SEED Funds

UFII SEED Funding

SEED Funding

Awarding of SEED funding is on hold, pending the appointment of a new UFII director.

What is a UFII SEED Fund?

The UF is making strategic investments in AI at all levels, including education programs and research infrastructure, both physical (HiperGator AI) and intellectual (new faculty hires). In response to the UF AI initiative, the UF Informatics Institute (UFII) supported 16 projects in the academic year 2020-21. The UFII continues its engagement with the UF AI Initiative in the current academic year (2021-22) and invites interdisciplinary, faculty- initiated research projects that show strong potential for extramural support.

Projects should be innovative, support the mission and goals of the Informatics Institute, and have strong potential for garnering future funding from external sources. Seed Funds are not intended to support on-going projects or to supplement current research, only new projects and/or new collaborative partnerships. Projects should be ‘shovel-ready’, meaning seed funds will be used to produce proof-of concept data that can be used to obtain extramural funding.

The focus of this Seed Fund program is on novel applications of AI in the following broad areas:

  • Fairness, Accountability and Transparency in AI.
  • Scientific Foundations of AI.
  • AI in Agricultural and Natural Systems.
  • AI in Smart Engineered Systems.
  • AI in Health.
  • Interactions of AI and Society
  • AI in the Natural Sciences

Who is Eligible for an UFII SEED Fund?

The target audience for an UFII SEED Fund is any UF Faculty member meeting the guidelines for Principle Investigator (PI) status as outlined by the Division of Sponsored Programs. Awards cannot be made to individual Graduate Students or Post-Doctoral Associates.

What will a UFII SEED Fund Support?

UFII SEED Funds are intended to cover the estimated expenses of a “shovel ready” project. This can include (but not limited to) Graduate Student or Post-Doctral Associates’ salary and/or tuition, lab or research equipment needed to finish or supplement research data, travel to a particular field site, or procurement of particular datasets (these are examples only and are not all inclusive). The only expenses that are not allowed are faculty salaries. All other expenses must be in line with the University Directives and Procedures as well as Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Policies.

UFII SEED Submission Guidelines and Budget Template

Submission Portal