The Office of Research has announced the Small Equipment Grants Program has funded 29 proposals for 2021. Among the awardees were four proposals from the Syracuse Biomaterials Innovation Facility (SBI), the BioInspired Institute’s materials characterization and synthesis core facility. These were:
- James Henderson, for a microcentrifuge
- Era Jain, for an automated histology and thin-sectioning workspace
- Zhen Ma, for a hypoxia tissue culture cabinet
- Mary Beth Monroe, for a multifunctional electrospinning system
After installation, the equipment will be available to Syracuse University and external users in the SBI facility.
The program is designed to strengthen research capacity and capability at Syracuse University. These awards are intended to bridge the gap between major research equipment as funded through extramural grants (and requests for equipment in individual research project grants) and small items often purchased through faculty research accounts. Because the program is intended to support equipment not obtainable through traditional mid-to-large scale equipment grant programs from extramural funders, preference is given to proposals for equipment that fall between $5,000 and $100,000.
“This year’s awardees represent a broad array of research and creative disciplines and will jumpstart research and scholarship in fields ranging from environmental science to art and music,” says Ramesh Raina, interim vice president for research.
Outside SBI, small equipment grants in 2021 include equipment such as an acoustic recording array for studies of marine mammal acoustic behavior, a snowpack analyzer to support flood prediction and remote sensing research, medium format digital camera equipment, an ultrapure water purification system, a large scanning transient current technique system, and a terrestrial LIDAR scanner.
Faculty receiving grants represent the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, the School of Education and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The Small Equipment Grant Program pays 100% of the first $25,000 of equipment costs. For equipment costs between $25,000 and $50,000, costs are equally shared between the Grant Program and the department, school or college, with a maximum award of up to $37,500 from the Office of Research. The minimum amount for an equipment award request is $5,000.
The Small Equipment Grant Program was established in 2019. To date, the program has funded 61 projects.
For more information regarding the Small Equipment Grant Program, contact Christina Leigh Docteur.
For information about access and training in SBI, contact Eric Finkelstein.