Spring 2024 Scaling Success awardees announced

The Spring 2024 cycle of the Scaling Success Grant has concluded, with four new grants made from January to May.

Spring 2024 Scaling Success awardees are:

• Elizabeth Biggs, assistant professor of special education, Peabody College: "Pilot Testing a New Early Literacy Intervention for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities with Limited Speech"

• Sean Davies, associate professor of pharmacology, School of Medicine Basic Sciences: "Development of Small Molecule NAPE-PLD Activators"

• Rebecca Ihrie, associate professor of cell and developmental biology, School of Medicine Basic Sciences: "Mapping Preferential Translation in Neural Development"
• Jie Ying Wu, assistant professor of computer science, School of Engineering: "Development and Validation of Gaze-Based Training for Endoscopic Kidney Stone Surgery"

The Scaling Success Grant, which began in 2022, aims to transform ambitious research proposals into tangible achievements.

"The Scaling Success Grants have sought to enable our faculty to secure significantly expanded external funding," Vice Provost for Research and Innovation and Chief Research Officer Padma Raghavan said. "Inaugural awardees in 2022 have already secured highly prestigious and competitive grants from external sponsors, underscoring the program's effectiveness."

For instance, the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master's-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program faced initial challenges when its $3 million National Science Foundation grant proposal to create the nation's first graduate certificate program in multi-messenger astronomy was deemed too ambitious. Thanks to a Scaling Success grant, the program piloted its concept on a smaller scale, helping the project secure a $1.7 million, five-year NSF grant.

The grant's support for Biggs, Davies, Ihrie and Wu hopes to replicate such success, providing them with the necessary resources to elevate their groundbreaking research to the next level.

All Scaling Success applicants receive detailed feedback from reviewers, enhancing their chances for future success. The Scaling Success Grant accepts applications on a near monthly schedule, encouraging faculty to refine and resubmit their proposals if not funded initially.

Upcoming application deadlines:

• 16, 2024
• 20, 2024
• 18, 2024
• 15, 2024

Scaling Success is administered by Research Development and Support in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation. The fund focuses on projects that have already shown potential and have received interest from sponsors. For more information on Scaling Success and other internal grant programs, visit the Research Development and Support internal funding webpage.

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