Planning Grant
The VCU Convergence Team Planning Grant Program is a competitive internal funding mechanism dedicated to catalyzing transdisciplinary research, interdisciplinary curriculum, and transformative learning at VCU. It is designed to promote novel collaborations, enabling VCU to be a leader in addressing complex societal challenges, also known as "wicked problems." Funding is strictly reserved for projects that require partnership across different academic units and focus on societal challenges that defy single-discipline solutions.
Congratulations to our 2026 Grantees!
- View a recording of our pre-proposal information session.
Julie Beales (College of Health Professions, Department of Health Administration), Kristen MacDonald (College of Health Professions, Department of Health Administration), Terry Jones (School of Nursing), Audrey Roberson (School of Nursing), Debra Shockey (School of Nursing), Ricardo Bello (School of Medicine, Department of Surgery), Anna Malone (Sustainability), Christopher Reina (School of Business, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship), Bert Waters (College of Health Professions, Virginia Center for Aging) Reuse it or lose it? Teaching sustainability-focused critical thinking, crucial conversations and emotional intelligence to healthcare learners in an interdisciplinary setting
William Benton (University College), Erdem Topsakal (School of Engineering), Bernard Means (College of Humanities and Sciences, School of World Studies) VCU AI Innovation Lab: A Transdisciplinary Makerspace for AI-driven Hardware Innovation
Kellie Carlyle (School of Public Health), Marcus Messner (College of Humanities and Sciences, Robertson School of Communication), Amy Rector (College of Humanities and Sciences), Alena Hampton (College of Health Professions, Department of Rehabilitation Counseling), Reimagining Health in the Age of AI: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Communication, Decision-Making, Ethics, and Care in Complex Systems (development of microcredential)
Ana Dialo (School of Nursing), Katherine Falls (School of Nursing), Kimberly Battle (School of Nursing), Genevieve Beaird (School of Nursing), Shu-Fang Shih (College of Health Professions, Department of Health Administration), Nathan Carroll (College of Health Professions, Department of Health Administration), Kimberly Lewis (VCU Health, Division of Community Health), Designing a Clinical Workflow to Integrate Nutrition Insecurity Screening
Ravi Hadimani (College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering), Aarti Sarwal (School of Medicine, Department of Neurology), Jayasimha Atulasimha (College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering), Casey Grey (College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering), Engineering Biomimetic Brain Ultrasound Phantom and Deep Machine Learning Models for B-Mode Structural Fidelity and Acoustic Validation in Acute Brain Injury
Alex Holdaway (School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry), Joan Rhodes (School of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning), Ashley Boyd (School of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning), Adaptation and Content Validation of a Preservice Classroom Management Coaching Program via Community Partnership
Won-Sok Lee (School of Medicine, Department of Pathology), Xunya Chen (School of Medicine, Department of Pathology), One-Ki Daniel Lee (School of Business, Department of Information Systems), AI-Driven Dynamic and Contextualized Reference Range Determination: For the Case of Ferritin Reference Range
Kirk Richardson (College of Humanities and Sciences, Department of Focused Inquiry), Laleh Golshai (College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering), Jennifer Arccado (School of Medicine, Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology), Project Z
Thomas Roper (College of Engineering, Chemical and Life Science Engineering), John Fife (School of Education), Leah Spangler College of Engineering, Chemical and Life Science Engineering), Preetam Gosh (College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science), Qingguo Xu (School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics), Nastassja Lewinski (College of Engineering, Chemical and Life Science Engineering), Charles McGill (College of Engineering, Chemical and Life Science Engineering), Dayanjan Wijesinghe (School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacotherapy and and Outcomes Science), Tamer Nadeem (College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science), Keith Ellis School of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry), Artificial Intelligence for unRivaled Pharmaceutical Engineering: A Convergence-Based Research and Educational Approach (AIR-PHE)
Kate Sicchio (School of the Arts, Department of Dance and Media Technologies), Caddie Alford (College of Humanities and Sciences, Department of English), Frank Faries (College of Humanities and Sciences, Department of Philosophy), Body Intelligence: Examining Computational Algorithms from Dance and Choreography
Erdem Topsakal (College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Adam Garber (School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine), Kenneth Warren (School of Medicine, Office of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development), Patrick Fadden (School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine), Sarah Street (School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine), CLAIM - Convergence Learning with AI in Medicine
Lisa Townsend (School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics), Gary Cuddeback (School of Social Work), Cassie DeSena-Jacobs (School of Social Work), Klara Prachar (School of Social Work), Kellie Carlyle (School of Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences) One Health One Welfare: Meeting Community Mental Health Needs through the Human-Animal Bond
Dayanjan Wijesinghe (School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Sciences), Bridget McInnes (College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science), Moe Debbagh Greene (School of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning), AI-Guided Inquiry Learning (AGIL@VCU): A Common Framework for Creating & Managing AI-era Vertically Integrated Projects
Lulin Yuan (School of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology), Elisabeth Weiss (School of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology), Milos Manic (School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science), Multi-modal Medical Vision Language Models for Toxicity Prediction in Radiation Therapy Planning as a Foundation for AI-based Individually Optimized Dose Planning
Guang-Wei Zhang (School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience and Anatomy), Dean Krusienski, (College of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering) Priyodarshan Goaswamee (School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience & Anatomy) Decoding the Neural Architecture of Social Volition: Integrating Large-Scale Electrophysiology, Single-Cell Calcium Imaging, and Computational Attractor Modeling to Enable Therapeutic Targeting of Social Apathy