of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, leads another health-related project incorporating environmental health, clinical expertise and community engagement to explore how horticulture therapy can support people living with Alzheimer’s disease. The botanical garden will serve as the project’s primary research space, while the team brings together academic research, applied practice and community outreach.
“Supporting people living with dementia and their care partners through horticultural therapy requires a multifaceted approach,” Cruse-Sanders said. “Each team member contributes unique expertise toward our shared goals. After four years of piloting this work, seed grant funding will allow us to convene a community leadership summit to shape the project’s future direction.”
Team members include Cora Keber (Public Service and Outreach), Jenay Beer (College of Public Health), Sheri Dorn (College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences), Leo Lombardini (CAES), Michelle Elliott (PSO), Sharon Liggett (PSO) and Katherine Melcher (College of Environment and Design).
Developing the One Georgia Climate and Health Extension Center
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Professor Patricia Yager will lead an effort to build the foundation for a Georgia-wide Climate and Health Extension Center, designed to connect UGA researchers with communities across the state to address climate-related health challenges. According to Nibbelink, the project has been invited to submit a full proposal to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. If approved, that funding will lay the groundwork for the proposed center, demonstrating how TIR funding can act as a catalyst rather than an endpoint.
“Climate is a universal factor affecting our health, but the solutions are complex and require interdisciplinary approaches,” Yager said. “The BWF opportunity motivated us to assemble a team of UGA experts from climate, health, medicine, ecological sciences and the humanities, many of whom have never worked together before.”
Team members include Erin Lipp (Public Health), Allisen Penn (College of Family and Consumer Sciences), Erica Brownfield (Medicine), Pejman Rohani (Odum School of Ecology), Jonathan Mochel (CVM), Christina Fuller (Engineering), Scott Carver (Ecology), Andrew Grundstein (Franklin-Geography), Lisa Renzi-Hammond (Public Health) and Krista Capps (Ecology).
Tidal Flow: Building Experiential Data Visualization Through Art, Science and Systems Thinking
Lamar Dodd School of Art Professor Michael Marshall is teaming up with UGA Marine Institute Director Merryl Alber and others to study tidal systems along Georgia’s coast using art as a lens for understanding, interpreting and communicating complex ecological processes. Rather than treating art as an add-on to science, the project positions artistic practice as a core research method, capable of revealing new insights into environmental systems.
“Every discipline brings its own superpower,” Marshall said. “Our scientists provide and decode the data, our geographers and mathematicians model it, and our artists and musicians translate it into visceral experiences.”
Team members include Maria Artemis (School of Art), Daniel Bara (Hugh Hodgson School of Music), Sergio Bernardes (Franklin-Geography), Anna Harper (Franklin-Geography), Caner Kazanci (Franklin-Mathematics), Peter Lane (Music), Joan Sheldon (Franklin-Marine Sciences) and Patricia Yager (Franklin-Marine Sciences).