CITRIS and the Banatao Institute

Creating information technology solutions for society's most pressing challenges

CITRIS Core Seed Funding

Collage of five photos: A drone in flight over a forested mountain, a person wearing protective eyewear working with machinery, clouds reflecting in a solar panel, two women looking at a tablet computer, a row of silicon wafers.

The CITRIS Seed Funding Program issues competitive awards that advance information technology research for societal benefit and catalyze proof-of-concept results that can lead to transformative solutions for industry and the public sector. 

Interdisciplinary proposals are invited from principal investigators at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Davis Health, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz. Awardees embody the university’s public mission and innovative spirit of California. This program has accelerated more than 235 applied research projects led by over 400 UC innovators to date. Funded projects offer a glimpse at new frontiers of technology and have attracted more than $60 million in follow-on support from federal, state, corporate and private sources.

Projects are invited in these critical research areas:
🌱 Aviation
🌱 Sustainability and Climate Resilience
🌱 Digital Health
🌱 Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
🌱 Semiconductors and Systems

Read about the 2023 CITRIS Seed Funding projects.

Overview

To encourage cross-campus, interdisciplinary approaches to societal challenges, eligible teams will include two or more principal investigators (PIs) from the different UC campuses named above. Proposals that engage multiple academic disciplines are encouraged. For example, a computer scientist and economist might collaborate on novel data applications, each leveraging the strengths of their home campus.

Successful proposals will emphasize:

  1. Information technology applications in the interest of society
  2. Early-stage, proof-of-concept work with potential for impact at scale
  3. Future extramural funding opportunities to further develop the proposed work

Solutions that address diversity, equity, workforce development, cybersecurity and/or policy questions are welcome.

Each selected team receives $40,000–$60,000 to pursue their research during the 12-month performance period. Awardees receive CITRIS Investigator status and can benefit from connections with the institute’s broader network and resources. At the conclusion of the award period, a brief outcome report is required to highlight the project successes and share next steps for the work.

Background

The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) create information technology solutions for society’s most pressing challenges. Established in 2001 by Governor Gray Davis, CITRIS leverages the interdisciplinary research capabilities of multiple UC campuses to advance the University of California’s mission. CITRIS was created to catalyze significant research and to strengthen bridges between world-class academic researchers, industry partners and public institutions that are charting the future and reshaping entire industries together.

To date, the CITRIS Seed Funding Program has supported more than 235 research projects led by over 400 UC innovators. Selected through a competitive RFP process, CITRIS Seed Awards support the scientific groundwork, data collection and prototyping necessary to pursue larger research or commercialization awards that address major unsolved challenges using information technology and computation. Funded projects offer a glimpse at new frontiers of technology and have attracted more than $60 million in follow-on support from federal, state, corporate and private sources.

Areas of Interest

Through engagement with our academic, industry and government collaborators, CITRIS has identified the following critical challenges. We seek innovative proposals that bring the university’s expertise and ingenuity to bear on these complex issues facing California and the world at large.

Below are the designated areas of interest for 2023:

Primary CategoryAreas of Interest
1. Aviation
  • Sustainable transportation and delivery: electrification and other low-carbon solutions

  • Uncrewed flight: route planning, safety systems, algorithms for real-time decision making

  • Remote sensing technologies: technologies for wildfire management, agriculture, biodiversity conservation, air and water quality, and infrastructure

    • See Full Description ⬇️
    2. Sustainability and Climate Resilience
  • Energy infrastructure: decarbonization, emissions reduction, grid connectivity, microgrids, storage, optimized controls, powering rural communities

  • Water: monitoring, management, security, decision support

  • Food: resilient food systems, localized or low-energy food production, agricultural emissions reduction

  • Transportation: decarbonized mobility, electric vehicles, shipping and logistics

  • Sustainable built environment: smart cities, efficient grid integration, electrification, digital transformation and performance of buildings

  • Community-scale hazards: tech-enabled mitigation of wildfires, flooding, drought, extreme heat, air pollution, biodiversity loss, coastal degradation

    • See Full Description ⬇️
    3. Digital Health
  • Data solutions: informatics and machine intelligence for health improvement

  • Healthy aging in a digital world: increasing well-being and resilience of older adults

  • Equitable access and remote patient monitoring: digital health innovations (telehealth, wearables, hardware, software, inclusive interfaces)

  • Public health: technology-enabled solutions that support public health adaptation to adverse environmental, economic and geopolitical conditions (climate disruption, pollution, pandemics, conflict)

    • See Full Description ⬇️
    4. Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
  • Emerging applications: new uses for robots and automation in health, agriculture, manufacturing, disaster risk reduction, aviation, transportation, energy, and other industries

  • Responsible artificial intelligence: improving sustainability and energy efficiency, increasing explainability, adding performance guarantees and reducing bias in training data

  • Design for inclusive, accessible and/or assistive systems: intuitive and reliable human interfaces, using robots and AI to augment human capabilities

  • Generative AI: techniques to detect artificially generated images; policy recommendations for consumer protection, copyright and privacy concerns; novel uses of generative AI for pro-social applications (e.g., health care, public services) 

  • Safety and wellness: shifting dangerous or precise work to machines to better protect and leverage human skills and creativity

    • See Full Description ⬇️
    5. Semiconductors and Systems
  • New devices and interconnects: scaling Moore’s Law beyond 3 nm, including advanced nanoelectronic switch prototypes operating at ultra-low power

  • New architectures for integrated circuits: domain-specific architectures for targeted applications in Internet of Things, AI and machine learning, optimizing cloud and edge, integrating quantum and photonics

  • AI/ML techniques: accelerating R&D and optimizing semiconductor design and manufacturing

  • Power optimization: ultra-low power design and technologies to reduce energy consumption during device operation

  • Manufacturing: energy, water and materials usage reduction, novel control, sensing, metrology, testing, assembly and packaging

  • Supply chain: innovations that address material inputs, alternative production processes, manufacturing capacity, inventory shortages or overall supply chain stability

    • See Full Description ⬇️

    Full Technical Descriptions

    Challenge 1: Aviation

    Aviation is on the cusp of transformative change. Low-carbon commercial transportation, urban air mobility and next-generation logistics each have the potential to profoundly shape our lives and environment. In parallel, advances in remote sensing and earth observation can unlock new understanding about the multidimensional indicators and drivers of global shifts or disruptions. Exciting advances in aviation research sit at the intersection of these trends, including the development of leading-edge technologies, applications and policies related to the future of flight. Interdisciplinary work is needed to advance primary discoveries in propulsion, batteries, and materials — along with novel applications for imaging, sensing, mapping, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

    Proposals are invited that address novel challenges and opportunities in:

    • Sustainable transportation and delivery: electrification and other low-carbon solutions, sustainable aviation fuel, cost-effective aircraft solutions, energy sources and storage, next-gen airports, sustainability in freight and logistics
    • Uncrewed flight: route planning, safety systems, algorithms for real-time decision making in uncertain and dynamic environments
    • Remote sensing technologies: new sensing technologies suitable for integration in existing platforms, with applications related to wildfire management, agriculture, biodiversity conservation, air and water quality, and infrastructure

    Challenge 2: Sustainability and Climate Resilience

    As climate disruption accelerates, the effects on society’s fundamental infrastructure become more visible through increased wildfires, heat events, power outages, flooding, drought, hurricanes and other hazards. In California alone, severe drought conditions pose a growing threat to food and energy production. Information technology is a key layer of the “solution stack” to limit future harms from climate change, increase systemic resilience, preserve biodiversity, and enable a more sustainable, equitable and carbon-neutral future. New research into society’s interconnected and increasingly digitized life support systems is urgently needed — primarily in the areas of energy, water, food, transportation and the built environment. Special attention is called to issues of climate justice and equity when considering long-range infrastructure investments and improvements.

    Proposals are invited that address novel challenges and opportunities in:

    • Energy infrastructure: decarbonization, emissions reduction, grid connectivity, microgrids, storage, optimized controls, powering rural communities
    • Water: monitoring, management, security, decision support
    • Food: resilient food systems, localized or low-energy food production, agricultural emissions reduction
    • Transportation: decarbonized mobility, electric vehicles, shipping and logistics
    • Sustainable built environment: smart cities, efficient grid integration, electrification, digital transformation and performance of buildings
    • Community-scale hazards: tech-enabled mitigation of wildfires, flooding, drought, extreme heat, air pollution, biodiversity loss, coastal degradation

    Challenge 3: Digital Health

    Spurred by recent advances in technologies and data analytics, the digital health revolution is ushering in a new era of transformative, scalable and sustainable solutions to improve health and wellness. These technology-enabled strategies aim to improve the quality of care and health outcomes while reducing health care costs. Current research priorities address the primary drivers affecting public health, including chronic disease, aging and health behavior. Interdisciplinary proposals should build upon the principal technology solutions of telehealth, sensors, wearables, mobile, cloud, informatics, robotics and/or data analytics (artificial intelligence and machine learning) with an emphasis on solutions that integrate hardware and software.

    Proposals are invited that address novel challenges and opportunities in:

    • Data solutions: informatics and machine intelligence for health improvement
    • Healthy aging in a digital world: increasing well-being and resilience of older adults
    • Equitable access and remote patient monitoring: improving health care through digital health innovations (telehealth, wearables, hardware, software, inclusive interfaces)
    • Public health: technology-enabled solutions that support public health adaptation to adverse environmental, economic and geopolitical conditions (climate disruption, pollution, pandemics, conflict)

    Challenge 4: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

    Robotics, automation and AI are advancing rapidly due to innovations in machine learning algorithms, sensors, motors, computation and networks — all accelerated by government, corporate and private investment. These systems have enormous potential to reduce drudgery and improve the human experience in health care, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and a broad range of other applications in the interests of society. Achieving this requires sensitivity to human factors, policies for emerging technologies, rigorous theory evaluated on standardized benchmarks and modular systems built upon shared software toolkits. Multidisciplinary research is needed in key areas of deep learning, cloud robotics, generative AI, human-centric automation, precision agriculture and bio-inspired robotics.

    Proposals are invited that address novel challenges and opportunities in:

    • Emerging applications: new uses for robots and automation in health, agriculture, manufacturing, disaster risk reduction, aviation, transportation, energy, and other industries
    • Responsible artificial intelligence: improving sustainability and energy efficiency; increasing explainability, adding performance guarantees and reducing bias in training data
    • Design for inclusive, accessible and/or assistive systems: intuitive and reliable human-robot interfaces, human-robot teaming, using robots to augment human capabilities, human-centric automation
    • Generative AI: techniques to detect artificially generated images; policy recommendations for consumer protection, copyright, and privacy concerns; novel uses of generative AI for pro-social applications (e.g., health care, public services)
    • Safety and wellness: shifting dangerous, repetitive or precise work to machines to better protect and leverage human skills and creativity

    Challenge 5: Semiconductors and Systems

    Semiconductor technologies are the foundation for innovations within devices, computing, communications, smart infrastructure, automation and manufacturing. Targeted research is needed to improve the hardware and systems that enable digital transformation across this growing number of sectors. With substantial federal investment to expand and secure U.S. capacity, proposals for semiconductor research are especially timely given the significant challenges faced by the industry. Special attention is called to advancing next-generation technologies, reducing energy costs and resource consumption, and bolstering the U.S. (and global) supply chains against a wide range of risks and vulnerabilities. Consideration of career on-ramps to expand diversity within the semiconductor industry is encouraged.

    Proposals are invited that address novel challenges and opportunities in:

    • New devices and interconnects: scaling Moore’s Law beyond 3 nm, including advanced nanoelectronic switch prototypes operating at ultra-low power
    • New architectures for integrated circuits (IC): domain-specific architectures for targeted applications in Internet of Things (IoT), AI and machine learning, optimizing cloud and edge, integrating quantum and photonics
    • AI/ML techniques: accelerating research and development (R&D) and optimizing semiconductor design and manufacturing
    • Power optimization: ultra-low power design and technologies to reduce energy consumption during device operation
    • Manufacturing: energy, water and materials usage reduction, novel control, sensing, metrology, testing, assembly and packaging
    • Supply chain: innovations that address material inputs, alternative production processes, manufacturing capacity, inventory shortages or overall supply chain stability

    Timeline

    • June 21, 2023: Themes announced in CITRIS newsletter; team formation begins.
    • Aug. 14, 2023: Full RFP published on CITRIS website; online application portal opens for submissions.
    • Sept. 18, 2023: Online info session (video is available below).
    • Oct. 13, 2023: Applications are due online at 5 p.m. PDT.
    • By Dec. 15, 2023: Awardees are notified.
    • January 2024–February 2024: Awardee funds are transferred per intercampus timelines.
    • Jan. 1, 2024, or Sept. 1, 2024: Formal performance period begins. Awardees will be asked to select either a Jan. 1 or Sept. 1 project start date to accommodate necessary hiring, IRB approval and/or procurement timelines.
    • Dec. 31, 2024, or Aug. 31, 2025: Formal conclusion of 12-month performance period and spend down of funds, with respect to January or September 2024 start dates.
    • March 1, 2025, or Nov. 1, 2025: Outcome report is due online 60 days after conclusion of the CITRIS Seed Award performance period.

    Information Session
    An online info session was offered Monday, Sept. 18. A captioned video of that presentation is now available:

    Apply

    Applications are managed through a secure online portal below. You will be guided to create an account or log in to your existing account from prior years.

    For account management purposes, we recommend that the lead PI initiates the online application for each proposal team. The lead applicant can invite co-PI(s) to receive an automated email link to view or edit the joint proposal.

    Please use the UC campus email address for all participating PIs to ensure messages are received from our “CITRIS Opportunities” alias account at @mail.smapply.net. Email seedteam@citris-uc.org directly for help with any access issues.

    You are encouraged to double-check the eligibility requirements below before beginning your application. Please reach out via email if our frequently asked questions (FAQs) do not address your queries.

    Applications for the 2023 CITRIS Seed Funding round have closed.

    Rules, Rubric & Resources

    1. To encourage collaboration, each proposal must include at least two principal investigators (PIs) — each from a different CITRIS campus: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz.
    2. Proposals between PIs on the main UC Davis campus and the UC Davis Health campus in Sacramento fulfill the multicampus requirement above.
    3. Collaboration between PIs from different academic departments, disciplines and/or diverse backgrounds is highly encouraged, but not required.
    4. Up to five PIs may be included per proposal (two or three is typical) as long as requirement No. 1 is met, and each of the PIs materially contributes to the proposed project Proposals that additionally engage postdoctoral, graduate or undergraduate students are encouraged, with space to acknowledge these contributors in the final report.
    5. Only designated PIs from the UC campuses listed above may receive award funds. Nonfunded collaborators from UC or other academic institutions are allowed if their participation substantially benefits the project.
    6. CITRIS Seed Funding may not be used for indirect costs, such as faculty salary or nonresident tuition. 
    7. During each application cycle, a PI may participate in a maximum of two proposals, and only one in the role of lead investigator.
    8. For prior Seed Awardees: if the lead investigator on a new proposal also received a previous CITRIS Seed Award, they must ensure the final report for the earlier award is submitted by Oct. 10, 2023 (or approved extension date), before a new award will be considered.

    The CITRIS Seed Funding Program is designed to catalyze innovative, early work to benefit society that can attract larger-scale support from federal, state, industrial  and/or philanthropic funding sources.

    1. Potential for societal impact: Is the nature of the challenge and its scope clearly identified? What are the anticipated societal benefits and effects of this work? What implications might the research have for workforce development, diversity and inclusion, or tech policy?
    2. Potential for follow-on funding: How will investigators build upon the Seed Award outcomes to attract further resources? Has the topic been identified by government, industry or philanthropic sources as a priority area for funding? Are the project goals and milestones calibrated toward these later-stage resources?
    3. Alignment with the CITRIS mission: Does the proposal directly address one of the central information technology topics named in the RFP? In support of the CITRIS mission, a multidisciplinary team with representatives from diverse backgrounds is highly encouraged, but not required.
    4. Inclusion of pre-tenured faculty is encouraged, but not required.
    5. Feasibility: Can the stated project objectives be achieved within a 12-month performance period, taking into account academic calendars and team member commitments?

    We look forward to celebrating and highlighting your research findings, follow-on developments and/or future funding plans.

    • Required reporting: Complete this brief CITRIS Seed Award Report Form within 60 days after the conclusion of your 12-month performance period.
      • If extenuating circumstances delay the project or fund expenditures, please submit a No-Cost Extension Request Form for consideration at least two months before your performance period ends.
    • How to acknowledge CITRIS Seed Funding:
      • Please use this acknowledgment in publications, presentations and follow-on funding proposals: “This work was supported by CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at the University of California.”
      • Download CITRIS logos for poster, presentation, print and online use related to your award. Please contact communications@citris-uc.org with questions.
    • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

    Email the Seed Funding management team at seedteam@citris-uc.org.