March 2026 Grants and Awards
Developing Trans-Generational Immune Priming for Wild Bumble Bee Health: A Path Toward Disease-Smart Genetic Rescue
Principal Investigator:
Enakshi Ghosh
Assistant Professor
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$299,966
Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Maintaining the Produce Safety Program at Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Under Path C to Enhance Produce Safety and Achieve High Rates of Compliance with the Food and Drug Administration’s Produce Safety Rule—Grant Continuation Year 10
Principal Investigator:
Laura K. Strawn
Associate Professor
Department of Food Science and Technology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$33,600
Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Virginia Youth Animal Science—Equine Proposal for Virginia Horse Industry Board Grant 2026
Principal Investigator:
Hunter L. Liles
Extension Programming Associate
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$25,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Horse Industry Board
Evaluating the Viticultural Performance and Enological Potential of Novel Disease-Resistant Wine Grape Varieties Under Virginia Growing Conditions
Principal Investigator:
Andrew D. Harner
Assistant Professor
Alson H. Smith, Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$5,000
Sponsor:
Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium
Continued Diagnostic and Forecasting Support for Potato Disease Management with Targeted Evaluation of Fungicide Options for Charcoal Rot on the Eastern Shore
Principal Investigator:
Douglas S. Higgins
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$5,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Irish Potato Board
Reducing Production Times by Accelerating Root Growth in Slow-Growing Nursery Stock Using Root Hormones
Principal Investigator:
Kristopher Criscione
Nursery Production Specialist
Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$4,500
Sponsor:
VNA Horticulture Research Foundation Inc
Managing the Red-Headed Flea Beetle and the Invasive Box Tree Moth in Ornamental Crops
Principal Investigator:
Alejandro Del Pozo-Valdivia
Assistant Professor
Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$20,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association
Revisiting Budworm Management in Virginia Tobacco
Principal Investigator:
Arash Rashed
Director of Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center, and Associate Director of Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station
Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$9,588
Sponsor:
Virginia Bright Flue-Cured Tobacco Board
From Invasive Threat to Industry Asset: Turning Blue Catfish Waste into Profit via Integrated Bioprocessing
Principal Investigator:
Yiming Feng
Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist
Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$39,915
Sponsor:
Seafood Industry Research Fund
CortexCTI: A Unified Threat Intelligence Engine for Knowledge-Driven Cloud Threat Detection and Response
Principal Investigator:
Peng Gao
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$80,000
Sponsor:
Amazon.com
Securing Text-to-Image Generative Models Against Backdoors
Principal Investigator:
Shengwei An
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$35,000
Sponsor:
Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Southwest Virginia Node
Mechanism-Guided Discovery of Superior Corrosion Resistance in High-Entropy Alloys
Principal Investigator:
Wenjun Cai
Associate Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$486,349
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Collaborative Research: Investigating the Molten Salt Synthesis of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles via In Situ X-Ray Scattering and Spectroscopy Techniques
Principal Investigator:
Tao Li
Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$270,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Discovery and Development of Antisense Therapeutics for Clostridioides difficile Infection
Principal Investigator:
Mohamed N. Seleem
Professor ES CY
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$437,541
Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
Davis Fiscal Year 2026 Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank August 2025
Principal Investigator:
Jennifer L. Davis
Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$148,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Investigating the Efficacy of Efgartigimod in a Novel Mouse Model of Neonatal Lupus
Principal Investigator:
Xin Luo
Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$296,245
Sponsor:
Argenx
Help the Gloucester Bay Riders 4-H Club Buy a Horse Learning Lab Kit to Increase Equine Knowledge for Youth
Principal Investigator:
Krista L. Gustafson
Extension Agent
Northeast District Cooperative Extension
Director of Cooperative Extension
Total Anticipated:
$1,170
Sponsor:
Virginia Horse Industry Board
Virginia Cooperative Extension, Family and Consumer Sciences Family Focus Program Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Project
Principal Investigator:
Bernadette I. Darrow
Family Focus Coordinator
Southeast District Cooperative Extension
Director of Cooperative Extension
Total Anticipated:
$50,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Social Services
Elucidating Function of Disease-Related SAMD9L Mutations in Hematopoiesis
Principal Investigator:
Sushree Sahoo
Assistant Professor
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
Total Anticipated:
$746,997
Sponsor:
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
The Influence of Obesity and Insulin Sensitivity on Reward Processing and Decision Making
Principal Investigator:
Mary E. Baugh
Research Scientist
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
Total Anticipated:
$527,040
Sponsor:
National Institutes of Health, Center for Scientific Review
Revealing Regional Differences in Cerebellar Spike Entrainment by Neuromodulation in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3
Principal Investigator:
Meike van der Heijden
Assistant Professor
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
Total Anticipated:
$50,000
Sponsor:
National Ataxia Foundation
Assessing the Status and Distribution of Freshwater Mussels in the James River Basin, Cumberland County, Virginia
Principal Investigator:
Scott D. Klopfer
Director, Conservation Mangement Institute
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$80,000
Sponsor:
James River Association
Jeffrey Modell Center for Informatics and Data Science
Principal Investigator:
Nicholas L. Rider
Professor
VTC Healthcare Science
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$150,000
Sponsor:
Jeffrey Modell Foundation