Enhancement of Graduate Research Awards

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2025-2026 EGRA Competition is now open

The competition will close on October 19, 2025

 

Purpose

The Graduate School is providing small grant awards to support research, creative or artistic projects. This program underscores the value placed on providing students with research opportunities and support for the scholarly work of graduate students and its dissemination.

Funds Available

Proposals will be evaluated by a committee assembled by the Dean of the Graduate School composed of members of the Graduate Council. One of the committee’s goals is to distribute awards to students with quality projects representing a wide variety of University departments. Funds will be provided to graduate students to participate in original research, creative, or artistic projects in which they have major responsibility.

Award Amounts:

  • Individual student proposals chosen for support will each receive an award up to $2,000.
  • Groups of up to three URI students may submit a proposal. If a Group Proposal is chosen for support, it will receive an award of up to $3,000.

What Funds May be Used for:

Funds may be used to support travel to national, regional or international conferences (including registration fees for in-person or virtual conferences), to purchase items for specific projects, to defray publication costs, or for specific needs that the committee deems essential for a student’s development. Cost-sharing by departments and faculty sponsors is encouraged.

Reimbursements will not be provided for budgets that have occurred prior to the awarding period.

All EGRA projects require supervision by a faculty sponsor.

Questions about this program should be directed to Cara Mitnick, Director of Professional and Community Development, at cmitnick@uri.edu, referencing the subject line “EGRA and last name.”

How to apply

To apply for a grant, a student must submit the items listed below. Detailed instructions for drafting and submitting each of these items are found by clicking on the “Apply” button in the upper right corner of this EGRA InfoReady application page.

  • Project Budget: (Use one of the templates below)
  • Project Description (no more than 3 pages excluding references)
  • 2-3 page CV or Resume
  • Evidence of IRB/IACUC Approval (if applicable)
  • Faculty Sponsor’s Faculty Support Form
    • Applicants will indicate the Faculty Sponsor’s email. Upon submitting your application, your Faculty Sponsor will receive an email containing a unique link to upload the form.

Below are the rubrics used to score EGRA proposals:

Conduct Research Rubric  
Disseminate Research Rubric

2025-2026 Application deadline is Sunday, October 19th.
Faculty Support Form due by Monday, October 20th. 

EGRA Fall 2025 Applications

Conditions

The awards have certain limitations:

  • A graduate student, whether individually or as part of a Group Proposal, can receive only one EGRA grant in an academic year
  • Funds may be used only to support projects which include original student research, creative, or artistic endeavors
  • IRB or IACUC approval must be obtained before the start of the project, if applicable
  • Use of these funds for incentives for research participation is strongly discouraged
  • Students who received ERGA grants last year may apply again, however, preference will be given to those who have not received these awards previously.

Processing EGRA Award Funds

 

Award decisions will be announced by December 5, 2025. Expenditure and reimbursement process begins December 5, 2025. All funds must be expended and travel completed by November 30, 2026. Any funds remaining will not rollover and we cannot provide an extension.

Instructions on how to process the award will be included in the award letter.

Questions about this program should be directed to Cara Mitnick, Director of Professional and Community Development, at cmitnick@uri.edu, referencing in the subject line “EGRA and last name.”

 

Deadlines to submit copies of travel and purchasing documentation:

  • Expenses and travel conducted during December 5, 2025 – June 25, 2026 are due no later than by June 30, 2026.
  • Expenses and travel conducted during July 1, 2026 – November 30, 2026 are due no later than by December 4, 2026.

 


2025 EGRA Awardees

Congratulations to the following award recipients!

Awardees
Application Title
College
Masoud Abdi
Stability and anomalous aggregation in suspensions of polymer-grafted nanoparticles
College of Engineering
Patrick Bailey
The Old Pup and the Sea: Evaluating Aquatic Resource Use in Gray Wolves
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Theint Thandar Bol
Safe Passages: Understanding How Rhode Island’s Wildlife Uses Roadway Crossings
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Madison Geraci
Building Single-Cell Based Morphological and Barcoding Datasets of Benthic Foraminifera
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Molly Hardwick
Microbiome Editing Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Attendance
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Christopher Hickling
Shared Landscapes: Human Disturbance and Bobcat Space Use
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Md Iftakhar Khan
Shape separation of microplastics in simulated seawater through inertial microfluidics
College of Engineering
Aubrey Laity
Enhancing Multi-Messenger Astrophysics via On-Site LIGO Detector Work
College of Arts and Sciences
Melissa Lodge
Revisiting REDs Screening: Updated Insights on the LEAF-Q and EDE-Q in Collegiate Female Athletes
College of Health Sciences
Frankie Lopez
Assessing Phytoplankton Growth Across Size Classes under Alkalinity Enhancement in the Gulf of Maine
Graduate School of Oceanography
Morgan Nathan
Expanding Access to Gravitational Wave Science: Reorganizing LIGO Educational Resources and Developing a K-12 Pilot Program in Rhode Island
College of Arts and Sciences
Maja Nielsen
College of Arts and Sciencescading impacts of blue crab functional traits on ribbed mussel phenotypes and salt marsh mutlifunctionality
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Maryam Norouzi
Learning-Based Cooperative Control of AUV Teams for Underwater Mining with Complete Dynamic Uncertainty
College of Engineering
Alberto Paz
Validation of a Machine Learning-Based Genotyping Approach in Hard Shell Clams Affected by Transmissible Cancer
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Jordan Scott
Ink Under Siege: Writing for Queer & Trans Teens in the Era of Book Bans
College of Arts and Sciences
Theresa Sierra
Measurement of Renal Drug-Metabolizing Enzymes and Transporters in a Population with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
College of Pharmacy
Suparna Veeturi
Samya: A Jewelry-like Wrist Wearable for Managing Stress in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
College of Engineering
Jingmei Zeng
Training in Mice Milk Collection Through International Collaboration in Spain
College of Pharmacy