To celebrate the innovative and creative powerhouse that is UVM Research, the university— home to over 1,200 full-time faculty scholars—for the first time is devoting a week to showcase faculty and student research and celebrate its standing as a top 100 public research university.

UVM Research Week will be held April 18-22 and will offer a window into the breadth of research that is conducted yearly at UVM. “Research has always been at the center of progress at the University of Vermont,” said Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski, whose office is sponsoring the celebration. “From biomedical research and data science to philosophy and musical composition, our faculty members engage daily in the pursuit of meaningful and impactful research, scholarship, and creative work.”

“Research Week started when we realized that, while the UVM community knows about our research output, there wasn’t an opportunity to celebrate all we have to offer,” Dombrowski added. “UVM is now a top 100 public research university in the nation. UVM researchers built the first living robots that can reproduce. UVM researchers at the Gund Institute for Environment published the most comprehensive Vermont climate change assessment in recent history. We deserve to celebrate all that we have accomplished and the progress we will make in the future.”

The first public Research Week event will be the Research Resource Fair on Tuesday, April 19 from 1-5 PM at the Dudley H. Davis Center’s Grand Maple Ballroom. Featuring on-campus research services like the Vermont Advanced Computing Center, the Instrumentation and Modelling Facility, and UVM Innovations, the Research Resource Fair will focus on the entities that make research and scholarship possible at UVM. Jeralyn Heraldsen, Ph. D., director of research development under the Office of Research and one of the creators of the Research Resource Fair, said the fair started to facilitate more communication about the research services offered on campus.

“We wanted to celebrate everyone on campus who supports research and give them a way to showcase how they do that work and the types of services that they offer,” Heraldsen said. “It’s an opportunity for students of all levels: undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral. And we’ve invited folks from other institutions from across the state to come and see all the great ways that we support the interesting work that researchers on campus do.”

The Research Resource Fair, Heraldsen said, will also show opportunities for students who want to get more involved in UVM research.

“It's a potential way to get a research position if you're a student. It's a potential way for faculty members to recruit people to work on their research projects,” Heraldsen said. “It's a way for core facilities to get new clients. It's a way for people at other institutions to access resources that they might not have on their campus.”

The Research Resource Fair will also showcase exciting demonstrations from departments and facilities across campus. The Department of Chemistry will have a live glass blowing demonstration as well as exhibitions and displays from the Vermont Advanced Computing Core, the Spatial Analysis Lab, the Office of Fellowships, Opportunities, and Undergraduate Research (FOUR), and more. There will also be a raffle to win a pair of Apple AirPods. Most importantly, there will be a guest appearance from UVM’s favorite furry friend.

On Wednesday, April 20, UVM Innovations will host its 2022 Invention 2 Venture (I2V) Conference at HULA Lakeside in Burlingtonn, VT. Featuring keynote speaker Anthony Boccanfuso, President and CEO of UIDP, University-Industry Demonstration Partnership, and panel discussions, I2V pulls together dynamic experts, academic researchers, students, entrepreneurs and business leaders from across Vermont and New England to talk about how to protect, develop and finance your ideas. They’ll share resources, what's worked for them, and what can work for anyone who wants to explore entrepreneurship.

Corine Farewell, Director of UVM innovations, says I2V started small but has become a big opportunity for entrepreneurs.

“The first I2V was held in 2007 and has grown steadily since that time to grow into one of Vermont’s premier entrepreneur gatherings,” Farewell said. “I2V is a wonderful networking opportunity for every corner of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to come together in one place and learn about what each other have to offer and explore different ways to work together for the common goal of building the ecosystem in Vermont.”

After I2V, the Academic Research Commercialization (ARC) presentations will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Hula Lakeside. ARC connects UVM innovators with entrepreneurial students who help with everything from finding funding to producing and marketing their product. There will also be presentations by the Catamount Innovation Fund, a student-led initiative that aims to foster the entrepreneurial climate on campus, as well as provide an extracurricular learning environment to students.

Research Week continues with UVM’s 2022 Student Research Conference (SRC) on Thursday, April 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Davis Center. The SRC is an exciting, annual event open to students across all academic disciplines and the entire UVM community and will give an opportunity for all students to showcase their research, creative and scholarly activity, create new connections, and foster a community of curiosity and learning.

The SRC, which also started in 2007, will feature in-person presentations on a variety of subjects from biological sciences, environment and sustainability, physical therapy, and complex systems and data science.

“The conference allows students to gain experience presenting their work to a broader public,” said Ann Kroll Lerner, director of Fellowships, Opportunities, and Undergraduate Research, which organizes the SRC. “For some they have only shared the research, scholarship or creative work with a small group of people, likely within their interest area. The SRC allows students to share their work with a broader, curious community.”

The SRC will also feature a virtual conference from April 21 to April 23.

“Anyone on the planet who has an internet connection can register with the platform, watch the presentations, and leave message for the presenters, who will then respond to those messages,” Lerner said. “Between the two SRC venues, virtual and in-person, there is something for everyone!”

Research Week concludes on Friday, April 22 with the first UVM Postdoctoral Research Conference, a two-part showcase of postdoctoral research at UVM. Brandon Bensel, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Warshaw Laboratory in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, said the conference is a way to highlight postdoctoral research and its importance in the UVM community.

“The goal of the event is twofold. First, it is an opportunity for postdocs to discuss their research with a peer group at their home university, and I hope that this will allow it to be a peer-to-peer professional networking event,” Bensel said. “Second, it is an opportunity to show the university at large the type and quality of research done by postdocs at UVM. This will be the first time we are putting on an event of this nature for all postdocs on campus.”

The Postdoctoral Research Conference starts with a discussion session from 2:15-3:45 at Innovation Hall room E432, followed by a poster session from 3:45-5:15 in the Discovery Hall 3rd floor lobby.

Check out the whole schedule of UVM Research Week here and read some of the latest research news. The Office of Research hopes the entire UVM community can attend and celebrate the progress and future of UVM research.