Internal Grant Programs
Managed through the Office of Research Development Services (ORDS), the Office of Research offers grant programs to support research and creative activities and the dissemination of results.
The internal grant programs aim to strengthen and reinforce best practices in grant writing and submission, thus applications are expected to follow the published program guidelines and proposal requirements. Proposals that do not meet these expectations will not be reviewed. Deadlines are enforced. ORDS staff, who are not part of the review process, are available for consultation about your application.
Contact
- Inquiries: or-osp-propdev@uwm.edu
Internal Grant Programs
Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG)
Supports initial stages of research with the intent of making projects more competitive for completion or expansion through external funding. Applicants must demonstrate that the work is not just an incremental extension of their current or past projects or the field in general. Recipients are expected to submit external grant proposals within three years of the start of funding for at least three times the DIG budget.
Advancing Research and Creativity (ARC)
Supports meritorious research and creative projects across all disciplines at UWM. Projects may be at various stages of development. Awards are expected to result in scholarly, scientific, and artistic products that will increase the national and international recognition of the awardees, their programs, and the institution.
Faculty-Industry Partnership Seed Grant Program (FIPS)
Supports multi-disciplinary partnership development and the preparation of joint proposals that will lead to externally funded research, development, or translational projects.
Finish Line
Supports work that is needed to address review comments in high scoring but unfunded proposals upon resubmission. Proposals are reviewed internally.
Research Assistance Fund (RAF)
Supports a wide variety of activities, including conference travel for presenting your research. Awards are intended for faculty and career academic staff with immediate research needs that cannot be supported through other campus funding. Proposals are reviewed internally.
Advancing Research and Creativity Grant Recipients
FY26
| Benjamin Balcom Assistant Professor, Department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres External Co-Investigator: Assistant Professor Magdalena Bermudez, Department of Cinema, Binghamton University Architecture of Mountains Film Restoration |
| Derek Counts Distinguished Professor, Department of Art History External Co-Investigators: Erin Averett, Professor of Art History & Archaeology, Creighton University Brad Johnson, Professor of Environmental Studies, Davidson College Fire & Earth: Geoarchaeological Approaches to Ritual and Landscape in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus |
| Madhusudan Dey Professor, Department of Biological Sciences External Co-Investigator: Associate Professor Nicholas Reiter, Department of Chemistry, Marquette University Translational Control in HAC1 mRNA by its Cytosolic Intron |
| Pamela Harris Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences Language analysis via discrete statistics |
| Xin Huang Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies Russian Translation of The Gender Legacy of the Mao Era |
| Karolina May-Chu Assistant Professor, Department of Ancient and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures The Baltic Sea as Borderland in German and Polish Literature and Film |
| Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla Professor, Department of Biological Sciences Does mate choice select for courteous mating partners? |
| Natasha Sugiyama Professor, Department of Political Science External Co-Investigator: Professor Wendy Hunter, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin Twin Transformations: Expansion of the Welfare State and Religiosity in Contemporary Brazil |
| Adam Thibodeaux Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture Ghost Lab: Considering Layered Histories of Architectural Use in Milwaukee |
| Tanya Tiffany Professor, Department of Art History Painting the Sacred: Diego Velázquez and the Catholic Reformation in Spain |
| Kay Wells Associate Professor, Department of Art History Uncanny Revivals: The Politics of Designing Early America |
| Anika Wilson Associate Professor, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies Indigenous Spiritual Oasis: Struggles to Save a Traditional Rain Shrine in Malawi to Ensure Spiritual and Environmental Sustainability |
Discovery and Innovation Grant Recipients
FY26
| Gordon Gauchat Associate Professor, Department of Sociology Institutional Literacy: Measuring Public Understanding of Science |
| Brandon Gerig Assistant Professor, School of Freshwater Sciences Assessing the movement, habitat use, and trophic ecology of juvenile Lake Sturgeon prior to large scale habitat improvements in the Milwaukee River estuary |
| Elizabeth Liedhegner Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences UWM Co-Investigator: Professor Nicholas Silvaggi, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Understanding the role of Sterol Carrier Protein 2 (SCP-2) in lipid metabolism: toward structure-based design of SCP-2 inhibitors as tools to investigate function |
| Angela Matijczak Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work Development and Validation of the Gender Identity and Family Attitudes Scale |
| Gabriela Nagy Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology Scaling the Cultivating Resilience Program: Transitioning from Expert-Delivery to Community-Based Lay Provider-Delivery for Broader Impact |
| Benjamin Peterson Assistant Professor, Freshwater Sciences Microbial physiology of mercury methylation |
| Jerald Thomas Jr Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science Measuring Short-Term Translation Gain Adaptation as an Effect of Stimulus Duratio |
| Lynne Woehrle Associate Professor, School of Nursing UWM Co-Investigator: Professor Julia Snethen, School of Nursing Innovating Health Care Education and Newcomer Integration Strategies Through Shared Video Tools and Training |
| Xiaoxiao Zhang Scientist I, Department of Mechanical Engineering UWM Co-Investigator: Professor Deyang Qu, Mechanical Engineering A Pilot Roll-to-Roll Scale-Up Demonstration of UWM Patented Prealkaliation Technology |
Faculty-Industry Partnership Seed-grant (FIPS) Recipients
FY26
| Ching-Hong Yang Distinguished Professor, Department of Biological Sciences Commercialization of RejuPrime: A Novel Biostimulant for Enhancing Crop Resilience to Abiotic Stress |
| Alexander Arnold Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Independent Functional and Physicochemical Benchmarking of Sustainable EcoFizz™ Detergents as Alternatives to Tween-20 and Brij Surfactants |
| Feng Guo Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering Development of Bidirectional-Switch-Based Parallel SiC/GaN Hybrid Three-Level T-type Active-Front-End for High-Power and Ultra-High-Efficiency Fast-Charging Stations |
| Qingsu Cheng Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering Scalable Automation for Organoid-Based Cancer Research |
| Junjie Niu Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship Professor, Department of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering PFAS Removal via Electrochemical Oxidation in Water |
| Priyatha Premnath Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering Engineering of Selective p21 Inhibition with Radical Scavenging Hydrogel Matrices: A Strategic Academic-Industrial Partnership for Regenerative Wound Therapy |
| Nikolai Kouklin Professor, Department of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering Polycrystalline Zinc-Phosphate Thin Films: Multispectral Low-Cost Solar Energy Photovoltaics for Industrial Deployment |
| Jian Zhao Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Nondestructive Testing and Field Monitoring of Adhesive Anchors in Precast Concrete Connections |
| Xinyi Shen Assistant Professor, School of Freshwater Sciences SAR2FIM: An AI-Based Real-Time Flood Inundation Nowcasting, Forecasting, and Impact Assessment |
| Madhusudan Dey Professor, Department of Biological Sciences Antimicrobial Compounds from the Bacterium Xenorhabdus szentirmaii |
| Rani F. El Hajjar Professor and Department Chair, Civil & Environmental Engineering Machine Learning and Acoustic Methods for Non-Destructive Characterization of Thermoplastic Polyolefin Membranes |
| Srishti Sardana Assistant Professor (UWM), Adjunct Assistant Professor (Columbia University), Visiting Faculty (Ashoka University) Companio: Co-Designing a Human-Centered Digital Therapeutic to Integrate Behavioral and Biomedical Care for Chronic Wound Healing in Rural Older Adults |
| Yin Wang Richard and Joanne Grigg Fellowship Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Accelerating the Development of the Next Generation Membrane/Composite Water Filters through an AI-Driven Digital Twin Framework Based on Pore Scale Simulations |
| Sergei V. Kuchin Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences Characterization of Yeast-Derived Sterols Relevant to Honeybee Health |
| Konstantin Sobolev Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering FireShield: Development of an Advanced Cellular Concrete System for Wildfire Protection |
| Woo Jin Chang Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Rapid Characterization of the Portable Minimum Viable Lead Detection Device for Onsite Drinking Water Quality Monitoring |
| Mark Freeland Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Women & Gender Studies Field to Fire: The Transformative Power of Indigenous Agriculture in Human and Environmental Health |
| Dong Fang Deng Professor, School of Freshwater Sciences Building a Circular Economy for Great Lakes Aquaculture: Converting Soy Sauce By-Products into Sustainable Aquatic Feed |
| Alyssa Schnorenberg Scientist I, Department of Mechanical Engineering Comparing Suspension and Non-Suspension Power Assist Technologies for Reducing Vibration and Impact Exposure in Wheelchair Mobility |