KINGSTON—The Rhode Island Network for Excellence in Science & Technology (RI-NEST) proudly announces its second cohort of seed grants, providing up to $60K in funding to support innovative research at institutions of higher education across the state. 

Funded through the U.S. National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program, RI-NEST is a $8 million initiative over four years that will strengthen research infrastructure and capacity in RI and position the state to develop transdisciplinary, use-inspired research, as well as societal and economic growth into the future.

In 2025, RI-NEST supported research in areas such as food innovation, agricultural and traditional ecological knowledge, biotechnology, and more. 

Seed grant funding supports unique partnerships among academia, industry, government and community organizations. Projects that aligned most closely with Rhode Island’s Science & Technology Plan, as well as RI-NEST’s strategic goals, were selected. 

Furthermore, seed grants help faculty and students develop sustainability for ongoing, high-impact research in a variety of STEM fields and bring in additional funding for research into the state. 

“I look forward to following the second round of grants as they are implemented,” said Dr. Elin Torell, RI-NEST Principal Investigator and Interim Direct of Research at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanograhpy. “If they follow the footsteps of the first round, I imagine that they will seed some great and innovative research collaborations across the state.”

SELECTED PROJECTS

Restoring Moshassuck: Indigenous Native-Plant Gardens for Urban Resilience, Education, and Local Enterprise

Mack Scott, Assistant Teaching Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Brown University

Before urbanization, Moshassuck (present-day Providence) was among the most fecund ecosystems on Turtle Island. “Moshassuck,” meaning “moose hunting ground” in the Narragansett language, attests to this abundance. This project partners with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) specialists to further research into the efficacy of small-scale, biodiverse, and ecologically resilient urban gardens that advance agricultural innovation and understanding of food as medicine. Specifically, this proposal calls for the co-design, planting, and study of urban gardens featuring locally native species, then scaling that knowledge through public-facing media, K–12 curricula, and a community market. The project aims to rebuild ecological function and biodiversity while advancing Indigenous leadership, STEAM participation, and micro-entrepreneurship. 

This proposal aligns with the State of Rhode Island’s Science and Technology Action Plan for agriculture and food innovations by studying, analyzing, and implementing TEK to model and promote novel food product design and development, and to create “smart” agriculture/food systems innovations, including the concept of food as medicine. 

Microfluidic Microparticles: Precision in Larval Nutrition

Andrew Rhyne, Professor of Marine Biology, Roger Williams University

Anubhav Tripathi, C. V. Starr Professor of Engineering, Brown University

Delivering nutrients, pharmaceuticals, markers, and other biologically active compounds to small fish requires reliable, ingestible particles with controlled physical and chemical properties. This need spans aquaculture and biomedical research. Marine aquaculture hatcheries need improved methods for delivering nutrients to larvae during the production of juvenile animals or “seed.” Zebrafish, a biomedical model fish, studies need innovative methods for orally delivering experimental compounds to larvae and juveniles. This project will combine unique expertise in larval fish and aquaculture at Roger Williams University with advanced microfluidics and bioengineering expertise at Brown University to develop a reproducible precision-particle platform that can support both fields. For many marine fish, the principal production bottleneck occurs during the larval stage, when hatcheries must cultivate live prey such as rotifers, Artemia, and copepods because current manufactured feeds do not consistently support larval growth and survival. Producing live feed is expensive, labor intensive, variable, and difficult to standardize. Although aquaculture researchers and commercial producers have worked for more than three decades to replace live feeds with manufactured microdiets, adoption remains limited. Feed and experimental particles must be appropriately sized, remain available in the water column, retain labile compounds until consumed, and release their cargo after ingestion. Meeting these shared requirements presents a translational challenge that cannot be solved by either field alone. 

The project directly supports the Rhode Island Science and Technology Plan theme of Agriculture and Food Innovations through aquaculture, fisheries, and novel food-product development. The Life Science theme is also supported with the biomedical research that can be supported with this project. It also integrates the cross-cutting capabilities of Advanced Materials and Ocean Sciences.

Back to the Bay: Tracking the Survival and Adaptation of Captive-Reared Chain Catsharks

Kathleen Carroll, Assistant Professor of Applied Quantitative Ecology, University of Rhode Island

Jon Dodd, Executive Director, Atlantic Shark Institute

Adam Kovarsky, Aquarium Curator, Save the Bay

The chain catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer) is a deep-water demersal shark species found off the coast of Rhode Island. This small coastal shark species is native to the western North Atlantic and occupies shallow marine habitats throughout the northeastern United States. Although not a commercially targeted species, chain catsharks contribute to coastal ecosystem function and represent an opportunity to evaluate emerging approaches for marine conservation. Moreover, these sharks are excellent ambassadors for sharks, as they remain small, are one of only four elasmobranchs (sharks, skates, rays) to exhibit bioluminescence and are tolerant of captivity.  Captive breeding and release programs are emerging as potential tools for restoring or supporting marine populations and augmenting coastal fisheries. However, the effectiveness of these interventions depends on understanding whether released individuals survive, adapt to natural environments, and successfully integrate into wild populations. Despite increasing interest in marine conservation releases, post-release monitoring remains limited for many marine species, creating uncertainty about whether captive-rearing efforts translate into meaningful conservation outcomes. Through a partnership among the University of Rhode Island, Save The Bay’s Hamilton Family Aquarium, the Atlantic Shark Institute, and local fishermen, this project will establish a collaborative mark–recapture program to evaluate the post-release survival, persistence, and habitat use of captive-reared chain catsharks released into Rhode Island coastal waters. 

This project directly supports the Ocean Sciences cross-cutting capability of the Rhode Island Science and Technology Action Plan by improving understanding of coastal shark ecology and developing science-based approaches for evaluating marine conservation interventions. The project also supports Agriculture and Food Innovations through aquaculture and fisheries applications by examining how captive propagation can contribute to sustainable marine resource management. 

EDEMATOR: Soft Bioimpedance Wearable for Continuous Monitoring of Peripheral Edema in Home and Clinical Settings

Dhaval Solanki, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rhode Island

Kunal Mankodiya, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rhode Island

Ankur Shah, Associate Professor of Nephrology, Brown University

More than 1.3 billion people worldwide are affected by cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, two major conditions in which peripheral edema is a common clinical manifestation. Studies estimate that approximately 20% of U.S. adults over the age of 50 have peripheral edema. Edema reflects diverse and complex pathophysiologic processes arising from cardiac, renal, lymphatic, and vascular dysfunction, yet its clinical assessment continues to rely largely on subjective visual inspection, manual palpation, and intermittent evaluations that lack sensitivity and reproducibility for longitudinal monitoring. The diagnostic gap delays intervention and contributes to preventable complications. To address this unmet need, this project will develop a continuous, noninvasive bioimpedance wearable that can track tissue-fluid changes in daily life with high temporal resolution through a soft, ankle-worn device performing multi-frequency electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). A future goal is to develop AIenabled modeling to distinguish heart-failure-related from kidney-failure-related edema mechanisms, paving the way for precision fluid management in cardiorenal disease. 

This project aligns with the RI Science and Technology Plan by advancing priorities in medical and health technologies.

This post was written by Shaun Kirby, Communications and Outreach Coordinator for RI-NEST/RI NSF EPSCoR.