Materials Research Seed Grant Program

2024-2025 Awarded Projects

We are pleased to announce awarded projects for the 2024-2025 OSU Materials Research Seed Grant Program (MRSGP), which is open to The Ohio State University (OSU) materials community. This integrated seed program leverages resources and best practices of the Center for Emergent Materials (CEM), the Center for Exploration of Novel Complex Materials (ENCOMM), and the Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research (IMR). The result is a unified RFP with Funding Tiers designed to achieve the greatest impact for seeding excellence in materials research of varying scopes, and with the goal of generating new directions that extend beyond the boundaries of existing research programs.

EMRG — "Advancing Magnesium Alloys for Infection Resistance in Biodegradable Medical Implants Through Additions of Cerium"

• PI: Landon Locke, Biomedical Engineering
• Co-PIs: Jenifer Locke and Aeriel Leonard

EMRG — "Polymerization of Polyelectrolytes in Anisotropic Solvents"

• PI: Xiaoguang Wang, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Joshua Sangoro

MTBG — "Heusler Alloys as a New Materials Platform for Spin Selective Electrochemistry"

• PI: Robert Baker. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Joshua Goldberger

MTBG — "Optimizing Metals 3D-Printing with AI-Enhanced Wire-Arc DED"

• PI: Antonio Ramirez, Materials Science and Engineering
• Rajiv Ramnath and Theodore Allen

Funding Tiers

1. Multidisciplinary Team Building Grants (MTBG): MTBGs provide funds up to $70,000/year per award in direct costs, and require one PI and one or two Co-PI, and may have unfunded collaborators, with the goal of forming multidisciplinary materials research teams that can compete effectively for federal block-funding opportunities, such as the NSF MRSEC program.
2. Exploratory Materials Research Grants (EMRG): EMRGs provide funds up to $50,000/year per award in direct costs, and require one PI, and may have Co-PIs and/or unfunded collaborators, with the goal of enabling nascent and innovative materials research to emerge to the point of being competitive for external funding. EMRGs, while open to all faculty, emphasizes support of pre-tenure faculty members.
3. IRG Seed Grants for CEM Recompetition: CEM will select IRG teams for MRSEC recompetition with the pre-proposal due to NSF in June 2025. CEM will manage the IRG team selection separately. Please see the following link for more information: https://cem.osu.edu/research/seed-funding-program/2026-2032-call-for-ir…