Seed Funding
Faculty Internal Awards are activating research at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus!
Internal Funding

Partnership BuildinG grants
Designed to support the development of the faculty partnerships and strengthen relationships with local organizations in Pinellas County.

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH GRANTS
Support projects that address the complex problems, specifically those that benefit from analysis from the perspectives of multiple scholarly disciplines.

USF INTERNAL AWARDS PROGRAM
The aim is to support creative activities and productive research projects that will result in successful proposals to agencies to support research at USF.
The USF Sarasota-Manatee campus Internal Awards program is activating research on
the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus
These awards resulted in pilot data for proposals to external sponsors, students engaged in the research enterprise, high impact publications, and faculty presentations at national and international conference on research at USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. In addition, internal awards provide seed funding for equipment acquisition and pilot research projects so that faculty can demonstrate research capacity, publish initial findings and populate competitive proposals with relevant seed data.
Measurable Return on Investment
- Seed data for competitive proposals to federal sponsors.
- High-impact journal publications, book chapters and books.
- Inquiry based learning opportunities as students are engaged in research.
- Visibility at national and international conferences of the breakthrough research happening on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus.
The USF Sarasota-Manatee campus Internal Awards program is poised to support research projects, strengthen grantsmanship skills, and provide an opportunity for research service for our faculty. This Internal Awards Program is designed to support USF faculty in their research and scholarship goals. A benefit of this formalized support is that the program participation demonstrates the capacity and enthusiasm for research activity on our campus. In collaboration with the USF Faculty Senate, we established the Research Advisory Board (RAB) of elected faculty members. The RAB provides rigorous peer review of proposals and provide feedback on the Internal Awards to help steer the direction of this program.
2018-19 Research Advisory Board Members
Faizan Ali, Assistant Professor, Hospitality
Adam Carmer, Instructor, Hospitality
Kiyoung Chang, Associate Professor, Finance
Joy D’Andrea, Instructor, Mathematics
Rushtu Deryol, Instructor, Criminology
Ehsan Sheybani, Chair, Associate Professor, ISDS
2018-19 Awardees
Lead PI | Project Title | Award |
---|---|---|
Caswell, Kenneth | Yeast Biotransformed Compounds | $8,000 |
Sheybani, Ehsan | Predictive Cybersecurity Analytics for Windows Malware Behavior | $5,000 |
Grosholz, Jessica | Human Trafficking: An Evaluation of the Services Provided by Selah Freedom | $5,000 |
Szynkiewicz, Sarah | The effects of motor imagery exercise programs on tongue strength | $5,000 |
Byrd, Marie | Classroom Management Instruction through 360 Videos | $8,000 |
Javidi, Giti | K-12 Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach | $8,000 |
Ngo, Fawn | Crime and Victimization among Asian College Students | $4,425 |
Haner, Murat | Fear of Terrorism: A National Study of the American Public | $8,000 |
Telang, Aparna | Effects of blood meal source on nutritional physiology, reproductive output, and microbiota profile in Culex quinquefasciatus | $4,500 |
Santamaria, Carlos | Pollutant stress and gut microbiome composition of Ligia isopods from the Tampa Bay area | $4,930 |
Hodges, Eric | Assessing the Needs, Motivation, Resilience of Manatee Co. Veterans | $8,000 |
PI Name | Travel Purpose | Budget |
---|---|---|
Ali, Faizan | Presented at the 2018 ICHRIE Conference, served as 'Director of Research' for SECSA, a federation under ICHRIE. Attended the 'Hospitality Marketing & Sales' group. (Palm Springs, California) | $1,200 |
Haner, Murat | Presented at the American Society of Criminology, 74th Annual Meeting | $1,200 |
Hodges, Eric | Veterans in Society, presentation “Veteran Reintegration and Refugee Resettlement: A Comparative Case Study” (Roanoke, Virginia) | $1,200 |
Javidi, Giti | Presented “Cybersecurity, Education, Research, Outreach” at the 2018 Frontiers in Education Conference (IEEE, FIE) (San Jose, California) | $1,200 |
Ngo, Fawn | Invited presentation, 16th International Symposium of the World Society of Victimology and the 10th Asian Criminological Annual Conference (Hong Kong and Malaysia) | $1,200 |
Sheybani, Ehsan | Invited presentation at the Smart Grids for Smart Cities (SG4SC) conference (Brussels, Belgium) | $1,200 |
Sloan, Melissa | Invited presenter at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | $1,200 |
PI Name | Project Title |
---|---|
Becker, Thomas | Nonlinear Transformations in Organizational Research: Possible Problems and Potential Solutions (Organizational Research Methods) |
Caswell, Ken | Yeast Biotransformed Compounds (Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, Wiley; Biochemistry or J. of Chem Education, ACS) |
Chang, Kiyoung | Corporate Social Responsibility and 'Good' Governance during Uncertain Times (Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier) |
Cowart, Kelly | The Role of Absent Fathers on Consumer Behavior (Journal of Advertising, Taylor & Francis); Color Me Bad: A Study of the Role of Media on Student Discipline (Journal of Public Policy and AMA) |
Grosholz, Jessica | An Evaluation of the City of Sarasota Police Department's Drug Market Intervention (Police Quarterly, Sage; Criminology & Public Policy, Wiley) |
McBrien, Jody | Educational Policies & Practices in English-Speaking Countries of Refugee Resettlement (Sense Publishers, Springer International), and Complexities of Refugee Resettlement in Japan (Journal of Refugee Studies at Oxford) |
Mariano, Jennifer | Twofold Moral Purpose: How Young Purpose Exemplars See Themselves and How Others See Them (Journal of Moral Education, Taylor & Francis) |
Pieri, Zacharias | Boko Haram: The Promise of Islamist Violence (part of book series Military, Strategic, and Security Studies by Routledge) |
Turner, Timothy | Biopower on the English Stage: The Case of 1 and 2 Tamburlaine (Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Duke University Press |
*Award amounts varied based on summer appointment, dedicated time for one summer semester.
Lead Author | Title of Publication | Award |
---|---|---|
Ali, Faizan | Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling in Hospitality and Tourism (Book) ISBN: 9781787567009 | $400 |
Pieri, Zach | Editorial support, required by publisher. Boko Haram: The Promise of Islamist Violence, (Book) Routledge Press. | $1,000 |
Santamaria, Carlos | Out of Asia: Mitochondria evolutionary history of the globally introduced supralittoral isopod Ligia exotica | $1,000 |
Telang, Aparna | Metagenome and culture-based methods reveal candidate bacterial mutualists in the Southern house mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae). | $1,000 |
Lead PI | Award Description | Award |
---|---|---|
Ali, Faizan | Structure Sensor Bundle, 3D model using a 3D scanner, capture detailed, and full-color 3D scans of objects or people. Potential for use by other disciplines who would benefit, e.g. Phil Wagner/Body Image. | $499 |
Arnold, Michelle | Audiometry Pro equipment (1) accurately assess hearing loss in potential research participants; and (2) analyze hearing aid fit and function. | $11,374 |
Javidi, Giti | The Robotics Innovation Makerspace (RIM) will be a student and faculty dual-use class/lab space designed with collaborative seating, a presentation area, an easy to use mobile device lab cart with devices to check out within the lab and robots. | $24,000 |
Michaels, Jay | BioPac Systems physiological recording, and near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) neuroimaging system used to compare physiological data with participant responses to survey questions, measuring perceived stress, together enhancing the data reliability. Physiological and neuroimaging equipment allows for smaller sample studies as the data will be more robust than that of questionnaires alone. | $32,985 |
Santamaria, Carlos | Illumina MiniSeq Sequencing System, an NGS platform offering ultra-high throughput (up to 7.5Gb of data, or 50 million sequencing reads) in short periods of time (~24 hours). Highly scalable and flexible for applications including ecological and evolutionary biology (whole genome sequencing), cell biology and behavioral sciences (targeted gene expression profiles), microbiology and environmental sciences (microbial community sequencing or 16S metagenomic sequencing), health sciences (e.g. tumor profiling, RNA Drug Response). | $48,906 |