Seed Funding
Seed funding supports innovative ideas at the earliest stage to kickstart the project and collect preliminary data that is necessary to secure subsequent extramural funding.
2025 Capstone Project Fund
Applications are open now and will be reviewed bi-weekly on a rolling basis through February 1st, 2025. Eligible students and student teams need to be enrolled in capstone class or can show proof upon request that they will be in the Spring semester at UAF as part of a degree program.
Please apply here.
Be prepared to enter details about yourself, your team, capstone class, and answer the below questions in the application narrative.
- What challenge does the project address or solve?
- Provide a description of the work to be performed in the project.
- How will you measure success for the project?
- What societal impact could the project have?
Please use the provided templates to develop your project budget and justification. Note: you must be signed into your alaska.edu account to access.
Reach out to Ashley Guernsey or Michael Martins with any questions.
The Center ICE Seed Fund sponsors projects performed by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Alaska; external entities/individuals can benefit from Center ICE Seed Funding by partnering with University of Alaska faculty, staff, or students.
Call for proposals from the UA academic community
Applications are open until July 15, funding is limited and projects will be reviewed as they are submitted. Applicants can apply for up to 10k to support innovative projects over the fall. Follow Center ICE social media or subscribe to our newsletter to learn about occasional RFPs (requests for proposals) specific to certain timely topics of interest and/or new opportunities for growth of the Alaskan economy.
Proposals will be submitted through this google form and must include:
- Title of proposed project or activity
- Principal investigator (& team, if applicable)
- Name
- UA affiliation: campus, department, faculty/staff/student
- Short biography
- Description of the project team’s innovation experience or training (e.g., Lean Startup methodology, I-Corps customer discovery, design thinking), or state "none"
- Narrative that addresses each of the following:
- What challenge does your proposed idea help solve? I.e., what pain are you solving or what gain are you providing?
- How is this problem/opportunity currently being addressed (if necessary think broadly because current solutions may be entirely dissimilar and inferior to your idea)?
- How is your innovation novel?
- Provide a description of the work you will perform to develop your solution.
- How will you measure success for your project?
- How could your solution be scaled into a commercial product?
- What societal impact could your project have?
- List key personnel and provide a very brief biography of each (four sentences is sufficient).
- Provide a statement acknowledging that ICR will not be included in the project. Please contact us if you have any questions.
- Provide a budget including totals within each category and a budget justification using provided templates or templates from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Office of Proposal Development. Note: must be signed into alaska.edu account to access templates.
– Budget Justification Template
- Project timeline
- Fiscal officer contact information
- Proposals should be submitted through this google form
- Direct questions to centerice@alaska.edu in an email titled "Center ICE Seed Fund Questions" with a copy (cc) to Ashley Guernsey,
alguernsey@alaska.edu.
Evaluation of proposals:
Some factors for evaluation include completeness and professionalism, cost relative to likelihood of success and value of successful outcome if achieved, and impact and importance of seed funding to advancing the proposed project. A three-page final report will be required at project completion, and most project teams are required to participate in Center ICE’s I-Corps program or another similar program. Coordination of purchasing/procurement for funded projects will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Center ICE will retain all ICR generated from funded projects.
Ideation Studio Seed Awards:
This Seed Award is open to those who have attended an Ideation Studio and are working on transdisciplinary projects with a team comprised of individuals from two or more departments, colleges, institutes, or some combination at UAF.
Ideation Studios generate new ideas or solutions to real-world challenges. Ideation studios often facilitate networking, research ideation, and project development. Participants may come from the university, government, military, and/or industry. For more information, please contact Zachary Cureton-Hazard at zcureton@alaska.edu.
Apply for seed funding
More information: Application Packet
Previous CISF funded innovative research
Jeff Rothman CISF IICP - Photo by JR Ancheta
John Harley SVI Results
Orion Lawlor IICP Research