IU’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research will help IU faculty seeking funding from large external agencies by giving them a boost from seed funding through the Faculty Research Support Program.

According to an IU press release, the program “enables faculty to pursue research that will lead to more ambitious projects likely to attract external funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Nearly 60 applications were submitted to this year’s FRSP competition, with a final 13 awards totaling &733,500 granted.

“This year’s FRSP projects are exceptional examples of collaborative research efforts that have strong potential to attract major funding for research on this campus,” said Sarita Soni, vice provost for research, in the press release. “Today, as federal agencies are shifting their funding to support more large-scale, interdisciplinary investigations, these creative team-based projects are sure to be reviewed well.”

Among this year’s recipients were faculty members researching a wide range of areas including anthropology, education, chemistry, computing and neuroscience.

Recipient Brian O’Donnell will work with a team of collaborators from the IU Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences to “use new brain imaging and mathematical methods to map connections within the human brain and study brain disorders associated with altered connectivity,” according to the release.

“The approach to visualizing the brain network that our group will be using has potential to advance our understanding of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism,” said O’Donnell, a professor of psychology, in the release. “We’re very excited about getting this project moving forward with FRSP support.”