The 2017 CITRIS Seed Funding opportunity invites Principal Investigators at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Davis Health System, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz to apply for seed funding that furthers CITRIS and the Banatao Institute research initiatives, strengthens connections among UC campuses, and catalyzes early-stage research that can lead to external funding.
- $550,000 available: Core CITRIS Seed Funding
View the full program overview with detailed areas of interest, eligibility, requirements, online application portal, and FAQs.
Deadline for all CITRIS Seed Funding proposals
Friday, January 27, 2017 at 5:00pm PST
Funded projects have attracted follow-on support from federal, state, industrial, and private sources including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Intel, Microsoft, Mellon Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Areas of Interest
Please see the RFP for full descriptions of the 2017 Areas of Interest, including:
- Connected Communities: This new initiative focuses on the affordances of information technology to enhance communities – of learning, of practice, and of governance. Themes include the development of experimental online platforms and novel hardware and software systems that connect peers to each other and to institutions in meaningful and productive ways.
- Health: Improving health outcomes and access to cost-effective care through the development and integration of innovative technology in telehealth, sensors, mobile devices, and analytics with a special emphasis on hospital to home and precision health solutions.
- People and Robots: Human-centric automation, bio-inspired robotics, deep learning, cloud robotics, and the Internet of Things are among the primary research themes in the new CITRIS People and Robots Initiative.
- Sustainable Infrastructures: The Sustainable Infrastructures Initiative pursues information technology research in energy, water, and transportation as parts of the cyber-infrastructure of a sustainable society.
Highlights from Prior Award Recipients
Browse the research projects that received CITRIS funding in 2016, including these multi-campus and multi-disciplinary collaborations:
 Under-Canopy Robots for Biofuel Plant Breeding Research Campuses: UC Davis & UC BerkeleyInitiative: Sustainable Infrastructures, People and Robots This project is developing a miniature high-throughout phenotyping robot to help plant breeders automate the measurement of plant architecture they require to accelerate the creation of more efficient energy crops that are better adapted to climate change and can be produced on marginal land without displacing food crops. Principal Investigators: David C. Slaughter, Stavros Vougioukas,Julin Maloof, Neelima Sinha (UC Davis) Peggy Lemaux (UC Berkeley) |  Integrating Electrically Conducting Membranes as In-Situ Sensors in Autonomous Water Treatment Systems Campuses: UC Riverside & UC MercedInitiative: Sustainable Infrastructures This project will develop membrane-based systems that couple electrically conducting membranes with open-source hardware and software. The system will produce an autonomous water treatment technology that can adjust operating conditions to respond to changes in feed water quality, as well as initiate cleaning and maintenance operations without the need for human intervention. Principal Investigators: David Jassby (UC Riverside) Mark Matsumoto (UC Merced) |
 Robotic Exoskeleton for the Stabilization of Tremors (RST) in the Hand and Wrist Campuses: UC Davis & UC Santa CruzInitiative: Health, People and Robots Current treatment options fail to adequately support the millions of Americans living with Parkinson’s Disease or Essential Tremor. This collaboration between the UC Davis School of Medicine and UC Santa Cruz College of Engineering proposes a novel solution that achieves hand, wrist, and arm stabilization through a non-intrusive robotic exoskeleton. Principal Investigators: Lin Zhang (UC Davis) Gabriel Hugh Elkaim (UC Santa Cruz) |  Bodie Digital Community: Connect With Your Past Campuses: UC Merced & UC Santa CruzInitiative: Connected Communities This project is an augmented reality application for mobile devices created in collaboration with California State Parks. This app promotes public engagement in heritage preservation, fosters connection among visitors, and generates useful data that improve the management and preservation of California natural and cultural resources. Principal Investigators: Nicola Lercari, Marcelo Kallman (UC Merced) Arnav Jhala (UC Santa Cruz) |