Category Archives: IMR Grants

New OSU Materials Research Seed Grant Program Announced

Posted on
Reply

An exciting new seed grant program available to the OSU materials community was announced this week, opening a range of research funding options to materials-allied researchers on campus.

The OSU Materials Research Grant Program is an enhanced seed program which leverages resources and best practices from the seed programs of the Center for Emergent Materials (CEM), the Center for Electric and Magnetic Nanoscale Composite Multifunctional Materials (ENCOMM), and the Institute for Materials Research (IMR). The result is a unified RFP with three Funding Tiers designed to achieve the greatest impact for seeding excellence in materials research of varying scopes.

The former IMRG program has been integrated into the OSU Materials Research Grant Program, specifically through the Multidisciplinary Team Building grants and the Exploratory Materials Research grants.  This new program supplements the IMR Facility Grants and Industry Challenge Grants programs, which IMR will continue to manage and offer to the materials community. 

More information about the OSU Materials Research Grant Program, including its goals, descriptions of the three Funding Tiers, and detailed application instructions, can be found on IMR’s website or by clicking here.

The program was announced in a joint message via email to several listservers:

——————————————————————————————————————-

Dear Members of the OSU Materials Community,

We are delighted to announce the new, integrated OSU Materials Research Seed Grant program, and the associated 2011-12 Request for Proposals.  This new program unites the IMRG, the ENCOMM seed, and the CEM proto-IRGs into a single, unified and coherent program, consisting of 3 tiers of seed fund awards – Proto-IRG grants, Multidisciplinary Team Building grants and Exploratory Materials Research grants.  Best practices from CEM, ENCOMM and IMR have been integrated, so that this single materials community announcement can be possible.    

 Please note that the former IMRG program will now be competed through 2 tiers – the Multidisciplinary Team Building grants and the Exploratory Materials Research grants.  The former ENCOMM seed program will now be competed through the Multidisciplinary Team Building grants.

 Note the following important dates, the details of which can be find in the attachment:

 Letter of Intent Due Date:  2:00 pm, Monday, March 21, 2011

Proposal Due Date:  2:00 pm, Monday, May 16, 2011

 You may consult the IMR, ENCOMM and CEM websites in the coming days for further details and postings, and feel free to contact any of us with questions.

 Very respectfully,

 Steve Ringel, IMR Director

Chris Hammel, ENCOMM Director

Nitin Padture, CEM Director

Rajan Group Research Featured in Semiconductor Today and Applied Physics Letters

Posted on
Reply

Congratulations to Professor Siddharth Rajan and his research team for having their recent work on tunnel junctions featured in Semiconductor Today and published in Applied Physics Letters.
This research on InGaN was funded in part by the Institute for Materials Research (IMR) through an IMR Interdisciplinary Materials Research Grant and the Targeted Initiative in Excellence (TIE) Advanced Materials Initiative project. The actual research took place in three IMR-supported facilities: Nanotech West Laboratory, Semiconductor Epitaxy and Analysis Laboratory (SEAL), and the ENCOMM NanoSystems Laboratory (ENSL).

Rajan is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, and was hired through the TIE in Advanced Materials Initiative faculty cluster hire process. For more information, visit: http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2010/NOV/OHIO_241110.htm

IMR Awards 2010 Interdisciplinary Materials Research Grants (IMRG)

Posted on
Reply

IMR’s Research Enhancement Program provides different funding mechanisms to support novel research at The Ohio State Univeristy Seven research projects were awarded a second year by the IMR in June 2010, for a an additional $287,500 in direct research support from IMR.

2010 IMRG  Research Projects:

Multi-Scale Characterization of Battery Materials for Improved Performance
Lead: Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, Industrial, Welding and Systems Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicants: Bharat Bhushan, Mechanical Engineering; Yann Guezennec, Mechanical Engineering; Giorgio Rizzoni, Mechanical Engineering; Shrikant C. Nagpure (PhD Student), Mechanical Engineering

Metamaterials with Smart Reconfiguration for Broadband RF Antennas
Lead: Marcelo Dapino, Mechanical Engineering; Co-Applicants:  Suresh Babu, Industrial Systems Engineering; John Volakis, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Structure-Property Relationships in Novel Structural Materials
Lead: Katherine Flores, Materials Science and Engineering

Economical Platforms for FET-based Protein Detection to Support Sensor Clinical Translation 
Lead: Stephen C. Lee, Biomedical Engineering; Co-Applicant: Paul Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Use of Electrospun Biomaterials as Carriers of Bone Marrow Derived Stem/Progenitor Cells to Stimulate Tissue Neovascularization
Lead: Nicanor I. Moldovan, Internal Medicine; Co-Applicant: John J. Lannuti, Materials Science and Engineering.

Exploring Electrically Tunable Magnetism in Gd-doped Nitride Quantum Structures  
Lead: Roberto C. Myers; Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical Computer Engineering; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Michael Mills, Materials Science and Engineering.

Synthesis of III-V Semiconductor Nanowire Heterostructures Using Metalorganic Chemical Vapor
Lead: Fengyuan Yang, Physics; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Roberto C. Myers, Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical and Computer Engineering

IMR Awards Spring 2010 Facility Grants

Posted on
Reply

Eight new research projects were awarded by the IMR in June 2010, for a total investment of $16,000.  The eight projects support faculty researchers from seven departments within the College of Engineering, the College of Biological, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the College of Dentistry.

June 2010 IMR Facility Grant Awards

FIB Characterization of MFM Probes, Lead Investigator: P. Chris Hammel, Physics; Co-Investigators: Gunjan Agarwal, Biomedical Engineering; Michael Page, Physics Undergraduate Student

Development of Low Work Function Metal “End-On” Contacts to Si Nanowires with High-Quality Si/SiO2 Interfaces, Lead Investigator: Jonathan Pelz, Physics

Lithium-ion Batteries, LiFePO4, Aging, High Resolution Characterization, Lead Investigator: Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, Materials Science and Engineering

Raman Microscopy of Poly-Diamond Films and Nanostructures, Lead Investigator: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics

XPS and Liquid AFM Facility Support for MIG Chemical Bonding and Conjugation on AlGaN Biosensors, Lead Investigator: Stephen Lee, Biomedical Engineering; Co-Investigator: Leonard Brillson, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mobile Magnetic Traps for Cell Manipulation and Sorting, Lead Investigator: R. Sooryakumar, Physics; Co-Investigator: Jeff Chalmers, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Steep Sub-Threshold Quantum Tunneling Transistors, Lead Investigator: Paul R. Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Characterization of Protein-Block Copolymer Interactions for Biomaterials Development, Lead Investigator: Bharat Bhushan, Mechanical Engineering, Co-Investigators: Scott R. Schricker, Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry, Manuel Palacio, Mechanical Engineering Staff

For more information about IMR’s Research Enhancement Program, including lists of past awards and instructions for future applicants, click here.

CEM Announces New Proto-IRG Seed Grants

Posted on
Reply

IMR has partnered with the Center for Emergent Materials (CEM) – The Ohio State University’s NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center – and the Center for Electronic & Magnetic Nanoscale Composite Multifunctional Materials (ENCOMM) to offer a new seed funding opportunity, the Proto-IRG (Interdisciplinary Research Group) Seed Grants program managed by the CEM.

The following announcement is from the Center for Emergent Materials, :

The Center for Emergent Materials (CEM) at the Ohio State University announces a new direction for the Seed Funding Program: Proto-IRG (Interdisciplinary Research Group) Seed Grants

The CEM is pleased to announce an exciting new direction for the Seed Funding Program: Proto-IRG Seed Grants. These awards are designed to support research by small interdisciplinary groups of 3 to 4 principal investigators (PIs) with the explicit intention of incubating the next generation of full IRGs (constituting 6-10 PIs) within 2 years. Awards will be up to $100,000 in direct costs per Proto-IRG per year.

The CEM, an NSF-funded MRSEC (Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers), is currently comprised of two Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs). The idea behind incubating Proto-IRGs at this stage is to stimulate interdisciplinary research with the potential to develop into full-scale (IRGs) at the time of renewal of the CEM (June 2013).

The 2010 Seed Funding proposals are due April 30 with selected teams invited to make 30-minute presentations to the Executive Committee of the CEM in mid-August, 2010. The anticipated start date is September 1, 2010.

Although not required for proto-IRGs, a strong synergy between experimental and theoretical components is essential for full IRGs. Applicants are encouraged to review the most recent MRSEC call from the NSF ( http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07563/nsf07563.htm ) for further details as to what is expected of a fully developed IRG.  An open workshop exploring what makes a successful IRG will be hosted by the CEM in early spring 2010.

Additional information is available in the attached announcement, at http://cem.osu.edu/research/seed-funding-program or by contacting Lisa Jones, CEM Program Manager (614-292-3583).

For questions related to potential research activities, prospective applicants may contact the Seed Board Co-Chairs Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin (<ejh@mps.ohio-state.edu> 614-247-4074) or Fengyuan Yang (<fyyang@mps.ohio-state.edu>, 614-688-4390).

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the Ohio State University (OSU), titled Center for Emergent Materials (CEM), performs integrated research on emergent materials and phenomena in magnetoelectronics. The aim of the CEM is to lay down the scientific foundation for building future spin- and oxide-based electronic devices that can perform multiple functions, and energy-efficient, fast computers that have integrated memory and logic.