Faculty research grants
Each year, AES offers a competitive seed grant program for UC Santa Cruz faculty who are conducting collaborative research projects related to our AES mission.
Grants are awarded to groups of ladder-rank faculty from any academic division within the university. Each team must include at least three people, with at least two people from each team being ladder-rank faculty. A third individual from each team may be a UC Cooperative Extension Specialist or Advisor or other paid professional researcher.
Awards are intended to support faculty research and scholarly activities, including summer Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) support; field or lab research expenses; travel (including associated childcare costs); event costs; materials and supplies; participant support; and manuscript fees.
Faculty summer salary is not an allowed use of these funds, nor are course buyouts. Funds may not be used for buildings or other new infrastructure. Awards will be made for a period of one year. No extensions will be granted.
2025 Applications, Deadline May 2
Deadline to apply is Friday, May 2, 2025 at 5 p.m. Awards will be announced by June 15.
Application requirements
- Applicant Names, Division, Department, titles
- Project Title (175 characters, including spaces)
- A PDF that contains the following information:
- Non-technical summary (8000 characters, including spaces) – In lay terms, briefly describe the following: (1) the issue and why it is important, (2) the project goal and objectives, (3) the target audiences and how they will benefit, and (4) how your activities lead to the proposed outcomes described in the goal statement or objectives.
- Methodology (8000 characters, including spaces) – Describe the ways in which the project will be conducted, with emphasis on the general methods and any unique aspects or significant departure from usual methods.
- Literature Cited (no character limit)
- A 3-page CV for each of the three applicants
- A detailed budget and justification
- Information about what grant program the team might apply to later with the pilot data / information generated from the seed grant.
Reporting requirements
By Feb 1, 2026, the team must send an interim report, including progress to date, funds expended, any results obtained, plans for submission of a full proposal to an outside agency. By August 1, 2026, the team must submit a full report (8000 characters, including spaces) of the project results, impact, any pending publications, graduate student work, and funding expended.
Faculty research projects
- Michael Loik, Colleen Josephson, Greg Gilbert, and Matt Sparke, Innovations in Monitoring and Control of Powdery Mildew in Forests, Fields and Facilities
- Testimonial: Photo and 1 paragraph highlight about the research.
- Jarmila Pitterman, Hannah Waterhouse, Darryl Wong – Developing Climate-Resilient Crop Systems: a multi-trait analysis of crops and soils under dry-farmed and irrigated treatment
- Testimonial: Photo and 1 paragraph highlight about the research.
Graduate student research fellowships
Master and doctoral students from any academic division or department may apply for our competitive research fellowship program. Annual grants support research related to our AES mission.
Graduate students must be enrolled through the summer when they apply to be eligible. Funds from the fellowship can be used for incidental expenses such as room and board, travel, and expenses for equipment, research supplies, etc. Funds cannot be used to pay university fees or tuition, or to hire lab or field assistants.
2026 applications
The call for 2026 applications will go out in mid-December 2025. We anticipate a March 2026 deadline for all materials to be submitted. Reach out to Sara Jakl at sjakl@ucsc.edu for more information.
Deadline to apply is Friday, May 3, 2025 at 5 p.m. Awards will be announced by June 1.
Use this Google form to submit all materials. Arrange for a letter of recommendation to be sent to Stacy Philpott (sphilpot@ucsc.edu) with “AES Graduate Fellowship 2025” in the subject line.
Application requirements
- Applicant Name, Division, Department
- Project Title (175 characters, including spaces)
- Non-technical summary (4000 characters, including spaces) – In lay terms, briefly describe the following: (1) the issue and why it is important, (2) your goal and objectives, and (3) how your activities lead to the proposed outcomes described in the goal statement or objectives.
- Methodology (4000 characters, including spaces) – Describe the ways in which the project will be conducted, with emphasis on the general methods and any unique aspects or significant departure from usual methods.
- A 2-page CV
- A detailed budget and 1-page justification
- A letter of recommendation from your major advisor
Reporting requirements
By November 1, 2025, the student must send a brief (2000 character, including spaces) description of the work accomplished using the research grant funds, a description of the results obtained, and general information about how the funds were spent.
2025 graduate research projects
(Stacy will provide in early April)
2024 graduate research projects
- Elsa Calderon, Environmental Studies, Environmental Justice and the Threat to Black Farm Ownership in the Mississippi
- Viridiana Castro, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Developing Climate-Resilient Crops: a multi-trait analysis of the dry-farm tomato Solanum lycopersicum
- Charlie Chesney, Environmental Studies, Cactus-Electricity Demonstration Plot
- Bo Huey Chiang, Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, Metabolic Interactions among Human Gut Bacteroides that Co-adhere to Dietary Plant Fiber Particles
- Sanya Cowal, Environmental Studies, Ant-Mediated Biocontrol for Hawaiian Coffee
- Meghan Decoite, Coastal Science and Policy, Marine debris assessment of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary: Protecting Seafood Stocks.
- Piyush Gandhi, Economics, Extinguishing the Blaze: Reducing Crop Residue Burning in India
- Hannah Jayanti, Film and Digital Media, Topography
- Dani Klawitter, Environmental Studies, Integrated Aquaculture-Agriculture for Nutrient Source and Soilborne Pathogen Suppression in Strawberries
- Edith Lai, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Hyperparasites in Plant Disease Control
- Jack Lin, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Greener Greenhouses
- Suzanne Lipton, Environmental Studies, How does management affect dung beetles and cascading impacts on nutrient cycling in California’s Central Coast?
- Siyu Luo, Environmental Studies, Enhancing California Farms and Water Resources: Growing Solar on Fallowed Land as an Drought Resilience Strategy
- John Madden, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Power measurement hardware to study microbial fuel cells as real-time soil carbon sensors
- Morgan Masters, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Creating 3D Semantic Land Use Models with Agricultural Robotics
- Summer Sullivan, Environmental Studies, Leafy Greens and Digital Dreams: California Agriculture, Racial Capitalist Landscapes, and the Future of Farm Work
- Firouz Vafadari, Computer Science and Engineering, Greener Greenhouses
- Tashina Vavuris, Environmental Studies, Connecting Leaders4EARTH with Agroecology and NEXTGEN Fellows
- Giovanni Vega, Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, Studying the biology of diet-induced antibodies that target plant glycans
- Connie Zheng, HAVC/ Visual Studies, All The Food We Can and Cannot Find: A Visual Culture of Foraging, 2001 — 2022