Seed Grants

EEB’s Seed Grant Program supports our faculty as they develop external research proposals. The seed grant program prioritizes projects that bring together new ideas and collaborations. Core EEB faculty are eligible to submit seed grant proposals with a maximum request of $20k per project.

The 2025 call for funding provides additional information on the application process. Proposals are due annually on March 1 but may be considered off-cycle if external deadlines necessitate a different timeline. Questions can be directed to the committee chairs Emily Dolson and Pat Soranno.

 

 

 

Title	Lead PI	Dept
Coupled cycling of mercury and greenhouse gases across a Michigan watershed	Kelly Aho and Jackie Gerson	EES, IBIO
*Giving meaning to soil fungal sequence data: developing a community-level index of potential plant-pathogen interactions	Chris Blackwood and Lauren Sullivan	PSMS, PLB, KBS
Building Genomic Resources for Fish Models of Vertebrate Gene Regulatory Evolution	Ingo Braasch, Julia Ganz, Jason Gallant	IBIO
Evolution of the enteric nervous system: the brain in the gut	Julia Ganz, Elizabeth Health-Heckman	IBIO, MGI
SedaDNA Insights into Paleoclimate and Paleoecology of the Great Lakes in the Holocene (11,700 Ka to present)	Matt Schrenk, Elena Litchman, Mariah Meek	EES, MGI, IBIO, KBS
Advancing understanding of ecological networks across space and time with open, accessible, and dynamic digital natural history of global bird interactions	Phoebe Zarnetske	IBIO
The Molecular Basis of Electroreception in Teleost Fish	Jason Gallant	IBIO
Application of language models for knowledge organization and extraction for the study of evolution	Shin-Han Shiu, Jeff Conner	PLB, CMSE, KBS
Salmon Run Evolution Education Video Game Development and Classroom Pilot Study	Robert Pennock	Lyman Briggs, Phil, CSE

*Project co-sponsored by MSU AgBioResearch.

 

Stories from 2023-2024

Six seed grants to launch EEB faculty initiatives

EEB seed grant sprouts publishing in Science

 

Title	Lead PI	Dept
**Neural mechanisms of infrared sensation in snakes	Heather Eisthen	Integrative Biology
**Why do parasites vary in their ability to castrate their hosts? A mechanistic, multi-scale approach	Nina Wale	Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
*Building an evidence base for best practices in the communication and implementation of ecological science	Scott Peacor	Fisheries and Wildlife
*Eco-evolutionary dynamics of host-parasite interactions in a novel environment	Henry Chung	Entomology
Back from the brink: Harnessing genomics to reverse declines in an emblematic Andean harlequin frog	Sarah Fitzpatrick	KBS and Integrative Biology
Evaluation of risk to marine and terrestrial biodiversity from climate change and climate intervention	Phoebe Zarnetske	Integrative Biology

*Project co-sponsored by MSU AgBioResearch.

**Project co-sponsored by MSU BEACON

 

Title	Lead PI	Dept
*Empowering stakeholders from ship to store--solving fishery management challenges with use-inspired genomic and artificial intelligence tools	Mariah Meek	Integrative Biology
**Co-phylogenetic inference and learning: New algorithmic techniques and an applied study of bioluminescent cephalopod symbioses	Kevin Liu	Computer Science and Engineering
Identifying how belowground microbial communities change across time and space after wildfire	Jessica Miesel	Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences
*What makes a virus pathogenic? Using machine learning to distinguish genomic signatures of virulence in crop and wild viruses	Carolyn Malmstrom	Plant Biology
**Rules of polyploid life – Evolution of the vertebrate nervous system by genome duplications	Ingo Braasch	Integrative Biology
Mapping phenology and above ground biomass in an African savanna	Kyla Dahlin	Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences
**Leveraging genomic data to increase adaptive potential for the endangered Mitchell's satyr butterfly	Sarah Fitzpatrick	KBS and Integrative Biology

*Project co-sponsored by MSU AgBioResearch.

**Project co-sponsored by MSU BEACON

 

Title	Lead PI	Dept
Integrating biodiversity sciences across scales	Kendra Cheruvelil	Fisheries and Wildlife
Mechanisms to prevent cheating in a newt-microbe symbiosis	Heather Eisthen	Integrative Biology
Identifying the genetic basis of adaptive flagellar loss in mormyrid electric fish	Jason Gallant	Integrative Biology
The Conservation Genetics Coalition: Building international capacity in applied genetics	Mariah Meek	Integrative Biology
*Unraveling growth-defense interactions across biological scales using grapes	Marjorie Weber	Plant Biology
Herbivory Variability Network: Quantifying plant-herbivore interactions	Will Wetzel	Entomology

*Project co-sponsored by MSU AgBioResearch.