Research and Innovation Seed Program (SciRIS)

The College of Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS) Program funds projects based on collaborative research within our community and beyond. The program's awards seed funding for high impact collaborative proposals that build teams, pursue fundamental discoveries and create societal impact.

Founded in 2018, SciRIS accelerates the pace of research, discovery and innovation in the College of Science by enabling scientists to work across an array of disciplines in a mentored environment.

SciRIS-ii (individual awards)

Understanding the migrational phenotype plasticity of metastatic tumor cells (2019, 2020)
Bo Sun, Physics

Optimal Control of Stochastic Epidemics (2019)
Vrushali Bokil, Mathematics

Predicting the trajectory of toxic harmful algal blooms using multi-omics data integration (2019)
Kimberly Halsey, Microbiology

Estimating the Number of People Who Inject Drugs in Metropolitan Areas of the United States: A Collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019)
Katherine McLaughlin, Statistics

Developing new molecular simulation techniques to discover materials for clean energy applications (2019)
David Roundy, Physics

Capturing Molecular Movies of Chloride Biosensors in Action (2020)
Chong Fang, Chemistry

Selective, fast-response and regenerable metal-organic frameworks for sampling chemical contaminants in drinking water (2020)
Kyriakos Stylianou, Chemistry

Understanding properties of quantum materials for spintronics and magnon valleytronics (2020)
Oksana Ostroverkhova, Physics

SciRIS Stage 1 ($10,000)

Integration of Multiple Approaches to Understand IDPs (2017)
College of Science Impact Award
Elisar Barbar, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Afua Nyarko, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Weihong Qiu, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Peter Eschbach, OSU Electron Microscope Facility

The College of Science Impact Awards were a precursor of the SciRIS program, providing $10,000 in philanthropic gifts to an early-stage research or innovation project, with a match from the Oregon State Provost office.

Biochemical Barriers on the Path to Ocean Anoxia (2018)
Francis Chan, Integrative Biology
Stephen Giovannoni, Microbiology

Identifying new antinociceptive compounds for treating chronic pain and itch using in vivo assays (2018)
James Strother, Integrative Biology
Sandra Loesgen, Chemistry

Leveraging Collaboration to Establish The Microbiome Data Science Center (2018)
David Koslicki, Mathematics
Thomas Sharpton, Microbiology

An integrative investigation of the role of the gut-brain axis on anxiety in female murine models (2018)
Maude David, Microbiology
Kenton Hokanson, Microbiology

Performance Optimization of Transistors and Solar Photovoltaics by Ultrabroadband Photoconductance Microscopy of Trap-State Density and Lifetimes (2020)
Matthew Graham, Physics
Paul Cheong, Chemistry

SciRIS Stage 2 ($75,000)

Structurally Functionalized Nanobodies (2019)
Ryan Mehl, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Richard Cooley, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Weihong Qiu, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Chris Cebra, College of Veterinary Medicine
Shay Bracha, College of Veterinary Medicine

Homoharringtonine: Chemical synthesis and evaluation of designed analogs (2019)
Christopher Beaudry, Chemistry
Victor Hsu, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Siva Kolluri, College of Agricultural Sciences

An integrative investigation of the role of the gut-brain axis on sex differences in anxiety (2020)
Maude David, Microbiology
Kenton Hokanson, Microbiology
Kathy Magnusson, Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine

SciRIS Stage 3 ($125,000)

Homoharringtonine: Chemical Synthesis and Evaluation of Designed Analogs(2020)
Christopher Beaudry, Chemistry
Victor Hsu, Biochemistry & Biophysics
Siva Kolluri, College of Agricultural Sciences

Learn how to apply for a SciRIS award

Read more about SciRIS grants

Scientists garner innovation awards for cancer and materials research

The Science Research and Innovation Seed awards were given to four multidisciplinary research teams working on cancer diagnostics and materials science.

Physicist receives innovation award for cancer research

Physicist Bo Sun received the College of Science’s Science Research and Innovation Seed award that supports transformative science research.

New grants to advance science that benefits humankind

How are devastating plant diseases spread? Is there a better way to predict HIV prevalence in a city? How can we detect toxic algae blooms before they occur? And which of the thousands of metal-organic frameworks can be used for storing and separating gases, like CO2 from industrial plants? Four faculty members received College of Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS-II) awards this February to pursue answers to these questions over the course of the next year.

Grants to boost advances in mental health and cancer research

The College of Science awarded two interdisciplinary teams funding to pursue promising leads in mental health and cancer research. One team will investigate the role of the gut-brain axis on sex differences in anxiety, and another will explore ways to develop an synthetic version of HHT-- a rare plant alkaloid that is showing great promise in the development of new medicines for multiple forms of cancer.

New grants to expand research on cancer imaging and quantum materials

New awards from the College of Science will support research on quantum information applications, better cancer screening and bioimaging technologies.