The WRI Faculty Collaborative Grant-writing Fund

This spring, the WRI Faculty Collaborative Grant-writing Fund has been awarded to an interdisciplinary team of Raju Badireddy (CEMS), Tian Xia (CEMS), Hao Chen (CALS), and Eric Roy (RSENR). The proposed project will explore how emerging contaminants—including aquatic black carbon, microplastics, and per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—are mobilized, transported, and exported through runoff systems. The research will center on distributed sensor networks to capture the dynamic, event-driven processes that dominate contaminant fluxes across agricultural landscapes and urban stormwater systems.

While contaminants of emerging concerns are known environmental stressors and are widely detected in surface waters and groundwater, their persistence, mobility, and interactions with hydrologic and biogeochemical processes are not adequately understood. This work will address a critical data and knowledge gap in Vermont and the broader New England region, where systematic, high-frequency observations of emerging contaminants in runoff systems are largely absent.

The team will target development of a proposal to the National Science Foundation Translation to Practice program (NSF TTP), which supports use-inspired research, translational activities, and partnerships that turn scientific discoveries into real-world solutions. 

The WRI Faculty Collaborative Grant-writing Fund provides support to faculty to enable them to pursue collaborative, externally-funded projects that build capacity around at least one of the WRI’s four key goals: (1) enhance the flow of information among scholars and trainees, (2) educate the next generation of problem solvers to tackle water resources challenges, (3) coordinate and develop new water-related programs, facilities, and services on campus, (4) build bridges with external academic, nonprofit, state, federal, and international partners that accelerate the translation of research to practice.

Future calls under this WRI funding mechanism will seek to build additional collaborative faculty teams and position them to secure competitive grant funding. Watch for details of our upcoming call. 

 

WRI Career Development Awards

This year, the WRI introduced a new mechanism to support UVM faculty conducting water research. The institute is providing $5000 to three affiliates, enabling them to apply to competitive career development award programs, such as the NSF CAREER award and NASA Early Career Investigator Program in Earth Science. The following awards have been bestowed:

  • Hao Chen (Assistant Professor, CALS/ALE): Applying to the NSF CAREER program to study chemical, biological, and transport processes that control how nutrients and contaminants move through soil and water systems, with a focus on soil and water interfaces that affect contaminant movement, persistence, water quality, and cleanup. 
  • Kimberly Coleman (Associate Professor, RSENR): Applying to the NSF Mid‑Career Advancement program to collaborate with colleagues at Vancouver Island University whose expertise in human mobility data, geospatial analysis, and quantitative behavioral methods complement Dr. Coleman's qualitative training and theory‑building research in outdoor recreation.
  • Rebecca Diehl (Research Associate Professor, CAS/G&G): Developing a proposal to the US Fulbright Scholar program to engage with overseas scientists whose work complements Dr. Diehl's research on flood hazards and nature-based solutions to flooding, efforts that have been shaped by water resource challenges in Vermont and the broader United States.

Stay tuned for more funding calls and stay up to date on the work of the Water Resources Institute by signing up for our mailing list.